Autonomous Transformation

CHAPTER 9The Organization as a Chessboard: Seeing the Pieces

When I was 12 years old, I won $565 at a casino in Nevada, where the United States National Open Chess Tournament was held. I had tied for first place in my rating category after a grueling eight‐hour match against a man several times my age and experience. I secured the victory when he doubled down and narrowed his focus of the board and pieces to his line of attack. Chess players are constantly reminded, whether through direct teaching or the experience of loss, to consider the entire board and resist the temptation to get tunnel vision on winning a piece or gaining positional advantage.

The first time I experienced this in a business context was when I was building an organization that taught chess to students at private and public schools. Our model passed the cost of the program on to families, which meant that any school that did not already have an after‐school chess program was likely to be open to seeing if we could generate enough interest to start a program (this also inflated my perception of my sales abilities at the time). Our program was flourishing at private schools and economically advantaged public schools.

Where we struggled was in getting enough paying students at schools in economically disadvantaged districts, and one of our business mentors recommended that we research districts and target those with higher degrees of economic advantage. It did not sit right with me or my co‐founder that the ...