Education vs Innovation

[Music]

well

i don’t know about you but i think i

figured out how the world works

would you like to hear about it yeah

great

big relief you see i had to figure

things out i’m a teacher

well upon introduction i usually just

say i’m a teacher trainer and

educator and this last bit was added

simply because i never got a follow-up

question when

i just said i’m chris and i’m a teacher

especially if i mention that i’m an

english teacher

well that kind of tells you that

teaching english is maybe not the

sexiest of jobs nowadays

and maybe that’s the reason why my

family and friends were quite surprised

when i told them that i changed over

from

working in business to teaching starting

everything over

you see where i’m from this usually

happens the other way around

i’m from former eastern european bloc

i’m from

um hungary raised under communism and

when the borders opened and i turned 16

i left the country and i went to the u.s

where i finished school had a job in the

big apple

and then i came back overseas to ireland

finished my mba

and then just to crown this fairy tale

right i landed a job as the eastern

european marketing manager overlooking

about 20 countries for a global firm

now jackpot you could say but i gave

that all

up and that puzzled some people they

asked me the question why

chris why did you change and i told them

the truth

it’s about money but of course

seriously i’ve always had an urge for

teaching

my drive is helping people to reach

their true potential

and believe it or not as an english

teacher

i get to do that how well

as a language learner you may also

experience that there are those

tedious grammar tasks and

vocab exercises but besides this boring

stuff there is that magical speaking

part

when if you give space to people build

their confidence

they get to talk about anything they

feel liberated

and during these discussions we often

come to a topic dearest to me

which could be summarized by saying an

english proverb

ready it goes like this you can’t teach

an old dog new tricks

what do you think do you believe that

i believe in asking questions thinking

outside the box

and challenging the status quo so in

this talk i’m going to tell you how

anyone including you all

can learn new tricks after all

i mean i i told you i figured things out

right

so over the past years working with

people on self development what we’ve

discovered is that there are basically

three ways things can work out in this

world for us human beings

number one is plan a now we all have

plan a’s whether we vocalize it or we

just keep it at the back of our heads

in connection to family work or

school we all have these goals that we

set and we go out there and try to get

them right

now in an ideal world this may just work

but in reality human beings

us we sometimes fail and when we fail we

sometimes fail miserably

when our plan a’s fail we feel

devastated

and we find ourselves in chaos

boom and when you’re in chaos what do

you do

you try to put the pieces back together

instantly

try to work within the given framework

with the usual toolkit

to put the building blocks back and this

is plan b

and while it’s worth a try sometimes it

can lead to bad decisions

for example plan b is responsible for

awful marriages that time staying at

jobs that we hate

at an institutional level we could

mention the school system that we’re

trying to patch to suit the modern world

but we fail

we could also mention at the corporate

level the enron case or the wire card

case where

they try to patch up the holes but

really in the end we find ourselves in

bigger

and deeper chaos so plan

b is about saving the status quo but

maybe we should go

one step further because in chaos

on a brighter note there is a chance to

rebuild things

and innovate and this is plan c now we

could talk about plan a

and plan b all day long but i think i

would lose you so let’s go to plan c

where we push the restart button because

this is where

life-changing events take place okay

why because i believe that chaos

represents an opportunity

yes chaos is a scary word i know that

but

while it marks the begin well it marks a

point of crisis it can also lead to a

new beginning

let me demonstrate that by sitting down

on this comfy chair

this is actually my chair my bar chair

well

why is this a special chair because this

was my companion

in the spring semester at the university

when we were asked to change over

from teaching face to face our students

to

digital learning online education

something that we had been contemplating

or doing for

years and failed now we succeeded in a

matter of days

all because of the pandemic all because

of the crisis

chaos can lead to a new beginning but of

course at a personal level things are

little more complex

we experience chaos differently we

experience chaos when we

lose control over the events of our

lives you know it’s just like

after a hot shower on a foggy mirror in

the bathroom you draw a star

and then you open the bathroom door and

then you see how that star is

disappearing this is how we lose control

one day we have it the next day we

we don’t it’s gone and that scares us

but this moment of loss is your chance

to reinvent

because nothing else is holding you back

any longer you can be creative

i know this feeling when you’re in chaos

i’ve been there

both at a personal level when my family

disintegrated and i felt i was losing my

daughter

and also at a professional level when

this dream job that i had

i felt it was simply killing me it

wasn’t for me it was not the right thing

for me

and these two things happened at the

same time

and as a result my plan a failed

miserably

um i tried to mend the situation and go

to plan b

but it was just getting worse so there

in chaos

i was in need to reimagine things and if

reimagining is innovation

then reimagining ourselves is

self-innovation

and i was in need of that but

you can ask the question it’s a big deal

let’s just self-innovate

but can we do that is this change such

an easy process

to demonstrate that let’s take a step

back

and look at moths that’s right

moths now these creatures are very

interesting they’ve been around for

over 190 million years they look

slightly like butterflies right

but they actually been around much

longer they are the

true evolutionary champions of our world

compared to us human beings new kids on

the block right

well these creatures are nocturnal

beings which means they do their work at

night

and as a result if you happen to be for

example at your weekend house you might

notice that

boom they just bump into your window

when outside it’s pitch dark

and inside the light is on it’s because

they are attractive they seem to be

attracted to artificial light

so when this happens and they bump into

your window

you would expect them to turn around and

go away find a way around the problem

but instead what happens is that they

keep coming back again and again

boom boom boom bumping their head to the

window now why am i talking about this

because i want to ask you a question do

you think we

humans do we fare any better when we’re

facing these

invisible obstacles like a window for

these guys

that they bump into do you think we do

any better

and the answer is no we keep bumping

into our invisible obstacles

when we fail with our plans we keep

making the same mistakes

over and over and again is this we do

this because

we fall into the trap of the enemies of

change

and they are here for you number one

comfort zone

biggest thing of all because it makes us

lazy

number two control

or i should say the illusion of control

it’s like fool’s gold you know

we really never can have total control

over the events of our lives

and finally

criticism now criticism

is the most destructive of all and i

will tell you in a minute why

but now that we know what the enemies of

change are you might want to ask the

question

what are the things that can activate

self-innovation when we’re in need of

change

or when we have to self-innovate to get

out of the mess we’re in to find a way

out of chaos

so the number one activator and the

answer

is finding a cause

now this having a cause is the greatest

motivator you can have

to get out of your comfort zone

and the examples are abundant around us

at a corporate level country level

community level

when the unthinkable becomes possible

with the right cause

whether it’s sending people to outer

space or

rebuilding a country after war a cost

can be the answer

so let’s get rid of those enemies now we

have a cause

but at a personal level of course can be

a little less obvious

because we often choose to stay in our

comfort zone nobody’s telling us

to make that change and in our comfort

zone

well that approach is just more

comfortable right

than facing reality reality that change

will come no matter what

if we keep hitting the window harder

like these poor creatures

then we’re not going to solve the

problems we must find a way around the

problem

and what can help to find a way around

the problem is our last

ingredient to activate self-innovation

and that is curiosity now curiosity is

about asking questions

thinking outside the box and challenging

the status quo

curiosity and imagination i believe are

the

most important tools that we people have

and the best part of it is that we’re

born with these tools

the only question is how to preserve

develop and ignite these in us

and the way to do that is to avoid

destructive criticism

because criticism not only kills

creativity and stops the process of

innovation

it does this by planting fear in us

fear of failure and then we play it safe

right then we stay in line we don’t take

risks

and as a result we can’t innovate this

leads to no innovation so what we must

do

is the opposite we must give space to

people

and in that space build their confidence

don’t control them

if you give that space and confidence

they will ask the questions

they will think outside the box they

will share their opinion and then you

can find

answers to your problems now when we

talk about giving space to people

we must not forget to give space to

ourselves as well

after all if we are in a box we can

think outside the box

now this process of self-curiosity

is the way forward to find problems in

our lives

to find solutions for problems in our

lives and then

maybe chaos won’t be such a scary word

now just to finish it off in my case in

my story

when i was home alone in the dark

feeling the pride of my family

without a job well

finding a cause helped me and the answer

was

my cause to see my daughter every day

and

be truly part of her life and

i had to reimagine things as a result

instead of staying at home closing the

shutters blaming everyone else for the

problems in my life

i needed to reimagine things so the job

that i had

the dream job that i well i didn’t

really like wasn’t for me

i’ve given up since and working in

business

likewise and at 32

i dared to have a new passion i dared to

find a new path a new career and i

started teaching

and i love teaching and now teaching

has helped me to connect the dots

because by becoming a teacher i had some

extra time that i could spend with my

daughter and with my family

and this led to

to a conclusion where i am today and i

feel happy about that

so all of you out there in chaos please

don’t give up

look for your plan c find a cause that

you can follow with passion

and stay curious don’t let the magic die

in you

and i hope that you experience what i

experienced and curiosity will lead you

forward

it has led me not only to teaching but

to the static stage

and hopefully this journey shall

continue

and with your help together maybe we can

spread the idea of self-innovation

and make a difference in this world and

in our lives and in the lives of others

thank you