One bit of news that caught my attention was the declining trust that the American public has in higher education over the last decade. In good news, Gallup found that trust did increase from 2024 to 2025. However, it is still markedly down from 2015. Not surprisingly, those levels of trust differ by political affiliation, as most things seem to different by political affiliation nowadays.

Another study by Pew states that young adults are increasingly questioning the value of a four-year college degree, especially when looking at the cost of it. This is coupled with smaller four-year liberal arts institutions because of declining enrollment. There are a number of factors for this, but a main one is whether such an education adequately prepares one for a successful future, or whether it is really necessary at all.

But if not higher education, then what? Where are 18 year olds supposed to go after they graduate high school?

It is true that skilled tradespeople are in demand and can lead to a career. In fact, there is an increase in the number of people entering trade school and vocational programs. That for sure is great news.

Another pathway for young adults is joining the military. Those numbers have been increasing as well, reversing a long-term trend of declining enlistments. However, less than 1% of Americans are on active duty. The current overall veteran population is only 7.4%. The larger question still remains of whether being in the military can adequately prepare a person for life and a career after serving?

My guest today on Experience by Design podcast thinks so. Lee Pepper has served in the military, and he also has worked in business. He sees a lot of connections between the two, which he wrote in his book “Never Outmatched: Military Strategies to Lead, Innovate, and Win in the Modern Marketing Battlefield,” which I will say I have read and is pretty great.

We talk about how innovation doesn’t mean throwing everything out, but new applications in current environments given emergent tools. He describes how he seeks to mentor soldiers who are struggling after the military to help them apply what they learned in the service to life outside of it. He translates how military speak can be translated into corporate speak to help increase those connections.

Lee also talks about how these lessons can be applicable to everyone looking to improve innovation, strategy, and leadership. He also relates his marketing work for a recovery and treatment facility, and what he learned from that environment and how lifetime relationships can help for long-term recovery.

Finally, he shares his experience about being a docent in an art museum, and how his wife’s art work relates to his own creativity, risk taking, and innovative inspiration.

Lee Pepper LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leepepper/

Never Outmatch Book: https://www.neveroutmatched.com/

I don’t think I am alone in finding art very intimidating, but yet like all of us being I am inextricably drawn to it.

I had the chance to go to a concert last night with the band Queens of the Stone Age. I have seen them three times before, but never quite like this. For this tour, they were playing beautiful smaller venues, like the Boch Theater in Boston where I saw them. The tour was in support of their “Alive in the Catacombs” movie and album, which was recorded in the catacombs under Paris.

One of the things about this concert was the band’s request to get dressed up in your best attire for an experience unlike any other concert you’ve been to. And reading the reviews provided by attendees online, you can see that the concert produced such an effect. Like any good drama, the concert used a three-act structure put into parts that started very paired down into an orchestra of light, symphony, rock music, and drama. It was pretty remarkable, and as I watched it I couldn’t help but wonder about the creative and artistic minds that put this together. Not just the music, but all of it. Who are the minds that conceived it, and where does that come from? And as I sat there wishing I had taken more music lessons so I could produce such an experience for the world, I have to admit that I was both in awe and uplifted, and feeling diminished because of my lack of ability.

I’m sure if I would talk to the artists involved, and if you’re listening let me know, they would say that is not the point of artistic creation. It is not to make those non-creators feel insignificant, but rather to allow them to share in the potential of creation. We all have the potential for artistic expression and creation on whatever scale we can manage. What typically stands in our way is our own feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy. Those feelings get magnified when our initial attempts don’t meet with our own expectations. We are truly our own worst critics, and that art critic can be pretty unforgiving.

To help us with finding our inner artist and creative voice is Laura Patac. Laura grew up in Romania as a very shy and introverted child. One outlet she found was poetry. But she didn’t see this as a legitimate professional outlet. Rather, she studied mathematics in university, which led to a career in Western Union, culminating in being the VP and Head of Global Retail Product. But she retained her passion for and practice of poetry and story-telling, which she has turned into her book “Stories with Purpose.”

I talk with Laura about the importance of the arts, and with the arts and story telling there is no right nor wrong. She talks about the connection between poetry and mathematics. Both provided her with structure, self-expression, and a way to connect not just with others but herself.

We talk about the prevalence of imposter syndrome in women, and the importance of resilience when managing corporate environments. We explore the ways that we measure success and impact, and how story telling can help us define both. More importantly we talk about how to connect narrative with purpose to create a positive impact. She describes how she helps her clients tell their story and identify their purpose so they can have that positive impact on organizations and more.

Finally, she talks about how in between birth and death is choice, and we need to choose the version of ourselves that we create and present to the world.

Laura G. Patac LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-g-patac/

Empower Quest: https://empower-quest.com/

Stories with Purpose Book: https://www.storiesholdpurpose.com/book

Stories with Purpose Workbook: https://www.storiesholdpurpose.com/workbook-optin

I used to have a Zen proverb a day calendar, the ones where each day you tear off a new sheet that has another saying that was meant to make you contemplate, get in touch, consider, explore, think. My years always started off well, but by about June I was just ripping pages off trying to catch up to the day I was supposed to be on. I honestly think I got more mileage out of my Dad Joke a Day calendar that ended up replacing the Zen one in an ensuing year. But then again maybe there is something Zen about Dad Jokes.

One Zen proverb that stuck with me was, “Our eyes were originally right but went wrong because of teachers.” I have to admit that one stung a bit. Speaking on behalf of all educators, we all want to think that we are positively contributing to how our students see the world. But do we? There is the danger of formal education introducing “fixed thinking” or singular ways of conceptualizing the world around us. Students are taught what we been taught and know. Problem is, what we know might only be one dimension of how to view things.

To bring in another saying, “If all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail.” Thinking of “hammer” instructs how the object is to be used. But if you have no idea what a hammer was, then you could envision many different uses for it. Sometimes not knowing is the key to progress.

Now it is true from a design perspective that the way a hammer is built can instruct on how it should be used. There is something that looks like a handle. The heavy end has a flat surface which can infer pounding. But creative and unconstrained thinking can see so many ways to use this object.

To throw in another saying, Ignorance is bliss, and from that we might also say paradigms can obscure. Thomas Kuhn in his book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” examines how established paradigms can stymie progress and advancing knowledge because they limit our ability to what is in front of us. Thus, part of the advancement of science and our understanding is shedding off what teachers have taught us to be true. Rather than just teaching paradigms and how things are, teachers need to do more teaching on how to retain a beginner’s mind and connect that with envision what is possible, and not just what is believed to be known.

Alan Gregerman is here on Experience by Design to talk about his new book coming out on October 14th “The Wisdom of Ignorance,” in which he examines what we can gain by letting go of what we think we know. Alan is trained as an Urban Geographer, as he was long interested in exploring cities of the world. While a student at Northwestern, he worked under the tutelage of John McKnight, one of the founders of the Assets-Based Community Development Institute, and I will add a person I also knew and took a workshop from on the ABCD approach. McKnight’s work continues to influence Alan, as well as me.

We talk about his work in helping companies be creative through exploring urban environments in undirected ways. He describes how new employees are a very valuable resource because of how they bring new eyes to organizations. He notes that half of all the companies on the Fortune 500 list 25 years ago don’t exist today, and how that is in part linked to their belief in old paradigms.

Alan emphasizes the importance of having teams of diverse perspectives and experiences in order to help see things differently. Also in keeping with assets-based community development, everyone has a gift that they can contribute.

Alan Gregerman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-gregerman-a33b236/

Alan Gregerman: https://alangregerman.com

The Wisdom of Ignorance: https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Ignorance-Knowing-Innovation-Uncertain/dp/B0FJJSXVGV