Rob Paterson has written about a talk I have heard before. This time, however, the message was clearer due to the fantastic visual animations done by the RSA Animate crew. Watch and learn for yourself …

In response to the content in in talk, I like Rob’s points here …

“School is all analog and sequential. It is all about the future – when you know this it will be great when you are 30! School is all about it being in control not you. School is all passive. The rewards are all off in the distant and abstract future.

This is the heart of the problem that boys today face. Working harder to drill stuff into boys is not going to work.

School demands a cultural revolution that starts with this new context. We can’t go back – we have to find ways of making learning more engaging.”

It also starts me thinking about another dimension that I haven’t considered when facilitating workshops … what is the time perspective of the people in the room and of their workplace culture? What are the implications for future oriented strategy sessions, or, a backward looking learning workshop?

This concept of time perspectives also has implications for the climate change discussion. I wonder if particular people/groups/cultures are more (or less) likely to accept the future consequences of present actions? The futility of ramming 1-way information and knowledge into the brains of adolescent boys plays out the same way climate change scientists (and groups/government) work really hard to persuade skeptics with facts and figures.

Interesting stuff and will dig a little into these questions.

Geoff