Critical Reflection Theory invites us to develop critical thinking in our students, and that should also apply to ourselves as educators. Why are we doing what we are doing, anyway? Frequently we see the answer to this question in the learning outcomes defined for each subject: The purpose is that students learn how to develop a business strategy; how to analyze market trends; how to read a balance sheet; how to motivate employees; how to set up a new process; learn the economic theories that shape our transactions or the regulatory frameworks that organize them.
But if we ask the question again, we get to a deeper level of meaning. What is the purpose of knowing all that? What are the ultimate aims in the level of being and doing? What are we preparing our students for, in a larger picture, one that addresses the use of their unique skills as actors and shapers of a world in flux?
We may have come this far to realize that in our practice as educators these questions need to be answered first, because they impact the concrete learning outcomes we choose for our classes, and therefore the contents and the pedagogical approaches that best fit. Posing these questions to ourselves as educators also automatically lifts us into a higher dimension of contribution and purpose.
It is common to hear that faculty have to give information to undergraduates, and enable graduates to analyze information. In the protected environment of the educational institution, the world from outside is brought in the shape of subjects and domains of knowledge for in-depth scrutiny. But, as a student observed once in response to a case study he had not prepared for, how would reading a case help him get ready for addressing real-life challenges? In the problems he had to face daily, the information is not lined up in 10 pages, but scattered; what stakeholders think comes with body language and tones that convey a unique meaning to the words. There is no linear story to analyze, but fragments of information that need to be connected, sorted through, and made sense of. There is a multidimensional context (social, financial, political, legal, historical, cultural, religious, humanistic, etc.) coloring the scenes, and on top everything may even be impacted by the events of the day, or the mood and the health of the person. Indeed, real-life problems are never a rational challenge to be solved like a puzzle, with logic, devoid of emotions and empathy. As a matter of fact, we would question the leadership competencies of anyone who would propose a solution based on such a robot-like thinking.
While we carefully design a lesson-plan, something different happens outside the classroom. Young people are digital natives who absorb and use information at a speed we can hardly follow. They are immersed in a world that offers them 24/7 connection to anyone—anywhere. They may accept the “chalk and talk,” but they really do not need teachers as providers of information. Memorizing facts, theories, and formulas has a different value when information is available anytime on a portable device, and more up to date. “I am surprised,” a colleague recently commented, “students are bringing information into the class that I had no idea about!” Should we be surprised that they are not more engaged when real life has such a different pace and content outside of the school’s walls?
We are living in what is called the VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. A few decades ago, the uncertainty of a young person trying to understand a situation was calmed by some older or more experienced mentor, one who knew the “ropes” and could provide adequate guidance. But the “this-is-how-things-are-done-here” is a formula that expired and has lost its comforting value—other than to learn from the consequences. What worked before is no longer a recipe for what can work now, and in many cases may even be at the root of the problems we have to solve today. The increasing information available on the environmental and social impacts of our way of life is indicating that the products we manufacture, consume, and dispose of have to radically change, be reinvented and redesigned to make our life sustainable on the planet—not to mention if we want a flourishing earth. And it is not only about products and services: The challenges span over where we live, how we travel, communicate, eat, work out, take care of our health, entertain ourselves, connect to each other, and find fulfillment.
The situations our students will have to address are what are known as “wicked problems,” with no right or wrong answers. They involve stakeholders we never thought of, like Nature or the next generations. In addition, the landscape is changing at such a pace that we can no longer aim at preparing students for a job that probably will be very different in one decade, or even not exist anymore. What then are we preparing our students for?
Research and management education scholars have been giving extended attention to this question, seeking to identify what skills, knowledge, and competencies are needed today and in times to come. With some variances, scholars agree that the skills for the 21st century are not centered on specific knowledge, but on critical thinking about information. To know data is of little value if students cannot extract meaning out of them, nor make connections with the context in which they are living.1 Events need to be debriefed to learn from them, to capitalize on what went well or badly if we want to avoid a thoughtless repetition of wrongdoings. The ability to inquire and challenge in a way that creates bridges of understanding, rather than rifts of disconnection and polarization among individuals, is a skill that can be of the greatest value in negotiations or decision making.
We need a society of individuals able to understand themselves and uncover their own assumptions and habits of mind; who are aware of their cognitive and emotional bias and interpretations. We need young people who can develop their own perspectives listening and integrating the points of views of others; and who can communicate their thoughts in a clear way. Although many have grown up in a predominantly individualistic society, the uncharted territory facing us requires team players, individuals able to and interested in collaborating with others to find unseen solutions. The problems are too big and complex to be solved single-handedly. Creativity, the ability to integrate right- and left-brain capacities and to think diagonally* will be key competencies to bring forth all the innovation we will need.
Transferable skills are a good option—but developing lifelong learners is even better. The responsible management of any profession will require to look beyond “what is good for me,” and to transcend even the next stage—“what is good for us?” starting to ask “What is good for them?” For others, for all? Because ignoring stakeholders will become a liability, a costly mistake, a serious strategic error.
Some years ago I was facing the challenge of how to develop the students’ systems thinking. Then a volcano by the name of Eyjafjallajökull erupted in Iceland, creating a cloud of ash that disrupted the flights within, from, and to Europe for five days, launching the highest travel disruption since the Second World War. Passengers in cities around the world had their plans altered, meetings cancelled, and were facing unexpected costs and a variety of personal life impacts—all because of the plume of a volcano in a country many were not able to pinpoint on the map. I needed no textbook to teach systemic interconnections, and the students learned how we are all part of a web of life.
In a similar way, teaching the importance of considering all stakeholders when designing products or services, when developing a strategic plan and even when consuming is no longer a teachers’ challenge. We just have to look at any newspaper, and start identifying how the problems of today can be traced back to some myopic decisions of yesterday, that missed including some stakeholders’ perspectives, interests, or needs. Then do a numeric estimation of the costs incurred by that oversight.
The world has changed, and the pyramid of power (a few on the top holding the power) that has been the organizing model for 5,000 years of civilization is collapsing. Scholar and author Raimundo Panikkar indicates that the future will not be a new, big tower of power, but a net-worked society, with “well trodden paths from house to house.” This is happening already with the help of universally available information— thanks to technology and social media. What some were able to do in the past, and go unnoticed because the impact or consequences of their decisions would not be easily seen, or would not become public or obvious, is becoming more and more a rare exception. To begin with, we are able to witness—and suffer from—many consequences of the behaviors of the past, be it in the quality of the air we breathe, in climate-related events, or in social unrest. The connection between cause and effect has been shortened. Secondly, everyone has become a potential journalist behind a phone, getting the news out in 140 characters and with a click. We have more opportunities to learn from others, to get inspired, and encouraged, just as the first wave of the Arab Spring initially demonstrated, because we are more exposed to what others are doing on a planet with fewer disconnected parts.
As the web linking us gets tighter, we all become more visible members of society. What we individually do, even in the privacy of our kitchen, matters, and that awareness is expanding. What in the past was an unquestioned behavior, like eating meat or using plastic bags to carry our groceries, has become a questioned habit, or even a small personal feeling of “wrong.” This means that when we stand in a class thinking of how to develop responsible leaders, we need to address values, habits, patterns of decision and consumption, economic paradigms, and their impacts on us. We need to create a space to dialogue about us as emotional beings, as humans with a desire of purpose and meaning. We need to have conversations about how we are caught up in and are personally fostering a culture of “doing” to “have more” so we can “be” happy, with the characteristic that once we have one desired object, the craving for the next object begins. That is called addiction.
So what is the role educators want to play to create a generation of global responsible leaders? What is the ultimate purpose of educators in our current time? Every educator has to reflect and find his or her own answer to this question. But we may have a unique opportunity to help shape the new accelerators of change. It may require some changes in ourselves, but they may be easier than they seem. And, as a matter of fact, many people are already acting in very new ways.
* Thanks to Pablo Altieri for the concept of Diagonal Thinking. www.diagonalminds.com