12. COMMENTARY. Supervision in the 21st Century is destined to change. In the Information Age, the organizations that will survive will be those which emulate the VC. Products and services will be customized by organizations who realize that the "customer" is boss. The role of the educational establishment will be critical in ensuring that it produces the kinds of leaders and employees which will readily adapt to this new type of system and its philosophy, thinking, and approaches to managing information and human resources effectively and efficiently. It is necessary that supervisors in all organizations realize the paramount importance of training for adults in business and industrial settings. Concurrently, supervisors in education need to revamp the primary, secondary, and post-secondary learning environments to adequately prepare those who are about to enter the national and international work forces so they will be ready to undertake the challenges which lie ahead. Educational supervision was not the primary focus of this paper. In fact, no specific type of organizational supervision was diagnosed and evaluated. My goal was to provide an overview of the entire range of behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs related to supervision and its role. The new millennium is rapidly approaching. Preparing for it will be no small task. The infrastructure of many of our industrial, educational, social service, and business organizations are collapsing. The information age is forcing new ideas and behaviors on people everywhere. Management without effective communication becomes mismanagement. Time and space are no longer static, but fluid and dynamic. Unless managers at all levels accept this reality and begin to work with it to improve those infrastructures, many organizations are doomed to receivership or Chapter 11 status. In education, the same issues are present. Many superintendents, principals, and head teachers still do not accept the concept of the information age. Few schools are gearing up to meet the demands of the new social and world order. There is a preference among most educational personnel to maintain the status quo. When attendance drops, and students fail, administrators and teachers place blame on students, their families, the society, and many other external factors which are out of their control. They avoid accepting responsibility for creating new educational environments which will prepare the next generation for assimilation into the information age. On NBC news recently, a segment was aired on a school in Rockford, Michigan which accepted this challenge. The entire school is organized to facilitate experiential learning and mastering the technology of the information age. Students use all the modern communication technology to learn. Even skills such as effective parenting are taught within the daily schedule. The school operates a day care center in which students and teachers watch children and learn how to effectively care for them. News reports and other daily communication activities are written, produced, and directed by students with faculty assistance. At 4 pm the students go home, but the school is not vacated. Each evening, adults utilize the same facilities to learn how to deal with the modern technology, and prepare for new jobs and careers in the information age. The 40 million dollar price tag for the school seems to be well spent. Unlike most schools which lie dormant for three months a year, the Rockford School never closes its doors. This is just one example of the kind of innovative thinking which can prepare the learners of the next generation for the challenges of the future which is already upon us. What kinds of changes in beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors on the part of leaders, politicians, supervisors, managers, forepeople, will be necessary to effect these kinds of changes? How will they facilitate such changes so that the gap between what is and what can be will be decreased? These are my notions regarding what needs to occur before we as a nation of diverse organizations, businesses, industries, social agencies, and educational establishments will be prepared for the inevitable information age future: 1. Stop denying the birth of the information age and begin to accept it. Until this denial that the world is evolving toward another era is embraced by the top leaders in our nation and our organizations, whether they be businesses, industries, education, or human services, we will continue to lag behind the times and be at the effect of the waves of changes crashing upon our shores. 2. Encourage the education of computer literacy from kindergarten to the Ph.D. level and beyond. It amazes me how many top managers, educators, social service, and business people still are not computer literate. As long as a secretary can type a memo, even if he or she uses a word processor, and the manager does not have to interact with the technology, this condition will continue to exist. Secretaries are no longer just typists, but information managers. The effective supervisor needs to understand and accept this new role. Countless hours of top management's time is wasted in interacting with a secretary who is still perceived as a "clerk-typist." Personal Data Assistants (PDA) are rapidly gaining acceptance and as the prices drop in the near future, the information management once delegated to a secretary will no longer be necessary. 3. Eliminate copy machines and begin to use electronic forms of communication which are much cheaper, more efficient, and environmentally sound. Books on CD's are much easier to produce and reproduce, lighter to carry around and distribute, and once CD copy technology is affordable, this method of exchanging information will certainly speed up the learning curve. E-mail, and FAX modems will add to the expeditious exchange of information between individuals, and among the leaders of diverse organizations. Cellular phones already dot the landscape. Driving in heavy freeway traffic this past week in metropolitan Pittsburgh, I observed nearly every other driver near me animatedly talking on a car phone. As the cellular networks branch out and even rural areas are connected, the global village will be everywhere there is a phone, and not necessarily a line. Brainstorm software which permits many people to share threads of information over networks across time and space will eventually eliminate the need for people to meet face to face. Only the most important affairs will demand such meetings. 4. Begin to measure competencies rather than abstract learning potential. Many talented individuals are eliminated from successful personal careers because they do not possess math and reading skills which are only two of the 206 domains of learning currently measurable. The SAT scores are not the only measures of an individual's abilities. Many fine tradespeople would fail the SAT test, but easily can program a computer, fix an automobile, a refrigerator or some other modern appliance. We need to foster the rebuilding of the apprenticeship type training process to prepare for the vast amount of technical repair work which will arise from the explosion of all this high tech gear. Blue collar workers will evolve into blue lab coat workers. 5. Train administrators, supervisors, and employees in the concepts of the Virtual Corporation. As time and space expand, organizations will need to adapt to the changes facing them. Smaller, mobile, efficient work groups of experts will replace the monolithic structures we now see choking on their last gasps as the information age consumes their air. Organizational development concepts may need to be changed from OD to ORD, organizational redevelopment. Too many organizations today are top heavy with management and the middle managers within these organizations are incapable or unwilling to act without permission from above. As deBono described, there is a need for lateral as well as vertical thinking. There is a critical need for lateral expansion of organizations away from the purely vertical structures which currently dominate our culture. Policies will need to be replaced. Fewer rewards for political activities and greater ones for creative endeavors need to be fostered. Meshing the human factor and the computer factor will enhance the merging of vertical and lateral organizational structures until an effective matrix is established as described by Davidow and Malone (1991). 6. Manage people with democratic rather than totalitarian principles. Since the X-Theory management style still predominates, there is an immediate need to reframe this management style and move immediately toward a universal acceptance of the Y-Theory, and eventually the Z-Theory of management. In the work environment, too many people experience little influence over a part of their lives which consumes fully a third of them. This is an intolerable condition for most individuals. The result is often low motivation, little loyalty to the organization, and turnover rates which cost dearly. As employees are empowered to take ownership of their direct work-related responsibilities, this condition will improve. However, it is supervision's role to not only foster but facilitate and support this change. Perhaps, that is what GM meant when it advertized Saturn as "not just another car company." Blue-chip GM went outside its organizational structure to create a creative, dynamic fosterchild which seems to be unique in the car manufacturing world. (I just wish they would produce a cheaper version of their automobile like VW did back in the early 1960's). 7. Reward creative, productive enterprise. For too long, rewards in most organizations were based upon politics rather than achieving results. This trend needs to be reversed if the organizations presently existing hope to survive in the future. Politics as usual is destroying the nation-state and many of the organizations which exist within it today. As long as they still maintain nepotistic, "good ole boy" networks and internally choke off the life blood of their systems, they are doomed to failure. Vertical thinking is encouraged, but lateral thinking avoided. Only in the most progressive organizations do "think tanks" exist. The need for all types of thinking patterns to be fostered within organizational structures cannot be overemphasized. Brainstorming is not enough. An organizational culture must be established in which all ideas are considered. PO (deBono, 1972) must replace the Yes/No mentality which governs today. 8. Realize that Time and Space are diminishing. There is time to wait, but only if the time is not important. The global village is rapidly approaching. From my home in the most rural part of Pennsylvania, with my computer and phone line, I am connected with the world. Five years ago, the connection cost was prohibitive. In just one year, the modem which I purchased for $100 (2400 Baud) is outdated. For a few dollars more, I can now own a 14,400 Baud FAX modem which is six times faster and performs more functions at less cost. Organizations which avoid the use of this technology are doomed. In organizations where the technology is embraced but supervisors refuse to use it, they will slowly destroy their organizations from within. Hard copy memos, which cost from $5-20 to produce and distribute to all employees need to be replaced by e-mail messages which can be sent for micro-pennies. 9. Foster lifelong learning at all levels of the organization, beginning with supervision. We must accept that what worked today probably will not work tomorrow. This is a most painful lesson. Not many supervisors are prepared to entertain a program of life long learning. Yet without such activity on the part of supervisors in business, industry, education, and human services, the future for these individuals is murky. There is too much to learn about the future to be caught unaware. Management training is not enough. Each individual supervisor must accept responsibility for undertaking a personal program of lifelong learning to enhance his or her growth and development. 10. Learn how to learn. Learning how to learn is the key. Memorizing information is not necessary. Let the PDA keep track of phone numbers, memos, and other data. Access information needed with the touch of a pen. Learn how to use the technology to do a much better, more efficient, and less costly job. With the information explosion, it is impossible to learn everything about even the most microscopic facets of any one subject. What is most important is learning how to learn, how to think, and how to solve problems practically, swiftly, and efficiently. One of my favorite quotes is "You don't have a problem if you have a solution." If the problem is getting information, the solution is using the technology to speed up the search process. Knowing where to find something is more important than being able to memorize what the information is. Computers permit this process to happen expeditiously. All sorts of databases exist which make this a reality and not just a "what if." Dialogue, Compuserve, IQuest, NASA, ERIC, Psychlit, and numerous corporate and private BBS's are readily available to individuals who are willing to use them to enhance their learning. 11. Find an acceptable, personal balance of body, mind, and spirit. In times which are turbulent such as this transitional generation from the industrial to the information age, balancing body, mind, and spirit becomes a necessity and not a luxury. Demands upon supervisors, employees, all people are sometimes extreme. Problems abound. Decisions are made at a whirlwind pace. Processing the necessary information to conduct even the minimal amount of business is perplexing. It is at these times that the supervisor who finds the necessary balance in his or her work, personal, and spiritual life will succeed. The problems a supervisor faces can often be ameliorated by finding this balance. What is exciting about this endeavor is that the end product produces for the supervisor a measure of equanimity in his or her life that makes the work life more productive and the personal life far more exciting. Supervision is the 21st Century will be exciting, challenging, and fulfilling. As time and space shrink, possibilities will expand. The shrewd supervisor will expand with them. He or she will begin to see the "What If's" as diamonds in the rough. No longer will the quantum leap in communication technology frighten him or her. Instead, it will prompt new thinking, new awarenesses, new creations which will make organizations roar with power, turbocharged by an overwhelming desire to expand beyond Yes/No and escape the "land of pretend" and enter the family of man living in a global village connected by invisible threads of fiber optics and laser beams from satellites floating silently hundreds of miles above the planet, Earth. Forward!