Habitat for Humanity Executive Education Program

Social Enterprise Newsletter, Fall 2003

On June 29, nearly 400 of Habitat for Humanity International's (HFHI) top leaders arrived on campus for what was the largest executive education program ever held at Harvard Business School. Filling every available residence hall room, participants hailed from all over the United States and several international affiliates. Not only did the three-day program boast the largest group of executive education participants ever gathered at HBS, but it featured a faculty team of more than 20 professors from around Harvard University, including the Business School, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Graduate School of Education, led by Faculty Chair Diana Barrett, a senior lecturer at HBS.

HFHI's goal is to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. Founded in 1976, HFHI has built over 150,000 houses around the world, and enjoys widespread name recognition and a strong reputation. An increasingly complex organization, HFHI has a headquarters and affiliates around the country organized into seven regions and international locations, some with an all-volunteer staff and others with a full-time staff of over 20.

Working with HFHI on an executive education program for its top leaders seemed to be a good fit with part of the mission of the Social Enterprise Initiative-to help strengthen the management capacity of nonprofits. "Consistent with our mission, we value the opportunity to work with nonprofits capable of and interested in being pushed to the next level," says Barrett. "Often, as organizations grow, they need to revisit their strategy and how they work across units. We were interested in adding to our knowledge on how to manage across multiunit organizations."

Planning for the program began in September 2002, when the Social Enterprise Initiative and HBS Interactive (HBSi) hosted a visit by several HFHI representatives, including Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer David Williams, Vice President of U.S. Affiliates Ted Swisher and Executive Director of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity Stephen Seidel. To learn more about the different worlds of HFHI, Barrett and Social Enterprise executive director Stacey Childress then visited HFHI headquarters in rural Americus, Georgia, and attended a meeting of affiliates in New York City.

"We wanted this program to change the way we think. It has had the impact we were intending."

The curriculum was designed with a focus on HFHI's strategic challenges. Core topics were organizational alignment with mission; managing the alignment process; enhancing leadership and negotiation; headquarters and affiliate relations; alternative models of home building; measuring performance; and managing complex change. While designing the curriculum, Barrett also focused on the individual experience, to ensure that each participant would have the opportunity to learn in a variety of settings, from plenary sessions in Burden Auditorium, to section classes of 80 in classrooms, to discussion groups of 8 in residence halls. Highlights included welcoming remarks by Dean Kim B. Clark, a keynote address by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, and an inspiring closing session by HFHI founder and president Millard Fuller.

HFHI's Ted Swisher says, "We wanted this program to change the way we think. It has had the impact we were intending. We have received e-mails from affiliates telling us that they can't wait to apply principles they learned."

Why such a big program, with approximately five times the number of participants in an average custom program? "There was a huge impact from having nearly 400 people together, exposed to the same themes, who now have a stronger sense of connection," says Twin Cities Executive Director Stephen Seidel. "It was an outstanding experience to be able to think about complex issues collectively, and then to later be able to reference the shared experience. There is now a network of support to try new things."