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Want Change? Step into the ‘Zone of Discomfort,’ Futurist Says 

DEARBORN – "The future of public education belongs to those who can predict, understand the respond to the demands of tomorrow’s marketplace today," said Edward Barlow, Jr., president of Creating the Future, Inc.

"If you think you’re in the education business, you’re wrong," Barlow told MEA members at the 1999 Bargaining/PR Conference this month. "You are in the business of creating and supporting people’s lifestyle choices … Your survival depends upon whether you can convince people that their communities and their kids will be better or different because of your services."

Like it or not.

"Parents have many new educational choices for their children, from charter schools and homeschooling to the Internet. Public schools," Barlow warned, "will not be able to compete if they do not personalize and tailor education to fit what the public – and business – is looking for."

That means public school employees must demonstrate – and advertise - that they are preparing students for a world in which graduates will need to know such things as how to speak a foreign language, how to write a business plan, how to manipulate technology and how to work collaboratively.

"But most important," Barlow said, "public schools must prove that they are teaching students how to learn."

"In order to teach students how to learn, you must be the best learners of all," Barlow said. "And if you cannot do that, then you should go out of business."

"Becoming comfortable with change isn’t easy, but it is essential," he said. "He compared the awkwardness with which most people approach change to the difficulty of trying to write with the hand opposite the one usually used."

"That zone of discomfort is where we’ll come up with the answers to tomorrow’s challenges," Barlow said.

He recommended that schools develop a five to seven-year vision, dedicate resources for three years and operate under a one-year plan that’s updated quarterly. Regular review of the educational plan should include an assessment of what should be kept, what should be modified, what should be let go and what should be created.

"It will be as important to your future to know when to let something go as it will be to know when to start something new," Barlow said. "Some of the things that caused success in one decade may cause failure in the next… It will be those with a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo who will inherit the future."

Web sites to help you plan for tomorrow today:

2907 Division Street, Suite 108
St. Joseph, MI 49085
Phone: (269) 982-1830
Fax: (269) 982-1541
Email barlow@qtm.net