‘Our debt to Peter Drucker knows no limits’ says Tom Peters author of many books including ‘Circle of Innovation’ while commenting on the book ‘Managing in the next Society’ by Peter Drucker. I would say the fresh thoughts, the insights and the knowledge that Peter Drucker has about this ever-changing business society knows no limits.
This book by Peter Drukcer is a good read and a must read to see how COL supports many of the things said in the book. Peter talks about Industrial revolution with the connecting force of Railroads that transformed the way in which we now work and think. He then points out the Information revolution that is occurring and the connecting force of e-commerce that will transform the way in which we will work and think in the 21st century.
The most notable thing that was said about information revolution is on the psychological impact of the information revolution. Looking at the ease with which the 21st century Gen-M deal with technology he writes ‘…fifty year hence we may well conclude that there was no “crisis of American Education” in the closing years of 20th century – there was only a growing incongruence between the way 20th century schools taught and the way late-20th century children learned’.
I said before and I am saying it again, the Gen-M is starting their journey in the 21st century on the C-quadrant – connect and collaborate. If we do not embark on the journey with them to teach and lead them to discover other quadrants, their education will be incomplete and the ensuing uncertainty will take decades to correct itself.
Why I am saying this is because of the insight that Peter provides in that book that is in line with the insight the COL is providing now for us. He quotes on what happened with the 16th century university, a hundred years after the invention of the printing press and movable type. My question is: do we have the luxury of hundred years now when the world is changing at a rate that far exceeds the rate at which the world was changing in the 16th century?
We have the tools that can deliver the education to masses. We have the knowledge that stems out from the understanding of the world events – past and present – to prepare for the future. We know that we are entering the knowledge society that is not limited to one nation or one geographical location – but pervades the entire world that is evolving as knowledge societies. As Peter says in his book, we cannot bribe the knowledge workers to continue to be employed in the same way the industrial revolution led the creation of working class. The key knowledge workers in the modern business setting will expect to share financially in the fruits of their labor. I am going to add to that to say that a knowledge worker will not be bound by one nation or one geographical location because of the mobility provided by the 21st century.
If this is so, how can COL help? As I said before in my earlier blog, COL is all about traversing the ABCD quadrants of COL. Each quadrant must develop or evolve in congruence with the changes happening in the other quadrants to achieve the balance needed in all the quadrants.
For example, B-quadrant must evolve as the old benchmarks will no longer be useful to measure the changes in the other quadrants. A-quadrant must evolve to changes in the D-quadrant to make sure that the discoveries resulting from the connected word is made available to the connected world through the means that exist as schools and universities – but are geared to do so for the 21st century. The rate at which the changes are happening in these quadrants must be in sync with the changes happening in the other quadrants to attain the overall balance in COL.
I sincerely hope that the question of how can this be achieved would become the topic that is widely discussed rather than the irrelevant discussions of many other topics that are filling the air waves now-a-days.