That it is possible for Heads of State to arrive at the podium with same speech, or that students might submit similar academic papers, are just two glaring examples of societal tendency to download readily available information. Don’t get me wrong, I love/use evolving technology, and am a passionate learner, but should these take precedence over original thinking?
This week, a client wandered around the neighbourhood looking for my office… apparently her Tom-Tom gave her wrong direction. Despite my map and building photograph attached to an e-mail, she haughtily informed me that she “was part of the 21st century”! Similarly I read of an army unit stranded in the desert because the GPS signal was unobtainable… It was a scramble to find someone who remembered how to plot direction by traditional means. Similarly how often do members of the medical or automotive professions tell us “there is nothing wrong” just because the diagnostic technology of choice says so? Think too, of how easily we comply with fashion, art trends etc. by a quick verification on the internet… Discovering, and often preferring, someone else’s taste/interpretation rather than evolving our own opinions!
Marshal McLuhan wisely said: “technology extends, rather than replaces human capacity…” – I often wonder if our reliance on technology for accessing existing information hasn’t overridden our ability to generate our own opinions/theories/ideas?
The Harding Leadership Program identifies the starting point of leadership as the ability to identify requirement at any point in time. This important competency is dependent on individual ability to listen, observe, research, analyze, interpret, and ultimately distil clues … random or specific… to a workable theory! Surely this calls for both existing and original information? In an environment when time is too often of the essence, do we not forget at times that what we think counts…And might save a great deal of money and even more time in the long run?
We encourage participants to strive for the right fit… Full and pleasurable deployment of all individual competencies and experience is our goal!
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