Business Thu Jul 14 2011

Chicago Firm Turns Big Ideas Toward the Little Guys

By Marissa Flaxbart

Not-for-profits set out to help society in one way or another. But who helps the not-for-profits? Donors can give money, volunteers can give time, but here in Chicago, Insight Labs is giving non-profit companies some things many of them desperately need: ideas and solutions.

Several weeks ago, on a Friday morning, I sat in a room full of people gathered specifically to solve a problem. We were virtual strangers, with only a tangential connection to the task at hand -- how to put the "playtime" back into the Boys & Girls Club experience. Our common bond? We were thinkers, idea people brought together by a local king of idea men, Jeff Leitner, and his partners.

Leitner, a senior strategist at Manifest Digital, held his first Insight Lab over two years ago. Along with co-founder Howell J. Malham, Jr., the new company set forth with a simply mission: take the kind of brainstorming that is typically applied to commercial businesses, and apply it to the not-for-profits that are trying to improve our world. Highly selective, the labs are held at a a rate of about one per month, and each one brings together a new collection of brains to pore over a different not-for-profit's conundrum.

The topics vary from lab to lab, but the Boys & Girls Clubs discussion was one with far-reaching implications. As mounting evidence suggests that unstructured playtime is key to child development, Mary Ann Mahon-Huels, the executive director of Union League Club (ULC)-sponsored Boys & Girls Clubs here in Chicago, felt that the Clubs' environment had become too structured. Along with peers from other area clubs, she recalled her own childhood experiences at her local Boys & Girls Club, noting that the prospect of unadulterated "free play" was what got her excited about coming back week after week. Now, the ULC Boys & Girls Clubs' reps feared, daily activities were planned within an inch of their lives. At least one club was requiring kids to finish their homework before having fun.

Homework was nice and all, the room of thinkers agreed, but was that the point of the organization? Was change in favor of less structure possible? And what would the not-for-profit company's all-important corporate donors think of these changes?

Leitner and Malham sprung into action. A game plan for the next three hours was laid out. We weren't just going to shed some light on this problem, we were going to solve it. And, Leitner told us all right off the bat, our solution would have wide-reaching implications that could improve the state of play all over the country. No small task, to be sure, but over the course of the session a symphony of ideas was scribbled all over the floor-to-ceiling white boards of the meeting room (apparently, early meetings, held in rooms with less whiteboard space, required continuing the wealth of ideas and notes onto free window panes).

We talked about metrics. Would their be a tangible way to measure how more playtime positively affected the goals that Boys & Girls Clubs strived to meet (getting into college, lowering teen pregnancy rates, staying out of jail)? Could we show that self-guided playtime created better citizens? Ultimately, the research suggested that it could, so perhaps the metrics could remain the same, and the increased free play - with adequate but not over-involved supervision to keep things safe - would naturally improve the outcomes of club members' lives.

Leitner talked about play as a kind of vitamin that many kids aren't getting enough of, particularly in the underserved areas where many Boys & Girls Clubs reside. Perhaps the Union League Boys & Girls Clubs could think of themselves as the place that provides that "play vitamin." Positive results there could result in company-wide movement toward unstructured play. Better yet, by being the only place to provide this meaningful self-directed play, the Clubs would move to the head of the line for funding. They'd be in a class of their own.

When the meeting was over, this initially complex issue seemed simpler and more approachable. The Clubs would implement changes gradually and see how they affected child enjoyment, attendance, maybe even grades. If the research is correct, the changes toward more free play should grow gradually, and positive changes in the ULC Boys & Girls Clubs could translate into similar changes at a national level.

A few days after the session, I got an email from Jeff Leitner thanking me for my participation. He closed by saying that he had to "go book the August lab." And that's probably the most exciting part of the experience: this was just one of many transformative meetings that lots more great companies will have this year. When organizations like Boys & Girls Clubs are getting as much attention from consultants and advertising firms as Coca-Cola or McDonald's, society can rest easy. Until then, not-for-profits need our help, and Insight Labs is up to the challenge.