What 'Hamilton' Can Teach Us as Leaders

Pulitzer Prize winning historian Ron Chernow loves to write about the great leaders who have shaped the history of the United States. But when he sat down to write the definitive biography of Alexander Hamilton, he never could have imagined that his story would someday become a blockbuster Broadway musical. He could never have visualized that his characters would change ethnicity and that the language of his story would center around Hip Hop, Pop, Soul and traditional show tunes. He could have never known that creative genius Lin-Manuel Miranda would be able to adapt the story of America then to America now. 

Tickets were impossible to acquire as people of all ages sought to learn more about the man featured on the $10 bill, whom we previously knew so little about. But Miranda changed all that by showing Hamilton in a fun light that allowed us to learn beyond the traditional boundaries of schooling. No longer was Hamilton presented in a boring fashion. Suddenly, he was cool, and learning about him was easy. Miranda used adaptive teaching to educate us about someone we thought we knew but didn’t. His creative brilliance earned him countless awards. 

For all of us who lead and crave learning, the Broadway success of Hamilton is a great message. We cannot continue to teach new students the same way, in the same style and manner. We cannot continue to learn as we have in the past. The British author and speaker Sir Ken Robinson discusses this in his famous Ted Talk and his incredible RSA video. Robinson believes our system of teaching kills creativity, kills outside-the-box thinking and is best suited for the industrial age, not our current environment.

How children of all ages learned about the life of Alexander Hamilton by Miranda’s talent is proof Robinson is right. We must continuously evaluate our teaching methods. We must continuously evaluate how our students learn. If we don’t sync these two, we will never be able to lead everyone successfully. 

The competition for learning is vast. If we continue to teach in the same manner as we have in the past, we will see a decline in learning. Between all the advancements in technology, if we don’t make learning fun and easy for those we lead, we will lose them to Google, YouTube online information networks or another Broadway play. 

Let’s study what Miranda did with Hamilton and let’s try to up our teaching game. 

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