Field Cannot Teach It Alone—But You Can’t Learn It Without the Field

I wanted to share an anecdote from my Construction Project Management class today. Concepts like uncertainty, risk, decision-making, and leadership, which are crucial in construction project management, are either never mentioned or remain too "theoretical" for people working on real construction sites.

To break this cycle, I first explained these topics in a classic theoretical way during the class: definitions, models, approaches…

Then, I used an example from my previous experiences in the field. Afterwards, we discussed with the students that a decision made under uncertainty is not only a technical process but also a psychological, experiential, and even intuitive one.

Interestingly, some graduate students in the class who also work in the industry said, "Professor, what you're describing is exactly what we experience almost every day." At that moment, I realized once again that: In academia, we often explain the right things. But sometimes we don't explain them correctly. Or rather, we succumb to the curse of knowledge and don't see the need to illustrate with examples. Because theories in the real world either don't work exactly as they're written in books, or they don't fully sink in unless they're illustrated. Therefore, perhaps what we need to do is not just explain the theory, but also connect it to real life. Lately, I've started doing this more frequently and consciously in my classes, and I've felt that the topics I'm discussing directly relate to the field. From now on, in my academic work and classes, I want to focus more on these questions:

• “Does this information actually work in the field?”

• “If so, where exactly does it provide a solution to a real-life problem?”

In this context, I would like to ask: What are the most challenging aspects of leadership and decision-making processes in the field?