MAY GORDON REPORT
from Imperial
Consulting Corporation
"Did History End
in 1945?"
Almost
every day another survey is published reporting that more and more businesses
simply cannot find enough workers with the requisite education for filling
their current or future job openings. Projected profits losses to U.S.
businesses range from $300 billion by 2022 to over $1 trillion by 2030 unless
this imbalance between educational attainments and job requirements is
corrected. So why aren't more American companies responding to this talent
crisis by both expanding training and education for their employees and
supporting career-education programs in their communities?
In his columns and recent books David Brooks cogently
analyzes our nation's current social and cultural malaise. He finds a
predominant culture in which past moral and social norms have been cast aside
and everything is viewed through a "purely economic lens." For
corporations this means maximizing profit and the fraying of former norms or
commitment to their employees, communities and customers.
This shift in current corporate ethos only reflects a far
broader set of social and cultural changes that began in 1945 in response to
the mass destruction of Europe during the First and Second World Wars. These
tragic conflicts were fueled by monarchist or totalitarian ideologies that
subjugated the individual to the state. Even in democratic nations, the
all-encompassing mobilization required to marshal the resources to win the war
demanded a soul-numbing level of citizen conformity and deprivation. In
reaction, a postmodernist movement arose first in France founded on extreme
individualism and rejection of the past "truths" provided by science,
history, philosophy, ethics, and theology. Instead there thinkers preached that
each individual must construct his/her own "truths" based on personal
experience, i.e., your personal story. In other words, truth is deduced from
what I experience. Thus history is useless; the future is undecided. Only today
is important. The central focus is on self, forget what you owe to your
community.
We are now witnessing the destructive power of postmodern
ideology. Without any unifying ethical/moral compass, opinions proliferate and
finding consensus on solutions to America's most pressing economic and social
problems is proving more and more difficult. Also ignorance of America's past
history means that lessons from the unique heritage of our nation's local community
building are not being explored. Learning from America's past accomplishments
can lead us out of postmodernism's festering swamp of tribal warfare.
Lessons from the Past
Between 1890 and 1920 industrialization and the consequent
growth of U.S. cities led to the disintegration of social structures and
institutions. The impact of the new technologies of that time -- electricity,
assembly lines, automobiles, tractors, telephones, radios -- were just as
disruptive as those of today. It was the age of robber barons, swelling
immigration, and the urban jungle resulting in economic upheaval and social
unrest. As conditions eroded, new political movements arose across the
ideological spectrum. But out of this ideological ferment, consensus was
gradually built on funding public schooling to meet the education and skills
demands of this new age.
Community, business, and political leaders came to see the
links between supporting a new education-to-employment system and social
progress. Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor, industrialists
Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie, inventor and scientist Thomas Edison, and
politicians such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson all joined together
in supporting and building mandatory public education.
One of the singular achievements of this Progressive Era was
the extension pf public schooling throughout the nation. By 1918 all of the
then 48 states mandated K-12 tax-supported, compulsory education enforced by
truancy laws with teeth. This was revolutionary for its time. It encountered
opposition in every state. The United States was well ahead of the rest of the
world in adopting the first modern education-to-employment system! For example,
the United Kingdom did not set up similar mandates until 1946 and Ireland in
the 1980s.
Most historians agree that these decades also saw an
unprecedented boom in association building. Americans of all classes and
conditions created and joined a broad spectrum of voluntary organizations, most
of which have endured to the present. These associations promoted a wide
variety of causes -- civic, religious, fraternal, ethnic, labor, business,
professional, veterans -- were among the most prominent. While some began at
the national level, most were formed at the community level and spread
laterally to other communities. Ordinary people -- amateurs -- formed clubs and
organizations that promoted self-help and civic engagement as popular debate
about local issues became part of America's culture.
That was our economic and social revolution 100 years ago.
We need to do it again!
Today's Mandate: Community Renewal
The extreme individualism of today's prevailing culture has
seriously weakened the bonds of community in our nation both for individuals
and for organizations. The focus is on pursuing one's economic self-interest
divorced from social and moral norms. There is always tension between the needs
of the individual and the needs of society. However at present, our culture has
overbalanced individual autonomy over social good.
The United States met the challenges posed by economic and
technological change of the Industrial Revolution in the early 20th century
through community activism and cooperation. We need to tap into these roots by
again recognizing that moral values and social trust are essential components
in this process.
A Regional Talent Innovation Network (RETAIN) provides a
proven and important template for accomplishing this transition to a
21st-century society. Already 1,000 RETAINs exist across the United States.
Scattered short-term fixes will not solve the skills-jobs disconnect. It is a
systemic problem that requires cooperative action to reform the
education-to-employments system. Support the local RETAIN in your community. If
one does not exist, this is the time to start one.
America's future needs renewal. What are we waiting for? If
you don't get engaged in this process, who will? History has not ended. It is
in your hands to write the next chapter.
Edward E.
Gordon is president and founder of Imperial Consulting Corporation (www.imperialcorp.com).
His book, Future Jobs:
Solving the Employment and Skills Crisis, winner of an Independent
Publishers award, is now available in an updated 2018 paperback edition.
