Part of the rules of the 'New' Economy is that the talented can live anywhere in the world they want... which forces your community to ask, "Why would someone choose to live here?". Former growth and recruitment strategies were based on recruiting industries to supply the people who lived in your community jobs. If your community competed based on cheap labor, no unions, lax environmental regulations, and low taxes, you are starting the game behind others in the quest for talent.
Tim Ferris coined the term 'lifestyle design' is his 2007 book, The 4-Hour Workweek. While the title is off-putting to most "professionals", (frankly the title is not accurate, Ferris himself works many more than 4 hours a week), but many of the concepts are very important for communities to understand. Young people today recognize that the 'deferred life-plan' model of high school, college, good job with pension, then retirement is no longer a model that works. Ferris does a remarkable job of laying out alternatives and young people (along with Ferris' marketing genius) have made the book a perennial NYTimes best seller. Google lifestyle design, and you'll find hundreds, if not thousands of blog post and websites from very talent young people living all over the world like - Cody McKibben, Rolf Potts, the aforementioned Mr. Ferris, and many others. Here's a compilation of some of lifestyle design resources - click here
How will communities compete for talent? How have the roles changed for developing talent? They've been completely turned on their head and the institutions and communities that recognized this first have a distinct competitive advantage.
But, it's not too late for your community to catch up.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Value of Learning versus the Value of an "Education"
There is a conversation going on in the media on the topic of the value of education. Do a Google News search for - value of education - and here are some of the links you'll get...
Calculating the Potential Return on Your Major -
Peter Thiel Bets $2.4 Million Against the Value of College
Is University Education still worth it?
Education value
College isn't for everyone
Americans Split on Value of a College Degree
I maintain that this is not just a tough, but important question. If your region doesn't have the percentage of HS/BA/BS graduates you won't get some looks from potential clients. There are regions betting their future on the idea that if they can just increase X, the result will be Y. Normally it sounds like this - our region is 15% behind the state average in BA/BS degrees, statistics show that a person with a BA/BS degree makes X dollars more than someone with a HS diploma, thus, if we get to the state average we will improve median household income by Y dollars.
That sounds reasonable on some level doesn't it? Let me waive my magic wand and give you 1,000 sociology majors (the degree I have)... what company's are flocking to you now? Which are paying their employee's more money? The probable answer - ZERO.
I struggle with this argument. In this dynamic global economy, knowing how to learn and a passion for learning are imperative. I don't think the pieces of paper have value in the market place. But, skills do, a passion and ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn does...
Calculating the Potential Return on Your Major -
Peter Thiel Bets $2.4 Million Against the Value of College
Is University Education still worth it?
Education value
College isn't for everyone
Americans Split on Value of a College Degree
I maintain that this is not just a tough, but important question. If your region doesn't have the percentage of HS/BA/BS graduates you won't get some looks from potential clients. There are regions betting their future on the idea that if they can just increase X, the result will be Y. Normally it sounds like this - our region is 15% behind the state average in BA/BS degrees, statistics show that a person with a BA/BS degree makes X dollars more than someone with a HS diploma, thus, if we get to the state average we will improve median household income by Y dollars.
I struggle with this argument. In this dynamic global economy, knowing how to learn and a passion for learning are imperative. I don't think the pieces of paper have value in the market place. But, skills do, a passion and ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn does...
Sunday, May 22, 2011
WIRED - The Future of Work
Interesting piece in WIRED this month about the future of work -
"The inexorable tide of tech improvements will continue to make blue-collar manufacturing jobs obsolete in the United States. Take the textile industry — we now have the tech to detect minute physical characteristics of fibers and match machinery accordingly, allowing one farmer in America to produce what it might take 800 farmers in China or Kazakhstan to produce."
We've seen reports for the last year talking about the reemergence of manufacturing in the United States - I think this may be true - but, the issue is, the jobs won't follow them back.
"The inexorable tide of tech improvements will continue to make blue-collar manufacturing jobs obsolete in the United States. Take the textile industry — we now have the tech to detect minute physical characteristics of fibers and match machinery accordingly, allowing one farmer in America to produce what it might take 800 farmers in China or Kazakhstan to produce."
We've seen reports for the last year talking about the reemergence of manufacturing in the United States - I think this may be true - but, the issue is, the jobs won't follow them back.
Setting the terms of the debate -
Interesting piece in the NYTimes this morning about the Gates advocacy work in education -
“It’s Orwellian in the sense that through this vast funding they start to control even how we tacitly think about the problems facing public education,” said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley,
Click here for the full article -
It's very discouraging for me that Gates, et. al. have essentially framed the debate by which we can discuss education reform, primarily because they are completely wrong. In 2005 Gates understood this, to this day I use this quote from his speech at the National Governor's Forum -
“America’s high schools are obsolete,” Gates said. “By obsolete, I don’t just mean that they’re broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools — even when they’re working as designed — cannot teach all our students what they need to know today.”
Gates can't possibly believe today what he believed in 2005, simply because the policies he promotes, and the debate parameters he's set, do not address the fundamental issue. The way we educated is based on a Industrial model and it's completely obsolete.
“It’s Orwellian in the sense that through this vast funding they start to control even how we tacitly think about the problems facing public education,” said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley,
Click here for the full article -
It's very discouraging for me that Gates, et. al. have essentially framed the debate by which we can discuss education reform, primarily because they are completely wrong. In 2005 Gates understood this, to this day I use this quote from his speech at the National Governor's Forum -
“America’s high schools are obsolete,” Gates said. “By obsolete, I don’t just mean that they’re broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools — even when they’re working as designed — cannot teach all our students what they need to know today.”
Gates can't possibly believe today what he believed in 2005, simply because the policies he promotes, and the debate parameters he's set, do not address the fundamental issue. The way we educated is based on a Industrial model and it's completely obsolete.
Monday, May 16, 2011
The future of the library
Well, if I don't watch out this blog could become nothing more than a venue for my apparent man crush on Seth Godin... but, this is another really good post - The future of the library -
With implications beyond the library. How about your job center? career counseling center at the schools? They all could benefit by seeing their jobs as "...the local nerve center for information... where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and invent projects worth working on together"... and "...(a place) to teach them how to use a soldering iron or take apart something with no user serviceable parts inside. And even to challenge them to teach classes on their passions, merely because it's fun."
With implications beyond the library. How about your job center? career counseling center at the schools? They all could benefit by seeing their jobs as "...the local nerve center for information... where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and invent projects worth working on together"... and "...(a place) to teach them how to use a soldering iron or take apart something with no user serviceable parts inside. And even to challenge them to teach classes on their passions, merely because it's fun."
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Early Childhood Education -
Lot's of communities are pushing early childhood education efforts, I think the idea is smart, but the implementation is usually completely wrong. If implementation entails making PreK more like K-12 it will do more harm that good.
Sweden gets it right - a very good series that compares Swedish PreK to those in England -
Sweden gets it right - a very good series that compares Swedish PreK to those in England -
Friday, May 6, 2011
Godin - What's high school for?
Good post from Seth Godin -
"What's high school for?
Perhaps we could endeavor to teach our future the following:
- How to focus intently on a problem until it's solved.
- The benefit of postponing short-term satisfaction in exchange for long-term success.
- How to read critically.
- The power of being able to lead groups of peers without receiving clear delegated authority.
- An understanding of the extraordinary power of the scientific method, in just about any situation or endeavor.
- How to persuasively present ideas in multiple forms, especially in writing and before a group.
- Project management. Self-management and the management of ideas, projects and people.
- Personal finance. Understanding the truth about money and debt and leverage.
- An insatiable desire (and the ability) to learn more. Forever.
- Most of all, the self-reliance that comes from understanding that relentless hard work can be applied to solve problems worth solving."
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Collective Impact
An important piece in the Stanford Social Innovation Review a few months ago -
An excerpt - "...large-scale social change comes from better cross-sector coordination rather than from the isolated intervention of individual organizations. Evidence of the effectiveness of this approach is still limited, but these examples suggest that substantially greater progress could be made in alleviating many of our most serious and complex social problems if nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public were brought together around a common agenda to create collective impact."
Read the full piece by clicking here
Other work by the authors, click below to purchase -
An excerpt - "...large-scale social change comes from better cross-sector coordination rather than from the isolated intervention of individual organizations. Evidence of the effectiveness of this approach is still limited, but these examples suggest that substantially greater progress could be made in alleviating many of our most serious and complex social problems if nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public were brought together around a common agenda to create collective impact."
Read the full piece by clicking here
Other work by the authors, click below to purchase -
Monday, May 2, 2011
Look everywhere, assume nothing -
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