In order to prepare the next generation of problem solvers, educators must have a good sense of the kind of challenges these leaders will face in organizational models which have not predominately existed in corporate America.
As Dr. John P. Kotter points out in his book Leading Change, the typical twentieth-century organization has not operated in a rapidly changing environment. Often organization structures, systems, practices and culture based in twentieth-century thinking have been more an inhibitor than a facilitator of the kind of change required for twenty-first-century success. “If environmental volatility continues to increase, as most people now predict, the standard organization of the twentieth century will likely become a dinosaur” (Kotter, 1996, p. 161, emphasis added).
While it is impossible to predict the future, according to Dr. Kotter, there are clear indicators of what twenty-first-century winning enterprise will evolve to as time passes.
These indicators include:
1) A persistent sense of urgency,
2) Teamwork among upper management,
3) People who can create and communicate vision effectively,
4) Empowerment at all levels of the organization, and
5) An adaptive corporate culture which transforms organizations and determines their success in an ever-changing global competitive market place.
Figure 3 provides a snap-shot of the visual cues or characteristics that can be seen in these kinds of organizations.
Figure 3. The Winning Twenty-first Century Organization
(Adapted from Kotter, 1996, p. 172)
(Adapted from Kotter, 1996, p. 172)
The key to creating and sustaining the kind of organization described above is leadership, not only at the top but also throughout the enterprise. In other words, over the next few decades we will see both a new form of organization emerge as well as need a new kind of employee to meet the demands of a faster, more competitive work environment.
According to Kotter, the twenty-first century employee will need to know more about leadership and management than previous counterparts. For those raised on traditional notions about leadership, that it is bestowed on the chosen few, the traditional idea ignores the power and potential that lifelong learning has toward empowering individuals at all levels of the organization.
A relationship exists between lifelong learning, leadership skills and the capacity to succeed in the future. Even before I read Kotter’s book, intuitively I knew that men and women like Art Seiler had something unique that many seek to understand.
Kotter does a good job articulating what that “it” is, so to speak. In his research of 115 students from Harvard’s Business School class of 1974, he found two elements that stood out to explain why most where doing well despite the challenging economic climate that took place around the time they graduated. These elements were: 1) Competitive drive and 2) Lifelong learning, or the ability to apply gained knowledge to new environments and adapt behavior based on this learning.
Kotter clarifies:
Competitive drive helped create lifelong learning, which kept increasing skill and knowledge levels, especially leadership skills, which in turn produced a prodigious ability to deal with an increasing difficult and fast-moving global economy. […] people with high standards and strong willingness to learn become measurably stronger and more able leaders at the age of fifty than they had been at the age of forty. (Kotter, emphasis added, p. 178).
Figure 4 below articulates the determining factors which lead to an individual’s capacity to succeed in the future.
Figure 4. What Determines an Individual’s Capacity to Succeed in the Future?
(Created from research by Kotter, 1995)
(Created from research by Kotter, 1995)
Just as organizations are being forced to learn, change and constantly reinvent themselves in the twenty-first century, so will increasing numbers of individuals. Lifelong learning and the leadership skills that, in the past, were only available to small segments of the population may just be the key that determines organization and individual success in the future.
According to Kotter, lifelong learners develop five simple habits.
First, they are risk taking, willing to push themselves out of their comfort zones. Instead of becoming set in their ways, they keep experimenting.
Second, they engage in humble self-reflection, with honest assessments of successes and failures (especially the latter) to educate themselves to make adjustments and to take corrective measures toward improvement.
Third, they actively solicit the opinions and ideas of others. They believe that with the right approach, they can learn from anyone under any circumstance.
Fourth, more than the average person, lifelong learners also listen carefully with an open mind. They know that careful listening will help give them accurate feedback on the effect of their actions.
Finally, lifelong learners overcome a natural human tendency to shy away from pain. By surviving difficult experiences, they build up immunity to hardship. The very best lifelong learners and leaders have high standards, ambitious goals and a real sense of mission in their lives (Kotter, 1996, pp. 182-183).
Kotter feels:
A strategy of embracing the past will probably become increasingly ineffective over the next few decades. Better for most of us to start learning now how to cope with change, to develop whatever leadership potential we have, and help our organizations in the transformation process. (Kotter, emphasis added, p. 186)
So how does the academic community empower adult learners seeking Master’s degrees in business to become lifelong learners and leaders in the Twenty-first Century?
