Degrees, Experience, and Leadership: What is an Organization’s Role in Education?
Thursday, 8/11/16 @ 4:00 PT & 7:00 ET
Thanks to our friend Elizabeth Paige for collaborating this discussion with us as part of our 2016 Summer of Collaboration.
Per a 2014 Lumina Gallup poll, “just 11% of business leaders ‘strongly agree’ that college graduates possess the skills and competencies business need. Seventeen percent “strongly disagree.”
And according to a March 2013 Chronicle for Higher Education survey, employers believe applicants with college degrees lack these four traits:
- Decision-making and problem-solving abilities
2. Communication skills, both written and oral
3. Adaptability
4. Ability to manage multiple priorities.
What does this say about education and career trajectory? Particularly as the cost of education rises? More importantly, what does this mean for the companies hiring them?
If students are graduating with student loan debt instead of employable skill sets, what are the prospects of affording an education that will lead to a job that enables them to pay off that debt? Particularly when a college degree is the new high school diploma, necessary for entering the workforce as an upwardly mobile employee?
Businesses have always had a role in the continuing education and development of its employees, but what role does the for-profit company now play in the face of this growing debt-skills gap among college graduates?
Enter Elizabeth:
How are organizations grappling with unprepared work force? Is this actually new? When I graduated from college, I was likely unprepared for the work force. I was fortunate to work for a company that invested time, money, and energy into new hires to help make us ready.
They valued potential in addition to ability and nurtured the potential.
That is the discussion we want to have with you, framed by our 2nd Radical Idea, specifically in the context of leadership, hierarchy, and the value of formal education versus experience and non-traditional education.
Our 2nd Radical Idea, Radical Leadership: All hierarchical and structural authority is invalid.
Radical Leadership rejects structural and hierarchical authority that subordinates one individual to another.
It creates instead an environment in which greatness through the Individual is relentlessly encouraged.
We call that environment the Culture of Greatness.
Therefore, we reject the education system’s hierarchy and the structural authority it creates and posit that because of it students have long graduated lacking critical thinking and other analytical skills.
We relish our role as an organization in shattering individuals’ learned assumptions of conformity and compliance and facilitating the life and career transitions from education to learning and from obedience to leadership.
#GTIdeology Happy Hour
We discussed this topic on August 11, 2016. Our cool video introduction and the discussion questions are below. You can read the full transcript here.
You’re invited to — and we hope that you will — join us at 4:00 PT & 7:00 ET every Thursday to unofficially kick off the weekend with us and the smart, fun, and friendly #GTIdeology Happy Hour crowd.
We tweet out reminders each week. If you’d like one, just tweet @ us and let us know. We’ll be happy to tweet you one. Cheers!
Q1. How does experience in the education system frame views of leadership and determine leadership style?
Q2. We reject the education system’s structural authority and relish our role in shattering individuals’ learned assumptions of conformity and compliance to facilitate the transition from education and obedience to learning and leadership. What do you think?
Q3. Agree or disagree: The cost of achieving a degree necessary for upwardly mobile employability is a serious problem. Why?
Q4. Discuss the value of formal education versus experience and non-traditional education in the realities of today’s economy.
Q5. Have you struggled with education’s debt-skills gap in your career? Do you have experiences in or with an organization that bridged the gap and helped you transition from education to professional? Tell us about it!
We hope to see you Thursday. If you want a reminder tweet, just let us know and we will be happy to tweet one @ you. Cheers!
