R. R. Donnelley & Sons Blackboard Plan

The blackboard plan matches almost perfectly the outline and also the assignment questions for the case. So the first major blackboard—and sometimes this slops over onto two or three boards—was, first, traditional versus digital printing. It's literally two columns, and then a separate side segment: "Implications for Cowan." That's where I want to get at the separate versus integrate.

The second blackboard has the three major eras. I put the dates at the top. We walk through the tasks and activities in each one, put a little line underneath. Then we talk about the deliverables and the questions you would ask in each era. Third blackboard brings it down. It says, "Schetter." Put Schetter's name up. Then we talk about Schetter versus Clarke.

Then I use sideboards to get at organic and mechanistic processes. First, I literally set up the spectrum—organic and mechanistic—and I ask people to describe the settings in which each is best used. Then I set up another blackboard and ask people to describe the leadership characteristics.

The only other major thing to think about when you set up blackboards is what has to be visible when. I begin with one of the blackboards, the middle blackboard, down, and I do that so that when I eventually get to the discussion of Schetter, way up high—because the Harvard blackboards are movable—you get to see the three eras. So when I ask, "How has her job changed?" students can see the three eras at the same time

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