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The Harvard Business Review has a long article titled Precedents Thinking.

It’s overly long, as many HBR articles are, but it basically talks about how combining and applying ideas from other fields can result in positive impacts for a different field.

For example, I’ve adapted and applied lessons from my community organizing career to teaching, and have written about it at Four Lessons From Community Organizing That Have Served My Students & Me Well Over The Years.

By the same token, however, this kind of “precedents thinking” (I do think it’s odd term) can also have disastrous consequences.

Think of districts who have hired superintendents with military or business experience, but no background in education (I’m looking at you, LAUSD).   They didn’t understand Why Schools Should Not Be Run Like Businesses.

I wonder what other examples – both good and bad – there are of “precedents thinking” in education?