Educating for uncertainty

What, then, does education for uncertainty involve? There is an intellectual component and a personal one. The intellectual one is well suited to a classroom environment. It might include the research and  preparation of alternative scenarios, with their implications for action. New  concepts to describe the emerging world will be needed. Machine, Platform, Crowd, the title of an engaging book by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, aptly shows how familiar words get twisted into new meanings to help our understanding.

Even our language, it seems, must change to remain the same. More importantly, however, business students must learn to follow the scientific method, one used by all scientists when exploring the unknown.

They take nothing for granted, question accepted wisdom, have a boundless curiosity and an unrestricted imagination. They know that nothing is for sure, that any hypothesis can only be an approximation of the truth, until something more complete or more accurate comes along. They are therefore bold but humble, respectful of authority but doubtful of its conclusions. They are scientific in their method and philosophical in their purpose, querying the ‘why’ of things as well as the ‘how’.

The real challenge here is the one facing the teachers. In a state of uncertainty they are only the first among equals. They have to learn to be more like the master in an art class, mentoring and encouraging, than the expert laying down the law to obedient listeners. Indeed, their expertise may well be a handicap when so much will be uncertain, dangerously blocking acceptance of the unfamiliar. Even the design of the lecture theatres will have to change, along with that name, to reflect the new form of learning. The transition will not be easy, nor popular. All change is uncomfortable.

The most difficult challenge, however, is the personal one. The qualities and abilities needed to cope with uncertainty have to be learnt but cannot easily be taught, only developed and encouraged.

Curiosity and imagination can be spotted and encouraged in classes, but resilience in the face of adversity, the courage to stand up for what you believe in, the necessity for compromise in order to move forward, and the wisdom to know when – all needed more than ever in business – are much harder to cultivate. Few things worthwhile are achieved by oneself alone, but who to work with,  who to trust and who to steer away  from are things that can only be learnt by hard experience.

“Experience understood  in tranquillity” is the best definition I know of this form of learning – as long as there is serious reflection in the tranquillity.

Ideally, students would be thrust out alone into the world, to return after some months to the tranquillity and reflection  of the classroom. In practice this may be hard to organise, although London Business School, with its two-year MBA programme and hordes of alumni, is well placed to provide both the time and the mentors to make it happen. In the past most schools have relied on the early work experiences of students to provide the material for reflection, requiring four or five years’ work before applying.

Unfortunately, the selection procedures have too often been weighted in favour of academic scores rather than character traits; partly because the former are easier to assess. Nor was there any proper provision in the programmes for reflection on learning from these early life experiences. If there is to be a proper balance between the intellectual and the personal, this has to change.

One problem is that the process involved is not an academic one; something that, in a university culture, makes it less highly regarded. The same applies to drama, which some businesses are using as a way to immerse individuals in diverse situations.

The schools will, therefore, have to broaden their criteria for faculty selection and promotion if they are to maintain their reputation. Only when the faculty list includes a professor of philosophy alongside professors of drama, education and psychology will we know that business schools are beginning to equip themselves appropriately for the very different world ahead.