EDUCATION - Carlini's Comments

THE NEXT BAILOUT: EDUCATION

Filed Wednesday, December 3. 2008

Giving education more money without fixing its strategic direction is like spending more money to build another Titanic after the first one sank.

Public schools will be the next institutions to want more money to fix crumbling buildings, patch bloated budgets, buy more buses and perpetuate stagnated objectives. In reality, they need to reinvent education to take wholesale advantage of proven technologies from sophisticated software and broadband connectivity to distance learning and interactive video capabilities.

For the most part, public schools are an anachronism. They were designed in the Industrial Age to assimilate an agrarian society into a work force for the Industrial Age.

When the Industrial Age surged into the Information Age a good 40 years ago, we didn’t do much to change the framework of education. If anything, we bloated it with multiple assistant superintendents, curriculum advisors, crisis counselors and a dozen more positions that were unheard of 20 years ago.

We are now well past the Information Age and are in what some would call a Mobile Internet Age. We need to embrace a whole new set of educational concepts and discard those that include teaching obsolete skills, protecting deadwood teachers and adhering to schedules that reflect the harvesting of crops.

The Three ‘R’s

The three “R”s you grew up with in public schools weren’t reading, writing and arithmetic. They were rote (memorization), repetition and routine. After 12 years, they added up to regimentation. This framework developed a work force of people who could assimilate into Industrial Age jobs.

It’s too bad we advanced from the Industrial Age.

Most organizations are tied to procedures and policies that reflect routine. For no other reason, it is because that’s what most people are comfortable with doing. Unfortunately, most jobs require being flexible, adaptable and creative within the current global economy. They also require a solid set of adaptive technology skills. New initiatives or management styles are often met with obstacles at work.

Classic early technology examples include organizations that went from keyboard to mouse applications or DOS to Windows-based applications. Do you remember how some people couldn’t use a mouse? Something we look back at now as being such a nominal change or such a natural progression was a huge impact to the routines of what people used “back in the day”.

Did you know there are still some people who use DOS applications in financial applications? They still can’t get into a Windows-based environment due to technical and financial resistance of not wanting to spend the money to upgrade into new technology. These are the people who are making financial decisions for some large institutions and pensions, too.

Just as someone older would frown upon a stock broker trying to figure out return rates using a slide rule someone younger would go into shock if their financial portfolio was being monitored by someone using a DOS-based application.

Routine, Regimentation Build Up Resistance

No matter what organization you go to, you will find some resistance to change. With most organizations looking to improve services, the need to overcome resistance is critical. As resistance is always present (whether you’re in manufacturing, finance or education), you must plan for it.

There are several types of resistance to change. These can include political resistance, technical resistance, financial resistance, individual resistance and combinations of them. This isn’t just a syndrome with “older workers”. Younger workers often fall into the “routine trap” as well. They went to that same public school of rote, repetition and routine, too.

There are structured methodologies to apply for organizations to improve and focus on quality initiatives. No matter which one they select, though, it’s only as good as the level of acceptance the organization attains.

No matter which quality methodology they select (Six Sigma, TQM, Kaizen, etc.), chances are the first step is to perform an assessment of the current environment. Before any improvement can occur, you should set a baseline to where you’re starting (i.e. the current environment from which to measure progress).

What should organizations assess? Most focus on people, procedures, policies and the current state of assets and liabilities. More progressive organizations also focus on the culture of the organization to determine what other influences are present that would impact change.

Before more bailout money is spent in the wrong direction for any institution or industry, a complete assessment should be done to understand what’s worth funding and what should be discarded. There should be performance objectives and other restrictions tied to any bailout package no matter what industry it’s going to fund.

If we are to be globally competitive, we can’t perpetuate corporate or institutional frameworks that were built to work within an earlier era. While breaking an old routine is difficult, that’s what is needed in many areas.