“their [schedules] sounded like a session of Future Workaholics of America: crew practice at dawn, classes in the morning, resident-adviser duty, lunch, study groups, classes in the afternoon, tutoring disadvantaged kids in Trenton, a cappella practice, dinner, study, science lab, prayer session, hit the StairMaster, study a few hours more… […]

They are goal-oriented. An activity — whether it is studying, hitting the treadmill, drama group, community service, or one of the student groups they found and join in great numbers — is rarely an end in itself. It is a means for self-improvement, résumé-building, and enrichment. College is just one step on the continual stairway of advancement, and they are always aware that they must get to the next step (law school, medical school, whatever) so that they can progress up the steps after that…

Kids of all stripes [today] lead lives that are structured, supervised, and stuffed with enrichment […] In short, at the top of the meritocratic ladder we have in America a generation of students who are extraordinarily bright, morally earnest, and incredibly industrious. They like to study and socialize in groups. They create and join organizations with great enthusiasm. They are responsible, safety-conscious, and mature.”

Much of that still resonates today, as I have seen in the college journeys of myself and many of my friends. We feel good about the kind of life we are going to lead, the skills we are improving daily and the promise of a better future. We work hard, sometimes too hard to the point of breaking down. We are then forced to decide what matters to us. We realize many pursuits don’t matter, and even for those that do, we have our limits. Then we learn self-care and rein in our commitments. We take yoga classes and exercise regularly to achieve work life balance, because being a professional student is demanding. We have to learn to seek and accept help.

Being in college is an incredible opportunity that we want to make the most of by starting with the end in mind. Yet it is not as simple as it seems: Anyone who has travelled knows we cannot jam everything in our bag. We want to pack the essentials and leave enough room for surprise. What we picture as “ends” may change quicker than we think.

The shift

Fifteen year later from David Brook’s article, I’m starting to see a shift. My college is still a place for high-achievers, but what counts as “achievement” has changed. Many are looking to do meaningful work and achieve organizational success. Asking people in college “What do you care about?” and you will find a wide range of answers. Asking “What does it look like in your life?” and you will soon admire many of these young people for their energy and dedication to the causes they pursue.

The questions we ask ourselves have changed from “What’s next?” to “What do I really want?” It is heartening to see more generation Y asking these questions. Many are questioning the existing structures, skipping what is the traditional menu and choosing the create-your-own-future path — the entrepreneurial journey.

In many higher education institutions, we see an explosion of many Entrepreneurial Leadership Study programs, business competitions, incubators and venture funds to support students pursuing this path. For the young people from elite universities, entrepreneurship is indeed the new black. On this, Peter Drucker remarks “The popular picture of innovators — half pop-psychology, half Hollywood — makes them look like a cross between Superman and the Knights of the Round Table.” While much has been said about this image, I think it does make a point: what Superman and Knights of the Round Table do have in common is that they are deeply engaged in their worlds. They are everything but bystanders.

There have always been entrepreneurs; those who look critically at current realities and act on the opportunities they see. But these were more exceptions than norms. As Peter Drucker in his essay “Principles of Innovation” said, if we want to make entrepreneurship an integral life-sustaining activity for organizations and society, we need to create the environment where it becomes a sustained practice. We need to shift the collective perception of entrepreneurship from desirable to necessary, for “giving people what they want isn’t nearly as powerful as teaching people what they need” as Seth Godin, the marketing guru, once mentioned. Not everyone wants to start her own endeavour, yet the entrepreneurial mindset has to be cultivated.

What does it mean for the individual, especially young ones like me?

One insight that Peter Drucker considers to be obvious but often ignored is that innovation is “hard, focused, purposeful work making very great demands on diligence, on persistence and on commitment.” As such, the making of the “Organizational Kid” is an important prerequisite for the “Entrepreneur Kid” for two reasons. Organization Kids are relentlessly goal-oriented, have high expectations, high performance and result. This drive makes them willing and able to do the work. Behind the glamorous image of Silicon Valley startups is the messiness of the entrepreneurial journey — the infamous “startup grind”. It is slow. It is work. And it is disciplined.

Where Organization Kids may fall short, however, is the ability to adapt, not so much because they can’t but rather because they haven’t allowed themselves to learn that while structure is crucial, it has to be fluid in order to respond to the needs and opportunities arising in the moment. An example I’ve seen it in me and others is the temptation to schedule everything to the minute, and then wonder why creativity has gone missing in our lives. It took me a while to learn to create space for more spontaneity in my overbooked schedule. I never look back, for this new way of life has allowed me the space to explore so many previously invisible opportunities.

If day to day plans can change so much, imagine how hard it is when people ask me about my goals, let alone a specific plan, for the next 5 years. I don’t know, and I don’t want to pretend to know. It is far more engaging and likely to yield results to stay in the Now. By definition, innovation is an inefficient process because we do not know where we are going. Yet instead of getting frustrated, we can choose to embrace its messiness while keeping our eye on the original Why.

The Organizational Kids will have to embrace some spontaneity over planning so they can learn to see and think for themselves. This might be the most challenging yet important skill to learn, and they will need the help of more experienced journeymen. It is too tempting to get lost in the doing, especially when the formula has always been proven to work. Yet it is worth remembering that the best thing about habits and practices is that they give us time in our otherwise messy lives. We use that time to connect to the truly new. Drucker again has warned us, “all that one can think and do in a short time is to think what one already knows and do as one has always done”. While I am in favour of the entrepreneurial “bias towards action”, maybe we also want to preamble it with a “bias toward perception”. How can we first see more clearly with ourselves and with others so that we can do what needs to be done?

I’m part of an exciting transition. The Organization Kid is still here, doing well, being more prepared than ever in history. And he is also evolving.

To paraphrase Peter Drucker’s question, will his successor be the Entrepreneurial Kid?

About the author:

Khuyen Bui won the Drucker Challenge 2015, and is a current senior at Tufts University. He is interested in organizational learning and development – how do people and groups come together, learn and evolve as well as how technology can help or harm that process.

“Global Peter Drucker Forum is not so much about better answers as it is about better questions” — Richard Straub

Any discussion about technology invariably has some forms of “What is in the future?” question. What changes will technology have in our lives and professions, how should we be prepared, what will happen to us?

The attitude behind these questions must be a proactive one. There is a big difference between “concern” and “worry”; only the former allows for practical actions. As Peter Drucker said, “The only way to predict the future is to create it”. Technology co-evolves with humans. For anything humans do, we can imagine machines replacing us: the ability to judge and make decisions, to analyze and synthesize information, or even to feel and convey emotions. Somebody will, or are already making these once sci-fi ideas happen.

Let us not forget in the midst of so many talks about “Technology”, the greatest invention for humans has been language — it allows humans to exchange ideas, coordinate actions and develop cultures. Cultural evolution has been faster than the biological one. While it is true that the biological makeup of our human brain hasn’t changed that much since we were all in Africa, the environments have drastically changed. As mentioned by Marten Mickos (CEO of MySQL), the waiting time in every conceivable services of every industry from transportation to healthcare to education has reduced. It also means that we are able to create and iterate on prototypes much quicker. As feedback loops tighten, we can learn exponentially faster as individuals and and even more so as communities. The latter is crucial because it binds societies together, especially in our current fractured world of clashing ideologies and dogmatism. This reminds me of Henry Mintzberg’s quote: “If you want to know the different between community and network, try asking your friends on Facebook to clean your house”. One responsibility for our future is then clear: we need to understand and leverage on the power of networks to strengthen learning communities.

Another message from the forum is that we should not get too distracted by technology and forget the essential challenge: to continually find and define ourselves, regardless of our time. Management should always start with that realization. We must focus on being human and on the human beings around us. I hope the terms “human resources”, “human capital” or “human assets” should be out of the management lingo soon. They all imply being “used”, or at best “renewed”. Why don’t we call it “human potential”? Potential is limitless yet can only be realized through intentional work and effort; it is promising but unguaranteed. The purpose of any kind of leadership is then to realize such potential and thus collectively shape our futures together.

Another dominant theme of the conference is the need to rethink the nature of work. I believe one reason for the theme for Drucker Forum next year being “The Entrepreneurial Society” stems from the question of engagement at the workplace.

Jim Keane, CEO of Steelcase, mentioned the 2015 Gallup study that 87% of employees report they are disengaged. We have designed the workplace with the alarming assumption that most people don’t want to work, and that we have to use incentives (either carrots or sticks) to motivate them. Carrots and sticks are, however, so 19th century ,Industrial Revolution. They no longer work in the knowledge and creative economy of the 21st century, and as long as managers still hold on to that assumption, they won’t survive. How can we inspire people around us when we ourselves are not even inspired?

That grim state of disengagement at work is why we need to foster an entrepreneurial spirit. Few things are as engaging as being part of a new and meaningful endeavor. From startup founders, social entrepreneurs, intra-preneurs, to solo-preneurs, those with such spirit are the boldest, most energetic and creative people. They will set the standard for the next generations for what real engagement at work looks like by setting their own examples.

Having an entrepreneurial spirit doesn’t necessarily mean becoming entrepreneur – or at least the image of all-consuming start-up founders we are used to. In fact, it can be quite draining to surround oneself with this group too often. Some people are more inherently driven to create solutions, while others tend to muse on the problems. Each of us in fact operates everyday by switching between these two modes of being. The task of self-management is thus to balance between the two extremes: mindless actions and actionless mind. I once heard of the “Cry test” to decide if one should pursue an entrepreneurial lifestyle: only when I cry about a problem that I should commit to solving it. An extreme test but not without some truth, given how lonely, tough and all consuming the journey will be.

Regardless of which path to choose, a big lesson that I am learning is that in order to do anything truly good, fear must be explored and transformed into aspiration. There is a great deal of people with the Fear of Being Mediocre syndrome, who think that their lives must shine and that they must be different from the rest. Alas, while the spirit is laudable, worrying too much about being mediocre is a surefire way to become one. What is the antidote then? I’m reminded of Drucker again: focus on contribution and being consistent with one’s effort. The first mantra steers our vision on the right path, and the second ensures we keep moving. They have always been and will continue to be the key to meaningful and valuable work.

How can I bring these ideas into my daily life? By practicing a habit of retreat and reflect often (especially when our smartphones keep vying for our attention) and taking deliberate actions. “Follow effective actions with quiet reflections, and there will come even more effective actions”, as Drucker once said. Each of us has to be both mountain and cloud, always grounded in purpose while floating with changing realities.

About the author:

Khuyen Bui won the Drucker Challenge 2015, and is a current junior at Tufts University. He is interested in organizational learning and development – how do people come together, learn and adapt and how technology can help or harm that process.