Philadelphia Business Journal - May 26, 2006 by Peter Key Staff Writer

Test pilots and astronauts, according to author Tom Wolfe, have the right stuff.

The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Organizational Dynamics, according to Larry M. Starr, has everything else.

"We own the other stuff," said Starr, who has been the center's executive director and the director of Penn's Organizational Dynamics Graduate Programs since 2002.

By other stuff, Starr means the things that managers need to succeed besides knowledge of their profession and industry, which can be easily obtained.

It's the other stuff that can get managers and organizations into trouble if they don't know it. And helping them get a grip on it is what the center is all about.

"What do you do if you're already a manager and you realize that, 'I'm managing other accountants or other people and there are all these silos?'" Starr said. "Where do you learn the other stuff, the partisanship, the politics, the social side, the bringing-people-together component?"

Since 1977, managers have been coming to Philadelphia to learn those important soft skills from Penn's organizational dynamics program.

To read this article, click on the link: Eclectic university degree teaches managers 'people smarts'