2 thoughts on “Follow up on today’s comment from Brody”
Thank you for sharing this quotation! At the risk of sounding philosophical (it’s hard not to when one references Gandhi), I think as much as we as autonomous social agents can effect and mobilise change in the world, our paradigms are also subtly shaped or influenced by the prevailing schools of thought that predominate the societies we live in today. In that respect, I deviate slightly from Gandhi’s viewpoint. It feels more like a two-way road to me: we have the ability to change our world (i.e. the immediate community around us and possibly beyond), but the world (and I think it applies more to developed societies here) also actively exerts its pressure on us to conform or at the very least, acknowledge the institutional structures and hegemonic forces that it has established for its people.
In terms of the global industry, I think it’s true too that the world is moving towards hiring employees who are self-motivated and self-directed. People who are able to introduce positive change to a company/ organisation. This week’s readings in particular highlight a trend seen among both developing countries in Asia and leading firms in the world, where behavioural skills such as the ability to work independently and as a team, creativity and innovation — the ability to ‘think out of the box’ (Gropello and Tandon 2011) are lauded more highly as attractive employable skills in recent years.
Tim, glad you bring to the table the question (an importance) about soft skills as creativity, innovation and thinking out of the box.
Stay tuned for my presentation about Liberal Arts education on Thursday! 🙂
Thank you for sharing this quotation! At the risk of sounding philosophical (it’s hard not to when one references Gandhi), I think as much as we as autonomous social agents can effect and mobilise change in the world, our paradigms are also subtly shaped or influenced by the prevailing schools of thought that predominate the societies we live in today. In that respect, I deviate slightly from Gandhi’s viewpoint. It feels more like a two-way road to me: we have the ability to change our world (i.e. the immediate community around us and possibly beyond), but the world (and I think it applies more to developed societies here) also actively exerts its pressure on us to conform or at the very least, acknowledge the institutional structures and hegemonic forces that it has established for its people.
In terms of the global industry, I think it’s true too that the world is moving towards hiring employees who are self-motivated and self-directed. People who are able to introduce positive change to a company/ organisation. This week’s readings in particular highlight a trend seen among both developing countries in Asia and leading firms in the world, where behavioural skills such as the ability to work independently and as a team, creativity and innovation — the ability to ‘think out of the box’ (Gropello and Tandon 2011) are lauded more highly as attractive employable skills in recent years.
Tim, glad you bring to the table the question (an importance) about soft skills as creativity, innovation and thinking out of the box.
Stay tuned for my presentation about Liberal Arts education on Thursday! 🙂