One question I have wanted to ask the forerunners in the industry is “when and how did a human being become a resource, a commodity, or a material”
I was recently asked by a big corporate whether we can de-skill (you read it right!!) a professional to a level of commodity (read – cheap material!!) that we can use and return!!!
The mass movement and mad rush towards IT career in the past few years has created many “do as you are told” managers and “I am okay to do as told (read I will not apply my most powerful ability – ability to think)” employees and colleges churning them out in masses.
The ability to explore, reflect and abstract are seldom part of the faculties nurtured. This could be because the different stake holders - corporates, education institutions and individuals have different priorities driving them.
With the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the market place, I understand the corporates’ need for different business models. Many of the leading corporates are unwilling to invest in building the abilities as they see that as a catalyst for attrition and an unpredictable cost – what with a wide variety of rapidly changing tools and platforms.
The corporates would prefer ready to deliver (read billable) professionals even at entry level. So organizations would look at partnering with entities that develop teams with specialized abilities. The general model is to pay per use and not have bench strength. So the question asked –“Do you know …. have you worked on…..”
At a college/institution level, the prime driver has become the successful placement record. This ensures a preferred status for the college/institution in the minds of aspiring students. Now, the corporates have decided not to vie with each other for campus recruitments as they would like to build teams as and when required.
The management of the colleges and institutions are looking at partnering and providing corporate readiness programs. The simple definition of corporate readiness is the participant is guaranteed to be placed after completing the program. The abilities can only be nurtured over period of time. There are no injections or pills that can be administered in the final year.
At an individual level, the promise of a guaranteed career is diminishing and hence there is a general lack of confidence. It gets compounded when the individual has not nurtured the internal abilities and hence feels lost. The priority is clearing the tests and interviews. This is done by being exposed to lots and lots of tests and mock interviews.
I fear that we will soon stunt the infiniteness of individual potential and mutate in to technology dependant dwarfs who will need an external trigger for even normal human actions. In the garb of progress we would probably regress!!
The one and only enabling and empowering faculty we possess is the ability to think. Nurture that and we develop many other abilities – ability to learn, apply, discern, choose and so on.
The tools, technologies and platforms only represent a medium to translate and direct our innovation abilities to contribute at a personal, professional and societal level.
The possibilities are only limited only by our enthusiasm and quest for learning. Successful people have moved from being a trained resource to an able and learned contributor. A contributor creates opportunities to learn and apply while a resource waits for opportunities to be used.
How do we nurture a thinking contributor in this era of "fast-food" culture?
