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