Staying Even is Falling Behind
In an article by former Michigan State Superintendent of Schools he says that Michigan schools are not preparing young people for the 21st Century. As a respected educator I hope he is listened to (and it's interesting to me he is using language that sounds a lot like a consultant - which he is!)...
As Michigan attempts to catch up with the 21st Century, this state must realize that our children have to compete with the children of the world, not just those from adjacent school districts or states. It is imperative that policy makers and educators address the fact that in a hyper-competitive, entrepreneurial, information age, the old way of providing education must be altered -- and sooner rather than later. Michigan's students must be the recipients of an agile system of education and public policies that effect substantive change.
Further on he says,
In a rapidly changing world, staying even is falling behind.
These are well articulated and clear challenges for education - and also one of the clear arguments for there being NO ONE RIGHT ANSWER for public education in this country.
One of the strategies our firm advocates as a viable strategy for enterprises to use to 'catch up' or 'stay even' is to increase their own capacity to learn. The faster an organization can learn the more capable they are in dealing with/adapting in a world of rapid change.
There are several viable strategies to consider to increase the capacity of an organization to learn. One of these strategies is to have many experiments taking place simultaneously to enable the organization to learn fast. Another way of saying that is to develop a capability to do rapid prototyping. Quick cycles of testing theories (plan, do, study, act).
Another strategy organizations can use is to do things in parallel instead of doing them in a serial fashion (doing things at the same time instead of one after the other). This strategy is not an easy one for older, western educated managers to learn but it's really important to help shrink life cycles for product development, strategy development and innovation.
Click here to read the entire article by the former Michigan State Superintendent of Schools.