Illustration by Valerie Chiang

Illustration by Valerie Chiang

In many states, you’re required by law to get your car inspected annually, and if there’s something wrong, you get the car serviced, says Professor Leslie Perlow. But how many of us bring that level of scrutiny to our own lives? To help students plan more intentionally for the path ahead, navigate the bumps that arise, and stay true to their values, Perlow created a second-year course, Crafting Your Life: The Tactics and Practices of the First 10 Years Post-MBA. “What I want us to think about is, are we taking time to reflect on our actions and getting to where we want to go?” she asks.

The inspiration for this line of questioning arose in 2018 when Perlow was teaching Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LEAD), which addresses the human side of enterprise. In the final module, students read cases featuring alumni profiles. They then write their own profiles, imagining their lives from the perspective of 10 years after graduation. “There is so much energy—but also angst—around those cases, I started to think about whether I should develop a course aimed at helping students better equip themselves for their early years after graduation,” explains Perlow. The following year, she led 17 students in an independent study project that asked hundreds of alumni to consider what they wished they’d known while at HBS and what they’ve learned since then. These efforts culminated in the 2019 launch of Crafting Your Life.

“The course is a laboratory for us to innovate,” Perlow observes. “It is constantly evolving, like life itself.” She adds that even its design was novel compared to the traditional, multistep process of developing new courses at HBS. In addition to collaborating with students and alumni, she worked with an advisory group that included staff members from External Relations and Harvard Business Publishing. They all worked together to conceive the outline, materials, and questions that form the basis of the course. The considerations included, What does it mean to me to live a good life? How will I prioritize my time and energy toward what matters most? How do I think about taking risk and rebounding from disappointment or failure? How will I surround myself with a support group? The subjects are unpacked through self-assessments, written exercises, workshops, and a simulation. They are also addressed by a multitude of alumni who take part throughout the semester-long course.

The involvement of alumni—including former course participants, who become “Lifers”—is key to the success of Crafting Your Life. Perlow regularly speaks about her work during Reunions presentations. She notes that alumni have encouraged the endeavor by making themselves available to students and embracing lifelong learning. “Their positive energy is contagious,” notes Perlow.

To facilitate self-reflection and connections, Crafting Your Life features two data-centric tools for students and alumni to use. The first, LIFE Matrix (see below), offers insights about managing time, dealing with trade-offs between work and life, and how choices correlate with joy, meaningfulness, achievement, and life satisfaction.

Another tool, currently being tested by students and Lifers, is LIFE Connect, which uses algorithms—much like a dating app—to match students with interested alumni for thoughtful discussions about roughly 200 topics related to one’s personal life, family, or work. Ultimately, the goal is to connect alumni to one another and create a greater sense of community among the School’s 89,000 alumni.

To achieve this, Perlow and her colleagues are partnering with Alumni Relations on its larger HBS for Life initiative, to strengthen alumni lifelong learning and forge connections. “Crafting Your Life started as a course and is growing into a broader community of students and alumni invested in learning with and supporting each other in the pursuit of a life well lived,” says Perlow. “We’ve come to understand that you can’t teach crafting your life in a semester; it’s a lifelong journey.”

What Matters Most?

“We know money matters. We keep financial records to track how we spend it; yet our time, undeniably, is just as precious a resource. When did you last track how you spent each of the 168 hours that compose your week? Do you allocate those hours in a manner that is consistent with what matters most to you?” asks Professor Leslie Perlow. To find out, fill out the LIFE Matrix, a tool that can be accessed here or through the QR code below.

Many HBS alumni have been surprised by how much time they spend on activities of low value and how little time they spend on high-value activities. The LIFE Matrix can help identify opportunities for improving your alignment and also track progress toward your goals. It also can help you learn about the HBS community, Perlow says, and the ways people find satisfaction in their time allocations. “We have much to learn from our alumni community about what is working, and why,” she notes.

www.alumni.hbs.edu/lm2023

www.alumni.hbs.edu/lm2023

All the data collected, including demographic information, is protected and confidential; and there is no human interaction, as analysis is done using algorithms and artificial intelligence. To date, Perlow and her team have collected anonymized data on more than 2,000 alumni, which will be evaluated in her LIFE Lab—part of the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard. Her aim is to learn, through a longitudinal study, what matters to people at various stages of their lives, as well as how that might change and why, which is useful information for those who respond to the LIFE Matrix and for the broader research community.

 

Post a Comment