In his 2005 Kenyon commencement speech “This is Water,” author and professor David Foster Wallace addresses the oft-cited cliché, a liberal arts education is all about teaching you how to think. But instead of dismissing the worn-out wisdom offhand, he recrafts it, noting the true value of a liberal arts education isn’t about how to think, but rather, the choice of what to think.
He continues on to argue liberal arts thinking is about self-awareness—a critical assessment that challenges the very beliefs and worldviews people often cling to. “A huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong” the MacArthur Fellowship award winner admits. This kind of self-examination and critical thinking—through a liberal arts lens—is exactly how Brown’s School of Professional Studies is transforming professional education today.
Business Today: Much More Than Business
Surveys of executives highlight the sobering fact that running a business today is more challenging than ever and requires a skill set that goes beyond a traditional business curriculum. While foundational competencies in strategy, finance, marketing, operations, and organizational behavior remain essential, today leaders must go beyond to manage the dynamic and disruptive environments. The dilemma then is this: how do these traditional disciplines prepare leaders to successfully contend with the demands of operating an organization in a time defined by instability and unpredictability?
Few seasoned leaders doubt the world today is vastly different than it was just a few decades ago. Spiking geopolitical friction hampers multinational supply chains and global operations. Rapid technological developments usher in new cybersecurity threats along with knotty ethical issues. Mercurial domestic policy decisions cast a host of painful consequences, including significant increases in basic material costs, attrition of important customers, and loss of vital technical talent. In short, managers today must have an extensive repertoire of skills beyond what would be considered adequate by historical standards.
To meet the needs of modern managers, Brown’s School of Professional Studies has developed a suite of master’s degrees and educational programs that draw upon the expertise of highly diverse, world-class faculty from across the university. This practice isn’t new to Brown—it’s firmly steeped in the school’s 260-year-old history of academic excellence and innovative research. .’ What’s pioneering is applying this distinctive interdisciplinary approach to career-focused, professional learners from around the world.
Meeting Learners Where They Are
The educational landscape is shifting rapidly to keep up with the pace of change. Traditional programs are yielding to a growing portfolio of flexible options that serve an ever-growing population of demanding and diverse learners. Today’s students want targeted programs, contemporary topics, hybrid formats, accelerated timeframes, state of the art learning platforms with 24/7 access, world-class faculty paired with the assurance of a tangible ROI delivered over a short time horizon. Brown’s professional master’s programs meet – and exceed these needs on all fronts.
The IE Brown Executive MBA is an accelerated, 15-month joint degree program that combines the best of liberal arts education with a top-ranked international business school. The program infuses a tested business foundation with essential leadership capabilities in an integrated format that incorporates in-person sessions in Madrid, Cape Town and Providence.
The Master’s in Technology Leadership and Master’s in Healthcare Leadership degrees equip industry-focused professionals interested in advancing their careers with the strategic leadership skills to anticipate emerging trends, manage change and drive organizational transformation. Each program draws extensively on Brown’s deep expertise in the School of Engineering and the Schools of Public Health and Medicine, respectively.
The online Master’s in Management prepares early-career professionals with foundational business skills and an ethical, human-centered management perspective. This fully online program gives learners the flexibility to study on their own schedule with asynchronous coursework coupled with optional live sessions, providing those interested with opportunities for deeper engagement.
Similarly, the online Master’s in Organizational Leadership helps high potential leaders master the skills needed to influence, coordinate, negotiate and navigate up, down, across and even outside an organization’s hierarchy. Intellectually rigorous yet practically oriented, the program is delivered remotely with one optional residential session for those students who want to immerse themselves in the Brown experience.
For individuals and teams seeking immediate impact, the School of Professional Studies offers non-degree executive education through a suite of certificates, short courses, and custom leader experiences. All topics are informed and aligned with degree granting programs. From hands-on AI courses to coaching training to bespoke leadership programs for high potential leaders, Brown provides an Ivy League education across a wide range of formats.
Beyond A Business School
To succeed in today’s volatile, fast-paced world, leaders need an education that goes beyond what they would receive from a conventional business school. They need the kind of insights that traditional content taught in standard ways can’t provide.
Professional students must engage in ways that push them to critically examine who they are, how they think and, as importantly, what they think. Exploration like this is best accomplished in an environment where they learn from and share experiences with intellectually curious students and top tier faculty who teach in non-traditional ways.
Whether it’s looking at leadership lessons rooted in the Classics or practicing business storytelling with coaching from trained actors, Brown University brings to bear an interdisciplinary education that equips leaders with the kind of thinking needed to excel in the current environment and beyond.
Ed Barrows is Professor of the Practice of Leading in the School of Professional Studies at Brown University where he teaches leadership courses in the professional masters programs, instructs short courses and serves as lead faculty for Brown Executive Education programs. For over 25 years he’s worked with leaders at all levels in the areas of strategy, strategic leadership and leader development.
