Kids at some point in their life face the challenge to know. To know what to do, what to reach out for, what to become in life. Only few are lucky to know, most have no clue and not even dreams. Given circumstances they should get better support to become the wonder which has been sent to us.
Institutions are mostly about capacities, less about individuals. Interest groups call for capacities, some time later it’s the opposite. This way yet undecided young people, not having had the chance to experience themselves and to make up their mind, are almost accidentally driven towards rigid trips to learn and study some stuff, institutions consider appropriate to feed estimates on capacities. Capacities based on old business models and automation levels.
Furthermore there’s preference for instructing people what to do. Humans are almost programmed in their jobs and measured in computing cycles. Practices like Service Design claim innovations, applying charming design methods, but in essence program people like programmable logic controllers in process chains. To „design“ an operational flow of people in line with machine, is not invention, it’s creating a race. The creative impact of the individual doesn’t really count, in effect is even a drawback as people shall be exchangeable. It’s about definition, about instructions, not about people.
Now comes machine, tuned for operational intelligence, rumored to know. Machine being the mirror for every ecosystem and all aspects of our society. If there’s feasibility and if there’s a deal, machine will do the job. Often for good reasons, as there are really mind-less jobs. Nevertheless machine will question professions and jobs. Preferably jobs being counted in capacities and defined by instruction.
Machine, to reach quality, needs data, operational data. Data from people conducting capacity jobs. Or running games in capacities. Or driving distance in capacities. Gloves, as an example, are used in the industry to alienate (or protect) people from their product. The product is not supposed to look human, marked with finger tips, instead it shall look like machine. The same untouched experience in the real as in the rendered virtual world. Companies start applying instrumented gloves, which are positioned as value-add and guidance for workers. Although it seems the main interest is to control performance and gather data. Control to make human perform like machine, gather operational data to automate jobs with machine and adapt social behavior. Neither way, to focus on capacity jobs seems not a good choice for the individual.
Innovative business models and StartUps mostly don’t need capacities, they need multi-disciplinary, incorporated teams, understanding their clients, technology, design and services. Even job engines like UBER and Amazon in the long run are looking into automated drive and automated deliveries. For new businesses and to lead the digitalized mainstream, decisive, confident teams with diverse members make the difference. Key individuals, with their specific growth and development time line. Self driven lines, not prescribed by over-mature institutions.
The save bed for parents is no longer the life time job in one corporation or a capacity job for their kid, everybody around is doing. It’s the believe in the capabilities and the individual creativity of their children. Institutional education need to focus on the development and support of individuals, provide support to find their very own way. For a kid entering these systems, the task can’t be to shape towards a predefined utilization, but how to strengthen this individual and enable it to find out about itself. About it’s wishes, about it’s own speed, about interests not to be blocked ahead of time by not meeting no longer valid fundamentals. Most of math is for machine, youngster tell stories with pictures and videos. Art develops with life experience and relevant findings. Languages and interactions will develop going abroad and there will be influence by machine. It can’t be the end of journeys, having yet no interest in a fundamental, for a life that haven’t yet begun and about to last much longer than in the past. It’s about kids to exercise themselves, to prove themselves in situations, it’s about to feel the power to understand their wishes and make their own decisions.
What’s the benefit for the community? The focus on building confidence and self-esteem will not only lead to more inspiration and better decisions, but also result in less over capacities, in less personal deadlocks and less retainment in dying business models. Self confident people will just make better, forward thinking decisions as institutions in need for unreflected follower-ship and no questions asked. People will decide, when more and what kind of education is necessary and do it for their life time. Education is on longer a phase in life or something to get ready for the next capacity assignment. It’s something what you do when you want it and when you need it.
So it’s worth to invest. To invest in a broadly structured education for kids, not to yield grades in the first place, but to yield self experience and self confidence. To focus on collaboration, on the value of respect, on the passion to explore many aspects in life and become a wonder. Companies need to offer insightful internships and to support ecosystems for continuous learning. Individual experience paths need to be enabled to reach diverse colleagues with different, complementary capabilities. Machine needs to get to a stage of social behavior and has to contribute to social systems. And people will experience the value of products with a human touch. And it shows.
It’s not about building systems to develop and execute instructions for humans, it’s about people who can decide and develop an individual contribution. It’s about to automate in the first place, preventing for people to robot, and then put human in control. It’s about people being decisive to lead machine or craft products the human way. What we need is trust and appreciation in the individual not instructed capacities.