Quiet Revolution LLC is a privately owned, mission-based, for-profit, American company formed with a stated mission "to unlock the power of
introverts
Extraversion and introversion are a central trait dimension in human personality theory. The terms were introduced into psychology by Carl Jung, though both the popular understanding and current psychological usage are not the same as Jung's o ...
for the benefit of us all." The company has initiatives for business, government, office space planning, education, lifestyle and parenting. Quiet Revolution was formally launched in 2015 based on principles in
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine's February 6, 2012
cover article
An article or piece is a written work published in a print or electronic medium, for the propagation of news, research results, academic analysis or debate.
News
A news article discusses current or recent news of either general interest (i.e. ...
and delivering a February 28, 2012 TED talk whose video reached its first million views faster than any previous TED video. Her work became widely known, with ''Quiet'' reaching ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' Best Seller list for non-fiction and, through August 2015, selling two million copies. Cain delivered over 100 speeches, sometimes receiving five figures for an appearance, as well as doing ''
pro bono
( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...
'' presentations.
Cain had been considering simply writing a second book on a different topic, but reader feedback convinced her that there was more to be done for introverts. After receiving the advice of author and marketer
Seth Godin
Seth W. Godin, also known under his pen name as "F. X. Nine" (born 1960), is an American author, marketing expert, entrepreneur, and a former dot-com business executive.
Early life and education
Seth W. Godin graduated from Williamsville East H ...
concerning what would actually change peoples’ lives, Cain decided instead to formally found a Quiet Revolution organization. Cain had informally urged people to join “the ''Quiet'' Revolution” as early as March 2012 on her thepowerofintroverts.com website, before it was subsumed under the formal company's quietrev.com website in 2015.
Structure, principals and facilities
Cain's second TED Talk (March 2014) formally announced Quiet Revolution as a "
venture
Venture may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
*The Ventures, an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958
*"A Venture", 1971 song by the band Yes
*''Venture'', a 2010 EP by AJR
Games
* ''Venture'' (video game), a 1981 arcade gam ...
backed, mission-based" company. First headquartered near
Nyack, New York
Nyack () is a Village (New York), village primarily located in the Town (New York), town of Orangetown, New York, Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, a small western section of the village lies in Clarkst ...
and later in a
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
brownstone, it is a for-profit company, having raised US$4.5 million in startup capital. Cain co-founded the company with Paul Scibetta, a former senior executive at J. P. Morgan Chase. As a management training arm within Quiet Revolution, Cain and Scibetta set up a Quiet Leadership Institute with chief executive (July 2015) Mike Erwin, a former professor of leadership and psychology at the U.S. Military Academy. Early members of the Board of Advisors included Douglas Conant (Campbell Soup former CEO),
Adam Grant
Adam M. Grant (born August 13, 1981) is an American popular science author, and professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania specializing in organizational psychology.
Early life and education
Grant was born in the townsh ...
(Wharton School of Business) and
Amy Cuddy
Amy Joy Casselberry Cuddy (born July 23, 1972) is an American social psychologist, author and speaker. She is a proponent of "power posing", a self-improvement technique whose scientific validity has been questioned. She has served as a faculty ...
(Harvard Business School).
Quiet Revolution's facilities and practices incorporate non-traditional elements, including operating from a
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literatur ...
house facing the
Hudson River
The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...
, and having a policy that meetings not start before 12:30 p.m. By explicit design, the company hires a blend of introverts (like Cain) and extroverts (like Scibetta). As of August 2015 Quiet Revolution had a 12-person team, plus over thirty writers providing content for the company website.
Mission and processes
Quiet Revolution website's mission statement is "to unlock the power of introverts for the benefit of us all." The overarching goal of the company has been described as rebalancing the power between extroverts and introverts.
Quiet Revolution targets broad categories such as children, life, and work. Stated initiatives include transforming office architecture to combat the erosion of focus and privacy in modern offices, using the Quiet Leadership Institute to help organizations train introverted leaders, and empowering quiet children. More concretely, the company formed an online education course for parents, a co-branded lifestyle section in ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
,'' a podcast, a website to support a community including writers and advocates, and young-adult books and shows whose heroines are quiet leaders. The Quiet Schools Network was formed with a stated mission to create Quiet Schools that are characterized by "an inclusive culture in which everyone is recognized for their potential to learn and lead in authentic ways"; the network's member schools focus on topics such as modifying class participation models, using social media in education, designing schools' physical environments, and implementing approaches such as "think/pair/share" and peer-to-peer teaching.
The Quiet Leadership Institute arm of the company uses both in-person and online classes to help executives understand the strengths of introverted employees, harness their power, improve communication between introverts and extroverts, and run meetings so as not to be dominated by loud colleagues. The Institute partnered with office furniture design firm
Steelcase
Steelcase Inc. is an international manufacturer of furniture, casegoods, seating, and storage and partitioning systems for offices, hospitals, classrooms, and residential interiors. It is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. ...
to design Susan Cain Quiet Spaces, which are quiet- and privacy-conscious workspaces countering the trend toward
open plan
Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan that makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices. The term can also refer to landscaping of ...
offices. At first the company focused on large clients ( GE, P&G,
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
,
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...
), but expanded by early 2016 to small companies and entrepreneurial startups, advising on content for introvert-related management practices.
Quiet Revolution implemented a Quiet Ambassador initiative, involving the training of volunteers to be embedded in schools, businesses and other participating organizations. After training, ambassadors may advocate, for example, for fewer joint projects, more advance notice of meeting agendas, separate spaces for individual solitude, or fostering communication among co-workers of opposite temperament.
In schools, the Quiet Ambassador program tailors teaching and grading approaches to students' temperaments in preference to the conventional one-size-fits-all approach, and favors recognition of student engagement over conventional grading based on class participation. The program introduces "think–pair–share," in which students discuss their ideas with one other student before speaking to the full class.
Extraversion and introversion
Extraversion and introversion are a central trait theory, trait dimension in human personality psychology, personality theory. The terms were introduced into psychology by Carl Jung, though both the popular understanding and current psychologic ...
*
Open plan
Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan that makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices. The term can also refer to landscaping of ...
*
Human resource management
Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize e ...