Smart Plus: Lessons from Trump's Apprentice

As a family, we've been watching Trump's business reality show The Apprentice (season 1, on DVD), and lots of lessons learned. One big lesson: there's a lot in the real world that you never get taught in school.

The first season contestants beat out over 200,000 people to be on the first show, and they seem to be quite accomplished in their own ways.

As the show progresses, though it becomes clear that very elite education and prior successful job is not a guarantee that you'll do well with the new task in front of you. Front and center in The Apprentice is how well a person could work as a group - sharing responsibilities as well as delegating to others, balancing personal as well as group ambition, being able to read the motivations, temperaments, and social cues of other team members, and taking decisive action (as well as decisive corrections) when necessary. Successful apprentices managed to get through a gauntlet of challenges that required good communication with clients and customers, an ability to negotiate, an ability to use of good resources, and finally, an ability to make sure that all things that needed to happen got done. Last, but not least, was the skill of taking responsibility for failure and also being able to justify one's actions in the boardroom. Hey, is any of that taught in school? Not much.



This show has generated a lot of discussion over our dinner table at home, I highly recommend it for tweens, teens, and probably even older. My top 5 uses for The Apprentice as a jump starter for conversations about group dynamics and social psychology, real leadership, real -orld problem solving, business in general, and the importance of initiative and informed risk taking.

Not surprisingly, many Business Schools and colleges have set up copy-cat Apprentice challenges or courses (Stanford Apprentice is underway). This overseas business teacher pointed out several 'hidden problems' that were discovered in his 'apprentices':

1. academically brilliant students often more aloof, pull down group
2. passing the buck / hogging work
3. overlooking fundamental facts
4. not listening to other team members
5. taking a stand or not taking enough
6. witholding information
7. cannot evaluate flaws
8. not finishing work
9. political intrigues
10. conflict-seeking behavior.

Seems like there's a lot to learn in The Apprentice.

Entrepreneurial Minds

Google announced that it's hiring, and that's big news, but it also leaked that it's changing its hiring methods and seeking more individuals with entrepreneurial talent and not just intellectual skills and that may be bigger news.

Excerpt: "The company is also trying to cut out the kind of intellectual mind games its interviewers have often used to test the brain power of potential hires... like why is a manhole cover round and how many ping-pong balls does it take to fill an aeroplane?” Mr Bock told the Financial Times."

This approach showcase certain types of intellectual problem solving ability, but also leaves out other good candidates who either weren't adept in that type of test.

What are entrepreneurial minds? The brain science of entrepreneurial thinking is pretty light stuff / speculative at present it seems, but many have noticed traditional academics and entrepreneurs are like opposites. Some people are certainly able to bridge both worlds, but for many others it's like night-and-day.

It's well known that many of the world's most successful entrepreneurs never attended college (35% of U.S. entrepreneurs are dyslexic), and many job recruiters even seem to prefer big state college graduates over 'elite schools' like the Ivies.

So is there a distinct advantage that comes with entrepreneurial thinking and experience? Successful entrepreneurs have succeeded at real-life projects, and if they've been tough, they've required ingenuity, some first-hand experience with failure, and risk-taking. The work of an entrepreneur is often more hands-on and about real world problem solving than traditional academics, and so successful entrepreneurs may be more adept at working with and leading great teams. All these skills seem like good ones to have if you're hiring for a leading edge technology company or a student entering a challenging hiring environment.

Check out the videos below for more in the entrepreneurial vein. The first is co-Founder of Twitter and Square Jack Dorsey who shares how he went from a kid who loved making maps and listening to police calls on citizen band radio to forming Twitter. He showcases a wonderful storytelling ability, another ingredient for a successful CEO. The second is a video of a pretty neat project-based middle school that seems entrepreneurial in its orientation - their Environmental and Spatial Technologies program guides students through various community projects that involve making real physical projects or programs, documentaries, etc. to solve problems that they have a passion for.





Building photo by clarita

Made to Stick Learning

Urban legends, conspiracy theories, Internet memes, and popular advertising campaigns all have something in common: they know how to make information 'stick' - now if we can just apply some of these tools to education, we might really have something. The brothers Heath in Made to Stick have come to an interesting conclusion about creativity - not only is it not highly unpredictable or idiosyncratic, in fact it's just the opposite - it's systematic and that means it can be taught.

In an interesting Israeli study assessing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, researchers found that instruction in certain successful creative approaches improved the creativity and positive attitude ratings 50% higher than non-instructed controls.  In a similar vein, the Heaths began analyzing extra-sticky ideas and stories and found that they often shared the following qualities:

Simple
Unexpected
Concrete Imagery
Credible
Emotion-Provoking
Stories

The pattern makes sense if you think about how the brain is wired to remember (novelty / surprise, imagery, association, emotions, stories) and in regards to simplicity, the brain's limitations regarding working memory. The Heath's have a nice Teachers Guide (see below), but the emphasis is on helping students to realize how using the SUCCES  approach can focus and target their communication, but we could also envision a different Teachers Guide providing suggestions and examples for how to help teachers focus their own communication.

Imagine if lessons plans incorporated simplicity, novelty, imagery, and compelling personal stories on a daily basis! Michael Sandel's great Justice course (bottom video below) shares SUCCES elements and that might be a reason for its extraordinary popularity.

Made to Stick Teachers Guide pdf