A colleague sent me the link to a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson.It was interesting; informative, amusing and absorbing, but most of all it was incredibly thought-provoking.
As I listened, however, I started doing a little mental juxtapositioning and replaced the education context with the business context. In doing so, it struck me that many of the challenges they face are similar. For example, the education dropout out rate could be likened to the disengagement rate in the business world.
In light of this, Sir Ted's reference to the mechanic, command-and-control approach to education and his call for a more human, organic approach seems to apply equally to business. After all, we refer to businesses as organisations, so they must be organic. Thus, if culture is organic, as he said it is, then we have to find a more organic way of doing business, (especially in light of the common conviction that command-and-control management is dead). After all, like education, business is ultimately about people.
Sir Ted claimed that if the education drop out rate in the US could be halved it would add a trillion dollars to the US economy over 10 years. I have seen past estimates that employee disengagement costs the US economy around $330 billion p.a. (that's billion with a 'b'!) So imagine what a huge difference it would make if we could solve both these problems, and it might just be a whle lot easier if we recognise the similarities.
Anyway, here is the link to his talk. Listen to it, and see if you agree with me, and if so, what lessons there are there that you think could apply to the business world too, and please share your lessons with me.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley.html
I look forward to hearing from you and starting a healthy, constructive discussion.