Personally, I am always looking at problems and seeking their resolution, and like many people, when I don't have an actual problem to hand I tend to look for another one, and solve that instead!.
But ultimately I prefer solutions.
In my very first post on this blog I tacked the Talent Gap in China. My question was whether China is creating the kind of educational system it needs to drive its economy. Yet another problem, right?
I got a number of interesting perspectives on this question in the responses in the China Talent group, and even managed to get a copy of the Conference Board report that prompted the question in the first place. (Email me if you want a copy.)
A recent New York Times article may have a few hints as to how the issue of the Chinese educational system may evolve, and how it might actually be 'solved'. The solution appears very relevant to the US.
The article concerns a girl call Meijie, who came to prominence a few years ago in China because she got into Harvard. She followed on from another girl who was so famous in China she was just known as 'Harvard Girl'.
Like Harvard Girl Meijie got there on merit, which in China means she studied hard, remembered all the facts and regurgitated them at exam time. However, when she arrived on campus it seems she didn't have that typical retentive attitude embedded in her genes.
Meijie actually wants to change the world. At least the educational system anyway.
Her feeling is that the US educational system offers a lot that the Chinese system does not. So while American educators take steps in the direction of the Chinese system, she is pushing for China to go in the opposite direction.
Sections of the Chinese government agree with her and, as a result, here on the ground in China there is a definite sense that the system is relaxing a little. It has even filtered down to the primary and high schools where my kids are. They are happy with the new policy because it means less homework. (Note that for kids in China this means reducing from 3 hours to 2 and 1/2 hours a day.)
The new focus for educators in China is on the character of the student, as opposed to the rote memorization of facts. The system is being redesigned, albeit slowly, to identify the potential of the student and help them to realize their goals. This is very new, and from the outside the signifance of it is easily masked by the fact that so many of the changes are obvious and simple. If it manages to squeak through the labyrinth of the Chinese public administration system, it will have profound effects.
So companies in China may eventually be able to get the kind of employees they are looking for.
Just not tomorrow.
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