Can LinkedIn Change the World?
John Hope Bryant
Founder, Chairman and CEO at Operation HOPE, Bryant Group Ventures. Founder, former Chairman, and Principal Shareholder, The Promise Homes Company.
I think the answer to that question, is yes. But not by just showing people how to write better resumes, or even 'getting fired well,' as is often the topic of countless and very popular LinkedIn articles and posts.
It is by connecting youth backpacks with adult briefcases. It is about being a force for good.
Earlier this month I spoke as part of the LinkedIn Speaker Series at the LinkedIn headquarters in California. The video of my remarks are included within this post, but the real point of my remarks come at the very end.
It is a call to action.
What if LinkedIn -- with 350M members to date and growing, adding one new member every two seconds somewhere in the world -- decided it wanted to become a transformational actor in a movement to make our world better. The focus -- young people. Connecting their education, to their life aspirations.
According to Gallup data, what most people want most the world over is strikingly similar and consistent --- they want a job.
What America and the world needs now is the revitalization of the Apprenticeship Generation, and there is no more 'connected' organization in the world, able to spark and operationalize such a bold yet practical vision, than the global LinkedIn family.
LinkedIn is the largest professional network -- IN THE WORLD. Boom.
Made up of corporations, big and small businesses, entrepreneurs, professional organizations, nonprofit organizations, medical and health leaders, educational leaders, government institutions and countless other individuals working in areas where they have the potential of taking someone under their wing, the global LinkedIn family is powerful, and mostly untapped, 'force for good.' But here is something that everyone can do. Banish youth hopelessness.
The civil rights movement was waged and won in the streets, but the silver rights movement will be waged and won in the suites. And you cannot have a movement, without young people.
Take one young person under your wings for a simple, 6-week professional internship. It will cost no more than $500, or $41.60 per month. Boom. Transformation, one young person at a time.
Very soon Operation HOPE, the organization I founded, will the HOPE B- Business Compact. The HOPE B- Business Compact is a special initiative, part of Operation HOPE's Project 5117, to not only connect education to aspiration, and young people to what I call 'tall buildings' -- but to also help crush the high school dropout epidemic (by giving kids a good reason (tangible hope) to go to school).
The HOPE B- Business Compact, unveiled in coming weeks, suggests that kids with an A+ or A- grade point average (GPA) will be just fine in most cases. Either they will find opportunity, or opportunity will find them.
But it is the kids with F's, D's and C's that concern me the most. I want them to aspire to get a B- GPA. And so, here is the deal.
If young people pledge to get a B- grade or better at high school graduation, I will find and place them into 6-week business internship right out of school. I would like to guarantee them a paying job, but evidence suggests that even an unpaid business internship will have a transformational impact.
According to the National Development Council in Taiwan, 70% of unemployed college graduates who were given even an unpaid internship -- were subsequently hired into paying jobs!
My bet on our young people is simple. A $500 stipend will pay for a modest business suit, business cards, transportation and food money for the young person completing their pledge commitment. And after a substantive 6-week business internship, the kid will change the business, and the business will change the kid.
This means that for a mere $41.60 per month, you and I can commit to 'crowdfund the future' of one very special young person. WE -- can do this.
This means that small businesses, barber shops, nail salons and dental offices can sponsor 1-2 young people each school year.
This means that big companies and organizations can decide to bring on hundreds of young people across their platform.
And there are few things more important or transformational for nation and people, than getting its young people pointed in the right direction. To quote my dear friend Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of Gallup, and co-founder in the Gallup-HOPE Index, "the 30 million young people, 4th grade through 12th grade, are the bench strength of the playoff games for the rest of our lives."
I believe in our young people. But this belief, has to be backed up by our actions.
The question is not whether the extended LinkedIn family can change the world, but will it. I believe that in coming years we will see the LinkedIn platform transformed into a positive force for societal good -- and not just a place to freshen up your resume, or find your own job. Stay tuned.
Ph.D's are good, but Ph.Do's are better.
Let's go...
John Hope Bryant is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass). His newest bestselling book is How The Poor Can Save Capitalism (Berrett Koehler Publishing).
Bryant is a Member of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans, co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index,and co-chair for Project 5117, which is a plan for the rebirth of underserved America.
Bryant is the only bestselling author on economics in the world who is also of African-American descent.
Follow John Hope Bryant on LinkedIn Influencers here
Photo Credit: Justin Li
Freelance Photographer
10 年Good points Mwebya Fred Peregrino ,true,it's tough to find employment shortly after graduation.Please keep in mind that the kind of jobs graduates target are way above their experience. And yes,corporations should embrace the fact,fresh graduates lack experience on the job. Fortunately,in your last point,those special programs are called internships and they are already in play.your blog highlights a lot and is insightful to the youth~become job creators. Thank you for the kind spirit of sharing informative ideas.cheers!
Changemaker
10 年Thank You John, I really love the fact that LinkedIn can change world but only if they give attention to the young people. I will be very sincere with you ,in my country out of every 100 graduates from University only 18 of them get jobs and the rest go without official jobs. But here is what is very interesting many of these youths Sign up at LinkedIn hoping that even without experience one day some employers will look at their CVs and offer them jobs. This hope slowly but steadily fades as many university graduates take more than 3 years after graduation to get a job and this kind of is always way below their qualifications. Here is what I think ,Let the great corporations all over the different regions in the world embrace the fact that most of the University graduates have no experience they always look for in their Job adverts. Hence they need to set up special programs to recruit fresh graduates and train them. I also wrote an article on how the youth can overcome the problem of Unemployment in this generation https://mindleadersuganda.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/modern-creative-ways-to-employ-yourself.html?_sm_au_=iHVH6FFtJVJPHFpR
Senior Federal Investigator @ Equal Employment Opportunity Commission | Public Policy, Youth Mentoring
10 年Making connections with educators who have the most time with our youth on a daily basis is paramount. They are mentors and can use this tool to as an incentive to get the "B" Student to perform better in the classroom and to "future think" about attainable goals.