Linking Leading and Learning

Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Rich Morales joined Brown Engineering’s Innovation Management and Design Engineering groups in the fall of 2023, and his first teaching assignment was the newest undergraduate course, Systems Thinking. The class is a core requirement for the new design engineering concentration, but not limited to undergraduates.

Morales’ selection to guide the inaugural class draws on the many facets of his expertise. He has spent time studying and teaching on campuses including West Point, Yale, the Coast Guard Academy, and Cambridge University. In practice, he has led United Nations peacekeeping forces and large units in hostile fire zones, served at the White House under two Presidents, contributed at research centers and think tanks, and was aide to the head of NASA. At Brown, he leverages his own research interest in innovation, strategy, and systems integration, espousing value creation through collaboration, the link between leading and learning, and applying systems tools to improve organizational performance across sectors.

“A systems lens connects the whole, rather than merely exploring individual parts,” he said. “It helps the understanding of cognitive complexity by mapping variables to visualize new or existing organizations and processes to arrive at better outcomes. Because (Systems Thinking) is an introductory class, it allows us to take on a whole lot of topics. Design is an essential step when looking at a system — if designed wrong, if you didn’t get the right requirements, didn’t understand the culture and ecosystems at work, then it’s going to fail. Cultures and environments drive what works. What works for healthcare in the U.S. might not work in the U.K.

“From an engineering perspective, we look at how to design better outcomes, incorporate more perspectives, weave in new ideas and perspectives. For instance, a sustainability focus helps meet the requirements of the present while considering future needs and outcomes — to operate longer, resiliently and more efficiently, all while being more conscious of things that others haven’t previously considered in design. These students (at Brown) are engaged and open to sharing a view that might be different from mine, and different from their peers. I think that is a mark of learning as opposed to regurgitating.”

Morales describes the class itself as one of constant back-and-forth dialogue. “The value-add is not me,” he said. “I’m just the orchestrator. They are their own value-add in class. There are several international students, a varsity athlete who is also an entrepreneur, a veteran who maintained a nuclear reactor on a submarine, and another who interned at an architecture firm: the class has those who are very ‘mathy’, and some who prefer a qualitative approach. With all of that mixed together, we’re addressing problems like ethically sourced food that considers the mechanics of the soil, policy, pesticides; what some countries have problems with and others don’t; and the economics and feasibility of our solutions.“Critical thinking and our back-and-forth builds resilience in ideas and exposes flaws. As a designer you see tradeoffs, you experiment with options, and over time you will see the world differently and more broadly. Learning experientially through practice helps you become more open, and able to contribute or lead more effectively.”

In just a short time on College Hill, Morales has already engaged with the collaborative community of scholars that make up the innovation management and entrepreneurship, design engineering, and tech leadership sectors at Brown.

“In practice, research, and in class, I focus on leader development,” he said. “One view is that leaders are just these personality figures — both quiet leaders, loud leaders, and everything in between. All can be effective. In my view there is a system approach to strategy formulation and decision-making in every situation. Different circumstances require different leaders, but there are some generalizable things that are required of all leaders: competency, trust, effectiveness. If you’re a teacher, the approach might be different from the leader of a non-profit or start-up, but there are similarities. In all cases there is a time to be reflective and take other people’s viewpoints into account, although sometimes you have to have an answer by Friday and need to make quicker decisions. I find all of that super interesting,” he said.

“It’s easy to see what a chemical engineer does, but when it comes to systems engineering and leadership, it’s less tangible, but it is absolutely engineering. Engineering is about problem-solving, the thinking behind why we create products and services before bending metal or building that laser. What is necessary in good engineering is to see design as both a guiding compass before you ever start, so you don’t over-narrowly engineer the wrong approach, and to continually iterate over time. Systems are dynamic. A strong designer is going to ask a lot more questions to understand the user and societal needs, and that’s the part that is fascinating to me.

“This is a widely applicable skillset to all of the disciplines we have at Brown, and serves as a catalyst for success in whatever our students endeavor to do in the future. Some will start their own companies, some will work for companies, some will work for non-profits, and all of those lend themselves to better understanding how the world works, how systems work, how decisions have consequences. Sometimes I’ll tell people that assessing systems is like trying to measure the mist. It is not quantifiable as saying ‘we made five new lasers, built one building, or three EV cars.’ Systems asks you to do that and then asks us to iterate and improve, continuously.”

In the spring, Morales is slated to work with the MADE (masters of design engineering) program’s final studio, Integrate and Implement, and teach the graduate level class on Engineering Management and Decision Making where students learn the science behind structuring options and making good choices. “Systems involves analyzing policy and as many different variables as possible to understand how to structure an organization, which in turn impacts how well it performs. It is aligning people and processes, considering preferences, passions, weighing ethics and social responsibilities, to design a better world. This is where I can bring some of these things to life, through real examples and through practice, using my background and experiences,” he said.