Earn What You Spend

Bennington College president Liz Coleman gave my favorite talk from this past year’s TED.  Her call to action: we need to reinvigorate the liberal arts education.  There is a trend that says a deep specialization in a single subject is the best way to learn.  However, without a broad and fundamental understanding of the world around us, we cannot adequately address the problems we face.  

It reminds me of Tim Brown’s description of IDEO’s recruitment of T-shaped individuals: 

Regardless of whether your goal is to innovate around a product, service, or business opportunity, you get good insights by having an observant and empathetic view of the world. You can’t just stand in your own shoes; you’ve got to be able to stand in the shoes of others. Empathy allows you to have original insights about the world. It also enables you to build better teams.

We look for people who are so inquisitive about the world that they’re willing to try to do what you do. We call them “T-shaped people.” They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T — they’re mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need. That’s what you’re after at this point — patterns that yield ideas.

A T-shaped individual is the product of a liberal arts education: we have the ability to empathize with the world around us.  And as Tim Brown states, empathy is a powerful tool.