How to Manage Any Transition: History as a Teacher of Leadership Principles, and as a Booster to Student Engineers’ Careers, Education and Integration

Abstract

As specialists and managers of the future, engineers need leadership skills. They are asked to contribute to social discourse in an explanatory and formative way and to present their good arguments convincingly. As leaders, they need to take a broader perspective in order to build an ethical coordinate system. This is in line with the educational goals of UNESCO, and addressed by my courses, which have been tried and tested over many years at various technical universities and companies. They focus on Greek, Roman and Levantine antiquity. The objective is to apply antique wisdom to today's comparable problem constellations, following Homer, Xenophon and the Chinese stratagems. Prospective engineers learn about timeless historical problems and how such problems can be critically analysed and transferred into present economic and social contexts, including the timelessness of the problems itself. Through the link with recorded historical events, leaders will more easily remember and identify problem constellations and possible solutions in future conflicts and crisis situations. In addition, my courses embrace young people's need to address questions about the meaning of life, tradition and religion in the past as well as in the future, and understand these in terms of mutually interdependent rationales. These courses reinforce an awareness of one's own culture, and at the same time represent an integration opportunity for students with a migration background. Mixed teams have to master presentation and construction tasks with head, heart and hand, which also makes it easier to memorise what has been learned. Apart from developing a leadership personality, students also acquire a higher level of civic maturity.