The CNBC website has a slide show on which industries will offer the most job growth over the next few years. The data are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For what it’s worth, the best job prospects are said to be in:
Management, scientific and technical consulting services
I woke up thinking about penguins, so there must be something more I need to say. Here goes.
Some of us are naturally negative in our outlooks. I believe we’re just wired that way. I have told people, in years past, that I have a superpower – the ability to see why a project is going to fail. It’s a gift, like a sixth sense.
Some of the very best technicians I know are like this – they can take in all the intricacies of a complicated, risky plan in a heartbeat and then tell you why you’re doomed. It’s like something out of Blink.
That can be a helpful skill to have. People start coming to you to let you “look over” things and to get your feedback. When it comes to “adding value,” there’s nothing quite as spectacular as helping the team dodge a bullet.
But if all I ever did was go around telling people why things were going to fail, I wouldn’t be a very fun guy to be around. Agreed? I’d be like a bomb-sniffing dog who never turns it off to go play frisbee.
So, some of us are just that way – our mind is just always tuned into “what’s wrong” mode. Your brain gets stuck in this loop:
And you know what? You might even be right about everything. Seriously. But you will never be able to access the creative, innovative part of your brain if your stuck in “what’s wrong” mode.
So, when you read my (silly) penguin problem, did you immediately go into “what’s wrong” mode? If so, do you want to learn how to get out of it? We’ll consider this problem in a future post.
Now, go play frisbee.
What was your response to my penguin question?
If I were to ask this question in a (hypothetical) class, I think the responses would play out as follows:
1. There would be some who would say 50 miles. They might be somewhat puzzled by certain aspects of the question, but, after all, a word problem is a word problem.
2. There would be some who would ridicule the question, citing it as evidence that I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to penguins. Penguins don’t live at the north pole, they would say. And even if they did live there, they can’t fly. And even if they could fly, they certainly couldn’t fly at 100 MPH.
3. There would be some who would ask how the penguin got to the north pole, in what was it flying as it traveled south, and, just in general, what’s going on here? There must be more to this than meets the eye, they would say.
Now, all of this sounds sort of silly, I suppose. In fact, I’ve intentionally made it sort of silly.
But behind the silliness, there’s an issue that interests me. One of my goals as a teacher is to help others develop their creative thought processes. I’m searching for the essence of innovation. What has to happen to the mind to enable it to see new possibilities? Can it be done? And, if so, can it be done for everyone? Let me phrase it this way:
“Is there a process for triggering innovative thinking? And, if so, are some people more receptive to the process than others?”
I developed my penguin question as a kind of filter. Without taking anything away from those who offered answer #1 or #2, it’s those who offered answer #3 that seem to have that spark, that willingness to not be driven to just get the right answer, to not be bound by preconceived notions, but rather to ask the right questions and entertain new possibilities.
I’m just having some fun with this. But I really am interested in the thought processes that lead to innovation.
“If a penguin located at the north pole flies south for 30 minutes traveling at 100 MPH, how far south does it get?”
How would you respond to this question? Think about it.
I’m blogging a lot tonight, I know. I suppose it’s because I’m very much preoccupied with the problem of how to open up job and career and professional opportunities for young people (I’m talking about the 18-30 year range). I’ve asked this before – how did we get into a situation where bright, talented, hardworking people can’t find work? But it’s more than that. I’ve had a lot of conversations with people this week which have shown me just how stacked the deck is against some folks.
I couldn’t be more serious.
I was talking the other day with an extraordinary young man who was telling me how certain educational requirements in a certain graduate program are actually causing people to just abandon the program and give up on their professional goals. Now, you might say, well, that’s as it should be – if they can’t cut it, then they should get weeded out. But that’s not what’s happening. The requirements are tangential, at best, to the point of the program – and being able to attain them (I’m just going to be blunt here and take my lumps, if I must) seems linked more to being on “the fast track” or being in “the in crowd.” But, even if this harsh evaluation on my part is wrong, even if the requirements were established with the best of intentions – they are terribly misguided.
When you design a curriculum, you ought to ask yourself if any of the requirements are “unnecessary parts” and discard them. Focus on what’s important. Strip away what’s unnecessary.
But, I’ve gotten off track.
Here’s what I’m thinking. As I said in my last post, I think that young people should focus on starting their own businesses. We need to stop paying lip service to small businesses and get serious about opening up opportunities for people to get started. Now, politically, that means we need to do things that facilitate and encourage small business development – not frustrate it. But I’m not going to delve into the politics.
My thinking is that our IEM Program, with it’s already considerable focus on entrepreneurship, should either expand its scope or spin off a similar program that is designed to move people from point A to point B in 20 months. We should look for clients who have a serious interest in starting a small business and, hopefully, some ideas of the kind of business they want to start, and then, work with them to develop a plan and take them through a process that leads to their being in business when they leave the program.
We could do this within IEM; we’re already doing it in part, but with a technical focus. Why not broaden the scope? Our UAB School of Engineering is full of talented, innovative people. If a person, or a group of people, entered our program and said “we want to get started in the X business,” we could certainly develop a process to get them from A to B. We could be a conduit – an enabler – for small businesses throughout this region.
Want to start a software company? A consulting firm? Get into construction? Start a new fast food chain? Design and market something new in electronics? Start a financial firm or an insurance company? Why can’t we teach and guide and mentor people toward these goals?
We ought to consider how to use our knowledge and experience to help young people get established in business. It’s no longer enough to prepare them to work for somebody else – that ship is rapidly sailing away for so many of them. We have to help them get started on their own. We can’t afford a lost generation.
