The Wright Stuff

Originally published on LinkedIn, June 5, 2026

I am not a fan of the phrase "because we've always done it that way." In fact, I believe it's a particularly dangerous mindset that not only stunts innovation but can actually hasten decline as systems warp and rot from the inside out. So I was happy to read the chapter on the Kitty Hawk Principle in One Size Fits None, by Alejandro Juárez Crawford and Mim Plavin-Masterman, MBA, PhD.

In this chapter, and indeed throughout the whole book, Alejandro and Mim champion the concept of ideation, experimentation, re-jiggering and refinement in an ever-evolving process of progress. Notice, I didn't use the words "success" or "failure" in the sentence above, which is the whole point the authors are making. They find those words too final in their implications; the former a desired outcome, the latter a death-knell. Either way, both are an endpoint. The key message of the entire book is that it's all about the process; the power and potential of what they call the experimental mindset to keep ideating and evolving.

This is where The Kitty Hawk Pricinple comes in. It derives from the grit and determintion of the Wright Brothers. Time now for a little history lesson and my suggestion that it is perhaps more accurate to reframe The Kitty Hawk Principle as…well, read on to find out.

The Kitty Hawk Principle relates to the experience of Orville and Wilbur Wright, two brothers who ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, OH and spent years experimenting and testing aircraft models until they recorded their successful flight at Kitty Hawk, NC. How many of their early attempts could've been seen as failures and thus a reason to quit? A lot, I bet. But they didn't quit. And today we can fly around the world thanks in large part to their perseverence.

Now, here’s a fun fact: I grew up near Dayton, OH, and Shade family legend has it that my great-aunt Anna used to watch the Wright brothers test their aircraft by pushing them off the top of a big hill and gliding down to Huffman Prairie near my great-grandfather’s farm. (That hill is now a national landmark called Wright Brothers Hill and made for some mighty fine sledding in my childhood.) The vast majority of their experimentation actually happened far from the beaches of Kitty Hawk — a place that simply had favorable wind patterns to help with lift-off.

So, while I’m 100% on board with the call-to-action for more experimental mindsets, maybe we call it The Wright Stuff.