Can Liberal Arts Students Lead Tomorrow’s World?
Yes, but only if we move beyond theory and rhetoric to systematically nurture and demonstrate their creative capacity.
In 2010, IBM released a CEO Study titled “Capitalizing on Complexity”. Despite the report being a few years old, it remains one of the most important studies on the leadership qualities needed for tomorrow’s world. The key finding of the survey was that in an increasingly complex and integrated world, creativity is now the most important leadership quality. The reason being that complexity creates ambiguity and creativity is required to lead organizations and their people through a rapidly changing world.
“CEOs now realize that creativity trumps other leadership characteristics. Creative leaders are comfortable with ambiguity and experimentation.”
— IBM, Capitalizing on Complexity
The report is as noteworthy for what it didn’t claim to be top ranked leadership qualities for tomorrow’s world. Domain expertise or vocational excellence were not ranked. In fact, quite the opposite. An increasingly integrated world full of interdependencies requires creative thinking across diverse disciplines.
The Creative Capacity of Liberal Arts Students
So, where will these leaders come from? Where are these creative souls? They certainly don’t sound like students at heavily championed vocational schools studying specialized subjects. In an increasingly complex and integrated world, we need leaders who can embrace ambiguity and think across disciplines and cultures, we need liberal arts students.
“It’s a horrible irony that at the very moment the world has become more complex, we’re encouraging our young people to be highly specialized in one task.”
— Georgia Nugent, Former President, Kenyon College
Liberal arts students are fundamentally different from their vocational counterparts due to their ability to:
- continually question themselves and develop different perspectives;
- never assume that there is a single right answer;
- reason across disciplines and cultures;
- understand consequences of decisions in a broader context;
- thrive in subjectivity and ambiguity; and
- use a well-rounded education to remain relevant as the world changes.
The list could go on. However, there’s no doubt that liberal arts students have an innate creative capacity to lead tomorrow’s world.
A Disconnect Between Perception and Reality
Based on everything you’ve read so far, you’re probably thinking that the future of liberal arts students is bright. You’re probably thinking that these future creative leaders would be commanding the best jobs with the highest salaries as they start in the working world. Wrong. In PayScale’s 2016–2017 College Salary Report , there is only one liberal arts major in the Top 20 highest paying degrees (economics — and this isn’t even considered a liberal art in some schools). In times of increasing tuition fees, this should be very troubling for liberal arts schools as it’s destroying education ROI.
So why the disconnect? Why is this creative leadership potential being so undervalued? There are many reasons. However, perhaps the most significant is that the link between liberal arts students, their creative capacity and their value to employers remains too weak, too theoretical. It’s no surprise when many of these programs were designed before 99% of current careers even existed. In contrast, vocational students with their practical skills present a clearer direct value proposition. They start with career needs and work backwards to satisfy employer demand.
If liberal arts students are to realize their potential, we need to develop programs that contextualize their creative capacity and move beyond theory and rhetoric to systematically demonstrate and promote their value proposition.
Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice
So, what are liberal arts schools doing to close the gap between theory and practice? In reality, the answer is not enough. Programming is still dominated by theoretical rigor. A study of the old. Such programming needs to change and fast. It needs to focus on the future and the ability of liberal arts students to create it.
“It’s possible, however, for liberal arts colleges to do wrong by the next generation. Higher education can be all theory, no practice. Students can learn to reason with clarity and discover their academic passions, but never learn what it means to put those passions to work.”
- Michael Lindsay, President, Gordon College.
The possibilities for improving programs are endless. However, let’s start by looking at three ways in which liberal arts schools can enhance programming to strengthen the links between liberal arts students, their creative capacity and the impact they can have on tomorrow’s world:
1: Contextualize Everything
It makes me smile when I see Contextual Studies on the syllabus at liberal arts schools. Does that mean that all other lessons are irrelevant? Every lesson should have a context, otherwise it’s just learning for learning’s sake. Context moves us from theory to practice. It joins the dots from what’s on paper to what’s really happening or going to happen.
“Liberal arts have a place in this vision as long as the instruction in them is either relevant to and integrated into the student’s career work…”
— Stephen Crawford & Robert Sheets, Business Model Innovation & Liberal Arts Education
If you’re studying the Arab Revolt of 1916, what can it teach us about sacred rebellion and the rise of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq? What can Crowd Psychology teach us about the recent U.S. elections or the design of smart cities? We don’t need Contextual Studies. It should be a common thread through every course taught in liberal arts schools. Consider carving out the last 15 minutes of every lesson to discuss the relevance of what’s being learnt to today’s and more importantly tomorrow’s world. Students need to always understand the context of their creative capacity.
2: Engage with the World
If we are to bridge the divide between theory and practice, we need to get out of the classroom (or at least bring people from the outside in). We need to engage with the world. We need to be able to demonstrate the ability of liberal arts students to think creatively and solve the world’s most complex challenges. However, there seems to be hesitancy on behalf of liberal arts schools to engage with the outside world. It seems as though there is a fear that the theoretical basis for their work may be contaminated somehow. We need to move past this outdated attitude, it’s 2017, not 1917.
Students must solve real problems and build demonstrable track records if they are going to realize their true leadership potential. Invite the local mayor into school to brainstorm solutions to increasing homelessness in the city. Bring in a local businessman that is looking to expand into new markets with different cultures. Invite the school president to share his concerns about the failure to meet diversity targets. It’s time for the rubber to hit the road. Show don’t tell.
3: Focus on Your Strengths (not just Entrepreneurship)
It seems sensible that to demonstrate your real value, you should focus on your strengths. As we discussed earlier, the strength of liberal arts students is their creative capacity to solve complex problems from multiple perspectives in an increasingly uncertain world. That certainly doesn’t mean just business.
So why are so many liberal arts schools focusing on entrepreneurship? To their credit, I think those schools understood they were stuck in their own theoretical La La Land. They’ve surveyed programs at other schools and thought “which are the programs where students move beyond theory and get stuff done?”. They’ve found their answers in entrepreneurship institutes, mainly in business schools, and have mostly copy and pasted what they found (courses on MVPs, UI/UX, you name it).
If liberal arts students are to realize their potential, we need to redefine creativity to mean much more than business. These students shouldn’t be focused on developing the next dating app or sports drink. They should be using the diversity of thought that a liberal arts school brings to develop solutions to the world’s most complex problems. The problems that require an understanding of psychology, anthropology, African studies and linguistics, all at the same time!
We need institutes that focus on solving these major challenges, be they business, government, education or combination thereof. This is the real secret sauce of liberal arts students. If we are going to build successful track records that demonstrate creative capacity, we need to focus on their strengths, and that’s much broader than entrepreneurship.
Moving Beyond Rhetoric to Create a Compelling Value Proposition
In researching this post, I read over 30 articles covering the benefits of a liberal arts education. Most talked about the innate ability of liberal arts students to think differently and creatively solve problems in a complex world. There were a lot of words in these articles, often big complicated words (some of which I understood). However, there were zero facts. There was not one statistic supporting the value of a liberal arts education. There were no scientific studies quoted. In fact, the only tangible pieces of evidence I found were oft regurgitated stories such as how Steve Jobs once said that the liberal arts were valued at Apple.
If liberal arts students are going to demonstrate their creative capacity and realize their true leadership potential, we need to move beyond rhetoric to clearly demonstrate their value proposition. This isn’t just a translation exercise between candidate and employer. We need a systematic approach that produces tangible evidence of their creative capacity. Liberal arts schools with strong research credentials should be at the forefront of this initiative. This is going to be a long journey, very little exists right now. However, here are some examples on how we can get started:
Rhetoric: “By learning to reason across disciplines and cultures, liberal arts students can approach problems from a multitude of different perspectives.”
Evidence: In his 1960 paper titled, “Blind Variation and Selective Retention in Creative Thought as in Other Knowledge Processes”, Donald Campbell found “persons who have been uprooted from traditional cultures, or who have been thoroughly exposed to two or more cultures, seem to have the advantage in the range of hypotheses they are apt to consider, and through this means, in the frequency of creative innovation”.
Rhetoric: “A successful liberal arts education develops creative capacity and the ability to clearly and concisely communicate such ideas.”
Evidence: In his 1999 paper titled “Metalinguistic awareness in multilingual speakers: Cognitive aspects of third language learning.”, Jessner found that “An overview of the studies carried out on the effects of bilingualism clearly shows that, in contrast to monolingual children, bilingual children develop cognitive benefits such as communicative sensibility, creativity and metalinguistic awareness.”
Rhetoric: “By using the lessons of history, liberal arts students can create a brighter future free from the pitfalls of years gone by.”
Evidence: During his time as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke leaned on his studies of The Great Depression to create policies to stabilize the economy. He was famously quoted as saying, ”If you want to understand geology, study earthquakes, if you want to understand economics, study the biggest calamity to hit the U.S. and world economies.”
The above examples illustrate the magnitude of the challenge that lies ahead. We are dealing with articles written in the ’60s. We are dealing with studies filled with words such as “seems”, “potential” and “possible”. We are dealing with very few documented stories that provide specific examples of how former students used their liberal arts studies to achieve success (I searched for 3 hours and the only other explicit example I could find was how Carly Fiorina planned to use her medieval history and philosophy degree for developing plans to take on ISIS if she became president).
Where Do We Go from Here?
In our increasingly complex, integrated and uncertain world, CEOs across the world have identified creativity as the number one leadership quality of tomorrow. Liberal arts students with their innate creative capacity are uniquely positioned to lead tomorrow’s world. However, this leadership potential is undervalued. To resolve this disconnect, we need to move beyond theory and rhetoric and systematically demonstrate the creative capacity of liberal arts students.
Bridging the gap requires a collective team effort. Presidents and Provosts must build programs that showcase the ability of students to solve the world’s most complex challenges. Researchers must use science, statistics and success stories to reduce reliance on rhetoric and build a solid case for liberal arts students. Career Services must combine these elements to demonstrate the capacity of liberal arts students to lead tomorrow’s world. It’s a monumental effort. However, the futures of liberal arts students and the schools they attend depends on it.
Originally published at www.thelatlabs.com on March 6, 2017.
