On a teacher’s best day, students are working toward one goal: solving a problem together. They organize themselves based on each other’s strengths and put their minds together to fill in the gaps as they go. This is organic. This is collaboration without hindrance.
The Future Is Bright
For many years now, I have had the pleasure of meeting the students of the winning teams for Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision — the world’s largest K-12 science competition. Year after year I have been impressed with not only the ideas that come from these young minds but the viability of their projects in real-world applications.
In general, the students work to solve problems in their everyday experience. I’m not talking about potato batteries or baking soda and vinegar volcanoes; I’m talking about life-sized issues being tackled with complicated emerging technology. For example, this year, a team from Texas tackled energy overconsumption in data centers via a micro-gap thermal diode; a team from Virginia created an AI-powered drone that emits sound waves to eliminate the need for chemical pesticides; and a team of two kindergarteners from California designed an underwater alert system that uses a camera and AI technology to send an alert when someone is showing signs of drowning.
Companies devote their whole existence to solving these kinds of problems — yet how can a group of students do it in a few weeks?
Where companies lean into structure, the next generation is taking a different approach. As a result, perhaps we’ve misunderstood the so-called “skills gap.”
Students Don’t Care About “Organization” Like Companies Do
While org charts can be an effective tool to stay organized, divide tasks, and ensure everyone is working with the right resources, they can also perpetuate silos within an organization.
Engineering sits in one corner, operations in another, sales and marketing somewhere else entirely.
Real innovation rarely arrives department by department. People must communicate across disciplines to build or create anything useful — which is where students excel. Ask any of the ExploraVision teams; the ones who succeeded overcame disagreements by talking things through. They also knew when to divide and when to converge. Good management includes separating tasks and combining ideas.
Is It Actually a “Skills Gap?” I Think Not.
Companies frequently argue that younger workers lack the necessary experience or technical skills to succeed in today’s workforce. However, these young minds aren’t afraid to ask questions that more experienced workers might shy away from, and they’re often more curious and fluid in their thinking.
One of the great issues with today’s organizational structures is that many organizations still value credentials and hierarchy over passion and experimentation. While some companies are pouring billions of dollars into innovation, they are simultaneously eliminating entry-level positions. The few that land a job in today’s labor market are being hired into pre-determined job descriptions that prevent them from contributing the kind of fresh thinking they naturally bring.
Rethinking organizations from the ground up can drive real change. Greater diversity across teams — people of different backgrounds, disciplines, and abilities — ensures that when a hard problem arrives, someone in the room sees it differently.
This creates the very paradox that makes me question whether we’re faced with a true skills gap or if our organizational structures are inherently devaluing and denying the competencies we need to innovate with speed.
What We Can Learn from Students
Here are four practical lessons organizations could learn from watching students work:
- Design teams around problems instead of department structures. The most complex challenges require perspectives from multiple disciplines from the very beginning.
- Reward questions as much as answers. Curiosity is the engine that drives innovation.
- Give early-career employees real responsibility. Young workers develop faster when they are trusted to contribute beyond administrative or support tasks.
- Think further ahead. When you’re in middle school, 20 years from now seems like quite a long time — but students naturally imagine the world they expect to live in. Businesses too often optimize around the next quarter instead of the next generation.
The energy systems, infrastructure, and technologies shaping the future will demand more interdisciplinary thinking. The kinds of projects students are already proposing through science competitions like ExploraVision mirror many of the same challenges industries and governments are racing to solve right now.
The future workforce is already thinking ahead of the organizations they will eventually join. It is our responsibility to protect their sense of curiosity and make the necessary changes to welcome them when they do enter the workforce.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
