Shane Jackson Shares Four Ways to Leverage History as a Business Leadership Tool

This article was originally published by Fast Company.

A colleague recently shared an exercise he conducted with his predominantly Gen Z team. He listed every person and event named in the lyrics of Billy Joel’s 1989 hit song “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”  He then asked the team to identify recognizable references—which included James Dean, Budapest, and trouble in the Suez. Few team members could do so.

My colleague then told the stories behind some of the references—stories they’d never heard before. A lighthearted challenge turned into something deeper: A reminder that you can’t understand today without knowing what came before.

Brilliant.

Lessons From Business History

The exercise came to mind when I explained the Great Recession to a group of our new associates. Many of us remember how quickly things unraveled. It seemed that every day, another bank would fail or get bailed out.

Markets crashed, home values declined, and people stopped spending money. It was the biggest economic event since the Great Depression, but for the young people I was speaking with, the Great Recession existed only as a headline in textbooks.

As a student of history, I especially enjoy learning about the history of business. I’ve tried to emulate many practices based on successful businesses, but perhaps more valuable are the lessons learned from some of history’s biggest business failures.

Enron’s collapse occurred a few years after I graduated from college. Right up to its demise, Enron received incredible press for its innovation and its disruption of the energy and financial markets. Enron was on the top-five job wish list for every MBA student coming out of school.

This made Enron’s bankruptcy even more jarring. Fortunes were lost, and some executives went to prison. The Enron story offers valuable lessons about the importance of aligning incentives, transparency, and accountability. Every business leader should take these lessons to heart, and I’ve tried to apply them to our businesses.

What Business History Teaches About Resilience

History teaches us and inspires us. We learn how entrepreneurs of the past created great businesses and gain confidence from the fact that they accomplished this feat at all.

Virtually every great business story starts similarly, as founders overcome tremendous obstacles. Yes, a certain level of creative genius may be evident in a new product, service, or delivery method. But time is also littered with creativity that has been forgotten. The only ones remembered are those persisting long enough to overcome the tremendous challenges required to succeed.

Understanding the history of those who overcame great hardship gives us confidence in our ability to overcome the adversity we face today. If they did it, so can we.

Why “Unprecedented” Isn’t Typically True 

People frequently used the word “unprecedented” during the COVID-19 pandemic. It seemed everything was unprecedented. Guess what? Nothing is unprecedented.

A precedent exists for everything, and people have consistently found ways to devise solutions. Whether it’s a pandemic, AI, global instability, or economic challenges, we will figure out the next event, too. Historic leadership lessons can help guide the way.

Four Ways to Use History as a Leadership Tool 

Consider incorporating these skills into your business and personal life.

• Absorb history: Read, watch and visit history. Incredible authors can make almost any historical event come to life. Next time you’re scrolling through your favorite streaming service, check out a documentary instead of a horror flick. Swing by a historic site on your next road trip. And while you are at it, ensure your reading list contains some business history.
• Recognize bias: The quote, “History is written by the victors,” attributed to Winston Churchill, contains some truth. Certainly, we remember people who won or succeeded better than those who lost or failed.However, even a historian’s worldview inevitably impacts their interpretation and telling of someone else’s story. When you’re learning about a historical event, consider that you are only getting one side—and that side unavoidably contains bias. Be discerning about the lessons you carry with you, even from firsthand accounts.
• Teach your own business history: Consider your company’s key events. What are the experiences that created success, but could have broken the business? What did you try and fail at, or rewarding pivots you accomplished? Create onboarding materials that tell the history of your company to share during training.
• Put today in perspective: Use past stories—both your own and others’—to illustrate your vision of the future. For example: “We overcame that challenge, and we will overcome this one.” Or: “No one thought we could do that, but we did it anyway, and we’re going to prove them all wrong again.”Create a context for your team to remind them that their situations may differ, yet aren’t truly unprecedented. Times may be hard, but people have always done hard things.

Curiosity about history can help us envision and then create a better future. Connecting the past to the present inspires others to join us on the journey, whether we’re reflecting on the scientific and cultural impacts of James Dean, the Suez Crisis, or the business lessons from Enron’s failure.

After all, the fire was burning long before us. Learning from it is how we keep the flame alive for those who follow.

For more insights from Shane, visit www.shanejackson.com