We Need Training not Speed Limiters

This post was published in the June 2015 edition of Truck News

There are many very good reasons to limit truck speeds to 65 miles per hour. In fact there are many very good reasons to limit all vehicle speeds to 65 miles per hour. This is the position of the American Trucking Association (ATA). They want federal regulators in the USA to pass legislation requiring all heavy trucks to be equipped with electronic speed limiters and see a uniform 65 mile per hour speed limit for all vehicles passed into law. Safety is the primary reason cited by the ATA in their decision to take this path. The problem is that you can teach and embrace safe practices and develop a culture of safety but you can’t legislate that attitude. Consequently the whole issue of using technology to impose safety has become highly politicized and the benefits of effective safety practices such as managing vehicle speed are lost in all the noise.

So how has a speed limiter rule on big trucks affected safety in the province of Ontario? It’s hard to know. But wait, let’s remember the speed limiter legislation was passed in Ontario in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improved safety was to be positive fallout as a result.  Let’s also remember that a large percentage of carriers had already embraced limiting their speeds on purely economic grounds prior to the passage of speed limiter legislation in Ontario. It’s pretty hard to make an argument that safety will be improved by limiting heavy trucks to 105 kph in a jurisdiction that has a maximum speed of 100 kph for all vehicles.

Perhaps the better question to ask is has the speed limiter law affected the attitudes of drivers and motor carriers in the province of Ontario (and Quebec which also has the same law in place). It has affected attitudes, but not in a positive way.

If you travel in Ontario you know that speeds on the 400 series highways don’t flow at 100 kph which is the posted speed limit. It is common knowledge that if you don’t exceed 115 kph you’re not going to catch any grief from enforcement officials. In fact you will probably be travelling with the flow of traffic at that speed, if you’re in a car that is. In fact a December 2013 article posted on trucknews.com regarding MTO enforcement officers being equipped with radar in their vehicles stated “… they’ll be able to clock commercial vehicles and fine any driver travelling over 115 km/h for violating the province’s speed limiter law.” So for heavy trucks we have an imposed 105 kph limit on the equipment in a jurisdiction that has a 100 kph speed limit and those laws are enforced when the vehicle exceeds 115 kph.

What we have created in Ontario is an environment where it has become an accepted practice to run at governed speed no matter what. Drivers are increasingly abandoning their responsibility of governing their own speed based on the equipment they are driving and the environmental conditions they are driving in and carriers are abandoning their responsibility to provide adequate ongoing driver training that improves both safety and profitability. Let’s face it, the best piece of safety equipment in any vehicle is a professionally trained and engaged driver behind the wheel. Using technology to limit a vehicles speed then passing that into law removes a degree of responsibility from all the players in the game. Some say this is leveling the playing field. I say it is more like passing the buck.

Many drivers will put forward the argument that limiting truck speed causes “elephant races” and causes hazards on the road since trucks become rolling road blocks to other vehicles. My own experience is that this is not the case. As a driver you can manage your own speed to prevent these situations from developing. Since the speed limiter legislation was passed I started travelling at 60 mph (97 kph) as my cruise speed. This provides me with 8 kph to pass any slower moving vehicle that I approach and those packs of trucks that are engaged in their ongoing elephant race simply pass me by. I would say that over 80% of my travel time is spent within a huge stress free space cushion even in relatively heavy traffic. When I find myself in very heavy traffic, well, the flow of traffic is then considerably less than the posted limit. Does this limit my earning potential? No. Does it create a time burden for me? No. Do other vehicles run in to me because of the speed I’m travelling? No. Am I profitable? Definitely.

The speed limiter law in Ontario is a foolish law. We could attain even better results with improved driver training and a paradigm shift on how traffic laws are enforced for all vehicles.

Using Social Media to Teach not Shame

This post was published in the May 2015 edition of Truck News

Using social media to humiliate others seems to be all the rage these days. I heard an interview on the radio with author/reporter Jon Ronson about his recently published book: So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. It really got me thinking about how we treat our fellow drivers.

A few days before I heard the interview I had watched a video of a trucker damage his truck in a manner that was painful to watch. The comment thread attached to the video was nothing short of derisive. There was no shortage of commentary mocking the driver but only a few comments that tried to get at the root cause of the driver’s actions. Let me give you a brief outline of the video.

A driver approaches a bridge with a ten foot clearance on a narrow two lane road so he stops. On his right is a four foot high retaining wall and on his left is a steep embankment. The distance between the two is maybe forty feet. The video starts with the truck jackknifed across the road. The cab is up the embankment on the left and the rear passenger side of the trailer is jammed against the retaining wall on the right. Despite the fact there is no physical possibility of turning a fifty three foot trailer around in a forty foot space the driver gives it his all. He tears of the front bumper, rips the faring off the cab on the driver’s side, damages the nose of the trailer and also the rear passenger side of the trailer on the wall. There is debris strewn all over the road. The driver exits the cab and his body language says it all. He holds his head in both hands and bows up and down as he surveys the damage. You’ve heard the expression, if you want to get out of a hole then stop digging? This driver finally put down the shovel. I don’t know his story but it seems pretty obvious that he was in over his head and simply panicked in a tough situation.

Even the best truck driver training schools have to graduate students with about 200 hours of training time. The worst schools will graduate students in a fraction of that time. Think about that in comparison to the past. Our old school drivers will tell us about the countless hours they spent shunting trailers in a yard and working on the dock before they even had an opportunity to do a local delivery under supervision. In the past most drivers accumulated thousands of hours learning the ins and outs of handling a rig in tight quarters before they took to the open highway. This is why I feel we need a minimum two year apprenticeship program that gives new drivers the confidence they need to succeed. Obtaining a licence from a high quality truck driver training academy should be the first step in a driver’s training not the only step.

Here is the predicament we face today. On one hand we all recognize that the training methods of the past lead to a successful career and we bemoan the fact that many drivers lack the necessary training to do the job safely. But then we turn around and shame new drivers across social media when they are most in need of a mentor. A mentor is by definition a wise and trusted counsellor or teacher. Is mentoring becoming a thing of the past in our industry when we need it the most?

When videos and pictures are put up online they are put up with a certain intent. We need to move away from shaming drivers for the mistakes they make as our default position and start using social media to share these mistakes as teaching moments. Although I feel that an apprenticeship program is the best solution I am not so foolish as to think this will happen overnight if it even happens at all. But as experienced drivers we can share our wisdom and experience with new and novice drivers through social media.

There are some Facebook groups that are doing a great job with this approach. When a group is set up with the intent to bring back the camaraderie and welcome new recruits by encouraging them to participate and ask dumb questions (there is no such thing as a dumb question when it comes to learning new skills) friendships build quickly and the knowledge spreads around the group like wildfire. It’s a joy to witness.

So the next time you witness one of those “Gotcha!” videos take the time to try and understand the root cause of the drivers’ failure rather than just holding him in contempt. Maybe we can build a better workplace one social media post at a time.

Attracting More Women to Trucking

This post was published in the April 2015 edition of Truck News

Women with Drive

Towards the end of February I picked up a copy of Today’s Trucking magazine and read Rolf Lockwood’s editorial titled ‘Potential Ignored’. He outlined the barriers women were facing breaking into this industry as drivers. He described our trucking culture as being based on a Marlboro Man image of toughness and independence, a culture not inviting to women. It was a good introspective read.

It’s funny how all the stars line up at times. Within a few days of reading Rolf’s editorial I started exchanging emails with a driver that is in the process of establishing a non-profit organization targeting women entering our industry as drivers. She is an experienced long haul driver and spoke of her love and passion for the industry. She wants to promote accomplishments and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the industry. She feels that if she stays silent on the issues women are facing then there is no room for her to complain. The first question I asked myself was how will this organization stand out from others with similar goals and objectives? So I started doing a little research and just chatting online in a couple of different forums.

I was surprised when I learned that only 3% of commercial driving jobs are held by women. I thought that number was significantly higher. I did not contact our human resources department to gather any firm numbers but I am quite certain that here at J&R Hall Transport you would find a higher percentage of women behind the wheel than 3%. I have run down the road with many women drivers over the years and never had reason to question their skills or ability. In fact I have observed that women perform at a higher level than their male counterparts in general. Women seem to have a much calmer ‘steady as she goes’ approach to the workload that we face along with a stronger sensibility when it comes to planning and organizing. That has been my experience. I am discovering that my employer appears to be considerably more progressive on women’s issues than many in our industry.

I won’t pretend that I have conducted some sort of scientific study but from the few women drivers I have been able to talk to the general feeling is that breaking into the trucking industry as a driver is difficult and it takes some time to earn the respect of fellow drivers. Let’s be clear, we’re talking about fellow male drivers. But here is my take on the age old “respect is earned not given” credo.

When I obtained my commercial driver’s license I was accepted into the industry with open arms. I still had to earn the respect of my peers but I was given that opportunity to prove myself. But it seems to me that for women that scenario is turned on its head. When a woman obtains her commercial driver’s licence she has to prove herself simply to gain the opportunity for employment. Only then can she start to work at gaining the respect of her peers. The bar seems to be set so much higher.

Then I read about a survey conducted by Trucking HR Canada’s Women with Drive initiative that found male managers cited physical limitations as a barrier to entry into the industry for women. I was taken aback by this paternalistic attitude from our leadership. The majority of women that responded to the survey did not find this to be an issue. These findings were presented at the inaugural Women with Drive Leadership Summit held on March 5, 2015.

I believe men and women are different but equal in their potential to perform in any field. We are different biologically, physically, and yes, emotionally. We tackle problems and challenges in different ways. The trucking industry is lacking the perspective that women bring to the table. We are in a time of great change on many fronts and we are lacking the diversity to face those challenges. Men and women possess an incredible synergy when they work together. That’s exactly what is needed right now, an effect that is greater than the sum of the individual parts. It’s time that men started opening doors for women in this industry, listen to what they have to say, and accept what they have offer.

So what of the driver that is starting the NPO for women drivers? She asked me to think about joining her as a board member to work with our fellow drivers. At first I resisted citing availability of time. But that’s an excuse. Many of the obstacles women are facing as drivers today are not solely women’s issues they are also driver issues. Especially when we are talking about training & mentorship. I think I can help so I will. More to follow.

Living By the Motto 'do no harm'

This post was published in the March 2015 edition of Truck News

On the morning of February 4 I learned we lost another driver to a collision with an impaired driver along the 401 corridor.  The drivers name is Lindsay A. Findlay, of Arnprior, ON.

My first reaction was anger. Anger at the drunk driver. Anger that this was totally preventable. Anger that so many people still don’t get it when it comes to drinking & driving. That anger was alive in the commentary on various trucker Facebook groups. The general reaction is that we need harsher punishment in our system for drinking and driving, that we need to clamp down and have the judiciary pass longer sentences on individuals that drink and drive. This was also how I reacted to my feelings of anger. I felt someone had to pay for such a senseless loss. I was filled with that sense of retribution.

After a short time my thoughts turned to the family that Lindsay had left behind. All I knew in the moment was that Lindsay was 51 and hailed from the area of Arnprior, Ontario. I had never met Lindsay but I could see myself in him and I found myself thinking about how my family would handle my loss if it occurred in the blink of an eye, unplanned, unlooked for, unexpected and seemingly pointless because it was caused by an individual that never should have been in that place at that time. How would my wife of 36 years come to terms with that?

The following day I viewed an interview conducted by Global news with Lindsay’s wife and daughter. I started viewing it with a lump in my throat and had tears on my cheeks by the time I reached the end. The shock on their faces and in their voices as they struggled to come to terms with this sudden loss of their husband and father moved me deeply.  I also have a wife and one daughter. His daughter, Brittany, spoke of not having the opportunity to walk down the aisle with her Dad at her upcoming wedding.  Just a few short years ago when I was Lindsay’s age I did have that privilege. His wife, Sandy, spoke of how they talked on the phone every day and had been discussing just how dangerous the roads were becoming of late. This interview sounded like a carbon copy of my life. This could have been my family. I had never been touched by emotions this deep as a result of an incident involving someone I had never met yet was a kindred spirit in so many ways.

This is what I want my wife and daughter to know about what happens in my cab on a minute by minute basis every hour of every day when I am put in harm’s way as a result of actions that occur outside my realm of control.

I do my very best to live by the motto of “do no harm”. I don’t believe there are any reputable truck drivers out there that are sitting on top of 40 tons of rolling steel not conscious of the fact that they have a responsibility to other road users to do no harm. This is exactly why we hear so many stories over the course of our driving careers of other drivers paying the ultimate price as a result of the stupidity, ignorance, and selfishness of others on the road.

I don’t know what happened leading up to the exact moment when that Jeep lost control and careened in front of Lindsay Findlay’s truck that night. But what I can say with a good degree of certainty is that Lindsay had no idea that there may have been an impaired driver at the wheel. It could have been an elderly person suffering a heart attack, or anyone suffering from some type of medical emergency that caused them to lose consciousness. It could have been a mother with her children and the vehicle may have had a mechanical default of some type. In the moment, as truck drivers, we don’t have the time to consider such things. We simply need to prevent rolling our heavy rigs over another vehicle filled with people we always assume are innocent of any wrongdoing because that is our only option. We choose to do no harm. That’s our only choice at the time.

Lindsay Findlay’s actions were heroic that night. Nothing less. He lost his life in his attempt to prevent harm coming to another human being. He did not know who was in that Jeep or what the circumstances were that caused it to lose control and slide in front of him. Let’s not ever forget that.

All the anger in the world is not going to solve the problem of people driving drunk. Perhaps sharing stories like that of Lindsay and his family will. I can only hope.

Truck Driver Training

It is of said within the trucking industry that if you put more than two truck drivers together in a room you won't get agreement on any topic. Driver training is the one exception to that rule.

"The day you wake up and believe you have nothing left to learn about truck driving is the day you need to hang up the keys"

That credo, or a version of it, is usually the first pearl of wisdom an experienced driver will share with a novice driver. Drivers will debate every other issue to death but on this they agree. No two days on the road are ever the same and you never stop learning.

So it was with great disappointment that I was not able to attend the panel discussion presented by the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario (TTSAO) on the afternoon of Wednesday February 25, 2015. The topic up for discussion was Mandatory Training Standards and how to deal with the pressing needs of the industry. There were a good number of leaders and decision makers slated to be present along with Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca.

It was a missed opportunity. I received an invitation to attend on the Friday previous but was unable to make it back from my weekly Winnipeg trip in time. If I was given the opportunity to present my perspective to the group this is what I would have liked to say.

My name is Alan Goodhall. I obtained my Ontario class AZ licence in the spring of 1999 after receiving my training from a professional truck driver training institution. Through the training school I had a job lined up immediately upon graduation and successful completion of my Ministry driving test. I spent 9 months being mentored by an owner/operator with whom I ran team. I considered that my apprenticeship into the industry. That initial experience provided the foundation for a successful and fulfilling career over the past 16 years and it's far from over.

In 2003 I joined J&R Hall Transportation and never looked back. I had found my niche within the industry with an LTL carrier that specialized in western Canadian freight and presented all the challenges I was keen to learn. A few years after joining J&R Hall I had the opportunity to start sharing my experience with newly minted AZ drivers fresh out of training school. It was my opportunity to give back and I seized that opportunity. I spent 3 years as a driver/trainer. I spent 3 months with each new driver and helped to build a good mentoring program. I completed a Certified Driver Trainer course during that period also. It was after completion of that course that I came to the conclusion I could not do it alone. I was well supported by my employer and was giving deep training and mentoring to our new drivers but I was left feeling that it just wasn't enough. The more time I spent as a trainer the more I recognized the need for a standard training program that covered all the bases in depth, measured progress, and provided follow up training. After 3 years I was burned out and needed some time away from the intensity of this type of program. I have yet to pick up the reigns again as a driver/trainer.

Entry level training institutions working in partnership with carriers have been the backbone to training, recruitment, and retention of new drivers since I joined the industry but it's well past time to step things up. The talk on the front lines among experienced drivers is about the lack of quality mentoring. This is being reflected in the habits and attitudes of drivers on the road. This isn't about what accident statistics, telematics, and big data is telling us about the state of the industry. It's about the lived experience. It's about the drivers quality of life. It's about the need for innovation in training to match the booming innovation in technology. It's about coping with the stress brought on by demand for drivers to do more with less. It's about the decline in driver morale. It's about respect and recognition.

Driver training is a partnership between training institutions, carriers, trade organizations, government, and existing drivers. Experienced drivers are often left out of the loop of the training process. But is this not where the greatest potential lies for bringing new blood into the industry? It is my contention that we need to make a much greater effort to tap into the experience of the existing driver pool. How can we implement industry standards for drivers without a pool of skilled driver trainers to deliver and maintain those standards.

I believe it's time for a graduated form of training for the trucking industry. That program needs to be universal and available to all carriers whether they have 1 or 2 trucks or a thousand. I know little about apprenticeship programs and how they are administered but I often think of my brother in laws experience in BC when he entered into the field of Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning. He apprenticed with a 1 man operation. He was paid a graduated income as he learned and his employer was subsidized. There was partnership between the new employee, the training institution, the employer, the trade association, and government regulator. All working together around a standard program of training. I recognize we may face many roadblocks but this is the type of program we need to work towards.

My vision is that in that first year after graduating from a professional training institution the new driver would spend a set number of hours in the cab with a qualified trainer, a set number of hours in the classroom further complementing the in cab training, and a set number of hours in other areas of the trucking operation such as warehousing, loading, and equipment maintenance. (shop) We can have an entry level standard and a level playing field that every carrier of every size could participate in if they wished to.

Professional training institutions can expand their role by developing programs that go beyond the entry level standard and offer specialized training in partnership with carriers. After completing a standard 1 year entry level course drivers may then want to develop new skills in a different sector of the industry and be able to receive accreditation for it. Training such as heavy haul, car hauling, B-trains, LCV's, etc. The sky is the limit in this regard. Let's also not forget about training the trainer and providing re-training on new equipment as technology changes the workplace around us and places new demands on us.

Front line drivers are frustrated at this point in time. So many drivers are saying things such as, "It's not any fun out here anymore" or "It's just a job now". Morale is low. Revitalizing our training process and re-engaging our existing drivers in the day to day activities of trucking is vital to attracting new blood and building for the future in my humble opinion.

So that is what I would say. It's only enough to open up the conversation to a host of issues we face as drivers but I strongly believe we have to work in partnership with our carriers, with enforcement (government), with training institutions, and with industry institutions of every stripe.

Let's get involved drivers. What do you think?

Who Should Pay For Driver Training?

This post first appeared in Truck News February 2015

Trucking HR Canada is in the process of developing a National Occupational Standard (NOS) for Commercial Vehicle Operators (Truck Drivers). The fourth draft of this document was released this past December requesting input from the public. I was encouraging drivers to review this before the deadline of January 16, 2015 by posting links to it via my twitter feed and through a couple of Canadian Trucking Facebook pages during the first two weeks of January. I know from my own experience that when issues are being discussed amongst the movers & shakers within our industry it is rare to find more than one or two full time drivers present to provide a drivers perspective. Getting the word out to the vast driver pool (over 300.000 of us in Canada alone) on important industry issues is very difficult. This concerns me because our (truck drivers) personal health and safety is dependent on the depth & quality of the information & training we receive.

Many drivers, probably a majority, will not be aware that this NOS is being developed and will not review the document. The drivers that do review the draft are going to leapfrog over this first step of developing the standards and get right to the heart of the big issue. How will this training be delivered and who is going to pay for it? Drivers will jump on this because there is no group within the industry that recognizes the need for standardized and professional driver training more than the drivers themselves. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of training involved in these standards both in a classroom setting and in the workplace. I’m afraid drivers will see this National Occupational Standard as a pie in the sky idea if it is adopted by the industry without the infrastructure in place to deliver the training.

So why do I think drivers will be highly skeptical about the adoption and delivery of a national training standard? Well let’s take a look at just one of the twenty nine key competencies of a professional driver listed in the NOS draft. Hours of service.

You would think with the amount of press and discussion this topic has received every driver would be an expert on the subject of hours of service. Far from it. Facebook and CB to the rescue. Most drivers in their first year on the road turn to their fellow drivers to answer their questions about hours of service. Let’s remember these are freshly minted drivers right out of school building a new career and they want to get it right. These drivers are asking basic questions about the rules and often receiving the wrong information or advice from their more experienced peers. I’ve been working in this business for over 15 years now and hours of service is a standard that drivers have been made responsible to know and they are still not receiving the depth of training they require on this topic before hitting the road.

I recognize the difficulties involved with training a work force that operates hundreds or thousands of miles away from the home office most of the time. It’s not as if a carrier can pull in a whole fleet of drivers for a weekly training meeting even though that is obviously what is currently required. Should a carrier bear the full responsibility for training their drivers to meet a nationally adopted occupational standard? I don’t think so. The financial burden would sink many small carriers. I think it’s fair to expect an employer to uphold a standard that is adopted for any profession but to make them responsible for delivering ALL of the training and bear all of the associated costs is not a reasonable option.

It’s pretty obvious that an apprenticeship program on a national level has to be adopted by the trucking industry if it is serious about meeting the occupational standards outlined in the draft document. That means partnerships have to be established between government, training institutions, carriers and drivers. I don’t see any other means of delivering a program of this depth. This system works in all other trades for companies big and small. Why can’t it work in the trucking industry?

Look at this statement about truck drivers that appears in the very first paragraph of the Trucking HR Canada draft document. “The occupation includes more than 300,000 Canadians - - nearly 1% of the population and over 1.5% or the nation’s labour force.”

It is irresponsible to continue on the path that we are on allowing new drivers to operate on our public roads without the proper training to insure the safety of the public and the drivers themselves. We need to be honest about the fact that the cost of doing this has to somehow be built into the system. The only fair way to do that is to legislate that change.

Technology Will Not Slow Down

This post first appeared in Truck News January 2015

A new year and a clean slate. Many of us view January 1^st as the opportunity for a fresh start when it rolls around each year. It is a time of year that we re-affirm our personal goals & aspirations or perhaps make radical changes to take our lives in a completely different direction. Sometimes our lives are subject to radical change not of our own choosing and the greatest challenge we face is in our ability to adapt to those changes. This is a place where many professional drivers find themselves as we move into 2015. The signs of radical change are all around us.

Many of us are in the twilight of our careers and we have an expectation of some reward waiting at the end of the road after many years of commitment and hard work. After all isn’t that part of the deal? The decades of loyal service should allow us to reap some sort of personal reward for ourselves and our immediate family especially if we have played by the rules for all those years. But the rules are changing because the world is changing. Putting your career on cruise control and enjoying the ride to the finish is an enticing thought but the winds of change are not likely to allow us to do that. So I thought I would share some of those radical issues I feel we are facing as regular working stiffs in the trucking industry.

Technology has been driving change in our industry and there is no doubt in my mind that it will continue to do so. Some of the most telling indicators of change come from trucking industry groups that guide carriers in their decision making. Thomas Frey, a futurist and Director of the Da Vinci Institute, was one of the guest speakers at the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) annual general meeting in November 2014. Mr. Frey spoke of the digital layer of infrastructure we are creating over the physical world, how 3D digital printing may impact what or what we will not be shipping in the future, and how autonomous cars, trucks, and drones will be safer, reduce the need for drivers, result in lower fuel bills, lower accident rates, and reduce insurance costs.

So if you are a regular working stiff like me what do you read into that? They are certainly issues that have the potential to hit drivers where it hurts but they are concepts that can be difficult to get your head around. It is hard to believe they will come to pass. I’m sure that our forefathers had similar feelings about Henry Ford’s production line and how it would impact their everyday lives. We’re in the very early days of the “internet of things”. The potential changes that 3D printing & autonomous vehicles will bring to a commercial drivers daily life as well as to our society as a whole may be just as staggering as the production line, probably more so.

There are also many global issues that will affect our driving jobs directly.

The push towards reducing our dependence on fossil fuels will continue. Energy self-sufficiency through adopting solar, wind, and geothermal technologies is a growing trend. The majority of people now live in cities and the trend toward denser housing and more mass transit is building. People are driving less. The attitude of the millennial generation towards car culture is very different to the generations that came before them. An electric commuter vehicle in every driveway? Maybe. So what does all that mean to an economy such as Canada’s that for the past several decades has been built on resource extraction? Supply and demand would dictate that less demand for oil means a drop in pricing which on the surface is a good thing. But extracting oil from Alberta’s oil sands is dependent on the price per barrel of oil staying above a certain threshold in order to be profitable. This could have deep repercussions for our economy and consequently for working stiffs like you and I.

What is most interesting about the potential of these unknowns is that we tend to discuss them in terms of certainty as if we know what the outcome will be. Let’s remember that the internet wasn’t designed for social media it was adopted by it. Now billions of people benefit from it. The next big idea may not be what we expect.

The next ten to fifteen years may see our whole world turned inside out as we adopt and adapt to new ways of living and interacting with one another. Of course this is all conjecture and things may play out in a very different way than how I have presented them.

Socrates is quoted as saying that, “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.” Perhaps the best New Year resolution we can all make this year is to simply keep an open mind.