Hats off to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Ulysses Program, as reported on in the 09.06 BusinessWeek. Fast-tracking partners, 44 so far (20 in 2004), are sent on 8-week service projects in developing countries. Many have found that even this brief exposure to a world-away-from-PwC changes their life perspective. They do some good, learn about themselves, and in several cases profoundly alter their “back home” management styles. Listening skills get better (or else), as does a renewed emphasis on face-to-face communication in a world previously marked by electronic estrangement. While assignments for 44 of 8,000 partners doth not yet a revolution make, it’s a terrific idea as I see it.
