Stories
Stories
John Read
Read Photo by Steve Boljonis |
With a background in government service, truck-parts manufacturing, and private equity, John C. Read (MBA 71) might seem an unlikely person to run the worlds largest adventure-based educational organization. But about a decade ago, Read signed up for a weeklong Outward Bound (OB) course, and his passion for this nonprofit led him to get involved as a volunteer. That passion, as well as his experience in business and as a board member for one of OBs four wilderness schools, made him an ideal candidate for the presidents position at OB USA when it opened up two years ago.
After spending the first nine months of his tenure commuting from Minneapolis to Outward Bounds Garrison, New York, headquarters, Read and his wife finally relocated to that scenic community in January. He now spends about half of his time fundraising, mostly to support national initiatives and scholarships for the 65,000 children Outward Bound serves each year. He also works with Outward Bound schools and centers to ensure that their 750 wilderness courses and scores of programs for corporate clients and kids in urban settings are administered effectively and adhere to OBs excellent track record for safety. When traveling the country making site visits, often by bus or train to save money, Read enjoys hearing the stories of challenge and change of transformation, as he calls it from Outward Bound alumni.
Tell us about your first Outward Bound experience.
I took a white-water rafting and rock-climbing course with my eldest son after he graduated from college in 1992. My idea was to get him to wake up to the fact that he had a lot more growing up to do. It was a real eye-opener. The lessons were clear and lasting to this day: He was fine, and I was the one who had some growing up and letting go to do.
What happened on that trip?
I was having a helluva time attempting to scale a difficult rock face with someone belaying me from the top. In a short time the guy on belay, who is critical in this experience, got a sense of when I was beginning to lose it and gave me just the right amount of tension to stretch my limits while keeping me safe. After an hour, I finally came up over the top of the rock, and to my surprise there was my son on belay. He was given that assignment, without my knowledge, by a very wise instructor. It was a powerful moment discovering that such quiet, mature support was coming from my son. From that day to this we have had a relationship that we never had before.
What does Outward Bound strive to do?
What we do in the wilderness and in a variety of classrooms is create conditions where individuals, mostly kids but also adults, reach beyond their perceived limits to discover their possibilities. We help them realize that theyre capable of far more than they thought, both physically and emotionally. When someone leaves the safe harbor of an Outward Bound course with an ability to apply what he or she has learned to create new possibilities and to serve others, then we have succeeded.
What are your goals for the organization?
The two really important things that we want to do are to reach more kids and to create a more diverse setting for them. In order to achieve that, a third thing we need to do which is a bit more suited to my own background is to simplify the way in which we deliver our mission by streamlining business processes.
Why is diversity so important?
If the transformative experience takes place in the company of a crew that is as diverse as the society in which we live, participants come through the experience with an awareness that the group that supported them had nothing to do with pigment or gender or economic status.
Please explain Outward Bounds role in schools.
Our Expeditionary Learning program, which is ten years old, takes the same principles that inform our wilderness and urban programs and applies them to the educational process, turning a schools curriculum into an expedition with a focus on active learning. There are 126 schools currently in the program, most of them public. The learning expedition also includes a focus on character, the environment, teamwork, and community service.
What is Outward Bound Professional?
We have five centers across the country specifically directed at a wilderness-based learning experience for corporate groups. We use the same principles that inform the longer courses for kids to help a group of individuals build a greater sense of themselves as a team. Its amazing what getting out of the office and onto a ropes course can do for a group.
How does running Outward Bound compare with running a truck-parts company?
It is similar in that you need to marshal support for an idea and direct the organization largely through persuasion leaving the club in the closet as often as possible something we know as leadership. The difference, of course, is that at Outward Bound we are delivering a bottom line consisting of human potential, not dollars, and the national president has yet to locate the closet or the club!
Where does the organizations funding come from?
We raise funds through our alumni, principally for scholarships for kids. What is awesome to me is that there are hundreds of men and women who have generously given their time and money to Outward Bound for fifteen to twenty years. Their own experience has inspired them to want others to have a similar experience. We also receive some money for our urban programming from foundations and corporations.
What would you say to HBS alums who are considering doing a course?
Outward Bound is a great experience for anyone who is looking at his or her life and gauging its value and its importance. Our programs let you challenge yourself in a safe way to overcome your fears of what you can do physically, as a surrogate for the obstacles that keep you or your team from making change happen. Its a short walk to applying that learning to other parts of ones life changing ones job, relationship, or the amount of time spent on things that are more purposeful, for example. Its not just a soft, conceptual proposition. Instead, its an application-oriented process of stretching and trying something that you didnt think you could do.
Whats the best part of your job?
You cant match a conversation with a young person who has had his or her eyes opened to their own potential. To be able to talk to those kids who have gone on an Outward Bound course with some fear and questioning and to see their burgeoning self-confidence is truly amazing.
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