During the orientation for the GBA master’s program at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Dean Rachel Kyte told us that during our time in the program, we would develop “the Fletcher Way of Thinking.”
I never gave much thought to that statement until I heard it again from other guest lecturers, including Admiral James Stavridis, who, coincidentally, was a former dean of the Fletcher School, and I started to wonder what it actually meant.
What that actually meant was elusive. They never laid out a neat definition—just assured us that by the end of the program, we’d see the world differently.
However, over the following months, as we transitioned from Harvard-style business case theory for global business strategy to political economy, to statistical analysis, then global finance to threat assessment and international law, something began to shift. We learned to think across these silos and integrate all these disciplines and their individual and collective implications within a single mental framework. And somewhere in that constant mind-pivot, I realized they were right.
The Benefits of Multi-Disciplinary Thinking, in Action
Take the near-weekly shifts in U.S. tariff policy under the Trump administration as a recent example. One day, it’s a sweeping tariff hike; the next, the elimination of the “de minimis” exemption disrupts global shipping, not to mention the accelerated adoption of AI into the business process. These abrupt changes send shockwaves through markets, supply chains, and diplomatic relationships.
Viewed only through an economic lens, it appears to be higher costs and lost revenue. Add a legal or diplomatic lens, and you see trade retaliation and fractured alliances. Add cultural and operational context, and you realize the impact on small businesses, consumers, and everyday people when goods vanish from shelves or suddenly double in price. Not to mention, mid-to-small businesses wonder how they will pay their tariff bill to pick up their goods before they can attempt to sell them.
Multi-disciplinary thinking doesn’t just help explain chaos—it equips you to anticipate outcomes, connect second- and third-order effects, and translate complexity into clarity for others.
How Fletcher Shapes Thinking
The official program description for the Global Business Administration (GBA) program captures part of the story:
“It has the core of a global MBA and adds critical contextual intelligence across legal, social, political, and other factors needed to be successful in today’s fast-changing and volatile global business landscape.”
When my wife read a similar statement posted on Facebook, she told me to stop everything and apply for the program.
That “contextual intelligence” is the heart of the Fletcher Way. It’s built through a few key experiences:
Interdisciplinary Problem-Solving
Every course required a multidimensional approach, considering simultaneously political, economic, legal, cultural, and technological factors. That was often part of the scoring rubric.
Nearly every class began with an analysis of a current event in the context of that course, and since this was during the COVID-19 pandemic, we had plenty to discuss. We could move on to analyzing global finance and market entry decisions, then shift our focus to statistical analysis to forecast climate impacts, delve into international law to evaluate treaty compliance, or examine the political economy to understand the ripple effects of sanctions and the disrupted supply chain.
This constant switching between disciplines built a kind of mental agility that becomes second nature.
Lived Experience in the Classroom
The real power came from the diversity of the cohort. Many of my classmates were working for or had worked for an NGO or multinational company. This provided a depth of knowledge that I believe is hard to find elsewhere. I remember presenting an idea during a breakout session, only to have multiple classmates quickly state that I clearly have not lived in a rural village in Africa, and went on to politely explain why first-world thinking often causes more problems than it solves. The following are some of the collective experiences I learned from:
- NGO veterans could instantly spot the flaws in overly simplistic development plans. One teammate recounted the story of solar panels being installed in rural villages where no one had planned for people actually to access the electricity.
- Another shared how a beautifully designed, feature-rich, online marketplace for small farmers was worthless as it required iPhones and broadband—neither of which were common locally.
- Active-duty military members, calling in from remote stations, added lessons from the field on balancing hard and soft power to win hearts and minds.
These stories dismantled first-world assumptions and forced us to design solutions that would actually work in the messy realities of the real world, and how agreements were made over tea with generators, animals, and hard currency, often a more powerful motivator for action than threats and bombs.
The Glocal Mindset
Fletcher drilled into us that every problem is both global and local.
When we worked on strategies for experiential tourism or clean energy adoption, we had to consider:
- The global trends driving interest.
- Local politics, culture, and infrastructure can make or break implementation.
- My law courses were mind-bending, forcing us to evaluate deals and contracts in consideration of treaties, local laws, international laws, and everything in between.
Collaboration Across Difference
Our team projects spanned finance, diplomacy, marketing, security, and technology—often in the same week. That required learning to translate ideas across professional languages and to see value in perspectives completely outside your own discipline.
Seeing Threats Through Multiple Lenses
One of the most transformative exercises was threat analysis. We weren’t just studying traditional military or cyber risks—we were examining how climate change, economic instability, misinformation, and legal frameworks intersect to create cascading vulnerabilities and the future impact on local and international economies.
This kind of systemic thinking is impossible to unlearn.
Closing the Loop
By the end of the program, I understood what Dean Kyte, Admiral Stavridis, and others meant, even if they never explicitly stated it.
That elusive promise wasn’t about learning a single method or framework. It was about rewiring how we process complexity—teaching us to navigate uncertainty, bridge disciplines, and anticipate consequences in ways most people don’t.
My Definition
The Fletcher Way of Thinking is an interdisciplinary, globally minded, and contextually intelligent approach to problem-solving and leadership. It:
- Integrates insights across disciplines.
- Values lived experience alongside theory.
- Balances global vision with local realities.
- Challenges assumptions and conventional wisdom.
- Strives for solutions that are effective, sustainable, and just.
Why I Call It “Ambassador Training”
I’ve often said Fletcher is the world’s best ambassador training school. An ambassador has to navigate complexity, bridge cultures, integrate multiple viewpoints, and find common ground for mutual benefit. That’s exactly what Fletcher trains you to do—whether you’re representing a country, a company, or a cause.
The program didn’t just sharpen my existing multidimensional thinking—it expanded it. It made me a better strategist, a better listener, and a more nuanced problem solver. And for me, that is the real—and once elusive—Fletcher Way of Thinking.
