What are we teaching them?

My wife and I took our daughter on a college visit yesterday. It was quite an experience. At this point, I am both excited for her and wondering how I got so old so fast. However, that is not the topic of our time together. What struck a nerve for me during our trip was how we teach our youth and then what we do with them when they get to work. The two seem like they could not be further apart.

We send out kids (and some of us went ourselves) to college. College is a Petri dish of learning and collaboration. Students are asked to focus on learning in an environment where the pursuit of knowledge is the only key. They discuss and collaborate and work together. Students help each other out without asking and are taken care of (for the most part) by professors (managers) that really care about them doing well. There are no ulterior motives. Well, maybe there are but it at least seems a little more altruistic.

Then these kids graduate and have go to work. We then undo a lot of what we just did with them. We put them in cubes and teach them about competition and being sneaky. We say that we shouldn’t share with other teams and use them to get ahead. We say “they are too idealistic” and beat the creativity out of them. Of course they have to get work done and produce results, but couldn’t that be a little more like college or vice versa?

I am curious about how we expect people to succeed when business and school are so dissimilar. What is the purpose of how we teach kids if we are not preparing them for the world of work? Why does the world of work seem so very bleak when you are looking at it from the beautiful halls of higher learning? How do we work to make these two worlds less foreign? Is that something we should even do?

The beauty of college is that you are immersed in it. It is your life for that all too short period when you can focus entirely on getting educated. It is the first time that you are pursuing what you love to do and learning more about it all the time. What if work were like that though? What would it take?

On the organization side, of course there would have to be a focus on learning, growing, taking risks. There would have to be a healthy skeptism of the status quo while respecting, even being passionate, about the history. It would mean that the bottom line would have to be king, but the pursuit of growth of person and team, would have to be queen. Somehow, companies would have to allow for the sense of wonder and accountability. Making sure that people were held to a high standard so to not water down talent. In that vein, there would have to be a very rigorous selection process. At least, there would have to be more than interviews and a resume review to determine fit. It would have to be cultural as well. Of course, there would have to be passion and a sense that the organization was interested in the people working for them. Requiring there to be a lot of honesty.

On the individual’s side, there would have to be a readjustment from “where my money at” to “where is my passion” or “where can I make a difference” when choosing a job. People would have to look at how they fit in the organization, not just if they can make it work. I know that when times are tough, you take what you can. Just know that you should always have the fit idea in mind. Individuals would have to be accountable. That is, they would be responsible for their actions, meeting goals and managing their own careers.

(Just as an aside, as a former manager, nothing would make me more mad then when I would ask an employee what are your goals, aspirations, ideals, whatever (fill in the blank) and they would say “I don’t know” or “I don’t have one”. Well, that just isn’t true. It may not be doing the job they are doing. It may not even be work, but there is always something.)
Individuals would have to be responsible to ensure they are looking to grow and help the company grow if the company is investing in them.

It requires not only a shift in the current work philosophy, both organizationally and individually, but a movement to doing what is best for the more than just right now and more than just for you. Of course profit and personal success are important, but they are short lived. The long view takes more than accolades and next quarter’s profit. It takes hard work, trust and community/relationship building.

I think that is what college made apparent to me. You can see it on the faces of the students that love college. They are collaborating, helping, pursuing personal success and passionate about the institution they attend (usually).

The questions we should all be asking ourselves, whether individual or organization, are
– What is the world I want to leave behind?
– What stories do I want people to tell about me/us?
– How can I impact the world/community/area?

Wouldn’t that make us all a little more passionate about work? Couldn't that make companies even more successful?