Teacher Facilitation Guide

Program Overview
Thinking Outside the Box is a research-based curriculum that focuses on how successful business leaders often employ unique methods to achieve their goals. Students view video interview segments featuring three important business people who have unique viewpoints on how to succeed in business. These interviews serve as a springboard for students' own research. A list of online resources is provided to support student research.

Viewing/Facilitation Strategies

Introduce the Thinking Outside the Box topic and video segments. Ask students to share examples of their current knowledge, experiences, and questions related to topics such as the background of some of today's successful businesses, risk-taking, non-profit organizations and how current events affect the market.
View the video segments as a class, in small groups, or individually.
Facilitate student selection of one of the research projects listed below which fits their interests and grade level.

Research Project Overview

Grades 7-9

Student Academic Standards

Students understand dance as a way to create and communicate meaning
Students understand dance in various cultures and historical periods.
Students understand connections between dance and healthful living.
Students understand movement elements and choreographic principles in designing and performing dance.
Students understand how informal and formal theatre productions create and communicate meaning.
Students understand the context in which performing arts are performed today as well as in the past.
Students know how to gather and use information for research purposes.
Students understand how to make multimedia presentations using text, images, and sound.

Projects and Investigations:

History of a Creative Business
Many of today's corporations have fascinating stories about how they started. In many cases, the founders of these businesses "thought outside of the box" in order to come up with a successful business plan. Entertainment executive Michael Eisner, for example, states that he never believed the market analysts who told him that, "people want what they saw yesterday. They want something new," he says, "and different, and unusual." Use the Research Links to investigate the histories of different businesses such as Earthlink, Pizza Hut and Hard Candy Cosmetics, which were all started by creative thinkers in their early twenties. Select one business and create a multimedia presentation about its history, including an illustrated time line of its development.

Learning from Failure In the video segments, entertainment executive Michael Eisner says, "Succeeding is not really a life experience that does much good. Failing is a much more sobering and enlightening experience." In his segment, financier and philanthropist Sandford Weill adds to that sentiment by advising students to be "willing to make a mistake" and to "learn how to be a risk taker." Read Eisner and Weill's interviews in the Gallery of Business. How did their experiences of failure help to make them the success stories they are today? Think about your own past experiences. Was there ever a time when you learned something the hard way? Have you ever felt like you failed at something? Did you ever take a risk? Chose one of these personal experiences and write a personal essay about the lessons you took away from these experiences.

Grades 9-12

Student Academic Standards

Students understand how creative thinking can be applied to business.
Students understand how non-profit organizations work.
Students interact with a non-profit organization in their community.
Students understand how current events affect the market.
Students gather and use information for research purposes.

Projects and Investigations:

Non-Profit Corporations
Non-profits, or 501c3s, are businesses like any other. They have to register their company, file with the IRS, support payrolls and raise money. The main difference is that non-profits don't have to pay taxes because they are in the business of providing a service to fulfill a public or social need. Another difference is that instead of going to shareholders, profits are recycled back into the organization. Often, wealthy people like Sanford Weill will donate a lot of money to a non-profit. Read Weill's interview in the Gallery of Business. What are his thoughts in the role of philanthropy in our society? Using the Resource Links, find out more about how non-profits work. Many good examples of "thinking outside of the box" can be found in non-profit organizations. Research different non-profits in your area and chose one you'd like to find more about. Interview the director of the organization, or other people who are involved. Create a computer file for your non-profit that includes quotes from your interviews; the organization's mission statement; number of employees, volunteers and/or interns; list of sponsors; annual budget and long term goals. Use this information to write a grant proposal for this organization.

How Current Events Affect Business
Financier and Philanthropist Sandford Weill says that his favorite thing about high-finance is that "everything that happens in the world affects the price of securities." He goes on to talk about how change creates business opportunities. How do world events affect the stock market? Use the Resource Links to investigate businesses that have benefited or suffered because of things that are going on in the world, like new legislation, the discovery of gold, war, natural disasters or new advances in science. Choose three businesses that experienced the direct impact of such events. Imagine that you are a PR person and write a short press release for each one, explaining how the event has given rise to a new company or affected an already existing business.

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