Run Like a Business

 

Let’s run the government like a business, drive the car like a bicycle, and play the guitar like a piano

— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) November 25, 2024 at 6:41 AM

I'm writing this post mostly so I can hang onto this Kevin Kruse skeet forever.

Education has been plagued by the "run schools like a business" crowd since forever. They come in a variety of sub-flavors, from the "Run schools like a business so that I can profit from them" crowd to the "Run schools like they are an extension of my business so that graduates emerge ready to serve me" crowd. 

But they all share a childlike faith that running things business style is A) a simple definition and B) the best way to run anything.

But, first, there are many ways to run businesses, and many of them are terrible. In this country, we are living amidst the rubble created by many of the worst methods. And it seems oddly enough that it's proponents of some of the worst management techniques who think their methods should be imposed on education. Pick a genius visionary CEO and let him rule the country like a tin-pot dictator is not a good way to run a business. Squeeze every cent out of the business and put it in your pocket is not a good way to run a business. Cut your product to the bare minimum you can get away with is not a good way to run a business, and yet all are big faves in the "run schools like a business crowd."

Why is it that the RLAB crowd is so rarely, for instance, repeating Edward Deming's insistence that businesses are best run on trust and safety rather than fear and intimidation? 

"Run like a business" means many things, and some of them are really bad.

But even in the best cases, RLAB is not well suited to anything that involves the care of actual human beings. Businesses sort. Businesses select people into groups, groups of winners and losers, customers and "So sorry, but you'll need to look elsewhere." 

It is no more reasonable to think that the Like A Business is how every endeavor should be managed than it is to think that we should depend on magic pixies to fix everything.

After all, what are the assumptions about what Run Like A Business means? Somebody has to be in charge? It has to make money? Everyone involved has to behave like a cog in a machine and human feelings and commitments must not clog the works? The needs of owners must come ahead of all other needs and commitments? There may be some assumptions that make a certain sense, like "Don't try to deploy resources that you don't actually have." But mostly, no.

Mostly you don't run schools like a business because they are not businesses, and you don't drive a car like a bicycle or play guitar like a piano.