Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56523
From the Editors Unlocking Potential Anyone wanting to study human psychology would do well to work a game at a children's carnival. I recently helped a friend run a game booth at her church's fund-raising event, and I was fascinated to see how many ways four- to eight-year-olds will try to outsmart a game of chance. Here's how it worked: After handing us a 50-cent ticket, a child reached into a small container with seven keys inside. One of the keys opened a locked cage filled with Beanie Baby stuffed animals; the others, seemingly identical, did not. Children who pulled out the key that opened the lock on the cage won their pick of the stuffed litter. Although the odds of winning were clear, many children tried to gain an edge. Some studied the keys to see if they could see a difference (they couldn't). Others tried to sneak losing keys out of play to raise their odds on their next play (not allowed—if a key didn't work, it went right back in). A few stood by and watched, like onlookers at a Las Vegas casino wait- ing to play a slot machine that's "due." My favorite was a girl of about four who had won earlier on her first try. Convinced she could win again, she returned with her mother in tow and a determined look on her face. Without a word, she forcefully handed me her last fistful of tickets, ready to take all her chances at once. To use gam- bling parlance, she was "all in." Her mother wisely let her daughter play just one more time, to no avail. Still, I loved the child's certainty of success. It's a mindset that abounds in business, with one crucial difference. For an enterprise to succeed, most business leaders know they'll have work to improve the odds—to sort through the bad keys and find the one that wins. We hear all the time of organizations that put all their chips on the table, so to speak, to achieve their goals, while simultaneously leaving little to chance. In this issue, for instance, William Weldon, CEO of Johnson & Johnson, explains how his company follows "Our Credo," a document that outlines the company's principles and priorities. It serves as a road map, says Weldon, to ensure that the company's strategies stay true to founder Rob- ert Wood Johnson's original vision. In the article "Partners in Progress," we show how UCLA and Johnson & Johnson took a chance on training early childhood educators in hopes of improving children's health—and how they achieved big results. And in "The Business of Collaboration," we see how schools are doing their homework to choose the right academic partners and cre- ate alliances that are more than the sum of their parts. Time and time again, we see busi- ness and academic leaders achieve big goals with the help of both talent and luck, both skill and serendipity. And the more skills they have, the more the odds work in their favor. I wouldn't be surprised someday to see that little girl from the carnival in a business classroom. At business school, she can learn how to balance her confidence with the right measure of care—and find the right keys to unlock doors and make great things happen. ■ z 6 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009 DAVID SELMAN/CORBIS RAQUITA HENDERSON