When I watched Devex’s recent interview with Jesper Brodin, titled “IKEA chief Jesper Brodin: ‘I am the peacock in the land of penguins’”, I felt both very informed (it felt like the actual job interview) and entertained. Here was the outgoing IKEA CEO, funny metaphor and all, making a case for why he might be the right person to lead the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
But beyond the wit of his “peacock” comment was something more significant: a real-time example of what Professor Clayton Christensen once taught as The Schools of Experience.
What are The Schools of Experience?
The Schools of Experience was a framework Professor Christensen taught in his Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise (BSSE) course at Harvard Business School. Originally developed by Morgan McCall, a professor at the University of Southern California, the theory challenges the idea that leadership potential lies in innate traits or prestigious titles.
Instead, it suggests that people develop the capabilities of effective leaders through specific experiences. These experiences are the “courses” they take through work and life. Someone may not have “CEO” or “Ambassador” on their resume, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t already tackled the kinds of challenges those roles require.
Brodin’s curriculum of experience
Listening to Brodin describe his career felt like watching someone lay out a curriculum of lived leadership.
He’s led and transformed one of the world’s largest companies through financial turbulence, the COVID-19 pandemic, and historic levels of inflation. He’s also overseen humanitarian initiatives and partnerships with global organizations that extend well beyond IKEA’s core business.
What’s striking is not just the scale of these experiences but their relevance to what the UNHCR needs today: leadership under pressure, the ability to mobilize large networks, and the humility to listen, the latter of which he reiterated and emphasized throughout his interview.
Brodin went on to speak about the need to “bring the value and assets of refugees to the business community” while addressing the root causes that drove them out of their countries. It’s a vision rooted in collaboration, empathy, and systemic thinking.
From resumes to real world learning
The Schools of Experience theory argues that in selecting leaders, organizations should stop looking for “the right stuff” and instead look for the right experiences. Too often, hiring managers replicate themselves, favoring candidates who look, think, and talk like they do, rather than seeking those who’ve wrestled with the kinds of problems the role demands.
Full disclosure: I haven’t looked into the other candidates, nor am I qualified to judge who should lead the UNHCR.
I’m just saying that, through the lens of the Schools of Experience, Brodin’s candidacy isn’t unconventional; it’s fitting. His resume may differ from that of a traditional UN leader, but the “curriculum” he’s completed may be exactly what this moment calls for.
But, how can anyone be sure?
Three questions for any leadership role
McCall’s framework invites us to move past gut feeling and prestige by asking three key questions:
- What are the specific problems that we know this person will confront in this assignment?
- What experiences should a person have had in order to have learned to successfully address these problems?
- What “course” did this particular candidate take in the school of experience in which they confronted a problem like this one?
These questions not only apply to Brodin’s UNHCR candidacy but to every leadership decision, whether in business, government, or social impact. They help us focus less on pedigree and more on preparation.
Watching Jesper Brodin, I was reminded that sometimes the best candidates for leadership roles are not those with the “right” resume, but those who’ve done the “right” work. The Schools of Experience challenges us to look past credentials, and recognize that sometimes in a world of penguins maybe what we need most is a peacock.
