Episode: 580

Episode Title: No More Hoops

If young people don’t see the relevance of what we’re asking them to do, whose fault is it? Let’s talk about it, next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 580 show:

Hello and welcome to The Perna Syndicate today! All week we’ve been talking about how to truly engage young people at school and work. We give them as much control as we can, we capture their attention by paying them ours, and we check in and then walk away. There’s one final strategy I’d like to cover, and that’s relevance. 

This is especially vital to students in a classroom setting, but it has value for workforce development as well. It boils down to this: we can’t expect young people to stay engaged in what we’re teaching and training them if they don’t see how it matters to their future. 

Sure, we see the big picture and how they need this particular academic knowledge or technical skill to thrive in the future, but are we assuming they see it too? How well have we conveyed the relevance of this information we’re trying to impart? Do they see this thing they have to learn or do as a solution for them, or just another hoop they have to jump through?

If the exercise has no more meaning for them than a hoop, there will come a time when they will no longer jump for us. There has to be a way to make the task or project relevant and beneficial to their future, some purpose that matters to them. And if they don’t see it, that’s on us. 

No more hoops: we need to communicate a compelling vision that is relevant to this generation. That’s how we engage them for the long term.

Thanks for tuning in and making The Perna Syndicate a part of your day. I’m your host, Mark Perna, and we’ll see you back here next week for more on The Perna Syndicate. Until then, take care!