JACD 71-4 - American College of Dentists

Harold Slavkin, DDS, PhD, FACD
Abstract
Science has become complex. Its success
is increasingly becoming a matter of
collaboration based on established
infrastructures and professional norms in
response to environmental challenges.
Leadership in such situations means
organizing the genius inherent in great
groups. Three examples–the Manhattan
Project, mapping the human genome, and
rapidly understanding the nature of the
SARS virus–are analyzed, showing a trend
away from the individual scientist to a
model based on simultaneous competition
and collaboration.
Journal of the American College of Dentists
Leadership in Research: Organizing Genius
begin responsibilities,”
William Butler Yeats wrote.
dreams
“In
Nowhere is this demonstrated
more vividly than in the life and times of
effective leaders. Leaders dream, organize
genius, advance research problem
solving, and produce results. A few years
ago, my colleague and friend Warren
Bennis (Distinguished Professor of
Business Administration at the University
of Southern California) reminded me
that all humans possess a passion to
understand and predict the future, and
that a “leader” takes on the responsibility
for molding and shaping the possibilities
with a tangible dream of the future. For
Warren, after consulting for multinational
companies and governments around the
world, the conclusion is that futurists are
leaders and leaders are futurists. Warren
asserts that leadership attempts to identify
the future and to grasp events yet to
come (Bennis, 2000). He also asserts
that leaders attempt to control what is to
come through a social invention termed
“forward planning.” Dean Art Dugoni
has been dreaming, leading, and taking
responsibility at the University of the
Pacific for many decades.
President John F. Kennedy reflected:
“The problems of the world cannot
possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics
whose horizons are limited by the
obvious realities. We need men who
can dream of things that never were.”
Ronald Reagan said: “While I take
inspiration from the past, like most
Americans, I live for the future.” Martin
Luther King, Jr., dreamed of a future as
National Leadership Symposium
exemplified in his famous utopian
statement “We shall overcome someday.”
King envisioned a better tomorrow that
could be obtained through an arduous
struggle toward victory.
I suspect we all would agree that
there are all too few originals left in
American society today—men and
women who speak with a unique voice
and who can offer an unconventional
perspective with bracing authenticity.
Art Dugoni, like his beloved California, is
an undisputed original. He grew up
within a large Italian family in the
shadow of the Depression and World
War II, and he experienced and was
profoundly influenced by the remarkable
events of the second half of the twentieth
century. From this “powerful crucible,”
the term used in the analysis of Warren
Bennis and Robert Thomas (2002), a
major leader in the oral health professions
has emerged. Art’s voice is one
that should be heard by all those who
would aspire to lead thoughtfully and
effectively in our own time.
Organizing the Genius in
Great Groups
My goal in this essay is to explore the
opportunities of leadership for scientific
research in the twenty-first century. In
my essay, I envision science as the fuel
Dr. Slavkin is dean of the
University of Southern
California School of Dentistry
and former director of the
National Institute of Dental
and Craniofacial Development.
slavkin@hsc.usc.edu.
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