a post on WordPress I really liked today

Just read a provocative post on Len Brzozowski’s (Executive Director of the Xavier Leadership Center) WordPress blog:  “Why a Business Degree May Not Be a Good Bet”.  In fact, his piece references an article by CBS’s Lynn O’Shaughnessay; and essentially the point they are both making is, you’re not going to learn the things you need to learn to succeed in the world we live in today.  It’s not relevant, in other words, and neither will you be.

I think what Ms O’Shaughnessay is missing (and seems to be missing from a lot of articles I’m reading lately, about all kinds of subjects) is the real solution:  Suggesting that kids forgo a business degree because it has no value any more does not solve the problem any more than Canada’s new guidelines on breast cancer screening do.

Improve the screening techniques, for God sake — don’t screen fewer people, less often.  And improve the programme, so a business degree does have value in this new world of ours — don’t tell kids not to go.  We are throwing the baby out with the bathwater, folks!  I commented on Mr. Brzozowski’s post and he responded to my comment, etc. etc. etc.  We are both in agreement, actually, but he did say something that is really the crux of the whole issue:  “Change is hard”.

Yes it is.  But change we must.

Not a little change.  Not a simple change.  We need to re-think everything we do.  We can’t get away with saying “Well, this is the way we’ve always done it, anymore”.  We can’t ignore it and hope it goes away, either.  Because it won’t.  As individuals, as educators, as health care providers, as executives, as employees, as politicians; in our cities, in our provinces and states, in our countries, the only way we will survive and thrive going forward is if we learn to embrace, and practice, innovation.

And we have to stop trying to take the easy way out — which is to turn our backs on the problem completely.