During a session last week, someone asked what I thought of the current evolution of training, especially what impact it is having on the emerging generation.
I did not plan to say this at the time, but out popped, “I think we’re defeating our own training!”
The more I consider that statement, the more I think I’m right and that it applies not just to training, but also to education.
Here’s what I mean – Teachers and those tasked with the responsibility for training and educating others in the business world are facing two systemic challenges:
First, digital enablement – Technology, in whatever form, is always a mixed blessing. In the present age, point-n-click, options-oriented applications allow us to sail through tasks with efficiency never seen before. At the same time, it programs us to expect answers rather than think of them ourselves. While this may be acceptable for everyday tasks, it also degrades our habits of creativity. If you get used to thinking inside the box, it becomes harder to think outside the box. For an emerging generation that has been immersed in “menu-driven” thinking since an early age, thinking outside the box can be exponentially more difficult.
Second, focus on content almost to the exclusion of reason – Over the past decade, two troubling edicts has pervaded our thinking, do more with less and teach to the test. While the genus of both was an attempt to solve a problem, the unintended consequences are turning both students and workers into automatons. This kind of two-dimensional instruction, whether in education or in the corporate world, has contributed to a degradation in the ongoing growth of reason and discernment in digital immigrants and a lack of development in digital natives.
The result of these phenomena is a burgeoning era of easy thinking. The problem is that original thinking is hard. It takes time. It takes concentration and concerted effort. As Neal Gabler observed, “We prefer knowing to thinking because knowing has more immediate value. It keeps us in the loop, keeps us connected to our friends and our cohort. Ideas are too airy, too impractical, too much work for too little reward.” It also builds character and engenders self-discipline, two values from which we can all benefit.
The irony of all this is that over time, I predict that the education and training communities will re-discover the value of thinking. People will write books about it. An emphasis on reason will be re-inserted into curriculums and teachers and managers will begin to say “figure it out” once again rather than referring people to an on-line application or simply giving them the answer for efficiency’s sake. In the meantime, all I can do is shout this point from the rooftops.