This New York Post article made me shiver. As extreme as this seems, let’s see what lessons might apply to your business!

For this school, the goal is clearly to graduate, not to learn. Do you have objectives that have morphed into “check-it-off” milestones that add no real value to the organization’s real priorities?

Do you strive for 100% procedural compliance instead of results? Forms filled out properly? On time submissions? Signed forms? Perfect attendance? Meetings that end on time? Whatever you are measuring, are you sure it contributes to your most critical goals such as revenue, profits, and customer loyalty?

Do you reward “seat time” by paying people for sticking around instead of producing?  How is that any different from graduating students just because they watch enough videos?

Does your performance management system rate most everyone as “above average,” if not “exceptional”? Sounds a lot like this student who earned an 85 in chemistry: the program “made it less challenging and more understandable. We watched a video, answer a few questions, and took an online quiz/test. It was simple, and reasonable.”

When students at this school find the work uninteresting, their lack of interest is accepted and the bar is lowered. Do you reduce your expectations when employees show little interest or fail? Do you reduce responsibilities in order to help them succeed? Do you shuffle under-performers around in hopes of finding them success?

“Online instruction often leaves students ill-prepared” is a classic example of pointing the finger, likely at a pet peeve, rather than identifying the real cause of the problem. You can’t solve a problem without identifying its cause. This leap to the wrong cause will trigger all kinds of worthless debates about the effectiveness of online schooling. Meanwhile, if you have no expectations that students should work and learn, they aren’t likely to work and learn! Do you leap to erroneous causes and distract from the critical debate?