Have you ever ventured into a highly competitive area of occupation? Personally, I have done it, not once but many times. The most interesting and challenging is about venturing in an intellectually oriented occupation. Imaginations of success can sometimes be discouraging for the faint-hearted, as I experienced this week.Luckily, confidence in my research based solutions, enables me to avoid faint-heartedness.
Nevertheless, there are occasional discouraging moments since the empowerment mission in the school system commenced in 2015. The same happens especially upon encountering what one could refer to as the “owners” of the educational system. Some will consider them as the Professors or Lecturers in Universities, the apex of the educational system in our country. On numerous occasions, I have had both positive and negative experiences some of which can be distraughtful for the faint-hearted.
The first positive and extremely encouraging experience was in June 2013. The professor who taught me Total Quality Management at the turn of the Century, in an American Oriented Locallly based university, had become attracted to my articles in the media. Having seemingly been one of his outstanding students, he invited me to help in enlighting his soon to be graduate students, on how the lessons learnt in the course apply in real life. The feedback on the presentation of 28th June 2013 at the University, seriously influenced the writing of Career Dynamics in the 21st Century, two years later. The presentation content is covered in the chapter titled “Quality Begins With You.”
The pay back was that the professor was on 6th December 2018, the chief guest speaker during the launching ceremony of the publication titled ‘Living Beyond Survival: No More Tiptoeing in Life.” The second memorable positive experience is that the Vice Chancellor of a University wrote one of “the FOREWORDS of Living Beyond Survival: No More Tiptoeing in Life.
The third positive experience is that the head of the UON School of Business read Career Dynamics in the 21st Century and invited me to be a key speaker during their Career Day of 21st Sept 2016, for the 3rd and 4th year students. The lessons learnt on the challenges in the education system in universities were eye opening and are highlighted in the final pages of “Living Beyond Survival; No More Tiptoeing in Life.”
The fourth positive experience is being interviewed about Career Dynamics in the 21st Century on Kenyatta University TV in January 2016.The impact has been quite invaluable as regards the University’s approach to students’ careers (video clip on the same is available on request). The fifth memorable experience was being engaged as speaker, during a Career Day for UON students under the sponsorship of the Institute of Human Resource Management on 27th July 2017. Why then should my efforts be belittled by a professor or lecturer when my ideas have been severally tested even in their own domain?
Regarding negative experiences, all the same, allow me to mention the only 2 cases I have experienced locally, so far. Upon invite by HELB to present during their annual conference on Career Dynamics in the 21st Century to 100 each of Dean’s of Students, Student leaders and finance officers, all from both public and private universities in Kenya, on 17th May 2017, a concern was raised by one professor. He wondered why I emphasize on following of natural orientations, yet universities develop courses based on market needs. My answer, based on studies on conditioned reflex ( remember the famous Paflov’s dogs in Biology) influenced the professor to acquire a copy of Career Dynamics.. for more interactions.
This week, I have had 2 seminars, one in a mixed school in Laikipia County and the other in a girls’ School in Machakos county. The first one went on very smoothly and without any interferences. The evaluation statistics were extremely encouraging. The second seminar experienced a hitch. Parents had been invited to witness empowerment of their form 2 and 3 children.
All our seminars now approaching a hundred invitations to schools, follow a specific process including explaining some of the problems we are experiencing in our country that originate from challenges in the empowerment process. Eventually, the participants are amongst other things advised how to make the right choices at different stages of their empowerment process, in order to avoid future challenges in their lives.
One of the participants who seemed to be a lecturer or professor stood up to dispute some assertions on challenges in the education system. She was at a loss on how students can understand such content. Further, she wondered how research was conducted on information regarding some negativity attributed to some credentials from universities that are in the public domain. I responded on the research matter and also indicated that this is the knowledge that has been used for transformation of the school system and is formally documented as well as evaluated in every seminar we are involved in – she has never heard of Career Dynamics in the 21st Century especially given that it has not been authored by a university professor. Upon my responses, she angrily indicated that politics must be involved on those policy matters that I had highlighted. One wonders how and why we should dispute assertions attributable to Government Cabinet Secretaries.
Eventually, the session was discontinued while remaining about 15 minutes to completion. Why? As later advised by Institutional management, there was need to accommodate more programs, since the seminar at hand had started an hour late, based on their program hitches. The best news however is that formal evaluation reports from students clearly indicated (as is always the case) that they needed more time with the speaker. All the same, they were satisfied with the lessons learnt. The effectiveness of the seminar was rated an average of 90.91% while that of the speaker was 92.3% – numbers never lie.
Seemingly, the process of helping our future leaders to transit from 20th to 21st Century paradigms through our publications and seminars too, needs to be totally independent from other parties. Why? Not everyone may be receptive to how our mindsets are supposed to be transformed. As marketers say, buyers (of transformative ideas this time) are influenced by either desire for gain or fear of loss. Both apply in the learning situations, don’t they?
Rgds
Mwangi Wanjumbi (MKIM)
Personal Empowerment Coach
Seasoned Speaker/Consultant/Trainer on Strategy, Performance, Change Management and Leadership.
Officially UNSUNG Architect of CBC
Author of 1. KICD approved Career Dynamics in the 21st Century, 2. Living Beyond Survival:No More Tiptoeing in Life
- The 21st Century Student:Are You Creating The Future Today? Also, Retired 5 Year Monthly Strategy Columnist (2013 – 2018) for The SME Today Magazine Phone 254772516210
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