One of my pet passions (though, right now, largely unrealized) is helping liberal arts college students integrate the full college experience and build a solid portfolio for the upcoming world of work. The reason for this passion is that I wish someone had helped me do this throughout my collegiate days. I was a history major and approached my choice with love and fascination, but also with a certain anxiety as to what in the hell I would do with it once I stepped on the other side of graduation. Work in a museum? Go to grad school? What does a wandering historian do?

And that was part of the problem…I felt like since I was trained for being a historian, that was what I was. I internalized my subject as a part of my identity. Perhaps folks like advisors and professors did make it clear that I was actually being taught valuable skills to take to potential employers (It’s equally possible that they were trapped in a familiar academic mindset that the purpose of college is to study for its own sake). If they did, it didn’t quite penetrate my thick early-twentysomething skull.

Where’s all of this coming from? This morning, as I was perusing the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s website looking for the latest Steelers news, I ran across this article on how some of this year’s college grads are still struggling to find their first job. It’s a well-constructed and thoughtful article on the seemingly conflicting purpose of liberal arts schools: should they teach their students toward a future job or should they teach toward intellectual growth. As with anything complex and paradoxical, I think both notions are right. Jim Fitch, Associate Director of the office of career services at Allegheny College, mentions this inherent tension when he says:

The faculty would tend to encourage students to study for the sake of
studying. That’s what the liberal arts tradition is all about. But we help the students take that learning and build some
cognitive hooks.

Where I think most liberal arts colleges fall down is not in helping their students realize they have marketable skills and experiences. For the most part, I think there is a growing emphasis on how those ways of thinking about history can benefit employers now. Where liberal arts colleges need to pick up the pace is in helping their students build those "cognitive hooks." Or in other words, help students better market themselves…give them the tools to help a prospective employer connect the dots between studying Russian literature and writing copy for magazine ads. The fact is that employers are eager to hire liberal arts students simply because they are well-rounded individuals who are prepared to think. Jeff Martineau, Director of Higher Education at the American Academy for Liberal Education, argues:

A general education is useful for students because it allows them to
step into any profession and succeed, which is important in a shrinking
marketplace. This is especially true in a job market where today’s
college graduates will have four to five careers. To make those transitions across fields does not require a specialist. It requires people who can adapt.

In a service or creative economy, I think the pendulum is swinging toward those folks who can think, process diverse information, and generate insights. Sounds like liberal arts colleges are just the place for tomorrow’s best and brightest. We just need to help grads connect the dots.

I apologize if the title of this post has been used before by someone else. It feels like I’ve heard it before but couldn’t find its genesis. It’s a concept that’s been kicking around in my head for a while now and seems like this is the perfect time to address it.

The idea of creating a rich, inviting customer and member experience isn’t exactly new. Companies like Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, and Nordstroms have been doing it for a while. And the reasons why creating a passion-provoking experience can catapult an association or business into the stratosphere have been well-chronicled. However as managers and organizational leaders, we tend to focus exclusively on creating this passion on the outside of the business. That’s where the custo/members are, right? And without them, we wouldn’t have a business in the first place.

So what about the folks who exist within the organization? Aren’t they entitled to some of that passion-provoking stuff, too? Absolutely! Excluding our people from the equation is a surefire path to failure.

Today’s managers and executives have to commit to making their organizations the best place to work. If you want to inspire passion in custo/members, it has to be a part of each touchpoint experience and it’s hard to accomplish this when the employee could care less about making it happen. You can’t fake enthusiasm no matter how hard you try.

Stephen Covey writes:

Some organizations talk a lot about the customer, and then neglect the
employees who deal with the customer. This mindset produces unmotivated
employees, worker-manager disputes and poor business results.

Exactly.

Ben at Church of the Customer asks whether custo/member satisfaction is the real goal. I thought, “Well, perhaps it’s loyalty.” That’s only part of the answer. Loyalty builds the solid base, but it’s the referral that drives growth.

I think he’s right. What would happen if our companies and associations made it crystal clear that our main goal is your referral? How would that change the tone of conversations with custo/members? How would that change the decisions about which projects move forward? How would that ultimately change ourselves?

Felix Gerena has a proposal up at ChangeThis! It’s called The Life Cycle of the Creative Soul, which is definitely piquing my curiosity. Here’s the hopeful manifesto’s description:

This manifesto is a way of deepening in the creative dimension of our
souls. It´s a way of recognizing patterns of behaviour and feel
familiar with the creative experience of the soul. This experience can
become the guide of a life but can also lead to suffering and despair.
The manifesto helps you to know better your creative attitudes and how
to deal with them.

C’mon. Not only would I love to see this one get published, I believe we would be enriched by it. So, let your fingers (and mice) do the walking and go vote now.