Harlow Cohen’s history with the Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management Department of Organizational Behavior dates back decades to the 1970s.
In 1979, Cohen received the Master of Science in Organization Development and Analysis degree, and in 1986 he earned his PhD in organizational behavior—both from Case Western Reserve.
At the end of this month, the faculty director and professor in the Master of Science in Positive Organization Development & Change (MPOD) program is set to retire.
“My memories of being a student in the master’s program were pivotal in my life,” he says. “I fell in love with the teaching methodology of experiential learning, which is very different from what I had ever experienced before.”
After receiving his first degree from the school, Cohen says, “I never really left. I always stayed in touch with a number of faculty who were my mentors and periodically they would invite me back to talk about my experience in managerial capacities in their classes.”
Over the years, Cohen shared his experiences with students from a variety of corporate roles, including President of Integrated Profit Solutions, a change management consulting firm; senior consultant and project manager for Robert H. Schaffer and Associates; vice president of organization planning and development for Ameritrust Company, N.A.; senior vice president of operations and administration for Boykin Management Company; and director of human resources for Cole National Corporation and Cole Consumer Products.
Cohen found himself teaching classes alongside faculty as a teaching assistant and guest lecturer and eventually courses in the school as an adjunct professor for many years before starting as a full-time professor of organizational behavior in 2005.
Since then, Cohen has taught courses in strategic thinking, organization design, effective consulting and implementation methods, and individual field projects, which is the capstone course in MPOD. In addition, he has been a faculty coach for the MBA Action Learning program, and is a certified coach in Developing Leadership through Emotional Intelligence.
Cohen was nominated for the 2016 John S. Diekhoff Award for Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring. He has also been nominated multiple times for the Weatherhead Teaching Excellence Award.
A recent project Cohen is most proud of is implementing what he refers to as a “mastery pedagogy,” or having students choose their own area of demonstrated “mastery” by performing organizational change or developmental projects of their choosing with an assigned coach or advisor.
For example, within the macro learning area of leadership, a student can concentrate on a project in a micro area such as emotionally intelligent leadership development, coaching with compassion, inclusive leadership, etc.
“We launched it two iterations ago and we just got fabulous feedback from the students,” he says.
During his career, Cohen also has written articles for a number of academic journals on topics that range from tapping into an organization’s hidden potential and generating bottom line results to identifying and developing managerial high performers, maximizing the contributions of human resource professionals and enhancing team effectiveness. He also published a book in 2005 titled, The Dinosaur in the Living Room: Achieving Positive Change by Tackling the Obvious.
Upon retirement, Cohen is looking forward to spending time with his three grandkids, golfing, reading, and finishing writing a research article he’s started with one of his students from Weatherhead.
He will also stay connected to the school by continuing to teach part-time in the Executive Education program.
“Weatherhead provided me the chance to continuously learn with a group of extraordinarily talented people, not just in the department, but the school as a whole,” Cohen says. “I’ve deeply appreciated having had the opportunity to work closely with adult learners in a high-impact program, like MPOD, and the opportunity to be surrounded by very talented faculty I taught with and relied on. People like Diana Bilimoria, Ron Fry, Richard Boyatzis, Dave Cooperrider and Chris Laszlo, made it easy.”
What others are saying:
“Over these past 18 years, Harlow has been an outstanding colleague, faculty member and faculty director of our MPOD program! Harlow served as faculty director for MPOD cohorts four through 18, being responsible for the learning and academic development journeys of 525 MPOD graduates over these years. He is a thought leader, curriculum innovator and champion of students and alumni. Throughout, Harlow has been a friend to so many faculty, staff, students and alumni, engaging with warmth, kindness and empathy. I am personally grateful for Harlow’s contributions and will greatly miss his daily presence in our department.” - Diana Bilimoria, KeyBank Professor and department chair of organizational behavior at Weatherhead.
“Harlow was a leader who inspired our MPOD students, alumni, faculty and staff. He took over in a time of major change within WSOM and helped innovate and stabilize the program. Then no sooner were things calm, he would invoke a movement to create even more innovations. His unending patience, strategic insight and sensitivity to the needs of the students was a model for all of us. Despite repeated efforts from deans who did not like us or our programs, Harlow persevered. I join the hundreds of alumni, doctoral students, faculty and staff who applaud him for service 'above and beyond the call of duty!'”- Richard Boyatzis, Distinguished University Professor, H. Clark Ford Professor and professor of organizational behavior at Weatherhead.
“Harlow has been an important colleague and dear friend since his days as a masters and doctoral student in our ORBH department. Asking him to return from a successful consulting practice to teach and lead our reinvented MPOD program was one of the best decisions I have ever been a part of. His passion for experiential learning and practical applications of good theory have positively influenced the lives of hundreds of students over the years he has been at the helm of the MPOD program. His innovations in teaching strategy, assessing learning outcomes, and introducing mastery learning portfolios into MPOD will have an enduring impact on the quality of learning and development of our MPOD participants.” - Ronald Fry, faculty director of the Master of Science in Positive Organization Development and Change program and professor of organizational behavior at Weatherhead.
"Harlow exemplified student-centric pedagogy. His attention to the learning journey and to both the intellectual and emotional wellbeing of MPOD students was unsurpassed. He knew how to make it fun too. I learned a lot from him." - Chris Laszlo, professor of organizational behavior at Weatherhead.