'You Can't Create a Leader in a Classroom.'

Now that the IMPM is established, Mintzberg is moving on. He has stepped down as the program's chairman (Gosling will take over his role) , but he's hardly abandoning the cause. Instead, he's trying to "diffuse" the concept to other sectors. He's writing a book called Developing Managers, Not MBAs, about management and about the theory and practice of the IMPM. Already there is an IMPM for Canadians in the volunteer sector, and plans for a health-care IMPM are under way. And the day after the awards luncheon in Toronto, Mintzberg and his team met with executive-development heads from nine companies to sell them on Mintzberg's latest concept -- ALP, the Advanced Leadership Program. It's an IMPM for very senior managers. If all that isn't enough, there's the rest of civilization to think about. Also written on Mintzberg's locked-up sheet of paper are the words "Move society -- have some impact." So Mintzberg is stretching beyond management with a new book, tentatively titled Getting Past Smith and Marx: Toward a Balanced Society. He thinks the structure of current political and social dialogue has been corrupted by the twin tyrannies of shareholder value and rampant consumerism.

The success of the IMPM suggests that after years of MBA bashing from the Canadian wilderness, the world may finally be moving toward Mintzberg's point of view. Traditional MBA programs are now trying to bring out the more emotional, thoughtful side of management. Companies everywhere, desperate for more effective leadership, are working with their executives to develop more robust approaches to managing, rather than simply sending them off to cookie-cutter executive-education programs. "It was extraordinary at the Academy of Management this year to hear so many people saying the same thing as Henry's been saying for years," notes Gosling.

And yet, while that's happy news for Mintzberg, it's obvious that part of him relishes the role of the renegade, the naysayer, the lonely voice on the fringe. "I've always been a cynic about things that are too popular and too widely believed," he frets, peering intently over round, metal-framed glasses. Indeed, Mintzberg says that he does his most creative thinking when he's involved in some type of solitary physical activity, whether it be canoeing, cross-country skiing, or bicycling. Back in 1987, when he was finishing an eight-day bike trip from Paris to the Charles de Gaulle Airport, he was loaded down with gear and luggage. As he approached the Champs-Elysées, Mintzberg saw a phalanx of police officers guarding a bizarrely empty avenue. He asked what was going on, but no one responded, so Mintzberg slipped past a barrier for a bit of experiential learning. He rode alone down the long, wide avenue until he was spotted by a slack-jawed policeman at the end of the street.

It turned out that the Canadian professor had nearly managed to become the first cyclist to ride along the Champs-Elysées as the Tour de France came to a close. It's not a bad metaphor for his career: one of the most original minds in management, charting his own course, being chased by others, who are pedaling furiously and who get to the same spot as Mintzberg -- only much later.

Jennifer Reingold (jreingold@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer. Contact Henry Mintzberg by email (mintzber@management.mcgill.ca) , or visit the IMPM on the Web (www.impm.org) .

Sidebar: What's Fast

How do you get stressed-out executives to turn off their cell-phones, close their day planners, and open their minds to learning? It's a question that both fascinates and torments Henry Mintzberg, Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University, visiting scholar at INSEAD, and cocreator of the International Masters in Practicing Management. Here are some of his basic beliefs.

Real executives only, please. The concept of teaching management to twentysomethings who are just a few years out of college makes no sense to Mintzberg. Only by having been in the trenches can you relate personally to what's being taught. You must be sponsored by your company and should continue to work while you're in the program. Only if you have experiences of your own to share can you contribute to class discussions.

Your colleagues are also your teachers. The IMPM uses what's called the "50-50 rule," which means that for every hour the professor speaks, students get an hour to discuss issues that are relevant to them. That allows the lessons of the classroom to flow immediately into the real-life experiences of the students. And because IMPM students sit in groups around tables, rather than in the standard U-shaped classroom (which Mintzberg believes deifies the professor) , it's easier for lessons to flow.