|
Ever remember sitting in class knowing the answer to a teacher's question, but thinking to yourself that the answer was so simple it couldn't be right? Perhaps when you realized you had the right answer all along you felt a little smarter, you had learned something and now that knowledge had simply become a part of you, it was so evident you hardly had to think about it.
Most students probably don't think that deeply about their own education, at least not until they are older. At the time they might have felt a rush of excitement, a tinge of accomplishment. Those are feelings we never should outgrow for two important reasons. First, they make us feel a little better about ourselves, and that's something we all could use every now and then. Second, they remind us that learning never stops, and that every time we learn something new we've solved a problem, cleared a mystery or added to our skills.
Draperies & Window Coverings recently attended Cheryl Strickland's Fourth Annual Workroom Education Conference held at a mountainside retreat in western North Carolina (much more on that in an upcoming issue). There, 400 workroom owners and employees were presented more than 60 specific, hands-on seminars that taught attendees the solution to problems, revealed processes that previously had been mysteries and added tips and tricks to their fabrication skills. That look you see on someone's face when they "get it" and what they have just learned is now a part of them was seen throughout the four-day conference.
But conference attendees also came to understand that education has serious and real benefits to business. The more you know, the more you earn.
There are new fundamentals now defining "business as usual"
(see Market Trends), and success will come to those
who understand how processes, customers' attitudes and markets are changing and learn what
they can do to catch up to and stay ahead of the changes. The author H.G. Wells wrote,
"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe."
Businesses run that same race and, largely because of technology, the pace keeps increasing.
Education is the way to stay in the race, and just as learning never stops,
the opportunities to learn keep presenting themselves—much more on that in the weeks
and months ahead.
|
