E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

In the age of mass production there were colleges and schools and Universities. They fed people data and trained them to conform and regurgitate the right answers.

This simply will not be enough in the world of rapid change that is being brought to us by mass customization technologies. But like during the last transition, educational system will be one of the last to adopt. While industrial revolution began in 1820s it was not until 1930s that the new way to educate became firmly entrenched in our society. Just in time for 1950s, which was the quiet beginning of the next age, borne out by the engineers at Toyota and soon across industries and around the world.

The age of mass customization of product to fit the specific customer needs is still in its infancy even though it is now nearly 60 years old. The problem? Most people who consider themselves the educators of the next generation are not understanding why today the race to the top is becoming a race up the wrong mountain.

Solution: Yes there is a solution, an approach that changes the educational process from digesting to creating knowledge; from the instructor teaching to the collaborative project based multi-mentor environment where there are no teachers but many guides; where there is a true joint learning partnership rather than teacher acting as a judge of the student’s performance.

The good news is that the new system is slowly seeping regardless of any person or organization wanting it or not. Even better news is that as soon as this system takes hold, not only will we be able to rapidly advance our society in to the world of ubiquitous mass customization, but we will for the first time be truly ready to enter the information age, instead of just few people being able to toy with it. But the best news is that the organizations that choose to stand in the way of this will be swept under the carpet of history as irrelevant relics of old technology, while those who chose to position themselves as the leaders of this brave new approach to learning will have a chance to shape the future.