Managing Director, Talking Trends
GradDipTourismMgmt, MEd (T&D), MLLR, PhD
Dr Lynn Gribble addressed graduates from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the Great Hall, City campus, University of Technology, Sydney on Wednesday 6 May 2009, 5.30pm.
About the speaker
Dr Lynn Gribble is the Managing Director of Talking Trends — a 'full service people' consultancy. Lynn is an alumnus of UTS.
Lynn Gribble began training and developing people in 1979. Her experience covers a range of industries including retail, sport, tourism, banking and finance, telecommunications, internet and publications. She is passionate about inspiring and involving people so they are motivated to make change happen.
Her experience is in delivering content and processes to change how people perceive and act in their work. She understands emerging business and is considered a futurist by her colleagues. New ways of doing business, trends and shifts in work practices are Lynn's specialty. She draws together strong industry experience and highly awarded academic achievements.
Lynn understands how theory mixes with the real world and helps create shared frameworks and strategies to help organisations and the people within them to thrive. Lynn's doctoral study focused on surviving in times of retrenchment and economic downturn, and is particularly relevant at this time.
Flexible in her style and approach Lynn is comfortable with all cultures and has worked widely in Asia and with Asian cultures. By creating shared understanding Lynn's emphasis is on practical, real change within human resources, education programs, mediation and conflict resolution.
Speech
Pro-Chancellor, Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, members of the University Council, staff, distinguished guests, graduates, families and friends
Today is a very important day, not just because of your graduation but because of what it gives to you and enables the community to know and understand about you. For some of you this may be the first graduation in your family.
We live in the most changing and turbulent times. Many of the jobs that will be here and be done in 20 years time do not exist today. Many of the experiences that graduates have today did not exist a mere 10 years ago and so you leave here today not only with your degrees but with something that can never be taken away from you, an education.
As you leave here many things will change. Jobs change, economic circumstances change, your relationships change. Some change you can prepare for, others will take us by a certain surprise, however, it is your education that regardless of what ever happens, can never be taken away from you. It cannot be undermined, it cannot be underestimated. You may lose a job, your money, your status but never your education.
An education tells people many things about you. It is your alma mater, it is your entrance, it's the starting and sometimes finishing point. Your degree says you have worked hard, although perhaps not all the time, you have 'done your time' you can read and research and critically think, that you will question appropriately what should and should not be so. It is the educated that do all of this because an examined life is one that is worthwhile. It also says you can balance your time in a society that demands more out of everyday it says you know how to chose the 'fish to fry' and which ones you should leave to dry. It says you have been selective and although you may not always chose the best or right thing you will have chosen the thing to do in a considered way.
Don't let people tell you about gen X and Y and Z, instead tell them its about me and who I am and how I can adapt. As a society we are not good at handling change. As people we are not necessarily prepared to handle change and yet your degree is the thing that best prepares you to do this. Think back to when you commenced at UTS, you probably came hoping for many things, some of you might have come because it seemed like a good idea, some came to get better job, some came to have greater opportunity, some came to meet new people, some came so they could 'qualify' but no matter what your reason for coming, today you leave here with more.
Today you are a graduand and as such you leave here with the experience that no one can erase. No matter what changes, you will always have your time here. People leave uni and become focused on what they then become, no longer students they want to show people what they know, use the knowledge they have gained, express the change they wish to see. And yet as we leave uni we become students of life. And new lessons emerge.
Life at uni is, to a degree, certain, assignments and exams fall with great regularity and perhaps feel like they come all too frequently, yet while life at uni functions on 14 week cycles, your business lives will do much the same. Deadlines come and go, you will know about them in advance some will plan others will burn the midnight oil, but you already know that. As communications graduates you know how to get your message out there and what to do about it. I am often surprised by how little people take their skills and apply them for self benefit. It seems to be difficult to apply the skills and knowledge we have to ourselves. And yet as educated people we should be able to do it easily. Make sure you have your own communications plan.
Your degrees are not just a piece of paper, and many of you will feel that today is your last day ever at uni. Just 14 years ago I stood here and said that, then I said it again in 2001 when I earned my PhD, and yet I have returned since, not because I am a masochist, nor because I have little to do in fact the contrary, I return because I value education and so do those around me. From time to time I meet people who do not understand why an education is important and I ask them a few simple questions.
If you could spend three years or less of you life and know that you would be able to keep the outcome forever would you do it? They usually answer yes.
And if you could know when someone is being persuasive rather than informed would you like to be able to distinguish that and they say yes
And finally would you like to know that when you enter an argument you can do so knowing you're your wont be shot down by someone who is louder or will shout longer? — and they say yes.
About 26% of the current population have a degree. At times this is considered elitist, and it maybe, but make no mistake your degree is something that not everyone can or will achieve. It is well known that those with degrees usually command higher salaries than those without, and as organisations seek to have more sustainable and informed employees those with degrees continue to be in higher demand. Given the same experience a degree qualified candidate will usually get the job over a non degree qualified person. Your degree is the start point, you may return to study something quite different or you may chose to let your education emerge. Knowledge emerges under many guises. It may come from seemingly most undereducated so be prepared to explore new horizons, consider new opportunities, because today its communications, tomorrow it might be performing arts, and next year it could be engineering our world changes.
To think that a degree alone gives you all this would also be an uninformed position, but your education has exposed you to things and thinking that is scholarly. That is to have mastery in your field. However the master uses their knowledge with wisdom and they know the difference between the two. It is now your opportunity to be able to do the same.
Communications have never been more interesting and yet more challenging. Web 2.0 is still considered new yet so many of us are using it, but are you using it to your advantage? Most of us Facebook, many of us tweet, but are you ready to use this and more? Your education has prepared you to be on the edge of this but a few years will pass and new things will come your way, and again as an educated person you can ride the wave. Today you sit here graduating, in the last 10 years we have seen this change, for some graduation may be the first time students meet their professors, a class room will be more connected, more open, more exposed and we as those in the academic community have never been more vulnerable. We too must take our education and face the changes ahead. We must look to innovate and invigorate. We must look to say our education is the basis not the only way forward. We must look for new ways to research. And as we together embrace the changes and challenges that are upon us remember no one can ever take away your education.