Show Notes

When I was teaching a graduate course as a “side hustle” for MBA and PhD candidates at the University of Rhode Island, I inherited a student who claimed he had ADHD and the “documentation was coming from health services.” He also answered every question in class with a single word, “reengineering.”

I found out that he had pulled this con with the full-time faculty, and was in his final courses getting to his MBA. He told me he couldn't take “timed” tests. No worries, I told him, the midterm and the final were take-home essays and everyone had whatever time needed so long as they met the deadline. I gave them the questions 60 days ahead of the deadline.

He never contributed anything else in class except that word, and I watched him easily banter with classmates, otherwise. He never turned in the midterm or final. I flunked him, unheard of in the graduate school where everyone received A's or B's or a rare C. He went ballistic and filed a complaint. My grade was upheld. The school's director told me, “You're like a utility player who came into the game and did things the starters never do.”

Post-script: After teaching two courses over five semesters in the evenings, I was not invited back, because (I was told confidentially) the student evaluations put me above the full-time faculty in quality of teaching and the faculty lobbied to have me removed.

Another student who contributed brilliantly in class despite English being a second or third language (he was Indian) turned in a paper I required on an aspect of consulting. I found that he had copied, word-for-word, out of one of the assigned books for the course (not one of mine, but one I was obviously familiar with). I told him privately that I could have him expelled, but if he completed the assignment honestly and then did extra work I assigned him in the next two weeks, we'd get on with our lives.

I felt he deserved the chance and I didn't want to end his current pursuit of the degree. He admitted what he had done and did an excelled job on the remainder of the assignment and class. I gave him a C.

An obvious learning point for me was that doing something as an independent and for the joy of doing it enabled me to do things that those lobbying for careers, tenure, promotion, and popularity could never do, although my departure did help the rest of them lower the bar.

Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth® is a weekly broadcast from “The Rock Star of Consulting,” Alan Weiss, who holds forth with his best (and often most contrarian) ideas about society, culture, business, and personal growth. His 60+ books in 12 languages, and his travels to, and work in, 50 countries contribute to a fascinating and often belief-challenging 20 minutes that might just change your next 20 years.

Introduction to the show recorded by Connie Dieken