Episode 98: Lisa Leander on Community as the Curriculum for Student Success
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What if building community is as important as the curriculum? What is the toolkit for getting beyond the "Ick" of networking to create real communities where students, faculty, and staff belong? We dive into this with Lisa Leander, founder of the WIBE Network (Where Imagination Builds Excellence). We talk through the ingredients in her secret sauce and what this means for folks that focused on community and belonging to enable student success.
In the high-stakes world of higher education, we often find ourselves buried under a mountain of spreadsheets. We obsess over retention reports, accreditation binders, and the ever-present GPA. But what if we are measuring the wrong things? According to Lisa Leander, founder of the Webe Network, the true engine of student success isn't found in a textbook or a standardized test—it is found in the connections students build with one another.
When we treat community as the "real curriculum," we shift our focus from memorization to momentum. We move from a world of competition to one of collaboration, where imagination and agency allow students to solve serious problems through a lens of play and curiosity.
Redefining Student Success: GPA vs. Momentum
For many leaders, student success is a line item. But for those on the ground, success is visible when a student feels supported, seen, and surrounded by a network. Lisa Leander argues that while a GPA measures memory, community measures momentum. This momentum is what carries a student through their first job interview, their first workplace conflict, and their first major life transition.
In the age of AI, the "memorization piece" of education is being automated. What cannot be replaced is connectivity—the ability to navigate conflict, ask for help, and collaborate. These "soft skills" are the most durable assets a student can possess, and they are exclusively developed within the context of a healthy community.
The Secret Sauce of Master Community Building
Building a community is an intentional act, not an accident. To move beyond a simple gathering and create a space of true belonging, leaders should focus on a few key ingredients:
Shared Values and Language: Giving a group a name or a nickname creates an immediate biological and emotional connection. Whether you call yourselves "Bright Spotters" or "Team Blue," that identity builds heart.
Rituals and Traditions: Small, repeatable traditions create the "glue" that holds a group together over time.
The Power of First Followers: A leader can set the vision, but the community is built by the "first followers." These are the individuals who mimic the leader’s behavior and make it accessible for the rest of the group. Investing in these followers is often more impactful than focusing solely on the person at the top.
Breaking the "Boogeyman" of Higher Ed Bureaucracy
One of the biggest hurdles to connection in academia is the "silo." Departmental separations, rigid budget models, and "toxic ownership" over information create barriers that students and staff alike struggle to overcome. Lisa Leander refers to this bureaucracy as the "boogeyman" of higher education.
To break these silos, we must find the "Goldilocks level of ownership"—having enough responsibility to get things done well, but not so much that we refuse to share power or delegate. The secret to crossing these professional barriers is often personal. If two people can connect over parenting, hobbies, or sports, they can usually find a way to get anything done at a professional level.
Embracing Imagination and Play
Academia is notoriously serious. We embrace the "red pen" and critical analysis, often focusing on what is wrong rather than what could be. By introducing imagination—innovation’s more playful cousin—leaders can create safe spaces for experimentation.
Bringing in diverse, even "mismatched" voices from outside the sector (like an AI expert from the pharmaceutical industry) can spark the creativity needed to solve modern educational challenges. When we make the process joyful and playful, we reduce the "scarcity mindset" and open the door to bold, brave decision-making.
Summary: Success is Not a Solo Act
At its core, the message is simple: Success does not come from playing by the rules alone; it comes from finding the people who help you rewrite them. By prioritizing community as the primary curriculum, colleges and universities can ensure that students don't just graduate with a degree, but with a lifelong network of support and the agency to make a dent in the universe.
Episode 98 Transcript
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Elliot Felix: Welcome to the Connected College Podcast. I'm your host, Elliot Felix. I've helped more than a hundred colleges and universities change what they offer, how they operate, and how they're organized to enable student success. If you're a leader in higher ed, and you think that the silos and separations get in the way of student success, then this podcast and The Connected College, are for you. We're here to learn and work together to bust silos, question tradition, and forge partnerships so that students feel connected to their college, their community, their coursework and their careers. Welcome Lisa. I'm so excited to talk about how community is the real curriculum.
Lisa Leander: Fantastic. Thanks so much, Elliot. It is great to be here. I started in higher ed way back in 2008. I developed partnerships between universities and that early experience definitely has stuck with me that this idea of connections and partnership and community is where I would land up and continue to stay in higher ed. I am the CEO of Where Imagination Builds Excellence, which started formerly known as Women in Business Education. I realized how disconnected individuals were, especially women who in many cases were not quite as visible in senior roles. So I started out with Webe as women in business education, connecting senior women business leaders, and now we've expanded this year into a leadership organization for men and women looking to lead with imagination and curiosity, but also community.
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Elliot Felix: I'd love to hear, as we dive into this topic of community is the real curriculum, your definition of student success.
Lisa Leander: For me, student success is not the spreadsheet matrix. It is not the GPA or the retention report, or for many of the senior leaders, it's a line item in this accreditation binder. Think of it holistically. When I see a student that is supported, that is seen and surrounded by community, I see success. Really, community over competition. This confidence to experiment, this idea when students are encouraged to think sideways and break patterns, bringing imagination into these spaces. I wanna see bravery, some psychological safety, I wanna see agency. Agency is a huge core value to me.
Elliot Felix: Yeah, the idea that bold decisions, bravery, and agency come from having the support and inspiration from a community. But are any of those things measurable? Can you measure community or creativity?
Lisa Leander: Really hard question. I would say a GPA measures memory. Community measures momentum. It is the students that know how to collaborate, how to navigate conflict, and how to ask for help. Especially as we see AI move more and more into taking away the memorization piece, the piece that it can never replace is this idea of connectivity.
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Elliot Felix: As a master community builder, what's your secret sauce? What are the ingredients to building community once you've created a name and started some traditions?
Lisa Leander: One thing is having a nickname. The power of going by your nickname or a tagline brings up a biological brain connection and builds on the heart. I feel a part of this because I am in the group. But first, it is important to distinguish between community and cliques. Communities widen the circle; cliques close the door. Communities grow because everyone wants everyone to succeed, whereas in cliques, you advance only if you protect the hierarchy.
Elliot Felix: So we've got the name, the tradition, the shared values, the belonging. Making the norms and the culture explicit seems like another key thing. How is building community changing?
Lisa Leander: Community evolves. We're constantly adapting and being future-focused. In my role, sometimes you've graduated or you have found your ecosystem of support, and that's what we want to see. We want to see people graduating and getting what they need out of the community. What you don't want is the community being fragile or defensive and threatened by change.
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Elliot Felix: Connect the dots for me between community and imagination. How does one enable the other?
Lisa Leander: I challenge those at universities to create these joyful, playful experiences that allow you the opportunity to solve serious problems. Academia is so serious. We embrace the red pen and critical analysis. We need to be in places where we do not see a direct match to be able to learn. That is creativity—taking two disparately different things and bringing them together.
Lisa Leander: I also want to talk about the power of the first followers. In order to create these traditions, you have to look at those first few people. Most of the individuals that join a group don't mimic the leader; they mimic those first five to ten followers. Your power is in those first followers. At my most recent conference, I asked extroverted individuals to be team leaders. They owned it. They created WhatsApp groups and branded outfits. It wasn't me being the leader; it was investing in those individuals.
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Elliot Felix: What are your top tips for breaking down those silos and getting people to connect across disciplines or institutions?
Lisa Leander: Bureaucracy is the boogeyman of higher education. It all comes down to this idea of ownership. Usually, the problem is around ownership—either you feel too much toxic ownership and can't share power, or you are disengaged and say, "That's not my job."
Lisa Leander: I call it the Goldilocks of ownership. You want enough that it is done and done well, but not too much where they don't share it. If you can connect on a personal level over parenting problems, sports, or hobbies, you can get anything done at a professional level. Remember that we are still all people trying to do the jobs the best that we can.
Elliot Felix: This is a great formula. Names, traditions, shared values, belonging, norms, followers, and Goldilocks ownership equals a community where people can unleash their imagination.
Lisa Leander: Success is not a solo act. My challenge to you is: how do you help students find their circle and build something bigger together?