Although I’ve been involved in the process of creating college counseling programs or updating/renovating them for many years, this year has felt a bit different as I’ve undergone this same endeavor. The onset of COVID along with new technology has coincided within the particular work that I do -- and love to do -- in a way where I’ve become aware of the fact that, for whatever reasons, my old approaches weren’t going to work anymore. At least, without getting into too much detail, they were not seemingly going to be as effective. Consequently, I’ve sought outside inspiration, and I’ve found a few approaches that have worked really well for me in the ideation and implementation of change. Interestingly enough, a couple of them result in a challenge to many of those sacred cows within college counseling and college admissions, those components or practices that are typically seen as being beyond reproach. As such, I hope to share one of these approaches here. 

The Borrowed Lens. In this way of thinking about your work within college counseling -- and thereby potentially challenge some of those sacred cows -- the thought exercise is to consider the way a particular brand, often ones completely unrelated to our industry, might approach your work. So, for example, how would Apple approach college counseling? One argument might be that they would focus on ease of use and crisp, clean presentation. How does that translate to college counseling? What comes to mind to me is clear, consistent branding on all documents. Maybe also some big, celebratory presentation phenomenon. As for sacred cows, maybe the Apple approach to college counseling involves bulleted (“organized narrative”) style letters of recommendation. Or, in another example I’ve recently learned of, consider the Spanish apparel company, Zara. As I have recently read, they do not design their own clothing but instead imitate that which is already popular in the fashion world. What might the Zara approach to college counseling be? Perhaps it would be seeking functional programming applied elsewhere for adoption and imitation. Maybe this is a matter of looking at transcripts differently. Maybe it is school profiles. Maybe it is an internal process. As an idea, I know of at least one school where the counselor reference is written by a committee of faculty members. Sacred cow? The idea here is to periodically take on the lens of other companies. What would Nike do in our industry? Google? Ford Motor Company? Airbirds? Starbucks? Spotify? Or think more locally! What would your local bakery or car repair guy or florist do with your office or work? 

I want entirely to give credit where credit is due. This idea was introduced by Robyn Jackson’s book Stop Leading, Start Building, although I’m sure I’ve seen it referenced elsewhere as well.