Jamie Merisotis: America Needs Talent

Episode 91 – Guest: Jamie Merisotis
Guest: Jamie Merisotis

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Kelly talks to Jamie Merisotis who runs one of the largest private foundations in the United States that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. His book, “America Needs Talent,” tells us why that is a vital cause for all Americans. Read further for this week’s Rule of Three.

Second City Works “Getting to Yes, And” – Rule of Three

This week we talked to Jamie Merisotis, President & CEO Lumina Foundation.

Why is education so important right now?

“In the word we now live in, the nature of work is such that a knowledge economy and that task that people have to do in this knowledge economy require the combination of generalizable skills, critical thinking, problem solving and applied knowledge. The reality is that the vast majority of people get a college degree make substantially more money. They have a higher quality of life.”

You write that immigration is vital to our talent needs in the United States.

“We need to treat immigration as a sort of balancing part of our talent paradigm. In other words, we should continue to obviously develop and grow our own talent, but immigration adds tremendous value. It brings new ideas, new perspectives, new opportunities to our country. And to treat immigration as a problem for our country rather than as adding value, I think, is really an Un-American idea.

Why is collaboration important?

“I’m a big fan of collaboration. What we know about how people learn and how success really happens is that success is never the genius inside of somebody who has thought through the entire problem. What they’ve figured out is one piece of this and they actually create a solution together. This is the ‘bring a brick, not a cathedral’ idea that has been so important in The Second City experience.”