Sunday, December 16, 2012

Talent And Leadership Development In The Information Age

By Doris Rivas


The phrase talent and leadership development was often heard in the discourse of privileged communities in the past. Private school and Business School principals were apt to drop comments about gifted students and education for leaders as reasons why their institutions were the best choice for those who could afford them. Things are a little different in a new world.

In previous eras privilege was largely a matter of class. Children born into wealth were likely to be leaders whether or not the were suited to the task. In the Information Age the greatest privilege that a child may inherit is a loving and well informed pair of parents. They provide the foundation for life through the home life that they provide for their children.

After about six years a child will emerge from the cocoon of his home and cross a bridge into the public world of school. If he is led gently up to the bridge he may not look back at his parents who are setting him on his way. However they will have performed perhaps the greatest role of their lives as leaders. They have played their part in producing and individual who will take responsibility and contribute to the community of life on Earth

As the primary education phase draws to an end many young people enjoy a short phase when the world seems to be a beautiful place. Without the burden of menstruation, testosterone or skin blemishes a young person may spend a few years wondering whether to be an international sports star, a music celebrity or a famous statesman. They have yet to meet the great disciplinarian known as Experience.

Social, emotional and academic development takes places during the secondary phase, from the early teenage years to early adulthood. In many cases the struggle for independence, the need for peer group acceptance and academic demands combine into very formidable challenges that can distract from the clear ambitions and promises that seemed so easy just a few years earlier.

Both common senses and academic research point to small groups as being the breeding ground for leaders. Expensive private schools are more likely to have individuals working in small groups. It is obvious how opportunities will arise in a small group for an individual to take charge of situations whereas in a large group such opportunities are more likely to be grabbed by others.

Despite the evidence that small schools are better for children government authorities build large ones. Some people argue that individuals get lost in large groups but economic imperatives over the past century have seen the size of schools grow. Even in large schools it is possible for teachers to organize small group activities in which each member of a group can take turns to assume responsibility and lead.

This is the form that talent and leadership seems to be taking in the Information Age. Subtly, the Internet has probably superseded conventional and obsolete education without authorities yet realizing it. Children go to school but acquire knowledge and experience independently through hand held devices and computers. Talent and leadership development will emerge in different ways as this process continues. It will be more inclined to take the form of individuals emerging in the context of small groups where their abilities fit naturally. Millions of such small interest groups have already emerged on social networking sites that seem to assume their own momentum.




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