During our time together, the marketing director of SoulCycle, an indoor cycling studio company, provided an overview of how the company was founded and outlined its approach to fitness. First, a little background. SoulCycle’s mission is “to bring Soul to the people.” The company describes the customers’ experience as one in which “[o]ur one-of-a-kind, rockstar instructors guide riders through an inspirational, meditative fitness experience that’s designed to benefit the body, mind, and soul. Set in a dark candlelit room to high-energy music, our riders move in unison as a pack to the beat and follow the signature choreography of our instructors. The experience is tribal. It’s primal. It’s fun.”
This certainly is not your mother’s fitness studio. What intrigued me the most is that SoulCycle hires motivators, rather than fitness trainers, to teach the classes and focuses on the mind/body connection. This was the company’s big idea that essentially changed how it viewed the fitness business.
As I think about the future of independent schools in a changing landscape, I know that we must find a way to identify and nurture those big ideas in our industry. How can we build cultures that support the entrepreneurs among us? How can we prepare for the future while still delivering high-quality programs today?
A theory that I recently became acquainted with— that of nonconsensus idea generation and development— offers some food for thought. Put simply, the theory suggests that when someone has an idea, she wants to gain support for it. To do so, she shares the idea with others. A consensus idea generally gets a lot of support because it is familiar and comfortable. On the flip side, a nonconsensus idea often makes people uncomfortable or unsupportive because it is in the realm of the unknown and is possibly an idea that could fail. As humans, we generally have some discomfort with supporting the unknown or unpredictable, particularly if our work culture frowns on failure. Thus, what could be a great idea quickly dies because most people don’t want to risk their political capital. Stanford professor Bill Barnett says that this resistance occurs because, “in many organizations, the fear of being a fool is stronger than the hope of being a genius.”
Entrepreneurs, however, thrive in the world of nonconsensus ideas. They are used to living outside comfort zones and pushing envelopes. The payoff for them is that true transformation happens in the world of nonconsensus ideas. Think Uber or Airbnb.
In independent schools, it can be particularly daunting to get behind a nonconsensus idea because there are so many stakeholders with a vested interest in preserving the status quo.
So, how do schools create cultures that promote and nurture nonconsensus ideas? Entrepreneurs who thrive amid this world of change and discomfort suggest the following.
- Accept the fact that supporting a nonconsensus idea can be a lonely undertaking. Given this reality, organizations need different types of support systems to allow these kinds of ideas to flourish. Generally, as someone begins developing a nonconsensus idea, there is pushback from colleagues, community members, and even friends. Therefore, schools need to develop support systems that cut out the negative noise and allow for a thoughtful exploration of the nonconsensus idea. It’s helpful to connect to a group of entrepreneurs who can be supportive throughout the journey. Because they create bursts of energy and support throughout a development cycle, professional development programs that teach innovation execution can also help.
- Because it’s hard for insiders to get past what they know and accept, invite the outside in. According to InReach Ventures, a European-based firm that supports entrepreneurs, “Knowing too much is an obstacle because knowledge aligns itself with the status quo and therefore with consensus.” There are a few ways to combat that. Bring outsiders onto your board; they will see opportunities that others do not. Encourage faculty and administrators to visit organizations outside education to learn how these organizations address similar problems; this may enable your school community to get past its own blinders.
- Don’t hype the fact that you are innovative, since doing so can alarm the naysayers and begin to kill that entrepreneurial spirit. Innovation is hard work, and organizations need to make room for new ideas to blossom and grow within a supportive environment.
Ernst and Young recently studied its Entrepreneur of the Year finalists to identify common experiential attributes. The findings, not surprisingly, suggest that successful entrepreneurs work in environments that provide independence, flexibility, and freedom. Adeo Ressi, founder of the Founder Institute, suggests that successful entrepreneurship is a combination of three things: genetics, circumstance, and perseverance.
Throughout the literature of entrepreneurship, perseverance is identified as essential to some of the most transformational ideas. Airbnb’s original concept was to rent local residences to people coming into a town for a large conference or festival. The company launched with that idea and quickly got bookings but was not making a profit. Had it not persevered and continued to tweak the model, Airbnb would not be the billion-dollar company it is today.
Author and Dartmouth professor Vijay Govindarajan has long been writing about what he considers the most difficult part of the entrepreneurial process, executing on new ideas. In his new book, The Three-Box Solution, he provides a framework for organizations, outlining how they can simultaneously execute well today while preparing for tomorrow. He suggests that organizations can only excel in innovation if they work on three boxes simultaneously.
- Box 1 concerns managing the present — implementing the strategies, tactics, and approaches required to operate at peak efficiency.
- Box 2, perhaps the most difficult in any community, focuses on selectively forgetting the past — letting go of practices, programs, and services that have become obsolete.
- Box 3, not surprisingly, is about developing new models to ensure long-term success.
At NAIS, we agree with this perspective on organizational health. We’ve long supported — and will continue to support — the work of the first two boxes in schools. But we believe the organization can and should play a more active role in the work of the third box. In particular, given that creating the framework for the latter work can be difficult, we think there is an opportunity for NAIS to partner with member schools in offering structures in which nonconsensus ideas can thrive.
To that end, we are launching several new initiatives to support the innovation process in schools. This spring we will run our first Summit Hack event at the NAIS offices in Washington, DC. This deep-dive experience will bring core school teams together to study the innovation process and create a plan for guiding their schools in a collaborative journey from ideation through execution.
We also plan to bring small teams of school leaders and experts together to work in innovation incubators to find creative solutions to the greatest challenges facing our industry. Nothing is off the table as these teams collaborate to imagine high-quality, affordable education. Instead of trying to create one-size-fits-all solutions, the incubation teams are partnering with a few member schools to create MVPs (minimum viable products) that can be piloted right away.
The journey from becoming places of consensus ideas to incubators of nonconsensus ideas will not be an easy one. It will take discipline, resources, and perseverance and will require schools to let go of some aspects of the past. Our strength will come from the power of our community. Together we can take this journey to a more entrepreneurial future.