Innovation and Learning for the Future

Meet the speakers at Podravka's conference Knowledge in Focus 2016

Not so long ago, education was a boutique, and now it has become a cheap chain store. What’s the difference? Every boutique tries to be unique while all cheap stores look alike. Education has lost its innovative uniqueness and gained bureaucratic impersonality. It happened gradually because, in the end, the goal of most educational and training activities is to teach administrative procedures, rules and well-structured approaches that can be repeated and replicated. The very nature of such education is to “produce” administrators, pedantic followers, and obedient executors. However, modern business and society need change masters, leaders, and innovators.

Albert Einstein stressed that education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. Most of our thinking comes from the education system we have been exposed to. Needless to say, one of the first steps towards the innovative society and a more creative world should be based on a redefinition of the concept of learning. What’s wrong with it? Too much bureaucracy, too little innovation!          

The problem is not new. Mark Twain used to say that he had never let his school interfere with his education. Albert Einstein expressed his opinion on the matter like this: It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously, is the sentence attributed to Charles Kettering. Margaret Mead’s comment on education was epitomized in the idea that people must be taught how to think, not what to think.

Let’s summarize the problems in the following table. It stresses the key differences between the bureaucratic and the innovative approach to education.

 

ISSUE	BUREAUCRATIC APPROACH	INNOVATIVE APPROACH
Goal	Status quo	Development
Changes	Slow, defensive	Quick, offensive
Approach	Follow rules	Change rules
Objectives	Follow procedure	Make things happen
Decision-Making	Outvoting	Consensus
New Ideas	Rejected	Accepted
Key Resource	Money	Knowledge
Organization	Rigid and stable	Flexible and dynamic
Leadership	Autocratic	Democratic
Authority	Formal hierarchy	Participation and competence
Problem Solving	Empirical	Innovative
Recruiting	Formal criteria	Skills and attitude
Training Focus	Specialization	Multidisciplinary
Ideal Student	Obedient	Independent
Control	Ex-post and imposed	Anticipative self-control

 

Before going into details, let’s ask a simple question: What set of ideas more appropriately describes the present educational system? Is it aimed at development or status quo? When dealing with change, is it quick, offensive or slow and defensive? Are the new ideas easily accepted or rejected? From the organizational point of view, is it rigid and stable or flexible and dynamic? As far as problem solving is concerned, is it empirical or innovative? Is the ideal student expected to be obedient or independent?

It is quite obvious that most actual educational institutions are characterized by the bureaucratic approach. Why is that a problem? We do what we believe. Our values are responsible for our actions. If we educate in a bureaucratic way, we get status quo. If we cherish innovation, we get change. In short, administrators like things as they are; they prefer to control, analyze, make short term plans and coordinate. On the other hand, innovators are change masters; they set a vision, encourage and motivate, innovate and inspire. Innovation relies on leadership, a capability to influence the behavior of people, including their values, based on emotion, meaning and long term perspective. As a result, organizational goals are attained with a will, dedication and enthusiasm. Innovation is about commitment, and commitment is about values.

Therefore, instead of educating bureaucrats and administrators, we should be producing innovators and leaders. The leaders are able to create visions and make people follow them, while administrators plan, organize and supervise their teams. Administrators are susceptible to rules and regulations; their world is based on experience. They develop stable procedures and build rigid organizational structures. Unlike leaders who want to experiment, innovate, explore and reinvent. They expect initiative and motivate people to fight for a vision while administrators distribute tasks and expect obedience. Imposed control is the key to success in the mind of an administrator. On the other hand, a leader knows that self-control is the best control, and self-motivation is the best motivation. Leaders inspire people to participate in a dream-come-true experience while administrators deal with troubleshooting.

Administrators are risk avoiders, they rarely provoke or fight. On the other hand, leaders are fond of risk and infrequently engage in creative conflicts. Administrators must use power to get what they want while leaders receive cooperation without even asking for it. It is mostly because values drive behavior stronger than imposed rules and regulations.

Leaders are explorers; administrators prefer the paths already taken. An administrator is a perfect response to the challenges of a stable system. On the other hand, a leader is needed to alter the course, to innovate and take chances. Since most present day systems and organizations are fully immersed in change, we need a critical mass of leaders to replace the existing majority of administrators, the fighters for the status quo. Today, we teach people how to swim in pleasant pools. We must teach them to travel wild mountain streams and to swim across scummy and muddy waters. Today we train people to step on a brake and try to stay on course. Tomorrow we need people trained to push the accelerator, speed up and move in another direction. That’s what should be expected from the creativity-supporting educational system; teach and train for leadership and creativity, and not for administration and followship.

 

More can be found in my book: “Creativity and Innovation Management”, Kindle Store, 2016, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BE2L6O6?ref_=pe_2427780_160035660 or on my web page: http://www.velimirsrica.com/poslovne-knjige.aspx

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Knowledge in Focus 2016