Learning to be of two minds

HARVARD'S graduate schools of business and of government have decided that a marriage is in order. The two schools have just announced that they will offer two joint master's degrees, one in public policy and business administration and the other in business administration and public administration/international development.

Harvard's motive is that the world needs leaders who can understand both public needs and private interests, who can lead in both worlds, using insights from both.

"I get so frustrated with people unwilling to see the other side. It makes it so difficult to make progress," explains Robert Stavins, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, who helped develop the new degree programs.

Implicit in the program is a fascinating critique: Self-interest is no longer enough, ethically or logistically. Private and public interests have to learn from standing in each others' shoes and then act on that new, mutual knowledge. It's making "empathy an intellectual skill," says Herman "Dutch" Leonard, a professor in both the government and business schools.

It's also creating students with dual academic citizenships, who can think with passion about business and government.

Although the program doesn't begin until September 2008, plenty of issues cry out for such an approach. One example is global warming, which calls for solutions that go beyond the familiar ground of government regulation to a place where private and public interests can collaborate. Joint degree graduates could also tackle urban development both domestically and abroad, figuring out new ways that public/private partnerships can purify water for poor households in Africa or help small businesses grow in Boston. And, using the art of informed compromise, graduates could also help settle fights between companies and residents concerned about how industrial expansion might affect their neighborhoods.

Students will take ethics courses that will prepare them to work in government or business. These courses will have to be rigorous, pointing out the dangers of public-sector leaders being co-opted by business interests as well as the sheer hard work it takes to give fair and equal consideration to competing interests. And government's mission of nurturing the common good, including helping those most in need, should not be eclipsed.

The joint degree program is exciting. It arrives at a fortuitous time, when college students are more likely to have traveled abroad and to think outside the old disciplines. If it does its work well, Harvard will be catching up to this generation and then stepping aside, letting its students invent as-yet uninvented solutions, shedding old boundaries and separations in order to make the world better.