LEAD 20
"Real" World Problem Solving Winter 2020

Cross-listed PSCI 20
This is not the current course catalog

This course will introduce you to tools and techniques to solve problems for impact not in the classroom, but in the White House Situation Room, the corporate board room, and even a forward operating base. We will focus on how to define and structure policy or strategy problems, and then identify and test hypotheses for impact. We will explore the necessity of using pragmatic “mental models” to inform our analyses and decision making. Along the way, we will explore cognitive biases, implementation challenges, and techniques to manage them. The best recommendations only come to life through compelling communication. We will build these skills, therefore, through “real” life exercises. These will include drafting talking points for a “principal” (e.g., the President, Secretary of State, a CEO, or a Governor), preparing a policy or strategy memo, and developing a compelling PowerPoint briefing for a senior executive audience. Case studies will provide the foundation for many class discussions. The class will be “tri-sector”–open to examples from the private, government, and nonprofit sectors. Source material will include: Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow, The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (2nd edition); Richard Haass, The Bureaucratic Entrepreneur: How to be Effective in Any Unruly Organization; Richard Neustadt and Ernest May, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers; Michael Lewis, The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds; select podcasts and journal articles; and three films “Thirteen Days,” “Moneyball,” and “The Big Short.” Assessment: class participation; final memo (5-8 pages) and class presentation on a real world issue. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Drew Erdmann ’88 is Chief Operating Officer of the State of Missouri with responsibility for managing the ~50,000 employee, $28 billion enterprise. After receiving his PhD in American History, Drew’s career included government service with the State Department, Defense Department in Iraq, and White House, and over a decade with the global consultancy McKinsey & Company where his experience spanned the retail, media, energy, aerospace & defense industries, and the public and nonprofit sectors.