Pushing for innovation is not easy, and empowering people to cultivate creative solutions must be a core tenet of our education system. 

It was a sweltering afternoon in Mumbai when I faced a pivotal moment that would forever redefine my career path.

I was working on a high-rise condominium project and the developer I was collaborating with requested something that not only raised ethical concerns but also tested my principles as an architect. They wanted me to design a parking lot in a way that blatantly disregarded engineering and safety regulations.

It was not the first time I had encountered a client proposing something they knew would violate basic standards and my professional values – the very essence of what my years in university and graduate school have instilled in me.

Hearing my client’s unethical and irresponsible suggestion made me question myself: Why am I wasting my life trying to work with people who make lots of money but still choose greed over good work and ethics? Am I throwing years of education away by compromising my principles just to keep my clients happy? Enough is enough.

Many factors led me to leave my corporate job, but this call was the last straw that broke my back. Within the next few days, I handed in my resignation. 

I decided that if I was to truly make a difference, it would be bending the rules on my own terms, to create a positive impact. Soon after, I quit my corporate job and ventured on my own. 

The Education-Innovation Disconnect

Leaving corporate wasn’t an easy decision. After all, the educational system trained me for a corporate job, just as it continues to do for countless others. While academia does instill a certain set of ideals in students, it often falls short of fostering the innovative thinking required to challenge the status quo. 

Instead of entering the real world gritty and ready to take risks, graduates are trained to conform and prepared to fit within the existing frameworks – just as I once did.

Having been an adjunct university professor myself, I know how the traditional education system, with its deep-rooted emphasis on mechanical memorization and standardized tests, often fails to foster creativity that is essential for true innovation. It focuses on teaching the students rather than letting them learn. 

Here’s an example. During an interview with an intern at BillionBricks, I inquired about his favorite sustainable building in Manila, where he is based. The intern chose a prominent structure designed by a major American firm that had won several awards for sustainability. The prospective intern accepted that an award-winning building must be a good example of sustainable architecture. While that may be true from the perspective of meeting the narrow criteria for an award at the competition, it may not necessarily be true if we look at it from a broader critical eye and question the design and engineering from all aspects of sustainable design. For example, that said building was clad in high-performance glass, which is both a problem in the tropics and is a very high-energy material, completely contrary to the fundamentals of sustainability. Only if young students have the ability to see beyond awards and what is done in commercial practices would we raise an informed new generation of architects and designers who will have the right breadth of knowledge in their subject matter. 

But more startling than his choice, when I pressed the intern to discuss the specific aspects of the building that needed improvement, he struggled to articulate a critique. His inability to analyze and assess the building’s design highlighted how educational programs fail to emphasize critical thinking and look beyond the superficial.

The intern’s failure to critique a building is not a unique occurrence but is reflective of the education system in general. In the professional world, it results in a workforce that is often hesitant to venture beyond the traditional paths or advocate for necessary change for sustainability. Even the teachers are often becoming conformist to the system. As they visit conferences and soak up popular magazines and social media content, they are also shaped in accordance with what is around us rather than what should be around us. 

The disconnect isn’t only observed between the academe and real-world situations. Often, even sectors within the same educational institution are detached from one another. 

For instance, many large universities would have a School of Environment and a School of Business – one is pushing for sustainability, and the other for profitability. Those advocating for environmental stewardship often promote sustainable practices to the wider world. Yet, they seldom engage in cross-disciplinary dialogue with their counterparts in the business department right next door.

This lack of internal collaboration underscores a broader issue of misaligned visions within educational structures. It can also lead to a split in institutional goals, confusing students about priorities and values to embrace as future leaders.

Yet another disconnect related to the education system is between the personal branding of students and the professional paths that lie before them. Some academic institutions market their programs as transformative and sustainable, preparing students to become leaders who will drive change across industries. This branding aligns with the growing societal demand for sustainable business practices and positions graduates as capable of bridging the gap between profit and social responsibility.

However, being a graduate of such degrees might not equate to more than possessing a diploma because completing the program doesn’t automatically make one an innovator. Rather, it can result in being just another individual conforming to the system, maintaining rather than challenging the status quo.

Amid these external challenges, many students who become professionals also deal with an internal struggle that hurdles innovation: the disconnect between their own principles and practicality.

As an educator myself, I’ve witnessed many students pitch innovative ideas, but most of these concepts don’t get developed into anything beyond a school requirement. Why? It’s simple – Imagine an MBA student who spends up to $100,000 for quality education in well-known academic institutions. They would want a return on that large investment. The pressure gets all the more intense when they find themselves neck-deep in student loans, and by the time they’re out of school, all they want is to ease their financial burden by seeking out roles that guarantee swift monetary rewards.

Unfortunately, pushing for innovation and building something from the ground up isn’t the path to take when you want big money in a short amount of time. Therefore, it’s understandable that many creative fresh graduates flock to large corporations where systems are already established, and all they have to do is maintain and optimize these existing frameworks.

It’s clear that in the race to secure financial stability, sustainability often takes a backseat.

Using Education as a Tool For Innovation

As someone who wears the shoes not only of a practitioner but also an educator, I can see how the education system frequently fails to foster an environment of inquiry and risk-taking, which are critical for creative and innovative endeavours.

I think the first thing to address is the societal pressures that funnel students into careers that promise financial stability, sometimes at the expense of personal satisfaction and social impact.

Parents and peer groups play a crucial role here as students’ social circles often typecast and push them early on to aspire for “safe” fields of study that offer promising financial returns rather than encouraging them to pursue their personal interests and potential for innovation. 

Parents and students often seek internships in purposeful organisations early in their careers to enhance their applications to prestigious institutions for higher studies. After all, demonstrating a ‘sense of purpose’ makes their applications stand out and showcases their motivation. However, by the time students finish their schooling, they tend not to return to these institutions; while the internships provide significant purpose, they offer little financial benefit.

Building upon how children are conditioned at home and in their community, educational institutions must also bridge the gap between academic theories and real-world applications. In short, students should be trained not just in theoretical knowledge but also in practical skills.

Moving away from hyper-protected academic environments towards scenarios they will encounter in the real workforce will better prepare graduates for the challenges that lie ahead after graduation. After all, graduates must not only be knowledgeable in the fundamentals of their field of expertise but must also have the ability to question and challenge norms.

In this regard, professors must not only be evaluators of academic assessments and calculators of grades. Armed with real-world experience, educators must guide their students beyond theories they could easily read from books. More than being teachers, they must be mentors. 

Additionally, instilling a sense of grit is essential; it fosters resilience and the perseverance needed to navigate and overcome the inevitable obstacles in their profession. It’s beneficial to let students develop a bit of a rebellious attitude rather than being blindly compliant. That said, adjusting the grading systems could help alleviate the pressure they face. 

Last but not least, the corporate culture of conformity and the “golden handcuffs” of high salaries need reevaluation. This culture often discourages professionals from leaving comfortable but unfulfilling roles, thereby suppressing innovation and ethical practices. A more dynamic and flexible educational approach can encourage students to pursue careers that fulfill both their personal ambitions and societal needs rather than merely aiming for financial success.

Addressing these systemic issues in education and career development can help cultivate a new generation of leaders equipped to innovate and drive meaningful change. And the initiative to reform should not only come from educational institutions; it must also be embraced by families, social circles, and the community as a whole. Only then can we see more gritty professionals who are ready to take risks to catalyze impactful change.