Welcome to the Foresight Newsletter, a free monthly publication by Patrick Gray, president of Prevoyance Group Inc.  This newsletter shares tips for high performance IT organizations and observations that we hope will prove informative and enjoyable.

The political class in the United States frequently laments the dearth of interest and capability in schools around STEM programs: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Corporate leaders cite a lack of STEM experience with US college graduates as a driver for moving jobs to other countries, feeding back into the cries for more STEM-related programs in the schools.

Another layer of complexity atop this situation is a perception of "disposable" employment, particularly in the technology industry. Today's university students have relatives or even parents who have experienced the boom and bust cycles of technology, when rafts of IT employees were rapidly "right sized" and forced to find new careers, providing a rather compelling first-hand counterpoint to the laments about a lack of interest in a technology career.

 

I think the problem is not STEM per se, rather a problem of emphasizing content over process. A fact of life of the technology industry is rapid change, yet we ask our universities to diligently teach a particular technology rather than the critical thinking and problem solving skills that can be applied to future systems and technologies. I diligently studied a raft of long-irrelevant technologies ranging from Pascal programming to Token Ring networking, memorizing various trivia that I could recite on a test.

 

Where the light went on for me was in taking several business classes (partially because I couldn't hack the complex math required for a straight Computer Science major) where the emphasis was on solving a human problem through some combination of process and technology. Rather than solving a technical problem with only one right answer, we were solving a problem with several "correct" outcomes, and forced to adopt a range of tools to defend our solution, an approach I believe should be applied to technology-related university study. No school can teach technology that will be current when a student graduates, so the focus should shift from applying a technical tool to a technical problem, to rapidly researching, analyzing, and applying available tools to a business or human problem.

 

This skill set is harder to teach, but creates more flexible graduates who can change with the times rather than become obsolete like yesterday's programming language. This also might make a technology career a bit more attractive; one thing our corporate and political leaders seem to forget is that graduates are looking for fulfilling, secure careers. Despite all the polished admonitions to the contrary, they're smart enough to perceive the gulf between what we say about STEM careers, and the outcome of many who actually work in the field.

Our two-year-old son has been a bit of an escape artist since he first learned to crawl. He would cram himself into a tiny space: under a chair, or even between a couple of weighty tomes on my office bookshelf, then spend several minutes untangling himself. My wife tells me the medical experts assume that this helps toddlers gauge the size of their bodies as they grow, which seems like a reasonable theory.

 

Whatever the purpose of these antics, they're amusing to watch. My son will generally refuse any help, even when finding himself in a bit of a tangle, or after knocking his head several times while attempting to escape from whatever space he's put himself into. After a few tears, he might reattempt the maneuver a couple of times, then he'll stop, consider his next action, and try wiggling in a different direction or reorienting a limb or two. Since he's started talking, he'll say "stuck" a few times before continuing his escape attempt.

 

It's striking that the tiniest of human beings so willingly push their limits trying to explore the unknown. Even when momentarily stuck, some deep-rooted genetic impulse causes my son to remain calm, consider his options, and attempt another maneuver. I occasionally wonder if decades of supposed knowledge and experience suppress these basic instincts, causing us to remain stuck rather than knocking our head a couple of times, shedding a tear, then reassessing our situation and pursing another strategy for escape.

Most corporate functions are awash in "research" organizations. For a fee, these companies will create reports on everything from emerging technologies to changes in consumer behavior. While there are certainly times to employ external expertise, there may be a surprising amount of research capability within your organization that can be exploited for free.

 

Large companies have dedicated research teams, but far less formally you can and should speak with younger workers and get their take on consumer trends and emerging technologies. When funds for external research organizations may be tight, or time is of the essence, many of my clients have used younger staff to perform and present research findings. While lacking the formality of an external organization, allowing internal staff to perform some basic research provides them with a development opportunity, and you with information at essentially no cost. I've seen several companies use junior technical staff to research everything from mobile phones and tablets to social media, technologies they're already using at home.

 

I spent a weekend at BMW's Performance Driving School taking an off-road motorcycle class recently. BMW builds its X5 and X3 SUVs in the United States, and the factory and associated driving school are about 90 minutes from our home in South Carolina. This is apparently the only BMW-run off-road center outside Germany, so it is quite a unique facility to have a short drive from one's home.

 

The training center itself is a motorcyclists' playground, with all manner of obstacles-from hills, to sandpits, to gravel ramps and artificial rivers to cross. Included in the course fee was use of a motorcycle and zero-deductible insurance, and the instructors encouraged us to push ourselves in order to learn. After battering myself a bit in off-road riding, I'd invested in all manner of "armor" and padding, which gave me an appearance that combined the hunchback of Notre Dame with a Star Wars Storm Trooper, sacrificing fashion for protection.

 

The instruction itself was excellent, and once I realized my armor would work as planned and there was no financial penalty for damaging an expensive motorcycle, I was more than happy to push my limits under the watchful eyes of the instructors. I'd fly into a sandpit standing on the pegs, the rear of the motorcycle flailing wildly, increasing speed until I'd be thrown from the beast giggling like an over-stimulated child. We later switched to lighter motorcycles, and I tore across a field with a fit of two-wheeled glee last experienced on a shiny Schwinn after the training wheels were removed, when my age could still be counted on two hands.

Thanks for reading this month's Foresight newsletter. We love hearing from our readers, so please feel free to email info@prevoyancegroup.com with any comments or suggestions.

 

Warm Regards,