Revenge of the Arts Degree

I'm taking a brief break from my "Taking the Boot of the Public Sector" series to tell you something important about education and recruitment. In short: hire people with BAs. They’ve learned to think critically and appreciate context, the world’s most valuable skills.

Last week, a Chief Executive told me she was guilty of writing off job applicants with a Bachelor of Arts because she assumed they were lightweight. I was curious and mildly incensed.

Critical thinking is the world’s most valuable skill

The world’s most valuable skill is critical thinking - and as change continues to rocket ahead, this is more true than ever. Many people never learn how to do it. They spend their lives learning technical skills and placing value in their accumulated knowledge and operational excellence.

Bad news for those people: what you do may be less relevant than how you think.

I’ve taught senior leaders how to think, plan and act strategically for years. It’s rewarding, enjoyable work. Learning to ask bigger, better questions, interrogate patterns, context and relationships, take new perspectives, and apply systems thinking to tricky problems can transform your life and work.

Humanities education is foundational in teaching us how to do those things—the social sciences, history, philosophy, politics, and liberal arts are chocka with critical thinking frameworks. If we don’t hire people with BAs, we’re missing out.

Bump an Arts grad to the top of your CV pile.

Til next week,

AM

PS: I made a video about this on LinkedIn. It’s short and ranty.