Our current education system is designed to teach things you need to know, "just in case."  I watch my 13 year old neighbor's eyes dull from studying algebra in summer school just to prepare for the school year.  This is not the spark of enthusiasm or the hunger of curiosity that she exhibits when we talk about ice cream or facebook. Now, one month in with a "tough" teacher, the joy of summer has gone permanently.  The problem sets have no bearing on anything practical. "When will I ever need this?" She asks me pleadingly.  The kids g-chat to complete their assignments (though I introduced them to googleWave and they like that better).  So much missed opportunity, I wonder when will education embrace the future and prepare students with the life skills to manage information just in time?

This paradox reminds me that I took an HTML programming course in Cupertino about 15 years ago.  We sat through a week long course, learning all of the codes to design web pages.  It made one's eyes dull and head hurt, but, I was able to build first generation websites for small businesses- an early web designer.  Fast forward 15 years, the languages have evolved to HTML 5, and what was C has developed onto C++ or CSS, Java has come (and largely gone as I understand it) and Flash, well, it's future is uncertain with portable apple devices unable to read it.  That is to say, a lot has changed. HTML coding is readily accessible on the internet.  So, would I starting now take a class in HTML 1.0 today?  Of course not, that knowledge wouldn't serve me in any practical way.  So, why aren't we upgrading our education system with the same insights to keep up with the times from the bottom up?  

Google is rapidly paving the way to a future in which everyone will have access to the same knowledge and information.  Google is the ultimate leveler of the playing field.  Success and excellence will be redefined.  The meritocracy will be global.  Excellence will be marked by those with the skills to navigate information effectively.   Success will come to those who have the skills to use the information persuasively.  Opportunities will unfold for those with the skills to use information innovatively.  Capacity to communicate and collaborate across geography, language, culture, discipline will be essential.  Social intelligences will exceed knowledge intelligences in value.  The skill of survival will be the ability to access information 'just in time,' manage it effectively, present it persuasively and to work effectively in a collaborative setting.  

How does the current education system prepare our young people for this reality? 

I was thrilled to see a NY Times article on video games in the classroom for middle school children.  Teaching young people skills for the future includes being able to self-assess, set goals, meet goals, adapt...  To thrive in an environment that is not scripted, but rather where you create the opportunities for yourself. 

A few years ago I posted an idea for the UK's first Social Innovation Camp weekend.  The Be Well, Work Well Credentialing Tool was to create a personal development tool using a 360 framework for trainings in soft skills (ethics, communication, negotiation, mediation, leadership).  I added it onto another idea targeted for at-risk young people. We both wanted to build better tools for capturing and improving valuable skills - communication, collaboration, initiative, tenacity- the ones that matter most in life and workplace success.  We wanted to create a system that would allow people to set goals, work at them, evaluate their progress, get feedback, adapt and meet their goals.  (see Health Month a great app that is doing this for healthy living) While performance portfolios are a staple in the work place (Salesforce a dominant player), these tools to support the learning, developing and honing of these vital skills over time have not been adopted into the pipeline.  Imagine a student graduating from college with a portfolio that reflects their soft skills/social intelligence based upon course-work and club activity since high school.  An employer would be able to assess a person's adaptability and capacity to grow. Until tools to meaningfully evaluate soft skills/social intelligences exist, they will be poorly valued.  As access to knowledge gap flattens, these social intelligence skills will rise in value.  Developing better systems to build, hone, and cultivate excellence in them is essential.

How would you design education to allow today's children to thrive tomorrow?

What if the writing community created a resource like 99designs but for stories?

People who need a story for their project or product could submit the proposal.  It would send the proposal to writers until a couple of people accepted the "challenge."  The user would get to choose among the stories provided.  There is a huge writing community over at 750words.com and 99designs.com already has the technical architecture.

Does our education systems need to transform to graduate students who are ready for tomorrow? 

Over the past couple of months, I have heard bright leaders of interdisciplinary centers/programs at top Universities advocate fiercely that what leaders today (and thus, their students) need for success is interdisciplinary education.  This reasonable idea requires "advocates" because it threatens the status quo of traditional academic structures.  A department budget is often based upon the number of students that major in the department. The success of a department may be evaluated by the number of students who go on to get an advanced degree in that discipline.  Interdisciplinary programs make accounting under the traditional system a challenge, and potential casualties of any disruption might include tenure, funding/salaries, departmental size and department status.

Universities have an opportunity to adapt to the rapidly changing world by developing new educational modalities, implementing new approaches to learning, and supporting new programs that will prepare students to lead, excel and thrive.  The public entrusts universities with the task of educating our young people to meet the demands of tomorrow.  Universities have an obligation to look critically at their efforts and to identify structural barriers to empowering students with relevant, applicable knowledge and skills to navigate our complex, dynamic world.   

1) Maximizing the value of an interdisciplinary education
While appreciation for the value of interdisciplinary studies is new, they are not novel. I was an interdisciplinary studies major (Humanistic Area Studies), yes, four quartets ago. Ironically, I would say unequivocally that the process of making my interdisciplinary major happen was the most valuable part of my college education. I learned how to negotiate in the face of a Goliath of unknowns, politics, bureaucracy and resistance.  It was an early success and remains a constant reminder that I can make the seemingly impossible- happen. I apply those skills everyday in my life work as an entrepreneurial social change agent. The lessons of practical experience are invaluable and must be better integrated into whatever new interdisciplinary structure emerges.  Beyond the substance of interdisciplinary problem solving, students need to learn how to apply these ideas in context so that they can concurrently develop the skills to lead and flourish as an interdisciplinary agents of change. (Great example from U of Calgary featured in Tools of Engagement on innovating experiential learning)  The MDG and CGI have galvanized terrific momentum in the SE ecosystem, and we will still have work to do! Our global economy and society will benefit from students having more access to interdisciplinary studies, so yes, let's have more of that, please! 

2) Creating change requires humility and depth
Interdisciplinary programs allow synergistic ideas to emerge and unleash the possibility that stems from bringing multiple views together to create new perspectives.  Yet, interdisciplinary programs need to provide students with depth.  The green MBA and Skoll Scholarships for Social Entrepreneurship MBA  provide students with necessary MBA skills while adding focus, connections, resources to apply these in a novel domain.  Likewise, having a law degree with my Certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution grounds my negotiation and mediation skills in a concrete actionable framework.  The Certificate in Bioethics & Medical Humanities program that I completed was designed for working clinicians.  Today, many people are graduating with advanced degrees in Bioethics but with no clinical background and they have difficulty getting a job.  In practice environments where the goal is to make and lead change, one needs concrete skills to contribute to the effort.  Stand alone programs run the risk of providing students with great ideas and new perspectives, but without the depth of concrete skills (MBA, JD, MD, Design, Engineering, IT, Art) necessary to catalyze change.  Changing the paradigm of the traditional degree is essential and preparing students with a foundation that affords humility and depth that adds value in at least one arena is critical.   

3) Allowing the dynamic vision of interdisciplinary perspectives to flourish
Interdisciplinary centers bring people from different disciplines together to facilitate dialogue and problem solving.  Open minded people meet, projects emerge and collaborations begin.  Supporting students to find interdisciplinary links is an important opportunity for degree programs.  In the absence of interdisciplinary programs, I had the opportunity to envision my own linkages in the rich, vast sea of humanities. I combined Classical Studies with Latin American Studies- not one that comes to mind on first review, but my thesis was a comparative study of ancient Greek and ancient Mayan mythological views of the underworld and its impact on their world view and approach to living.  Unlike the traditional comparative literature focus of contrasting, I was most interested in the commonalities.  Part of the opportunity of absence of an interdisciplinary program was that it allowed the envisioning of a new perspective- an innovative view.  When the faculty are already there and the interdisciplinary seeds are planted by the courses, I wonder will the opportunities for dynamic vision be accelerated, better channeled, or lost?  

What do you think tomorrow's leaders need? 

This is the first in a series of posts about structure and change in the social enterprise ecosystem.  These are my musings and reflect my views following conversations with people who work in both undergraduate and graduate environments at universities around the world. 

I wonder if in the future, people will curate their own Couture stores of favorite things.  Imagine if each person created a "couture" store of stuff they like... It might work like this:

Sasha, a busy mom of 2, has just discovered an instant organic Vietnamese brown rice noodle soup that is a life-saver when she needs a quick dinner after a busy day; it's healthy and the kids love the noodles.  In the past, she would tell friends that she runs into, but now she can take her superfan evangelism for Happy Pho to a new level and places it in the food section of her Couture store, where she also features her favorite baby shower gift- a baby blanket set from Ambajam.  Much like the easy "do-it-yourself" features of Weebly (this is a weebly site), Sasha creates a stylized design for the Couture store of favorite things a bit like ebay, except Sasha doesn't have to fulfill any of the orders.  Orders are fulfilled via the business directly.  In this case, Ambajam (a web-based business located in Denver) fulfills its own orders and Happy Pho (available in Whole Foods in person, or online via Amazon) would be fulfilled by Amazon. 

Sasha might be looking to upgrade the kitchen and knows that Suki, an interior decorator friend, has great taste and a gorgeous kitchen. Sasha starts by going to Suki's Couture shop to see what Suki recommended in home furnishings. When Sasha makes a purchase, Suki gets credited with superfan evangelist points for the referral. Sasha benefits from Suki's advice without interrupting Suki's work flow and by generating referral credit for Suki, Sasha honors the value of Suki's expertise.  Referrers receive credit points for a referral and a referral into sale.

And when Frank goes to his Couture interface to find a baby shower gift for an office worker, he searches baby shower gifts and Sasha's Ambajam recommendation pops up because Sasha and two other people in his extended network recommended it. When he clicks on the link, Sasha and the others get credited with the referral.  The search returns items prioritized by the frequency of recommendations within Frank's extended community and collective referrers receive credit.  

Benefits for Everyone
This Couture model allows businesses that benefit from superfan evangelists to identify and engage with their superfans.  Most superfans evangelize from passion, not for monetary gain, but the companies receiving referrals benefit from this marketing.  Most of the "shopping for good" sites sign on big businesses, but this system would be design to make it easy for smaller businesses to access and engage in the referral marketplace.  Businesses could develop relationships with their superfans with previews, discounts, and love for spreading the love.  (Fascinating blog post on how Zynga does iterative design testing with superfans)  The Couture system charges a small fee to the business for access to the referral platform (like Open table for restaurants) and the Couture system passes a % of its profit back to the superfan as points for charitable donation (Credo model). 

Ecosystem Purchasing
The ranking of recommendations is based upon collective referrals. While actual dollars paid for referrals would penalize the referrers of great business by diluting their percentage and/or costing the most recommended businesses a lot of money. This model gives everyone who successfully refers a credit.  The business donates a percentage (33%) of its profit to charitable ventures that get distributed based upon the ranking of its referrer community. (Credo Model) 

A key factor of this platform which distinguishes it from past platforms builds on our knowledge that people are more likely to change a behavior when other around them are adopting the behavior; this includes purchasing what others in their social circle are purchasing.  So, this platform builds on an individual's existing social network as an ecosystem that support purchasing, then takes the profit from that purchase and reinvests/distributes it back to the collective community.  It's a different angle on the Groupon and leverages access to referral markets for small business whether they are local or remote. 

I see this as a mashup that includes the Couture store with a 3D interface of Second Life, an application for small businesses that like Open Table allows easy access to customers and the referral system, the community/network access, the insight of LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter with the unique trackback & stat capabilities of Hootsuite and the community good distribution model of CREDOMobile.  No one said, creating the architecture that facilitates doing some good would be simple or easy, but it sure could be a lot of fun to make it easy for people to do more good! 

This idea sprang from a series of articles that I stumbled across in the last week couple of weeks- including Beth Kanter's graphic on how non-profits can leverage social media (the Superfan Evangelist concept) + a Slate article on the Death of the Salesman (the internet as the disintermediator of the "salesman" in the US) + a report on a recent MIT study about social media and public health behavior change that could be applied to purchasing behavior. 

If you know someone in this space already, do tell!  What do you think?

*These are not paid advertisements, but I am a superfan evangelist of these products- enjoy!

Imagine if when you were commenting, you had the ability to nest your comment within a conceptual mind map.  This technology would allow one to "build on the ideas of others" rather than just cut it down.

Idea inspired when responding to Q on the TED survey regarding "point system for ranking comments"

My comment: Sometimes, challenging views can be important for real innovation but often people who like a perspective/idea become closed to questioning voices/views, how does the point system accommodate diverse perspectives and support potentially conflicting views?  It seems that points create a competitive rank environment that can be rapidly polarized rather than a collaborative, dynamic, expanding space - why not create a technology that allows for mind mapping comments, to allow building on the ideas of others - within mapped concepts, ranking comments might be helpful, but developing an innovative system for responding that builds on the dynamic of TED seems like the opportunity here?

What do you think?

Yesterday, I went for a walk by the San Francisco Bay. There is a spot along the Chrissy Field path where there are wonderful rocks- different shapes and sizes, that are perfect for building rock sculptures.  There is a rock sculptor who frequents the spot, painting the landscape with an array of sculptures that expand the heart, challenge the mind, but most of the people are walking  or jogging on the path with a specific focus - daily exercise, chatting with a friend, sightseeing to reach the base of the golden gate bridge- not the sort who stop off the path to build rock sculptures.

As I was building these rock sculptures... or rather, trying to get the rocks to stay on top of each other, I became increasingly aware of how self conscious I felt.  People jogging by would hush their conversation as they passed, and I wondered what they were thinking and for those running alone, I wondered if they even noticed the person playing in the rocks. As my self-consciousness increased, the rocks tumbled defiantly down. Then, I heard a voice ...
"What are you doing there?"
"Uh, trying to balance the rocks to build a sculpture"
"Why are you doing that?"
"I enjoy it- it's fun finding the rhythm of the rocks"
"Isn't it just a waste of time. It'll blow over by sunset in this wind."
"Probably, but will you go out tonight and drink a few beers?"
"Yeah, so?"
"The buzz will wear off by morning, but you had fun getting it, right?"
 
I had been just about ready to call it a day, but my stubbornness beckoned me to persist, maybe even a kind of pride.  I struggled with the rocks exerting the force of my will on their geometry.  As I became more at ease with what I was doing, I was able to be curious about the rocks- what angle and weight distribution will allow this rock to be stable? I listened for their rhythm and then, the rocks settled- fitting together as if by magic, though mostly the magic of sheer tenacity. 

Doing something that one is passionate about it such fun, we grow through all our layers of insecurity because people will say ... "what are you doing?", "you are crazy!", "don't do that", "it's a waste of time"  ... and even once you get past "the naysayers," it won't be easy... you will have to overcome your own doubt, struggles, questioning about your decisions... and the conditions may lead you to adapt the vision, to modify the project, to abort...  Yesterday, I persisted until I had three small sculptures, they were shorter than I like but with determination, tenacity and curiosity, I found the harmony among them.

I took three things home from my rock building yesterday...

• Things that appear impossible can be realized with perseverance. 
  
• There are times, when it is not the right moment, and we must have the courage and insight to adapt, modify, abort.
• Things that seem unstable can have real stability when properly aligned.

As I walked toward home, I wondered- with tonight's wind, the sculptures will be gone soon, why did I spend that time building those sculptures?  When I walk on a path and I see rock sculptures, I smile. The sculptures invite me to see the landscape just a bit differently that challenges the status quo and inspires joy.  I appreciate the effort that reminds me to push my sense of what is possible.  So I spent an hour yesterday having fun building three small rock sculptures, maybe they will be a beacon to inspire others to jump off the path- it's a life worth living!