Transcendent Innovation
Stories of transformation help bridge gaps between our social systems’ silos and allow us to see innovation as transcendent.
There is always something to learn at the annual Business Innovation Factory Summit. Whether it’s a teacher, CEO, patient, or musician up on the stage, stories of transformation help bridge gaps between our social systems’ silos and allow us to see innovation as transcendent. On September 16th and 17th a gathering of over 500 thought leaders and innovators came together to listen to 32 amazing stories of transformation. From a cooking show judge to a survivor of brain cancer, from a ski mountaineer to the co-founder of Zipcar, we had an incredibly diverse group of people share their stories with us. After each session of storytellers, there was excited conversation throughout the halls and lobby of the Trinity Rep Theater, where the Summit took place. Over two days of stories and conversations, hundreds of strangers became a community ready to bring change into the world. After the summit finished, we invited attendees from the event to join us at our BIF headquarters to decompress and talk about the experience.
Both inspired and exhausted, over 30 education leaders from across the country joined us on the Friday morning following the summit to dissect the stories we heard and the countless conversations that energized us during intermissions, lunches, and dinners. We indulged in pie for breakfast, and began to share our fermenting thoughts on all the stories we heard. After an opening from BIF founder and Chief Catalyst Saul Kaplan, we broke off into groups. Sam Seidel, the SXL Director took our education cohort to the far corner of our office to get to the burning question on our minds: How could the diverse stories we heard during the summit impact our work in education?
Although only four of the 32 stories we heard on the summit stage were specifically about education, it was clear that our cohort was thinking about how to use insights from healthcare, business, technology, and other fields to bring innovation to our schools. Theresa Moore, president and founder of T-Time Productions, was inspired by John Abelle’s work empowering patients to be a part of healing processes, and wondered how we could use that concept to put students at the center of their education. Ruthie Ousley from Teach for America also brought up themes from healthcare talks, especially how we think about the role of humanity in our social systems, specifically in education. Being sensitive to the specific needs of individuals and taking the time to understand what each of our students is going through in and outside of school is critical in ensuring that they get a quality education.
Robin Chase, Co-founder of ZipCar also had a huge impact on our education crowd. Her ideas about excess capacity had Dan Ryder, an educator who uses design to teach english, thinking about all the unused resources, physical and mental, that we have in our schools. Inspired by Robin’s story, Dan is interested in creating an inventory of the unused resources that exist in his school. Bridget Rodriguez from the Harvard Education Redesign Lab and Rob Riordan from High Tech High used Robin’s idea of excess capacity to think about the creative untapped energy in our students that we don’t access or engage.
Matt Mason, who started and ran a popular underground (and illegal) radio station in London, told a story about innovation through internet piracy. Matt worked with BitTorrent, an organization that created a community by allowing users to share data, legal or otherwise. Matt worked with BitTorrent and artists to develop new models of sharing and selling music with the program. Disruption within social systems is a key aspect of driving transformative change. During our Friday morning conversation, our friend Mohammad Riza, Executive Creative Director at Amplify, asked the provocative question: Who are the “pirates” in education, and how can we learn from them? He followed up with questions about the cost of technology, and the incredible amount of time and resources it takes to develop software that may not be relevant by the time it is completed. He invited all of us to think about how all teachers and students might take part in developing millions of software programs that solves millions of problems.
Joshua Davis, journalist for Wired magazine, told the story of how he comically escaped his data entry job by constantly stepping out of his comfort zone. From being on the national arm wrestling team, to sumo wrestling, Joshua made adventures out of his discomfort. Yee-Ann Cho from the Colorado Education Initiative, challenged us to think how we might step out of our comfort zone, and have students step out of theirs. Joshua showed us that stepping out of your comfort zone doesn’t have to be daunting, but instead can be a funny experience that turns into a memorable adventure. To this end, Natalie Kuldell, founder of BioBuilder, reminded us of the importance of humor, and how we should work on it everyday. Having a sense of humor is useful especially when we are challenging students to take risks, and assuring them that it is okay to fail, so long as you are learning. Melissa Roulette from Citizen Schools expressed this precise idea when she recounted Matt Zachary’s story on how his pursuit of being a professional pianist was thrown off course by a brain tumor which affected his ability to move and walk, let alone play piano. During Matt’s story he said “success is the mistake that went right,” to which Melissa felt that “we can help students embrace that idea by stopping seeing mistakes as failure, and instead seeing their value.”
It is not always just the innovative ideas that can bring forth change. In fact, one of the important aspects of the BIF summit that differentiates it from other conferences, like TED is the nature of storytelling. Robert Lin, Teach For America, National STEM initiative was awed by the power of authentic storytelling and how it elevates leadership. Indeed,We believe that a good stories can help drive transformation in social sectors. At the 2015 summit, we had a diverse group of storytellers. Some of the stories were funny, while others put tears in many eyes.
Whether it’s a story about a startup business that used excess capacity to reimagine the resources we already had, or how stepping out of your comfort zone can lead you from a mindless job to a meaningful career, we learned a lot from our storytellers this year. We got to meet some amazing people from all over the country to learn and share with. The importance of silo-busting collaboration has never been more obvious. We can’t wait to hear about all the exciting connections made during the summit, and the innovative work that comes out of it. For those of you that were able to join us, please keep in touch and tell us about the results of your random collisions at the summit, and the collaboration they spurred. We look forward to seeing you all again next year, and bringing in many new faces to continue to add to the rich and exciting conversations!
