Higher Edification

Fear is terrific for meeting deadlines, demonizing adversaries, and filling us with inertia. Freedom as Jon Stewart pointed out is not the best tonic for creative output. But the fear contagion squeezes those last drips of inspiration from the creativity juicer. There they go. Down the drain of risk aversion. Hence a climate of uncertainty is all corporate America needs to sits on its hands -- or in the case of Haliburton move to Dubai so taxes can be treated with the respect a balance sheet treats pure profit -- a revenue-gusher harpooned from the veiny arms of the U.S. Treasury.

And what happens when Government 2.0 takes matters into its own hands? It trips over its own unfunded regulations or runs into corruption on highway projects that overbill taxpayers with the same confidence that our officials voice when campaigning to fix our crumbling infrastructure.

These are the familiar invective-laced villains that managed to escape economic gravity up until the end-of-life care for the American middle-class (remember when that was an actual voting bloc? I don't either). But there's a whole section of the economy that's escaped the wrath of every cable diatribunal. It's even escaped the sights of the most vehement members of the tea party freshman class. In fact a March showdown over the debt ceiling is likelier to see the chandeliers crashing on well-heeled Medicare recipients than any fingers wagging in the direction of this most elitist and blameworthy of our domestic cartels.

American higher education is the envy of the world. But it is in the unenviable position of being out of the reach of most Americans. According to Jonathan Alter America's college graduation rates have plummeted from #2 to #16 over the last generation. And how much of the swelling amenities lining the tax exempt pockets of American Universities gone to enriching the commonweal for which that privilege was first extended? And why the free ride? Harvard doesn't have to move to Dubai to evade taxes. (That's where the action is for American Universities as they tap out of the elites over here).

Here in New England (formerly American Higher Education headquarters) 40% of Boston proper is off Mayor Menino's tax map for this reason. But does that policy foster good collegial neighbors or a trust for sheltering the otherwise taxable excesses of former HBS grads who never counted a dollar they couldn't depreciate (or compete on)?

Harvard's trustees weren't sure just how far the sky had fallen by the time its endowments had shriveled in the wake of the financial meltdown. It also served as the reason that major capital works in surrounding Allston were suspended -- even though that justification has since subsided. But hey, the future's still an iffy proposition, right? Especially for an asset pile as high, precious, and potentially imperiled as the Harvard endowment.

It's interesting how unquestioning the media is. Is a college degree worth getting? The question's no more open than bargaining for the size of one's tuition bill. In fact it's a rigorous debate compared to performance-based degree programs. Can you imagine basing student tuition debts on the actual career benefits the degree advances? No skin in that game.

Still, it's good for the higher ed business if we accept the long-held premise that college grads earn a good deal more than the rest of us. In last week's New York Times Brigham & Young Economist Eric Eide reasoned that the costs of college are not going up any "faster than the returns of graduating from an elite private university." In other words the cost of an ivy league degree is commensurate with competing for jobs in the 21st century -- either you're in or you're out.

That may be true. But until the surrounding community is completely out of their ivy league the national debt should be no less abstract to economists like Mr. Eide than the institutions that keep cranking out those economists, tax lawyers, robber-barons, and Oval Office holders.

Higher Edification

Fear is terrific for meeting deadlines, demonizing adversaries, and filling us with inertia. Freedom as Jon Stewart pointed out is not the best tonic for creative output. But the fear contagion squeezes those last drips of inspiration from the creativity juicer. There they go. Down the drain of risk aversion. Hence a climate of uncertainty is all corporate America needs to sits on its hands -- or in the case of Haliburton move to Dubai so taxes can be treated with the respect a balance sheet treats pure profit -- a revenue-gusher harpooned from the veiny arms of the U.S. Treasury.

And what happens when Government 2.0 takes matters into its own hands? It trips over its own unfunded regulations or runs into corruption on highway projects that overbill taxpayers with the same confidence that our officials voice when campaigning to fix our crumbling infrastructure.

These are the familiar invective-laced villains that managed to escape economic gravity up until the end-of-life care for the American middle-class (remember when that was an actual voting bloc? I don't either). But there's a whole section of the economy that's escaped the wrath of every cable diatribunal. It's even escaped the sights of the most vehement members of the tea party freshman class. In fact a March showdown over the debt ceiling is likelier to see the chandeliers crashing on well-heeled Medicare recipients than any fingers wagging in the direction of this most elitist and blameworthy of our domestic cartels.

American higher education is the envy of the world. But it is in the unenviable position of being out of the reach of most Americans. According to Jonathan Alter America's college graduation rates have plummeted from #2 to #16 over the last generation. And how much of the swelling amenities lining the tax exempt pockets of American Universities gone to enriching the commonweal for which that privilege was first extended? And why the free ride? Harvard doesn't have to move to Dubai to evade taxes. (That's where the action is for American Universities as they tap out of the elites over here).

Here in New England (formerly American Higher Education headquarters) 40% of Boston proper is off Mayor Menino's tax map for this reason. But does that policy foster good collegial neighbors or a trust for sheltering the otherwise taxable excesses of former HBS grads who never counted a dollar they couldn't depreciate (or compete on)?

Harvard's trustees weren't sure just how far the sky had fallen by the time its endowments had shriveled in the wake of the financial meltdown. It also served as the reason that major capital works in surrounding Allston were suspended -- even though that justification has since subsided. But hey, the future's still an iffy proposition, right? Especially for an asset pile as high, precious, and potentially imperiled as the Harvard endowment.

It's interesting how unquestioning the media is. Is a college degree worth getting? The question's no more open than bargaining for the size of one's tuition bill. In fact it's a rigorous debate compared to performance-based degree programs. Can you imagine basing student tuition debts on the actual career benefits the degree advances? No skin in that game.

Still, it's good for the higher ed business if we accept the long-held premise that college grads earn a good deal more than the rest of us. In last week's New York Times Brigham & Young Economist Eric Eide reasoned that the costs of college are not going up any "faster than the returns of graduating from an elite private university." In other words the cost of an ivy league degree is commensurate with competing for jobs in the 21st century -- either you're in or you're out.

That may be true. But until the surrounding community is completely out of their ivy league the national debt should be no less abstract to economists like Mr. Eide than the institutions that keep cranking out those economists, tax lawyers, robber-barons, and Oval Office holders.

Requiem for a Working Stiff

There are two reasons that economies exist: (1) to remunerate the owners of capital to the optimal degree; and (2) to maintain social stability, a.k.a. so the renters of capital keep the roofs on their backs and don't storm the gates of McMansionville. 


The further the U.S. strays from reason #2 the more convinced I am that there is a price for greed. There is a cost for fear. What us humans will stumble over the brambles of adversity in the life auction to bid for at any price is stability. What's the market doing today -- name your price. It's stability that's priceless. There's actually a third reason -- electing more Republicans to public office by promising to cut the taxes of all Americans (dead or alive). But I digress. 


I showed you my economic cards to foreshadow a recent get-together with a former colleague once removed. It happened at a completely pass-up-able trade show in Boston few weeks back. I wasn't speaking, I wasn't listening. I wasn't paying or expensing or conventioning any of it. But I went because it gave me the opportunity to run into folks I normally graze indirectly through a fleeting tweet or a bump on a blog. The fact that these are "chance" meetings with no formal agendas or hard stops is sometimes as appealing as the names that drop into these calendar openings.


However, there was one meeting of particular merit because it reminded me of a time in the past where terms like "career-building" and "ladder-climbing" were more than platitudes to gold watches and indentured supplicants. The gentleman I was meeting with had just accepted a job to work as a KM grunt with a prestigious and high-flying brain factory fired from piping, fresh HBS idea ovens. 


George (I'll call him here) had a much better run than I as an independent KM consultant with longer feasts, shorter famines, and enough returning engagements to get him on the short list of folks who are called into bless, validate, and handicap most big ticket enterprise content decisions.


What search engine do we buy? Why is garbage-in, garbage-out the only process flow that works with any regularity in our document life-cycle? George was the guy who could address the daunting and predictable questions  looming on  the radars of cash-rich, strategically impoverished IT shops left minding the information management store.


Maybe it was another college tuition to meet? Perhaps it was a spouse furloughed by the uncertainty that the future includes a place for over educated Americans who expect promotions and raises? Maybe it was the shock of knowing that mom and dad are now not just confusing our names with our siblings but referring to us as their own siblings? 


Whatever landed over the top on the wrong side of the watershed  bed, George decided that being paid twice a month was preferable to the prospect of fatter, inconsistent pay days. He confided that it stung a little to see no press release parading the new home of his worthy track record and talents. The simple fact is that companies don't crow about their costs and George's new employer doesn't sell KM consulting for a living. 


Do they want to deliberate about how the only thing standing between them and bigger deals is better knowledge-sharing? Nope. And especially nope if they can't bill for it. Community-building? IP propagation? That's what we hired you to do, George. Let us know when you've fixed it and we'll have something.


I sympathize with George -- to a point. But then I need to remind him -- not of his senile parents or farcical former clients but that he is now firmly under the radar and cleared for take-off. This is a glide-path where he can pilot the hypotheticals. The slideware is gone.  Every new hire is not just a collegial grunt but a recruitment opportunity: what is it from me you expect? If the answer is a blank stare, I'll mold the fillings. You'll be pedaling your fulfillment right out of our showroom (or intranet for those of you viewing at work).

It's worth noting that in my own family my wife had her own recent breakthrough on working stiff etiquette.  Rather than lamenting the fact that her basket case nonprofit closes its firewall to remote access, she saw her dysfunctional IT operation as the gift that it is -- six uninterrupted hours on Acela to wifi her way to a job that leaves her alone long enough to live her life.  


In conclusion, George, believe your indoctrination into the land of working stiffs will offer its own rewards – not the least of which is far greater flexibility to unleash your pragmatic creative problem-solving in an environment that will benefit your new colleagues in ways they scarcely know.

Requiem for a Working Stiff

There are two reasons that economies exist: (1) to remunerate the owners of capital to the optimal degree; and (2) to maintain social stability, a.k.a. so the renters of capital keep the roofs on their backs and don't storm the gates of McMansionville. 


The further the U.S. strays from reason #2 the more convinced I am that there is a price for greed. There is a cost for fear. What us humans will stumble over the brambles of adversity in the life auction to bid for at any price is stability. What's the market doing today -- name your price. It's stability that's priceless. There's actually a third reason -- electing more Republicans to public office by promising to cut the taxes of all Americans (dead or alive). But I digress. 


I showed you my economic cards to foreshadow a recent get-together with a former colleague once removed. It happened at a completely pass-up-able trade show in Boston few weeks back. I wasn't speaking, I wasn't listening. I wasn't paying or expensing or conventioning any of it. But I went because it gave me the opportunity to run into folks I normally graze indirectly through a fleeting tweet or a bump on a blog. The fact that these are "chance" meetings with no formal agendas or hard stops is sometimes as appealing as the names that drop into these calendar openings.


However, there was one meeting of particular merit because it reminded me of a time in the past where terms like "career-building" and "ladder-climbing" were more than platitudes to gold watches and indentured supplicants. The gentleman I was meeting with had just accepted a job to work as a KM grunt with a prestigious and high-flying brain factory fired from piping, fresh HBS idea ovens. 


George (I'll call him here) had a much better run than I as an independent KM consultant with longer feasts, shorter famines, and enough returning engagements to get him on the short list of folks who are called into bless, validate, and handicap most big ticket enterprise content decisions.


What search engine do we buy? Why is garbage-in, garbage-out the only process flow that works with any regularity in our document life-cycle? George was the guy who could address the daunting and predictable questions  looming on  the radars of cash-rich, strategically impoverished IT shops left minding the information management store.


Maybe it was another college tuition to meet? Perhaps it was a spouse furloughed by the uncertainty that the future includes a place for over educated Americans who expect promotions and raises? Maybe it was the shock of knowing that mom and dad are now not just confusing our names with our siblings but referring to us as their own siblings? 


Whatever landed over the top on the wrong side of the watershed  bed, George decided that being paid twice a month was preferable to the prospect of fatter, inconsistent pay days. He confided that it stung a little to see no press release parading the new home of his worthy track record and talents. The simple fact is that companies don't crow about their costs and George's new employer doesn't sell KM consulting for a living. 


Do they want to deliberate about how the only thing standing between them and bigger deals is better knowledge-sharing? Nope. And especially nope if they can't bill for it. Community-building? IP propagation? That's what we hired you to do, George. Let us know when you've fixed it and we'll have something.


I sympathize with George -- to a point. But then I need to remind him -- not of his senile parents or farcical former clients but that he is now firmly under the radar and cleared for take-off. This is a glide-path where he can pilot the hypotheticals. The slideware is gone.  Every new hire is not just a collegial grunt but a recruitment opportunity: what is it from me you expect? If the answer is a blank stare, I'll mold the fillings. You'll be pedaling your fulfillment right out of our showroom (or intranet for those of you viewing at work).

It's worth noting that in my own family my wife had her own recent breakthrough on working stiff etiquette.  Rather than lamenting the fact that her basket case nonprofit closes its firewall to remote access, she saw her dysfunctional IT operation as the gift that it is -- six uninterrupted hours on Acela to wifi her way to a job that leaves her alone long enough to live her life.  


In conclusion, George, believe your indoctrination into the land of working stiffs will offer its own rewards – not the least of which is far greater flexibility to unleash your pragmatic creative problem-solving in an environment that will benefit your new colleagues in ways they scarcely know.

Lessons Learned as a PI Instructor

I did something last week that I've never done in my professional life. I fired myself from a job -- not just any job but the one that pays me back on a reciprocal level that is far more nurturing than my average pay day. I resigned from my five year-long gig as an adjunct in Boston University's Center of Professional Education. That's the school within BU that awards certificates to mid-career adults looking to cut a new career path. My students were aspiring PIs. Unlike them I was never into CSI or apprehending alleged perps. Maybe I see too much good in the bad guy and visa versa to carry that moral clarity which captivates crusaders of all stripes (and many capes).

But the one thing that justice seekers and knowledge planners share in spades is an insatiable appetite for evidence. Not just smoking guns in the firing lines of law enforcement but any shred that could piece together the mysteries surrounding how people act on what they know, a.k.a. "why people do what they do" -- especially of an unspeakable vintage that only deepens both the mystery of the case and the resolve of the investigator.

If I shy away from moral judgements I'm certainly not on the fence about my participation in this worthy program. The students taught me more than I could ever learn in someone else's classroom about the tenacious and painstaking business of assembling a reliable accounting. Their case work tested by the slippery sequencing of tangled outcomes from competing versions of self-selecting interpretations. Now that's a complexity that only Mother Research could love and take under her watchful spyglass. But that's the education I got from teaching these budding detectives how to tackle the web as a research medium.

If my role was restricted only to this thrill of the hunt, such gratitude would have sustained my participation for years to come. But over time the experience began to shift, particularly in the online version of the course. A vocal and growing minority of students lacked both the personal confidence and institutional support to put their fears aside and reconnect with the same bold exploratory spirit that led them to sign up in the first place.

Too often my teaching (or facilitation as it's called in the distance learning segment) consisted of talking time-starved students down from their isolated towers of despair. It's trying hard enough that they juggle family and work schedules with their online education. But when the curriculum's too hard to grasp? That's when the sinking ship comes to anchor on the feeling that everyone else "gets it." The rest of one's virtual classmates are all on the same page.

The inconsolable student is in need of an immediate emotional rescue. It's 2 am. There's no life line. They are catastrophizing, big time. All sympathy aside, this routine sapped me dry. It consumed the energy I had been able to invest through the luxury of eye contact and 1:1 consults with my classroom students.

In addition to the lack of real-time human interaction, the course materials for the Internet Research section were treated the same as the other program components. This is not a minor omission. The world of surveillance, fingerprinting and case management doesn't require new readings, war stories or legal updates just because the program is cycling through a new class of students. I might not know my way around a crime scene barricade but I do know I could do a whole class on FaceBook -- a phenomenon that wasn't even a glimmer on horizon when our course materials went to press.

Internet Research not only warrants but demands a blanket refresh to stay in step with changing capabilities, rewritten interfaces, and expired resources. The course text predates social media. Even the online materials were produced three years ago, further alienating the virtual classes that call online their home, not just their subject matter.

I believe with a little more attentiveness the program can provide the stewardship that comes with a commitment to continuous improvement. Either way it's been an affirming, valuable experience and I thank CPE Director Ruth Ann Murray, Program Director Tom Shamshak, and curriculum manager Nancy Ahern for the opportunity to have helped pour the original foundation. That grounding will continue to establish BU's Certificate in Professional Investigations as a nesting bed for what Brendon Perrone calls the truth seekers among us -- the "modern day dragon slayers" with the courage to carry a questioning nature into the lines of battle.

To my former students thanks ... so much for inspiring me in your PI quest and your determination to engage a distracted, confusing, and often uncooperative set of circumstances that will ultimately answer to the justice you seek.

Lessons Learned as a PI Instructor

I did something last week that I've never done in my professional life. I fired myself from a job -- not just any job but the one that pays me back on a reciprocal level that is far more nurturing than my average pay day. I resigned from my five year-long gig as an adjunct in Boston University's Center of Professional Education. That's the school within BU that awards certificates to mid-career adults looking to cut a new career path. My students were aspiring PIs. Unlike them I was never into CSI or apprehending alleged perps. Maybe I see too much good in the bad guy and visa versa to carry that moral clarity which captivates crusaders of all stripes (and many capes).

But the one thing that justice seekers and knowledge planners share in spades is an insatiable appetite for evidence. Not just smoking guns in the firing lines of law enforcement but any shred that could piece together the mysteries surrounding how people act on what they know, a.k.a. "why people do what they do" -- especially of an unspeakable vintage that only deepens both the mystery of the case and the resolve of the investigator.

If I shy away from moral judgements I'm certainly not on the fence about my participation in this worthy program. The students taught me more than I could ever learn in someone else's classroom about the tenacious and painstaking business of assembling a reliable accounting. Their case work tested by the slippery sequencing of tangled outcomes from competing versions of self-selecting interpretations. Now that's a complexity that only Mother Research could love and take under her watchful spyglass. But that's the education I got from teaching these budding detectives how to tackle the web as a research medium.

If my role was restricted only to this thrill of the hunt, such gratitude would have sustained my participation for years to come. But over time the experience began to shift, particularly in the online version of the course. A vocal and growing minority of students lacked both the personal confidence and institutional support to put their fears aside and reconnect with the same bold exploratory spirit that led them to sign up in the first place.

Too often my teaching (or facilitation as it's called in the distance learning segment) consisted of talking time-starved students down from their isolated towers of despair. It's trying hard enough that they juggle family and work schedules with their online education. But when the curriculum's too hard to grasp? That's when the sinking ship comes to anchor on the feeling that everyone else "gets it." The rest of one's virtual classmates are all on the same page.

The inconsolable student is in need of an immediate emotional rescue. It's 2 am. There's no life line. They are catastrophizing, big time. All sympathy aside, this routine sapped me dry. It consumed the energy I had been able to invest through the luxury of eye contact and 1:1 consults with my classroom students.

In addition to the lack of real-time human interaction, the course materials for the Internet Research section were treated the same as the other program components. This is not a minor omission. The world of surveillance, fingerprinting and case management doesn't require new readings, war stories or legal updates just because the program is cycling through a new class of students. I might not know my way around a crime scene barricade but I do know I could do a whole class on FaceBook -- a phenomenon that wasn't even a glimmer on horizon when our course materials went to press.

Internet Research not only warrants but demands a blanket refresh to stay in step with changing capabilities, rewritten interfaces, and expired resources. The course text predates social media. Even the online materials were produced three years ago, further alienating the virtual classes that call online their home, not just their subject matter.

I believe with a little more attentiveness the program can provide the stewardship that comes with a commitment to continuous improvement. Either way it's been an affirming, valuable experience and I thank CPE Director Ruth Ann Murray, Program Director Tom Shamshak, and curriculum manager Nancy Ahern for the opportunity to have helped pour the original foundation. That grounding will continue to establish BU's Certificate in Professional Investigations as a nesting bed for what Brendon Perrone calls the truth seekers among us -- the "modern day dragon slayers" with the courage to carry a questioning nature into the lines of battle.

To my former students thanks ... so much for inspiring me in your PI quest and your determination to engage a distracted, confusing, and often uncooperative set of circumstances that will ultimately answer to the justice you seek.