MIT Stem Pals
 
 
February 2014
 
 

T-Summit 2014: Cultivating Tomorrow's Talent Today
From Rick McMaster

Rick McMasterTIn the June 2012 issue of MIT STEM Pals, I talked about the T-Shaped Professional, "T-shaped people are ready for Teamwork; they are excellent communicators, with real world experience; they are deep or specialized in at least one culture, one discipline and one systems area; but they have good teamwork skills interacting with others who are deep in other cultures, disciplines and systems.”

You'll find other descriptions of the professionals that we need in today's interconnected, changing world, π-shaped and comb-shaped. For a concise description of each of these, check out Iris Classon's Stupid Question 218 and a more in-depth discussion of the π-shaped in Bruce A. Vojak's Flatland: Its π‐shaped inhabitants.

imageMy personal view is that with the right K-12 STE(A)M education - connected not just to the Arts but other elements of the real world - the T-shape is already forming. Go on to college to pursue a "new liberal arts” degree, really a combination of a BA and a BS, and you're ready to go to work as a T-shaped professional. (Full disclosure: my undergraduate degree is a BA.) "...students should be able to handle information from multiple sources, advance professional relationships across different organizations, contribute innovatively to organizational practices, and communicate with understanding across social, cultural, economic and scientific disciplines." I understand that may seem like a lot but that's what the T-Summit is all about, "developing a blueprint for action that extends the national conversation on transforming education."

The T-Summit is being held at the IBM Research - Almaden "to explore how we can collectively innovate [in] learning in order to imagecultivate tomorrow's talent." ISSIP - the International Society of Service Innovation Professionals is closely involved in the conference. For those not familiar with ISSIP, the society is free for professionals to join and is focused very broadly on service as the application of knowledge for mutual benefit. Our service-based economy demands individuals with not only deep disciplinary knowledge but also the ability to understand how to work within complex systems and the ability to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries. The T-Summit site has many resources, both text and video, to prepare you to contribute to the discussion. There is no registration fee to attend; I hope to see many of you.

So what about π-shaped and Comb-shaped professionals; those come with time, experience, and a commitment to life-time learning. Before I retired from IBM, I had many different jobs and each allowed the growth of another of the vertical stems (no pun intended) as well as taking advantage of the knowledge that I already had to strengthen the top bar of the T. The transition from T to π to comb is up to the individual professional but, from my experience, industry encourages it.

Next month I’ll talk about ISSIP and how we can use another of the Ts in STEM to expand the ability of our experienced professionals to mentor.

Your comments are always welcome, @DrKold.

Thanks to ISSIP and the T-Summit for the graphics and elements of the text.

Rick McMaster is the STEM Advocate at IBM’s University Programs Worldwide.

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