REDUCING
OPPORTUNITY GAPS,
UNLEASHING
POTENTIAL
RYAN STOWERS
The Great Resignation. Quiet quitting. These terms made their way into our lex-
icon over the last couple of years, but the way Americans work, and where and
whether they do, has been shifting for years.
Certain
industries, manufacturing
among them, have had persistent employ-
ment gaps, and many job opportunities
have remained unfilled. Private-sector em-
ployers, postsecondary educators, and gov-
ernment officials have tried to fill these job
openings. The federal government, for ex-
ample, spends nearly $19 billion each year on job training programs, while employers probably spend more than $100 billion.
Meanwhile, many people simply have
given up looking for a job. In fact, the na-
tion’s labor force participation rate de-
clined from 66 percent to 62 percent over
the last generation, indicating that millions
of potential workers have dropped out of
the workforce.
Millions of people are missing the
chance to use their talents to enrich their
own lives and the lives of others. This rep-
resents a lot of human potential left on the
table, and missed opportunity can lead to
human misery. Working Americans spend
most of the day at their jobs, so if what
people do is not connected to who they
are, it strips them of their dignity. This can
lead to a host of problems, including burn-
out, anxiety, and depression, leaving the
workforce altogether, addiction, and even
suicide.
It is time we rethink our approach to
learning and work and create a new para-
digm for solving employers’ skills gaps and
individuals’ opportunity gaps.
THE PARADIGM SHIFT:
DISCOVERY FIRST,
DEVELOPMENT SECOND
School is a place where people can acquire
the knowledge and skills that will help
them contribute to the economy and to so-
ciety. However, learning to do something
is not the only (or even first) goal of edu-
cation. Classrooms and campuses also
are—or should be—places where individ-
uals can discover who they are, what they
are good at, what drives them, and what
22
innovations / The Human Economy
Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/13/3-4/22/2113961/inov_a_00288.pdf by guest on 07 September 2023
kind of contribution they want to make in
their world.
Although every human is unique, the
country’s existing learning-to-work system
trains people in the same way manufac-
turers develop products: by putting them
through a standardized system that spits
them out in finished form in a certain
amount of time.
This cookie-cutter system prioritizes
seat time and degree acquisition and rarely
gives learners the opportunity to explore
how they can contribute to society. Edu-
cators do not always offer the kind of
hands-on experience and direct feedback
learners need in order to discover their tal-
ents and passions. After they graduate, in-
stead of being allowed to explore how they
can contribute, people often get more of
the same standardized approach from
their employers and from a society that en-
courages workers to follow a predeter-
mined career path up the ladder of success.
Students and parents, along with edu-
cators, employers, and policymakers,
should think of skills attainment and cre-
dentialing as byproducts of the larger mis-
sion—to unlock the potential of each
person. If we as a society are going to re-
duce opportunity gaps, we will need first
to enable each person to discover how to
pursue meaningful success based on who
they are as an individual, and then develop
programs and platforms that help them
turn their aptitudes and passions into use-
ful skills that enable them to succeed in
their own lives and contribute to the lives
of others.
American workers are ready for a new
paradigm. They want jobs that give them
meaning and appeal to who they are as in-
dividuals. According to McKinsey & Com-
pany, 70 percent of Americans define their
sense of purpose through work. A 2021
study by Populace, a nonprofit research or-
ganization, concluded that “the American
workforce values work as a way to not only
materially provide, but also to nourish a
sense of self.”
For most Americans, the goal of
working is more than to earn a salary.
Right now, however, too many people are
mismatched: they have a job, but their job
is not connected to who they are. As a re-
sult, they do not find purpose in their
work beyond earning a paycheck. This fai-
lure to find fulfillment in work has con-
tributed to the fact that nearly half of
Americans are currently thinking about
quitting their job and that only 34 percent
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ryan Stowers is the Executive Director of the Charles Koch Foundation, where he partners with
education entrepreneurs to remove the biggest barriers holding people back from reaching their
potential. CKF supports postsecondary education initiatives that allow learners to discover, develop,
and deploy their unique aptitudes and gifts to benefit themselves and others, as well as research
that explores key related social issues, such as immigration, criminal justice, and economic progress.
Stowers serves on the national advisory boards of Utah State University’s John M. Huntsman School
of Business and Utah Valley University’s Woodbury School of Business, and on the board of directors
of the Bill of Rights Institute and the Institute for Humane Studies.
© 2023 Ryan Stowers
innovations / volume 13, number 3/4
23
Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/13/3-4/22/2113961/inov_a_00288.pdf by guest on 07 September 2023
Ryan Stowers
of employees in the US feel fully engaged
in their work and workplace.
Roy Spence, who is chair and co-
founder of the company that produced cul-
ture-changing initiatives like the “Don’t
Mess with Texas” campaign, believes he’s
identified the main thing that keeps
learners from exploring their desired ca-
reer and education pathway: marketing.
While speaking with local high school stu-
dents, he discovered that many of them did
not know about the well-paying jobs avail-
able in the rolling hills of central Texas.
They also had no idea how much the jobs
paid and were not aware that they did not
need to go into debt to gain the skills
needed to fill them.
Spence started the Make It Movement
(MiM) in 2021 in Austin, Texas. Instead of
setting up a training program to prepare
students for any kind of job opportunity,
Spence and the MiM created an assess-
ment tool to help individuals—first, by dis-
covering more about themselves and their
passions, and second, by connecting them
to skills-building opportunities that would
help them capitalize on those interests. The
MiM has been so successful in Austin that
the organization is now expanding to other
parts of the state and country.
Programs like MiM acknowledge that,
if a young person goes into computer pro-
gramming when they would rather work
outside in nature, it can make them un-
happy and leave them unexcited about
working. By flipping the focus—that is,
first identifying the individual’s talents and
then developing their skills—the program
increases the likelihood that workers will
stay in the workforce, create value for
themselves and others, and build fulfilling
careers that are a good match with their
unique potential.
By recognizing the power of helping
each person discover their purpose and
build on their natural aptitudes, we will be
able to use the billions of dollars now spent
on developing skills to close the current
skills and opportunity gaps. Individual em-
ployees and students, educators, em-
ployers, and policymakers all must play a
part in this cultural shift.
Let’s explore the role for each group.
THE INDIVIDUAL’S ROLE:
BUILD A CAREER FROM
PURPOSE
Changing the way we think about learning
and work starts and ends, of course, with
the individual.
High school and college students,
workers pursuing certificates to advance in
their current occupation, and parents con-
sidering a midlife career shift will benefit
from being introspective and honest about
their interests and aptitudes, and then
making their decision about a career. The
first steps toward reducing opportunity
gaps is for people to be able to research
their options and ask questions, such as
where they want to work and why, what
they are good at (or not), and even what
gets them out of bed in the morning.
To many Americans, these questions
may seem reserved for people from higher-
income families. What about putting food
on the table? The perception is that most
Americans do not have the luxury to ask
these questions.
Here is the truth: people can have
both.
The more a person can match their job
with their gifts and passions, the more
likely they are to be both happy and suc-
cessful. In fact, research suggests that being
happy at work can lead to a higher income,
and it may even reduce income inequality.
People who are excited by their field of
work are more likely to stay in that indus-
try and create their own ladder to success.
Research also suggests that people with a
sense of purpose at work live longer.
Populace has explored the connection
between work, a paycheck, and a sense of
purpose. In its American Workforce Index,
24
innovations / The Human Economy
Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/13/3-4/22/2113961/inov_a_00288.pdf by guest on 07 September 2023
Reducing Opportunity Gaps, Unleashing Potential
the organization asked Americans which
attributes of a job mattered most to them.
The number-one priority was compensa-
tion, but three of the top ten responses had
to do with finding purpose at work: people
want to feel personally interested in their
work, they want to enjoy their time at
work, and they want to feel that their job is
more than work, that it is a calling. Pop-
ulace also found that American workers
who have achieved more of these priorities
in their current jobs give their lives a
higher rating than those who have
achieved fewer of their priorities.
Rethinking how we approach learning
also can reduce opportunity gaps. The top-
down, standardized education system in
the US teaches Americans that, unless they
go to college, the bulk of their learning will
occur in early adulthood. However, more
than half of Americans over age of 25
never went to college or never earned a de-
gree. Therefore, young people, parents, and
employers must challenge the mental
model that learning stops at some point in
life and embrace the model that learning is
in fact a lifelong endeavor. Parents can start
delivering this message to their children
early on, but others in the ecosystem must
echo the fact that personal transformation
and self-actualization are not just for the
young or the privileged.
THE EDUCATOR’S ROLE:
PROVIDING SPACE TO
DISCOVER PURPOSE
The role of secondary and postsecondary
schools and educators is to encourage in-
dividual learners to uncover their natural
aptitudes, gain knowledge and skills, and
begin to understand their purpose—in
their life and in their work.
At the Intentional Life Lab, the guid-
ing principle is that free and creative indi-
viduals who choose their work based on
their own interests and aptitudes make the
world a better place.1 The Lab’s innovative
curriculum was developed by Rajshree
Agarwal and Sarah Wolek. For decades,
Agarwal has studied human enterprise as
the primary cause of thriving individuals,
economies, and societies. Wolek spent
years working in the private and public
sectors and has found that individuals who
lead intentional lives enable the organiza-
tions they work for to deliver on their goals
more fully. Wolek says, “Our goal is to fa-
cilitate a student’s self-discovery, cultivate
a holistic approach to life, and help them
develop and apply a creative growth mind-
set to themselves.”
The Lab currently offers four courses.
Students who take “The Intentional Self ”
examine who they have been, who they are
now, and who they want to become, which
guides their development of a personal
plan of action. In “Choosing Your Major
and Career,” students explore their abilities
and aspirations and align their choice of a
major and a career with the dual goal of
creating self-esteem and providing value to
others. In “Entrepreneurial Leader,” stu-
dents work in teams to identify solutions
to problems that are personally meaningful
to them. The fourth course, “Careers in
Impact,” enables students to find jobs in
the private, public, and nonprofit sectors
that will enable them to have a positive im-
pact on society. All of these courses are
regularly oversubscribed.2
As Agarwal explains, “A university is
and should be a marketplace for ideas…
Fostering enterprising individuals and en-
abling their growth in [the] intellectual,
psychological, and economic realms is a
responsibility I take very seriously.”
The Intentional Life Lab offers college
students a fresh approach, but what about
the non-traditional learner? The average
college student today looks very different
from the bright-faced 18-year-old we tra-
ditionally picture. Millions of students are
working part- or full-time, raising chil-
dren, and caring for elders, thus they need
an education that fits their unique lifestyle
innovations / volume 13, number 3/4
25
Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/13/3-4/22/2113961/inov_a_00288.pdf by guest on 07 September 2023
Ryan Stowers
and circumstances. Personalized learning
models will help these learners uncover
their gifts and unique passions without the
heavy financial burden of acquiring new
skills.
PelotonU, which was founded in 2012
in Austin, Texas, takes a multifaceted ap-
proach to supporting individuals who
work full-time jobs while earning an ac-
credited, marketable credential. It matches
students with the best and most affordable
online universities, offers a community-
based local learning environment, and
pairs each student with a full-time coach
who offers encouragement and accounta-
bility. PelotonU’s low-cost, high-quality
“hybrid college” approach helps working
adults complete college faster and less ex-
pensively. Average tuition expenses are
$6,000 per year, compared to $11,039 for a
public in-state school in Texas.
Other individualized education pro-
grams are helping people advance in their
chosen fields. They enable learners to ac-
cess new opportunities and earn a higher
income doing what they love, while also
addressing jobs gap in certain industries.
Take Reach University. Reach has
partnered with the local school systems in
Louisiana and Arkansas to help paraedu-
cators become full-time, fully accredited
teachers while still working in their exist-
ing jobs. This effort is helping these two
states address their teacher shortages, and
the paraeducators will earn higher wages
when they move to full-time teaching.
Reach also helps schools hire teachers
whose backgrounds are similar to their
students’. More than one-third of Reach’s
participants are people of color, which is
significant because the school districts they
work in have high minority student pop-
ulations. In Arkansas in 2020-2021, more
than two-thirds of the school districts did
not employ a single Black, Indigenous,
Hispanic, or Asian teacher, despite the fact
that 40 percent of the students are from
those racial groups. At least half of the
Reach educators who work with predomi-
nantly Black student populations are them-
selves people of color.
The Reach program costs participants
just $75 a month. So far it has produced more than 700 new teachers in Louisiana alone. Based on its success in the education sector, Reach is exploring how it can close skills gaps in manufacturing and nursing. The organization recently received a $6.9
million grant from the US Department of
Education to continue its work with edu-
cators in Louisiana.
Educators help learners discover and
develop their unique passions and apti-
tudes. But what comes after graduation?
Americans spend about one-third of their
lives at work. If learning is to be a lifelong
pursuit, employers must play a significant
role in helping people define and live out
their purpose.
THE EMPLOYER’S ROLE:
RECOGNIZE THAT PURPOSE
AND PASSION MATTER TO
YOU AND YOUR
EMPLOYEES
Management,
According to the annual State of the Work-
place Study by the Society for Human Re-
source
employers
consistently rate finding employees with
the right talent as one of their top con-
cerns. One way to solve those challenges is
to develop value-adding roles that foster
employees’ individual purpose, passion,
and aptitudes.
We know happier employees are more
productive. Gallup has estimated that em-
ployers lose $322 billion each year in turn- over and lost productivity due to employee burnout. According to a study released in 2022 by the University of Warwick, happy workers also are more likely to stay in their jobs. According to Warwick professor An- drew Oswald, when Google invested in employee support, worker satisfaction rose 26 innovations / The Human Economy Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/13/3-4/22/2113961/inov_a_00288.pdf by guest on 07 September 2023 Reducing Opportunity Gaps, Unleashing Potential by 37 percent. “Making workers happier really pays off,” Oswald concluded. When supervisors and CEOs view their employees as capable of contributing to the company’s success and then back up that recognition by treating workers with dignity and respect, great things can happen: companies can attract qualified, capable candidates who are engaged in their work; employees can earn a paycheck and also build self-worth and purpose; and communities and societies can improve and prosper. Employers can develop human resource policies that indicate that they care about each employee’s growth and dignity, and explore ways to help their employees sharpen their skills and pursue their passions. Companies also can signal that they are open to helping people who have not gone through the traditional education system. This can include changing hiring policies, such as requiring a college degree or specific work experience, which will open employers’ doors to thousands of new applicants and improve workplace in- clusion. This also will create opportunities for people who have no degree but do have the skills or aptitude to fill a job success- fully. Many of these barriers are artificial anyway. While a college degree has long been perceived as a signal of quality assur- ance and a way to reduce risk in hiring, a Harvard Business School study found that, while a majority of companies pay college graduates between 11 percent and 30 per- cent more than non-degree-holders, those same employers report that non-graduates with the right skills perform nearly or equally well on critical dimensions, such as time needed to reach full productivity and to earn a promotion, level of productivity, and amount of oversight required. In fact, some of the country’s largest employers are starting to realize that a degree does not ensure quality and in many instances is not necessary. As the Wall Street Journal re- ported, Delta Air Lines, IBM, and dozens of other corporations have already done away with degree requirements for certain jobs. This shift is overdue since, as noted above, so many Americans who have tal- ents and valuable experience never com- plete or even attempt a degree. Employers also should consider sec- ond-chance hiring. More than 70 million people living in the United States have criminal records, and nearly 600,000 indi- viduals are released from prison each year. Giving individuals with a criminal record a chance at a job when they have the skills and talent to fill them is another way to sig- nal that a company prioritizes individual development, growth, dignity, and self-ac- tualization. There is mutual benefit here as well; according to the Society for Human Resource Management, about two-thirds of human resource professionals said their organization has hired individuals with criminal records. Of those, 85 percent said those workers perform at least as well in their jobs as their workers without a crim- inal record. Many of today’s workers expect their employers to help facilitate their individual development by providing resources, train- ing, and on-the-job experiences to help them advance to the next level. And to be clear—employers should not think this de- mand is coming only from white- collar workers. According to a 2022 McKinsey & Company survey, frontline employees, de- fined as those who make less than $22 an
hour, “are ambitious and eager to climb the
career ladder.” Indeed, more than 70 per-
cent of those surveyed have applied for ca-
reer advancement opportunities with
either their current employer or a different
company.
Walmart is one company that is re-
thinking its advancement opportunities for
frontline workers. Since introducing the
Live Better U program in 2018, Walmart
has taken an individualized pathway ap-
proach to workforce development. The
innovations / volume 13, number 3/4
27
Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/13/3-4/22/2113961/inov_a_00288.pdf by guest on 07 September 2023
Ryan Stowers
program offers all part- and full-time US-
based associates the chance to earn a de-
gree or learn new trade skills without going
into debt. It also offers participants a cus-
tomized dashboard that provides data-
driven personalized recommendations and
access to academic coaching. More than
52,000 associates have participated in Live
Better U and 8,000 have graduated.
Some employers may worry that help-
ing their employees discover their apti-
tudes and develop skills means they will
decide to leave the company. With more
than half of US employees already thinking
about leaving their jobs, it is more likely
that helping their employees will have a
significant upside for employers. In its
2019 Workforce Learning Report, LinkedIn
found that 94 percent of employees said
they would stay at a company longer if that
company simply invested in helping them
acquire new skills. As consulting firm
Gartner has advised, “People want purpose
in their lives—and that includes work. The
more an employer limits those things, the
higher the employee’s intent to leave.”
In today’s world, workers and non-
workers alike expect companies to focus
on more than the bottom line. Moreover,
helping employees capitalize on their apti-
tudes and passions will create a virtuous
cycle of mutual benefit. Being known as an
employer who helps its employees take ad-
vantage of growth opportunities can be a
competitive advantage in attracting talent.
(This culture also can create a boomerang
effect: an employee may leave, but return
at some point, even quite quickly, to the
company that enabled their growth.) And,
as employees move on to positions (inside
or outside the company) more suited to
them, the companies that have a reputation
for putting people first will be able to at-
tract the workers they need to replace
them.
THE POLICYMAKERS’ ROLE:
ELIMINATE RULES THAT
KEEP PEOPLE FROM
PURSUING PURPOSE
Policymakers also have a role to play in
helping American workers discover and
pursue their natural passions, aptitudes,
and purpose.
As employers, states—like their pri-
vate-sector counterparts—need to end col-
lege degree requirements. Maryland was
the first state to implement this change,
and Utah and Pennsylvania have an-
nounced similar moves.
Another impediment that needs to
change is the practice of requiring licenses
for various professions, which has in-
creased astronomically over the last three
generations. In the 1950s, only 5 percent of
US jobs required an occupational license;
today that number is 30 percent. To reduce
opportunity gaps, policymakers must re-
form occupational licensing laws that pre-
vent entrepreneurs from using their innate
skills to create a business and serve a com-
munity. While it makes sense for some
professions to have requirements that en-
sure practitioners know what they are
doing, requirements for barbers, florists,
morticians, and others in the service in-
dustry only make it more difficult for indi-
viduals to find fulfilling work.
Policymakers also must reform the
Office of Federal Contract Compliance
Programs regulation for applicants and
candidates, which makes it difficult for em-
ployers to hire non-traditional candidates.
It drives companies to lean on static, “ob-
jective” measures such as holding a college
degree, simply so they can avoid wrongful
hiring litigation. Research by the Society
for Human Resource Management is also
instructive here. The organization found
that federal contracting degree require-
ments are a major factor in companies
continuing to require that employees have
a college degree so that their workforce will
28
innovations / The Human Economy
Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/13/3-4/22/2113961/inov_a_00288.pdf by guest on 07 September 2023
Reducing Opportunity Gaps, Unleashing Potential
make their federal contract bids more
competitive.
Federal policymakers must change
this rule and move away from education as
the only hiring criteria and embrace the
skills and experience an applicant acquired
outside the classroom.
A paradigm shift of this magnitude
will require all pillars of society—individ-
uals, families, educators, employers, and
policymakers—to work together. Clearly it
will be difficult, but it has been done be-
fore.
HOW A BOTTOM-UP
SOLUTION LED TO
CULTURAL CHANGE
Nearly 20 years ago, a civil rights organiza-
tion called All of Us or None started a
movement that challenged the stereotypes
employers held about people with criminal
convictions. Those involved with All of Us
or None were primarily formerly incarcer-
ated people and their families—people
who had direct experience with the con-
sequences of employer bias.
The inability to find work is one of the
biggest factors in the high recidivism rate
in the United States. A 2012 study found
that formerly incarcerated people who had
been working for one year had a recidivism
rate of just 16 percent; this compared to a
52.3 percent rate for unemployed individ-
uals. The organization’s solution was
straightforward: ask employers to offer a
job to the best candidate based on their
qualifications, not on their history with law
enforcement. The All of Us or None fam-
ilies started with public-sector employers,
and within five years one state, Minnesota,
had agreed to shift its policy. The move-
ment grew from there as philanthropists,
policymakers, community organizations,
and employers came on board and, as
noted above, major US employers have
since changed their policies.
This small grassroots group did not
start with millions in the bank; instead, it
offered a simple way to close the opportu-
nity gap for millions of Americans. The
courage of these disruptors, combined
with the power brought to the movement
by policymakers, community activists, phi-
lanthropists, and employers, helped people
who otherwise may have been trapped
forever in the criminal justice system and
enabled them to participate in the US
workforce.
Changing a culture is difficult, but if
the right stakeholders are willing to work
together to bring about change, it can be
done. We will see fewer workforce gaps
when individuals are enabled to discover
and use their own aptitudes and passions
to contribute to society, and when edu-
cators, employers, and policymakers create
bottom-up solutions that help each person
develop the skills that match their unique
purpose. What’s more, by creating a new
paradigm around learning and work, we
can reduce the number of people who drop
out of the workforce and begin to address
the burnout, anxiety, depression, and other
ills that today plague too many Americans.
1 The Intentional Life Lab is a program of
the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and
Markets, a center for excellence at the
University of Maryland Robert H. Smith
School of Business.
2 Agarwal and Wolek are now developing
two new courses. “The Future of You,
Business, and Society”will enable students
to connect the dots between their own
goals and responsible and ethical business
practices as they work to address social and
economic challenges. “Challenge Your
Thinking/Challenge the Conversation” will
provide students with a framework to
question their core assumptions and beliefs,
and learn to engage in respectful and
reasoned discourse with others who have
different ideas.
innovations / volume 13, number 3/4
29
Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/13/3-4/22/2113961/inov_a_00288.pdf by guest on 07 September 2023
