View Points – Page 5 – STIMS Institute

It may be a mistake to get a degree in Chemistry, unless you have also figured out how to use your knowledge!

Following is an extract from this article: A glut of chemists with bachelor’s degrees as well?
http://cenblog.org/just-another-electron-pusher/2013/01/a-glut-of-chemists-with-bachelors-degrees-as-well/
This past November, C&EN ran a cover story on the employment outlook for chemists. The coverage consisted of several simultaneously published stories regarding various aspects of the employment outlook. The main focus shared by many of these stories was on chemists already in the workforce, and the effects that recent or impending layoffs have had on their lives. I offered a few thoughts on the topic as it stirred up fresh memories of having gone through similar experiences myself.

The bleak employment outlook for recent graduates with bachelor’s degrees in chemistry was also described, but in less detail than given for experienced workers. Those details, plus profiles of some recent graduates, were provided earlier this week, in “New Bachelor-Level Chemists Face Grim Job Market,” an excellent article by C&EN Senior Editor Susan J. Ainsworth. Some thoughtful comments on this story have been provided by Chemjobber this week.

With the likelihood of employment within their discipline fading, many BS/BA chemists have opted to continue their education—often outside of science altogether, let alone chemistry. Some popular choices: law school and MBA programs. So. They’re seeking a career change. Before their careers have even begun. I’m sad that this decision has been forced upon them, but I certainly wish them all well.

OUR View:
It is sad that we are ready to quit and accept that our young graduates end their years of dreams and passion for physical sciences , even before they can find their first job. Sad indeed that they have to seek a degree in law or MBA, since they are hurting for jobs in their chosen area of interest.
The reality is that the economy has changed. We call this as the Binary Economy. https://stimsinstitute.com/2013/07/17/learn-to-swim-against-the-tide-of-binary-economy/

You no longer have jobs with well-defined roles and clear tasks. Instead you need to become a solution provider, constantly using the knowledge you gained in the college courses. This requires System Thinking – ability to see the big picture, connect the dots to see the pattern, figure out what needs to be done and make it happen. You cannot merely do what you are asked to do (Task orientation) and then wait for some one to tell you what to do next..

Such System Thinking should be demonstrated through Transformational Skills to span or migrate across Discovery, Development, Deployment and Exploitation of your solution- as a continuous stream and not as silos. This requires constant integration of your knowledge (Science) and its application (Engineering) and the strategy to get ahead (Management). You need to do that while keeping at bay all those nay-sayers and door stoppers under the guise of administrators, supervisors, managers and the like, who are there merely to preserve their jobs rather than help you get ahead. There are good reasons for this reality. https://stimsinstitute.com/2013/12/18/did-anything-go-wrong/

These skills for System Thinking and Transformational Skills are not taught anywhere through organized courses. We need a concerted effort on such education from High School through college as a parallel to STEM education and UG degree courses. In the meantime ACS and other professional associations can teach these skills through courses and as part of continuing education. americanceramicsociety.org/bulletin/2014/apr14/#/44/

Recently I was counseling a student with B.S. Degree in Bio-Informatics. Sounds great! But the college did not help the student find the places where he can apply for jobs or tell him where such jobs are available. It would appear that the faculty put together a collection of courses based on their research work – suitable probably for the few Ph.D level students. Then they put together an U.G. Degree curriculum and graduated many students with no place to go after graduation. After all an UG Degree in Bio-informatics sounds lot more jazzy than a degree in Biology. It also shows some link to computers or IT!

Few among them with a natural ability for ST and TS do indeed find their jobs. The rest are burdened with huge college loan and harsh criticism – unwarranted in our view – as noted in the comment as a response to the above article: How was this decision forced upon them? Could they not of left the country to find a chemistry job somewhere in the world? Nothing was forced on them, they just decided they wanted more convenience. Nobody cuffed them and dragged them to go to school to get their MBA.

It is a harsh criticism of graduates in any field, especially in physical sciences – such as Chemistry, Physics, etc. – to ask them, why did you get a degree in this subject? or why don’t you find the job overseas? Let us stop the blame game and the harsh unwarranted criticisms. https://stimsinstitute.com/2013/08/08/time-to-re-define-education-globalization/ Let us teach our kids – with strong interest – with solid education in Physical Sciences. Let us add to their talent the ST and TS Education. They will be the shining stars of the professions in Physics, Chemistry and all other physical sciences world in the 21st Century. For more details please Contact US

American Ceramic Society Bulletin Review of our recent book

The American Ceramic Society Bulletin has review of our recent book titled:
Thriving in the 21st Century Economy: Transformational Skills for Technical Professionals. It is posted here with the permission of the ACS.

April 2014-Bulletin-Book Review

The magazine also is live online now. The link to the on line review:

http://americanceramicsociety.org/bulletin/2014/apr14/#/44/

Can the economy continue to grow while creating fewer well paying jobs? – the answer is “YES”.

During a recent show on Hardball (MSNBC) by Chris Mathews, the TV Host asked his guest – Ms. Tanden: “Are we getting fewer well-paying jobs while the economy continues to grow?” The answer is a resounding “YES”. The question was honest and sincere and the answer was also sincere. Beyond this and the despair, there was no logic to their discussion except for blaming the rich and the govt. !

For nearly four decades now, thanks to inventorship and entrepreneurialism of a few, we have seen the shift in the work into four distinct classes:

Finance – where people make money out of money (They gain non-wage income through stock price appreciation, trading and dividends)
Professional Work – where the wages are earned for value added solution – something new and unique. Yourself, me and Ms. Tanden and people like us belong to this class of work force.
Information Work – where wages are earned for executing well defined tasks to collect, process and disseminate information (much of the work in call centers, BPOs, front end and back office work, etc. belong to this category)
Physical work – where wages are earned literally for well defined physical tasks (like flipping the burger or driving trucks from point A to B, driving Taxi cab, factory work in China and India, moving packages at FedEx distribution centers, etc.).

Of these four categories of work, those who work with the Finance get the bounty. They can put their money to work anywhere across the globe and make more money out of it. You and I gain here through global mutual funds and 401K investments!

Then comes the professional work (and to be part of this gold rush or mirage, is why everyone is pushing for higher education). There are not too many like the TV show host, who constantly keep adding value – through the TV show, road show, books, speaking engagements, expert commentary, etc.

Those who merely do what they are asked to do unwittingly fall into the next two categories: The information work and physical labor intensive work. They will continue to be paid poorly (since their value addition is only that much – very low) as their work continues to be de-skilled, standardized and automated.

Till the 1970s these four classes of work were somewhat intermixed. One could migrate from one layer to the next (upward) and this created the large pool of middle class. Such mobility across the levels of jobs also created the American Dream: If you work hard and smart you can get ahead. This doctrine is no more valid. The four layers are nearly water tight and with a steady effort to push the work content and number of jobs to the lower paying information tasks and physical work tasks. The numbers of such low wage jobs created are increasing as we continue to bleed the professional work jobs to fewer and fewer in number.

Now there is also a constant effort to de-skill and standardize information work and physical labor. As a result their value addition will continue to decline and hence the wages for such jobs will also decline. Programmable automation, robotics and such will also take more out of the lower paying information work and physical work jobs as well. (e.g.): The octopod to deliver packages for Amazon will reduce more of the truck driver jobs. The number of professional jobs needed to create and implement the octopod will be far fewer than the professional jobs and lower paying jobs they will replace. This is the productivity gain and the JOBLESS RECOVERY! In the beginning there could be an appearance of job growth at some locations, but across the globe there will continue to be less of a need for human centered activities called work and the reward for them.

Hence the answer to the question: Can we continue to grow while creating fewer well paying jobs? – the answer is “YES”. Digital Technology and Global Financing are the drivers for this development. It is not the outcome or ploy by a few.

The sad thing is that nobody recognizes this simple reality (neither the liberals nor the conservatives or the tea party or the burn everything down – angry folks). The heads of institutions and leaders in every function of the society also pay only lip service to this evolving fundamental issue.

When the agricultural industry evolved, 40% employment in agriculture shrunk to 1% of the population now working in it. Industry driven employment replaced agricultural employment. Now, we are headed in the similar direction with industrial employment where few workers are needed. But there is no replacement in sight.

Can there be a solution to this? – YES.

But, before to get there, we need to recognize the problem, first (i.e.) It is the Binary Economy! This requires an unwavering attention of all and at every level of leadership.

For more details please see: https://stimsinstitute.com/2013/07/17/learn-to-swim-against-the-tide-of-binary-economy/

Did anything go wrong?

Did anything go wrong?
or
Do we refuse to accept the reality of the Binary Economy?

In a recent TV Interview http://www.msnbc.com/the-daily-rundown/watch/economic-model-failed-in-2008-says-greenspan-94106691726 Mr. Greespan stated that he has been working on an ideology for more than forty years that “people behave in their own self-interest”. He has now come to the conclusion that this assumption is wrong or false.
Before rejecting the well-established principles of classical economics, it may be prudent to look at such conclusion in light of the rules of operation in the Global Economy. What happens when the playing field for the investors is across the globe (which includes capitalism, socialism, communism and dictatorship and everything in-between), while all the workers – wage earners – are constrained to the opportunities limited to the national boundaries and the rules and regulations pertaining to the country they live in? Have we come to a point, where the needs of the investors and the needs of the community or nation where the investors live are no longer congruent? Under these new rules what does self-interest really mean? May be there are two self-interests: of the investors (across the globe) and the wage earners in each country ? May be they are mutually exclusive? May be they are binary?
Mr. Green span correctly concluded that the “Income in-equality is very significant. There are two segments of the population: Those who earn their income through wages and salaries, who are also called as production and non-production workers. The income for the average worker in any category has been flat and extremely dampened; Then the second category of workers who gain their income from the value of the assets. The income for this category – the investors – have been climbing steadily”.
When asked what to do about this, Mr. Greenspan replied, “It is mostly the Government acting in a manner that is creating the uncertainty and the sluggish US economic growth. No simple Government program will change the income inequality”.
Somehow he believes that under right climate the investors will find their courage to invest aggressively to grow the economy in a way that creates prosperity for all. He fails to ask the questions: Why it is not in the self-interest of the investors to continue to reap more rewards? Why is it in their self-interest to do something to address the income in-equality? In the Global Economy, the investor’s self-interest to acquire more wealth across the globe and the prosperity through high wage workers in larger numbers may be in conflict with each other?
The reality is that we now live in a Binary Economy. In this economy there are four distinct classes of workers: The physical laborer (the worker in Walmart who stocks the shelves or the worker in FedEx distribution center who sorts the boxes or the worker in McDonald’s who flips the burgers); the Information worker (who works in call centers and those who follow the script given to him/her), the Professional who creates and implements something new all the time and gets paid for it and finally the Investor.

Of these four, the first two groups – physical labor and information worker – who are also generally the poor and low income workers will see stagnant wages since they bring no additional value in this new economy even through their years of experience. All their jobs will continue to be relentlessly de-skilled, standardized and automated (through programmable automation like the drones to deliver packages or self-guided robots). That is the power of the evolutions in Digital technology. The Genie is out of the bottle. There is no way to put it back in the bottle! Their chance of getting ahead in the economic ladder and growing into a middle class are less to none, as the statistics for the past few decades bears out. Increased minimum wages and social safety net may be their only way out. Only Government programs can change their economic lot.
The global finance, a version of Global Economy is also here to stay forever. Hence the investors will continue to do well, since their playing field and resources accessible to them are not limited to any one nation and its boundaries. This so called global capitalism is also enabled thanks to Digital Technology. Those with some non-wage income – through mutual funds, 401K investments, etc. – will do well as they chase the coat tails of the rich investors.
This brings us to the last group – the professionals. There were the days where the professional invented one new product or had the tricks up the sleeve for one process or some special know-how. Since it was in his/her head or in the private file folders, investors needed them for life time. Not anymore. As soon as they have documented their idea, it is available for everyone to use, across the globe, thanks to Digital Technology enabled capabilities. They need to start on the next one and continue this chase relentlessly. Their economic future will largely depend on: do they choose to be passionate to identify and create and implement a relentless stream of new solutions? We call this passion and the skills required for that as the Transformational Skills. If yes, they will be seen as valuable by the investors and hence may continue to climb the economic ladder. Or, do they choose to be a one trick pony and after that merely take orders and carry out assigned tasks? If yes, they will be mercilessly pushed into the category of low wage information workers, consistent with their low value addition. Investors will have no mercy for their economic wellbeing. It is only rational and consistent with the basic principle of classical economics: People behave in their own economic self-interest.
It will require Government to protect the self-interest of the workers whose income comes from salaries and wages. These are also the large body of the middle class as well as the consuming public in any nation. They are not the traditional unionized workers. They are everyone but the investors. They are the 99%
The Government can be the intervener creating programs that educates everyone on their self-interest to become “Transformational”. It is not a matter of more of the same education. Instead it has to be more and yet different education. Government can also start programs that create employment in areas where the investor’s self-interest may not be the driver. These include seed efforts for exploitation of new areas for economic activity, Research and Development investments to explore basic sciences – to expand advancements in the technology base beyond Digital technology, health and environmental sciences, infrastructure investments, etc..
It may not be the uncertainty of Government policies that is slowing the US economic growth. Investors always will know how to take risks, whatever the climate they face. It is in their economic self-interest to do so. The key question to address may be: Have the wage earning workers learned the rules of the new game?
We now live in a Binary Economy. Job-less recovery, high reward for investors from across the globe, high wages for a selected few – also from across the globe – who deliver a constant stream of new solutions, productivity growth through the work of these few that eliminates the need or lowers the wages for many more workers and resultant income in-equality are the basic features of this economy. In this new economy, growth in terms of GDP and low unemployment or decreasing the wage gap may not be congruent.

Critical issues facing Organizational Development

I came across this blog prost recently: December 10, 2013 http://www.blog.gr2010.com/?author=1The regular script and Bold highlights are by the original author. I have underlined a few important passages.

The items in Italics are my comments and links.

Best wishes

Dr. K. (Subbu) Subramanian, President, STIMS Institute Inc.

1) organizations are war zones in which people struggle not to join the ranks of the unemployed. Few people expect to have job satisfaction; “satisfaction” is having a job. Since market conditions favor the employer and not the employee, people are no longer all that important. People have become spare parts.

This severe economic crisis, “organizations at war” and “people have become spare parts” is the reality in most developed nations, which are suffering the severe impact of the Binary Economy. This may not yet be the case in some startup companies or across the board in emerging countries, but it will certainly be the case for most established companies or businesses across the globe (it is becoming more of a case for IT sector also).

The cornerstone of OD was to align the individual with the organization and focus on creating an environment which is good for the individual and for the organization. Thus, the relevance of OD’s value proposition appears bizarre at the present moment.

Today OD has to focus on making sure each professional has the highest effectiveness – PE Score – which in turn translates to identifiable business impact. In other words, OD has to become “bottom up” rather than “top down”.

2) Professions should have professional standards. These professional standards serve as a balance and complement the commercial criteria by which professions are evaluat

We recommend the PE Score as the standard for all professionals and System Thinking and Transformational skills as the means to increase the PE Score.

So, a chartered accountant who has a thriving business but violates accounting practices will find himself in deep water.

Any scientist or engineer who is successful today will be in deep water soon, if they do not continue to exploit the principles of Science or Engineer pertinence to their profession. This is part of the System Approach.

OD is a poorly defined profession with no borders. There are no agreed upon professional standards. Thus, commercial standards are totally dominating how OD is practiced. OD has become a commodity, sold by an OD vendor, and the OD practitioner must satisfy the client. If the client does not know what he needs, this is irrelevant because you “follow the money” and deliver what has been ordered.

In most cases the client as well as the OD vendor is unaware that the needs of 21^st century are not the same. They are Binary now: An organization to create a stream of New Solutions, and in parallel with an organization that can replicate known solutions in larger quantities. The requirements of these two parallel organizations – technical skills, people skills, risk taking, aptitude, System Thinking and Transformational Skills – are substantially different.

OD requirements for the two parallel organizations in the Binary Economy

A cornerstone of OD was to “speak truth to power”. If one needs to “titillate” and please the “customer”, the ability of OD to deliver on one of its major principles is castrated.

The truth that needs to be spoken today is the emergence of the Binary Economy. Requiring the above two parallel modes for OD. Customers are not aware of this or focused on this. The OD support providers are not aware of this or focused on this. This leads to the above conflict – need to titillate and inability to speak the truth – between OD Support provider and the clients.

3) OD was founded by White Western and European males, and the Western values of OD are in line with those of the founders: participation, openness, authenticity, delegation, team work. Organizations are now configured globally. In most of the world, there is more autocracy, more secretiveness, more discretion than is seen in the west; many of the values of OD are seen as parochial and irrelevant to the way people should operate, especially when they are threatened as people are in today’s economy.

These are not serious issues in the organizations focused on Replication Solutions (e.g): Large majority of Walmart workers or McDonald’s employees are not impacted by these issues of global cultures and management styles. But, this is true for professional workers (Scientists, engineers and managers, who work in global teams to create and implement New Solutions). The OD developmental requirements (see the Table above) for these professionals – engaged in New Solutions organizations – are nearly the same across the globe.

4) As OD “stands its ground” and waits for the economy to “recover”, other professions cannibalized OD. Change Management promises those in power that changes can be “managed” with a set of templates. HR is disguising itself as a “business partner”, has cast aside/betrays the lobbying for the human resource and often serves as management’s 5th column to “deal” and contain the human resource. Unions and organized labor may/will fill in the vacuum. Certainly in the country where I live, re-unionization is rampant.

This cannibalization is a reality in every profession. When the OD focus is largely for cost reduction, outplacement and out sourcing, then OD Providers serve this needs largely through Psychological counseling and rigorous training for effectiveness on standard tasks (such as speaking skills for call center employees). The Binary Economy requires structured and well executed OD development tools to growth the two parallel organizations at all levels in a diligent and sustained manner (and also in the right balance) unique to each company.

5) OD had a massive focus on communication. In organizations, people rarely talk too much anymore; they text and email and use portals. A major domain in which OD brought huge value is shrinking.

Knowledge (Academic, Sector/domain specific and Transformational), Experience and Inter-personal skills are the legs of any solution for OD. Of these, the Inter-personal skill requires effective communication. This small part of the skill development has been the major focus of OD, as mentioned above. But this view of the OD has to change. Instead OD has to become a system focused on a ladder of core capabilities, at the three levels: Individuals; Department/team; Enterprise/industry, leading to an organization of T- shaped thinkers and problem solvers.

T – Shaped employees,
organization and enterprise development.