A Closer Look: Jim
Thompson
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| Photo by Robert
Holmgren |
I FIRST MET Jim Thompson in 1987, when I was a newly arrived MBA student and he was
just starting out as director of the Public Management Program (PMP). We quickly became
good friends and, two years later, good colleagues, when I happily signed on as assistant
director of the PMP after graduation.
In the past few months since he announced his
resignation to start his own venture, the Positive Coaching Alliance, Jim has been hailed
for the extraordinary amount of entrepreneurial activity that flourished during his
10-plus years as director of the PMP and an overlapping three years as director of the
Global Management Program (GMP). Dozens of programs, ranging from the GSB's I Have a Dream
program and Start Up (microenterprise training and loans) to the Social Entrepreneurship
Initiative and GMIX (business internships in China), have been the more vigorous and vital
because Jim was involved. How does he do it?
- He thrives on creative chaos. In his office, every horizontal surface,
including--indeed, especially--the floor, is heaped with stacks of papers, books,
newsletters, and photographs. Even his Rolodex is only approximately in alphabetical
order. Yet Jim can always find what he needs.
- He is boundlessly curious. I've met few people who are as widely read or can as easily
quote, within the space of an hour, Isaac Stern, Tara VanDerveer, and Gandhi. (Jim is also
an inexhaustible source of reviews of obscure movies.)
- He has a gift for making do. While others are slaves to their Palm Pilots, Jim pilots
his own palm. He is notorious for scribbling inky but always retrievable reminders
directly onto his palm and other parts of his hand as needed.
- He has a vast capacity for affirmation. Anyone who has spent any time around Jim will
recognize one of his coaching mantras: "It's OK to make a mistake." That's a
very liberating message for the driven perfectionists (myself among them) who seem to
cluster in business schools.
Controlled chaos, curiosity, resourcefulness, and the
freedom to experiment without fear of censure. Are they linked to the PMP's and GMP's
successes? Will they serve Jim's new venture as well as they have the PMP and the GMP? You
bet.
--ALISON DAVIS, MBA '89
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