Those who know me well would tag me as more poet than quant.

So you can imagine my delight when many moons ago, I closed my last blue book and graduated from B-School.

Or my excitement when, more recently, we had a Harvard Business School case study written on REDF.

Harvard is one of those institutions that when you walk the hallowed halls, you feel more curious, more activated, and more wired to learn. I know I felt that in spades, especially when I saw the inimitable Brian Trelstad and long-time hero Gerald Chertavian (Founder of Year Up) teach their Social Entrepreneurship course with REDF among the cases studied.

The case asks: To what degree and through which methods should REDF focus on policy approaches as it seeks to scale? That’s an unexpectedly timely and interesting topic as the role of the public sector in scaling social solutions becomes a little less clear.

The Harvard method of teaching is one of movement and dance. Faculty move up and down the tiered aisles asking questions to provoke curiosity and deepen understanding. Students volunteer or are voluntold, and their answers become captured on chalkboards seemingly haphazardly until the insight clearly emerges like the image of an Escher painting after falling in its trance.

I’ve seen this course taught twice now, and it’s quite an out-of-body experience to hear these bright students both interrogate and amplify the solution you’ve dedicated your career to. Their ideas are disarming, and their view of the blurred lines between business and mission is exactly what I’d hope to see in our next generation of business leaders.

When they’re done with analyzing the case, I get to share some of my own thoughts as the protagonist — challenging their thinking and compelling their curiosity on the power of social enterprise. There’s something about being in community with students, especially on a campus as alive as HBS, that makes you stand taller and spar with your whole self — both poet and quant — as you push for better and deeper answers, and perhaps better and deeper questions too.

It’s in pursuit of these deeper questions that we share this case with all of you. We do so because it gives incredible context to our growth over time (from the Bay Area to California to nationwide) and highlights the evolution in our programming that paves the way beautifully to our next strategic period.

Consider it a nerdy appetizer to our new year, where we’ll unveil our new strategic plan shifting from individual impact to systemic change — one ecosystem at a time.

We hope you enjoy.

Access the case study (paywall)