I was fortunate to be at the Polaroid Corporation during its most innovative days. Its founder, Edwin Land, was not just a scientific genius (instant photography WAS a bonified breakthrough), he was a Renaissance man. He and his friend Ansel Adams were committed to exploring the convergence of art and science, sure it would lead to innovations in their respective fields—and it did. For a long time, Polaroid stock was high, the company was cool, it was a leader in design and technical innovation. It was an exhilarating era.
Then one afternoon in the early eighties, I spent time with one of Polaroid’s engineers and asked what he was working on. “We’ve got this digital device,” he said. “And a few of us are interested in developing it. But we’re basically a chemical company, not a digital company. We’ll probably not do anything with it.” Chemicals were the secret sauce of ‘instant’ photography. I was too young, too inexperienced, too far outside my own expertise to understand the ramifications of his comment that day.
But as the digital revolution heated up and Polaroid stuck to its chemical roots, the company fell into decline. By 2009, it had gone through bankruptcy and was no longer in business. Polaroid had fallen in love with the innovation that had fueled its success, then failed to anticipate the change ahead. That conversation lives like lightning in my brain and set my personal mission: I would never be obsolete. Years later, hearing Eric Hoffer observe, “The learners will inherit the future; the learned will be prepared for a world that no longer exists,” I had my personal mantra.
Today, my work is about helping families thrive, anticipate change, and dare to innovate. But I’m struck by how often people who lead change in their businesses and their communities, resist it at home.
When I Googled innovation in the family, two kinds of results popped up. One was the impact of innovation ON the family (online movie sharing, video calls, mobile phones, social media, etc.)—which, more accurately, is called disruption, not innovation. The other was research pointing out that families are, by nature, innovation averse, reinforcing stability and status quo rather than conditions that favor change. This makes sense. We like to think of family as shelter, safety, refuge from the whirling dervish of forces coming at us 24/7. “Home is where you go, when you have to go there, they have to take you in,” wrote Robert Frost in 1906.
Nonetheless, thought leader families are embracing change on their own terms; employing social innovations to reinvigorate family culture—and ready families for the future. I’m excited about three innovations in particular.
Innovation #1. The rise of The Family Council, following at least three centuries of ‘top down’ patriarchal or matriarchal rule is changing governance in families. Efficient and effective, patriarchal/matriarchal rule has helped build agricultural and industrial societies. But as the internet has given 16-year-olds ‘voice’ and 21-year-olds gained the means to effectively ignore family pronouncements and connect with peer groups, the family hierarchy has flattened. Digital natives who communicate across platforms, generations, and borders are less responsive to the commands of patriarchs and matriarchs. Leadership by the patriarch/matriarch is not dead; but it is increasingly difficult to enforce.
Recognizing this, thought leader families create ‘family councils,’ an innovation in the 21st century family. To be sure, councils are subject to the skills of their family members—and have their own complexities. But that families aspire to new models of organization and communication is evidence of the need for new strategies to assure thriving, adaptive families.
Innovation #2. A more recent innovation is the arrival of the Chief Learning Officer, driven by the speed of change, the complexity of the world, and the imperative to anticipate, not just react to change in the context of family. CLOs help families identify what they don’t know they don’t know—and figure out how to infuse new knowledge and skills to facilitate change. In 1980 there were 50 MSW social workers in the Fortune 500. A decade later, there were 5000—employed to help employees adapt to change as Moore’s Law was already taking effect in the workplace. A similar arc is growing in families—from the CLO as a rarity in today’s family office, to what I anticipate will be a new generation of family learning experts transforming education, in and out of the family system.
Innovation #3. And a small cadre of us are doing our best to spark a third innovation, Financial Readiness for Young Children. 47% of adults report being financially illiterate. But given the embarrassment I note among adults who fess up to this, I suspect the reality is far higher. And why would it not be? The financial landscape is ever more complex and innovations in financial education have been few and far behind (other than moving it online, which has had insignificant impact). And, as the following chart shows, what exists is largely about repairing, not preparing; ‘fixing kids’ when they’re felt to be spending too much, in credit card trouble, or just oblivious to the role of financial responsibility in their lives.
Tired of just ‘fixing kids’ and intent on preparing them for the future, a few companies are trying to change how families think about financial education. We want to make it as common place as learning to walk and talk to encourage financial fluency early. With this as the goal, the Bounce10 team and I are developing a play-based financial readiness program that allows kids to be kids and gives families tools to turn a dreaded chore into a joyful journey. This is how Bounce10 is innovating financial education in the family:
As tweens, teens, and young adults find themselves in fiscal situations earlier and earlier, making sure they have confidence and skills to cope is as important as learning to read and do math—and must start early.
Change is hard. Instilling new habits in families is really hard. Even people spearheading change in the workplace are loathe to tackle change at home too. Home (we tell ourselves) is where you should be able to take refuge from the stress and speed of change in the world. Innovate at home?? No thank you!! But innovation, in service of a thriving, adaptive family is an imperative that doesn’t have to be incompatible with a comforting family life. What innovations in family are you seeing? What would you like to see? Families thrive on intention…what are your intentions for your family?