Personal Development Education To Be Educated

I recently concluded a massive learning initiative by Intel as they ramped up Employee Development, as an anchor keynote speaker in Penang. A very lively discussion took place on the issue of nature vs nurture, a common topic, one would have thought. One thing that was apparent was an obvious concern about how the education system has been, and that we are learning not to be educated, but to score grades. It echoes a series of thoughts that I have had over the years about the difference between getting an education and being an educated person. Both, in my opinion, are mutually exclusive. The key things in life you can't really be certified in. Did you study parenting and got a distinction so you could have kids? How about friendship and love? Or health and fitness? A lot of the problem out there is in the way we learn, and short of developing a perpetual learning attitude, many seem to leave it to teachers, the government and other entities to take charge of what we ourselves should be doing for our future. I believe structured learning does have it's place. But the fastest modes of learning come from unstructured learning. Our perception of what credibility is and how it affects our choices in education. We send our children to school because of a belief in the institution. However, we also know it isn't perfect because it never was. In the good old days, education was simple. Teachers taught and students learned. Today, the information age has forced us to question the relevance of teachers in this day and age. After all, if education is simply to play the game of examinations, surely the "sportsmanship" of education is far more important than scoring straight 'A's'. My analogy is simple. If studying is a game, students who don't understand the rules are like playing badminton not realizing they have to play by the rules of basketball. In any kind of development, different games call for different rules that we play. In fact, one issue we face is that we seldom know how to play the game of business, even though we often end up working in business. Employees lack business acumen and are unable to support innovation practices. We don't teach this in primary school. Nor in secondary school. In fact, character education which was probably more heavily emphasized in the past is replaced with blind discipline simply because teachers no longer have enough time. The institution forgets that discipline has to be different simply because.now Google is our children's best friend, where they can find out information at their fingertips. Even in companies, employees are expected to take the initiative to gather and process information, deliver good value and provide growth for the organization. If you are simply taking on the education system and do not have a strong focus on whether your schooling will prepare you for the world ahead, then it may be likely that you're going to be in a marketplace that you won't be able to cope with. So, what are future proofed skills? First, personal mastery. It's like having a shower. Without mentally cleaning up, you may get dusty, rusty and damaged. The personal favorite personal mastery skillset I prefer is NLP. In fact, I consider that the foundation of my own personal development. This will include personal Development planning, emotional management, goal setting, personal efficiency and a positive mental attitude. Second, leadership. Without learning strong leadership, you are destined to be led, have less autonomy and shrink in your likelihood for success. Third, people skills. You need some level of negotiation and persuasive capacity to influence people in the direction you want. In addition, we need to learn to network and develop strong alliances to thrive as a team. Fourth, visionary and strategic thinking. This enables you to plug in with the thinking of people at the top and translate this to things that you personally can do to support the vision of your top leaders. Fifth, critical, creative and systemic thinking. Innovation often comes as a part of understanding, not being afraid of, complex systems and structures. Sixth, business acumen. These are essential because unless economies change drastically, business will still be around, and innovative business models and profit measures will still be required. This is probably a non-exhaustive list, but will suffice. If you or your children are in school, it bodes well to develop these skills and abilities as adjunct competencies so that you can really play the game of life well.

Source: pualib.blogspot.com