According to the company’s website, Barry-Wehmiller is “showing what’s possible at the intersection of great business strategy and profound care for people.”
“But,” counters David Pickersgill, the global company’s senior outreach programs leader, “not everyone has either the knowledge or the skill to be able to lead in a way that cares for people. Most academic education programs don’t send that message, and so until it becomes the norm, we want to lean into this leadership training at VCU.”
They are certainly doing so. After more than four years of collaboration between Barry-Wehmiller and VCU, the benefit is clear: outside educational experience — delivered in-person, on-site by senior executives of a multinational company — is amplifying and emphasizing concepts that matter.
Brian Wellinghoff, senior director of leadership and outreach, believes VCU students are at the forefront when it comes to leadership. “We think that’s one of the things that makes VCU’s Executive M.B.A. program stand out across the country. We get to see a lot of different undergraduate and graduate programs in various business schools, and to see VCU’s commitment to transformative leadership, integrated learning and very practical, applied learning — that’s really something that differentiates VCU.”
Dual benefits abound
Barry-Wehmiller also has a consulting arm that provides leadership consulting to for-profit businesses ranging from American Airlines to the Golden State Warriors. Wellinghoff believes the same is true of any organization: “When we treat people well, we actually perform better, we learn more, we have greater innovation and we are better in the marketplace.”
Wellinghoff continues, “We’ve been excited to partner with VCU, updating and evolving the Executive M.B.A. curriculum. We’re also learning from great researchers like Chris Reina, Ph.D., the executive director of the Institute for Transformative Leadership, about how we can look at the greatest academic thought and then bring it back into our own company. It’s a great win-win situation.”
Pickersgill adds that the interaction with VCU students has been transformative. “They tend to be students who care about making a difference. I find them to be engaging. I enjoy the questions they ask. They make you think about things in a new way and open up a deeper level of understanding for yourself and for the whole group. And I’ve had a number of students reach out to me, commenting on the usefulness and applicability of what we’ve done. That’s always quite gratifying.”
AI provides a challenge
But what does the future hold? Both Wellinghoff and Pickersgill have a take on the perceived benefits and threats of artificial intelligence in the business world.
Wellinghoff said, “As AI or any other technology becomes a deeper part of our lives, it actually reinforces and grows how important it is to have human relationships with other people. What AI can’t do — and isn’t doing — is building relationships or have empathy for other people.”
Pickersgill said, “One of the recent things we have done at Barry-Wehmiller is develop a tool that connects people in our organization who are working on similar projects so they can learn from each other. That’s an example of how AI can be used to increase collaboration and human connection. It is genuinely possible that AI can be used to take people out of the equation, but it can also be used to increase the level of human connection in a deep way.”