#addiethealien

Addie the Alien - A PQ story.

Read how Addie helps his friend Arnold develop his physical intelligence, which ultimately helps him on his test scores.

As a program director, I recall talking to a team of trainers about what they found to be their biggest challenge when educating senior executives and managers. Their response was not too dissimilar from my own experiences, when the majority had difficulty in getting the delegates to change their old habits before introducing the new habits and best practices that would add value to their professional lives.

John would say…. “I have people on my course as a tick box exercise, they are completing bespoke training because their company needs the mindset of their employees to change… But half of my delegates have been doing it a particular way for years and are adamant they will go through the motions”

Sian would comment “The delegates like the idea of the training, but I feel that they will soon revert back to their old methods as it is just more comfortable for them.”

Tony’s comments would be more scathing. They have been educated a certain way for 20-30 years. They were assessed and conditioned that it was the right way… Now you’re telling them that it was not the right way?

I empathised with them having been a change management facilitator myself… But just because things were right then does not make them right now. The company KODAK was a classic example as it was one of the most successful camera companies in the world at one time. One of its engineers Steve Sasson first designed a digital camera in 1975 but the management refused to change with the times and would continue marching forward with the same business model, as they felt what they had done previously was a success, therefore their success would continue. As we know now the dramatic decline of Kodak as a company has been the subject of much academic research and topic for University students to study. I have read various case studies and a book by Vince Barraba who, as a former executive gives a wonderful insight as to how he believes this great company tumbled into bankruptcy. If we look at the major decision makers at the time they suddenly did not become stupid or de-educated…. Moreover, they just did not have the educational capacity for change and creative thinking.

Moving into education for children was a different challenge but I never forgot the powerful lesson that I learnt from the trainers that I was teaching at the time. ‘How can you help change people’s perceptions and ways of thinking regarding resolving problems? Then it dawned on me…. Why bother? I am educating a younger generation…. Why don’t I just make sure that we get it right in the first place.

There was a research paper completed in the USA. In that paper a number of top executives, directors and CEOs from the top fortune 500 companies were interviewed and asked about what they felt were the most important competencies that they attributed to their success.

Divergent Thinking

Emotional Intelligence

Change Management

Acculturalisation

Balanced Life

Now we know what are the competencies needed to equip our children for the future, why are so many schools failing to properly prepare our children for life after schools. The reason is quite complicated and a separate series of books with extensive research would be required to do the topic justice. However, if we were to look within ourselves as parents and as a society we are craving recognition and we need to be judged which includes judging our parenting skills on our children’s ability to get ‘A’ grades. This in turn filters through to the politicians in the Public sector and we obviously have a direct impact as Private school customers.

Over the next few chapters I hope to explain that it is the responsibility of us all.

As parents, teachers and educational leaders. We need to unite as one group and start inspiring change through education.

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