Gladwell On The Future Workplace

Writer Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink, journalist at the New Yorker) spoke with the Globe and Mail about changes in how people work and what businesses will need in the coming decades. Workers, he says, are going to need to be a lot smarter, and he feels the best way to meet that goal is for corporations to help to improve eduction. It's in their best interests, he argues, and their competitive advantage depends on it.

I would just say if I were a CEO of a major company in Canada or the United States, I would be much more involved in public education. I know there are many who are, but I would consider that a priority along the lines of things that are specific to my own company. The competitiveness of any organization is so dependent on the quality of the work force, and it would be so much easier for us to improve public education if corporations publicly and loudly lined up behind the public school system. I think that would make an enormous difference. They should be a lot freer with their time and with their wallets in supporting public education.

Gladwell sees workplaces becoming more flexible, jobs become more demanding and employees becoming more thoughtful. "I'm quite prepared for the possibility that the next revolution is not going to come from a machine," he said. "It's going to come from creating a more thoughtful work force and giving people the opportunity to be thoughtfu."

A few year ago I saw on TV Gladwell's speech at the New Yorker Festival; it was a preview of his book Blink. Maybe Gladwell, who has been quiet for many months, is working on a book about the changing workplace? Or maybe education.  A few days ago, Gladwell told a sold-out debate at the New York Society for Ethical Culture that the Ivy League admissions process should be banned.