As someone who’s spent a fair bit of time navigating the rough seas of internships, I often ponder the magic that transforms a young student into a seasoned professional. That transformation (as I call it) It’s not merely the result of methodical steps and meticulous planning.
It’s more like trying to herd a group of ill tempered cats while blindfolded.
When students step into the workplace on their first day, they’ve been fed the myth that success is a straight path—a tidy series of logical steps leading to the pot of gold at the end of the corporate rainbow. The only thing you must do is walk it, and if you fall offtrack it’s because you failed miserably. And personally.
Yet, much of what makes us successful isn’t due to our own actions but a slightly unpredictable cocktail of serendipity and circumstance. Sometimes things work out splendidly, more often they don't.
Am I the only one who’s noticed this? Surely not. The older you get, the more you realize this.
So, when guiding interns, it’s crucial to puncture that bubble of illusion. The notion that we always know what we’re doing and that discoveries are the fruits of linear, clear-cut thinking needs a reality check. You can devise all the steps you like, but you can’t predict the outcomes.
Teach your interns not to disappear down a narrowing tunnel of one-dimensional logic where the light keeps getting darker and darker while we keep telling to just move on in a straight line. You’re not leading them anywhere. And you don’t benefit as an organisation.
Double loss.
Instead, encourage them to stumble and bumble around, to dabble in a bit of this and a bit of that, hoping for a serendipitous strike. Show them that they are already in a tunnel and that you are going to help them to stumble their way out, not deeper inside the darkness of an unknown future where they find nothing but themselves and a feeling that they failed.
Applaude failure, give them room to mess about and do some dumb things.
Think about penicillin, TNT, Coca-Cola, Velcro… All products of happenstance.
Smoke detectors? Accident.
Matches? Pure luck.
There’s immense value in muddling through until you stumble upon something remarkable. Perhaps it's even more valuable than shoving a “think of something new you young person with a free perspective” directive down the throats of our young colleagues-to-be and branding the leftover ideas as “innovation.”
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.”
Steve Jobs
So, flip the funnel on its head. Strike a match beneath it and let the concoction of ideas and inspirations from students bubble away. It yields more knowledge, gives students richer experiences, and trains them to become professionals with a broader perspective.
To quote the late, great Steve Jobs, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” Thus, let’s embrace the beautiful chaos of the internship experience. Encourage our budding professionals to embrace the randomness, to delight in the detours, and to welcome the whims of chance.
In the end, it’s not the meticulously planned roadmaps that lead to the most significant discoveries but the unplanned, the unexpected, and the entirely accidental.
Let our interns bumble brilliantly.