Watch this new video produced by Olin College, featuring iFoundry Co-Founder David E. Goldberg. He talks about the partnership with the University of Illinois and Olin College, and how innovations pioneered at Olin can and are being applied at Illinois. It’s a great 2-1/2 minute video worth watching!

iFoundry started as an educational incubator in 2007 with precursor activities going back to 2006.  Some of the lessons learned over the last five years are posted here.  15 rules are posted and one is reproduced below:

Move quickly, boldly, broadly, and well enough. The cadence of educational institutions is slow, cautious, narrow, and risk averse. Educational initiatives move quickly, boldly, broadly, and well enough.  This meeting of opposites continually risks turning the change initiative into an element of the bureaucratic blob and the change agent must guard against increasing sloth, caution, narrowness, and risk aversion, especially as time goes on.  Many of the activities of a change initiative are one-off pilots or events and are managed on a project basis.  Good project management procedures should be established with clear goals, authority, scheduling, and reporting.  Helpful resources: Allen, Getting things done. Sims, Little bets. Fields, Uncertainty: Turning fear and doubt into fuel for brilliance.

Other informative posts are available here.

The following is a recent post on IBM’s blog “Student Leadership for a Smarter Planet”.

As a long time faculty member at a major research university (here), I’ve seen many students in action on campus for over 30 years.  Over the last few years, it seems to me that more students come to campus wanting to make a difference in the world.  Now. Student entrepreneurship starts earlier than it once did, and student social engagement and action is pronounced from freshmen year on.  These are exciting trends and the Students for a Smarter Planet initiative is an exciting development in the early moments of an exciting century.

Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll explore a number of topics along the personal, organizational, and societal dimensions of leadership with an eye toward student leaders who wish to make an immediate difference.  Some of these topics will be drawn from experiences in working with student organizations, student entrepreneurs, and and student leaders.

By David G. Goldberg

You can follow the “Student Leadership for a Smarter Planet” blog  here

More and more students at Illinois want to make a difference sooner in the world with their careers.  Students are starting companies earlier, working to change the world sooner, and generally taking a more active approach toward the world of work.  A post here discusses the way in which leadership/executive coaching can help  students(1) bootstrap the leadership skills you weren’t taught in school and (2) teach the meta-skills necessary for lifelong learning and self-management.