Over a thousand Randolph County School System teachers returned to work today to prepare for the upcoming school year. They are facing many obstacles and unprecedented situations in educating students in the midst of this COVID pandemic.
When I think about the challenges ahead of the school system staff members I am reminded of how Ray Stata, the founder of Analog Devices, described the importance of how fast an organization must learn. He said if your rate of LEARNING is not equal to or greater than the rate of CHANGE, you are going to fall behind.
This is just as true in the area of public education as it is in the business world. The rate of change in the world is increasing and increasing exponentially. Teachers are charged with learning new teaching tools like Canvas and Google Meets while changing the way they teach to address remote learners. The way they respond to student needs, questions, and concerns is also changing. The rate of learning for teachers will need to be extremely quick to keep up to the rate of change. Plus they find it necessary to do all this while meeting social distancing and safety guidelines.
The rate at which organizations and individuals learn may be the greatest competitive advantage we have.
