The Solution: Less Geeky Geeks? No - Geekier Business People
by Aaron L. Richards
We have met the enemy - and it is us.
According to an article I just read today in West Michigan Business Review (Bomey, Aug. 2008) 25 years ago, businesses and academia got together and identified a problem.
The problem they identified was that the technical people, whether in automotive, computers, medical technology or advanced manufacturing could not communicate effectively with with the business men and women who employed them. There was a gap between the language used by business leaders and the language used by the engineers.
"Ahaa!" said the business leaders, "let's talk to the leaders of the various universities and schools that supply us with workers and have them grow and develop engineers we can share coffee with and converse about the ideas which will make this company grow - ideas we can understand!"
And so they did. Now, 25 years later those students are now in the workplaces throughout the nation. According to the Business Review article I read, the business people are now saying that those same students, brought up in the business-people's best design, do not have the technical skills for our increasingly dynamic and technical world.
The problem is that technology has marched onward. Technology - especially world-class, globally competitive technology has become more diverse - and more specialized. It takes more training and education now than it did 25 years ago, and to win in this game, students have to learn more about less - greater specialization.
Engineers who are competent in these fields learn unique and different ways of expressing ideas and concepts. Ideas and concepts specific to their fields of specialization, methods of communication of which the person schooled in general business practices may have no idea or concept.
Yes - the business leaders and the engineers need to communicate to get the job done. Dumbing down the engineers is not the path to a globally competitive workforce. Geeking up the executives and the business people whose businesses depend on these technologies is the solution.
When I was a child, a teacher sent home a questionaire for the students and their parents to fill out and bring back to school for discussion. One question I will always remember is: "How will school change in the future?" My dad and I talked about it, and my dad said that he felt school will go year-round because of all the new things there will be to learn. He was right. Now I go to school year round for my MBA because of all the great and grand things there are to learn.
As a business leader it is easy to point out ways that others could change to accommodate us. It is much more difficult for us to point out ways that we might accommodate change. Life-long learning is one way to address the new world in which we find ourselves.
According to an article I just read today in West Michigan Business Review (Bomey, Aug. 2008) 25 years ago, businesses and academia got together and identified a problem.
The problem they identified was that the technical people, whether in automotive, computers, medical technology or advanced manufacturing could not communicate effectively with with the business men and women who employed them. There was a gap between the language used by business leaders and the language used by the engineers.
"Ahaa!" said the business leaders, "let's talk to the leaders of the various universities and schools that supply us with workers and have them grow and develop engineers we can share coffee with and converse about the ideas which will make this company grow - ideas we can understand!"
And so they did. Now, 25 years later those students are now in the workplaces throughout the nation. According to the Business Review article I read, the business people are now saying that those same students, brought up in the business-people's best design, do not have the technical skills for our increasingly dynamic and technical world.
The problem is that technology has marched onward. Technology - especially world-class, globally competitive technology has become more diverse - and more specialized. It takes more training and education now than it did 25 years ago, and to win in this game, students have to learn more about less - greater specialization.
Engineers who are competent in these fields learn unique and different ways of expressing ideas and concepts. Ideas and concepts specific to their fields of specialization, methods of communication of which the person schooled in general business practices may have no idea or concept.
Yes - the business leaders and the engineers need to communicate to get the job done. Dumbing down the engineers is not the path to a globally competitive workforce. Geeking up the executives and the business people whose businesses depend on these technologies is the solution.
When I was a child, a teacher sent home a questionaire for the students and their parents to fill out and bring back to school for discussion. One question I will always remember is: "How will school change in the future?" My dad and I talked about it, and my dad said that he felt school will go year-round because of all the new things there will be to learn. He was right. Now I go to school year round for my MBA because of all the great and grand things there are to learn.
As a business leader it is easy to point out ways that others could change to accommodate us. It is much more difficult for us to point out ways that we might accommodate change. Life-long learning is one way to address the new world in which we find ourselves.
posted by Aaron L. Richards at 1:01 PM
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