“More than 90% of students take a civics class in high school, but on a national test given in 2010, only 27 % of high school seniors demonstrated proficiency in the subject.”
– From a Bloomberg Business Week
The headline on the story was “Citizens Need to Take Citizenship Tests, Too,” and while the statistics are appalling (and support my position that many of the people who can vote, shouldn’t), they point to a major problem in business today, as well.
Too often we “check the box” on “training,” but don’t really validate that the education gets translated in to real, applicable knowledge.
Key word: Applicable
Teaching story-telling skills without ever watching the team tell the story — doesn’t count.
Teaching accounting skills without making sure the counters of the beans understand the business of bean production — doesn’t work.
Teaching marketing skills and then not tracking the return on the marketing investment — means there is no return on the investment.
I candidly like the idea of requiring folks to pass a very basic citizenship test in order to vote. And I love the idea of requiring leaders to make sure that whatever education they’re providing their team to be applicable and measurable.
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