It is clear that today’s education system is the obsolete result of the industrial revolution. The current educational system does not prepare students for an agile world.
Teaching should move from the idea of linear and controlled events to non-linear and mostly chaotic. This “small” change will help students adapt to a world where skills and mindsets in the workplace can quickly change. I think that we are at a point where our society needs to rethink the way we teach when we live in an agile world, full of companies doing short work-cycles, with artificial intelligente and other technologies.
The first step is to understand the basic concepts of education. We have to start with the basics of what is taught in school or university, and what is not. We cannot just teach students about the fundamentals of science, history, or math. We need to teach them about the importance of teamwork and cooperation. We need to show them how to work together, how they can solve problems and make better decisions by understanding the history of a group of people and the psychology of economics.
Ask a teenager if they know different ways of making decisions, and they will tell you that they don’t.
In my opinion, programs in schools and universities should emphasize learners how to work in a highly changing business world where automation augments human capacities but also where market disruptions multiply competition.
As things can change from one minute to another, kids need to have the skills to constantly reframe problems and to manage their frustration. Many times, in a non-linear world, events will go in a different direction than expected. Imagine that your child finally got a job at a company, worked hard to launch a product, and just the day your organization deploys it, two more companies put a better product on the market.
People at my age are not fully prepared for these scenarios of exponential change that constantly creates a rollercoaster of feelings.
Kids need to learn how to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity. In an agile world, they can experience several emotions in short periods and be overwhelmed by this. That is why teaching students how to manage frustration is a really important skill. The more they understand how to manage this feeling, the more they will learn how to deal with their own emotions.
It is also important to help them develop specific collaboration and negotiation skills. This will enable kids to be more productive and successful in their careers.
Finally, they should know how to use technology effectively and responsibly, but I will talk about it in a different post.
We must start preparing them for an agile world, but not only as individuals working in an agile company, but as people who are part of an extremely changing society.
Thanks for listening,
Erich
