Articles

Originally posted in our May 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. In this piece from Ice House facilitator Nontando Mthethwa based in South Africa, we see an exploration into a mindset gap in her country. As unemployment and economic unrest continue to grow, many organizations in SA are embracing the concept of an entrepreneurial mindset. So much so, that some are questioning what the concept means. Mthethwa discusses the development of entrepreneurial skills at an early age,…

Originally posted in our April 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Continuing from the role active learning (with an entrepreneurial lens) can have on student engagement, we turn to an opinion piece from the founder of Best Buy, Richard M. Schulze. Schulze describes how the skillset and mindset of entrepreneurs equip students of any discipline with the drive, passion, and purpose needed to get the most out of their education. According to Schulze, calculated risk-taking is another…

Originally posted in our April 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. In school, did you dread group work? Whether it was a research paper or group work on a set of problems in science class, many people report feeling frustrated, confused, and annoyed. However, many studies over the years have shown that this type of work yields much better learning outcomes.  While we all have experienced a boring lecture, when you’re lucky enough to attend a talk…

Originally posted in our April 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Over the last two years, we’ve seen significant shifts in policy around COVID-19. Changes to school, work, and public life were all topped off with extreme ambiguity about when things would get back to normal. For many college students, this constant state of the unknown seems to have had more significant impacts than we first realized. Across the country, higher education faculty are reporting devastating rates…

Originally posted in our March 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. As we have examined this month, there are significant ways we should explore our personal and organizational frames of mind. To become resilient to an ever-changing future, we need to adjust our assumptions. This piece from McKinsey shows a direct call to action to make our organizations more resilient.  The article outlines the imperative for organizational resilience while also describing the various dimensions of resilience we…

Originally posted in our March 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. If someone were to ask you to think about your future self, who would you imagine? In this piece from the BBC, the author discusses two general ways people answer this question. One is a relatively vivid picture of the self who is well connected to the person’s current identity. The other is, in many ways, a stranger to the present person. Interestingly, the difference between…

Originally posted in our February 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Thinking beyond early childhood learning, how can we better improve classroom outcomes for college students? According to Virginia Tech, one way is to enlist the help of undergraduate teaching assistants (TAs).  In a recent post about campus experience, the university highlights the impact of their Engage Undergraduate TA Program. The program benefits students, faculty, and learning experiences. From offering more engaging group work to enabling more…

Originally posted in our February 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Regarding bringing up our youth, let’s look at another system outside of the home where we place this responsibility.  Early child care is where many children get their start in education. So, what better than to set this kind of learning environment up in an empowering way? In this article from The Conversation, we learn about the enormous benefits of training child care educators in entrepreneurial…

Originally posted in our January 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. In a recent article from Korn Ferry, we see the continuing impacts of the pandemic on business and organizational leadership. The everchanging development of COVID-19 forced many leaders into making one decision, only to have them change it when the situation shifted. This kind of decision-making has a name, Whiplash Leadership. The issue is this kind of leadership often leads to a lack of clarity from…