Let 'em have it their way

A trend worth watching is the growing, some would say rapidly accelerating, inclination of some individuals to expect and demand customizability in almost everything from cars to schools.  A recent item from Knowledge@Wharton, an on-line newsletter from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that the trend may be extending to careers as well.
The significance of this is that most 21st Century workplaces, including those in education, are stuck with 20th Century ways of organizing work.  From Bogota to Bangkok we hear heads of school and deans of colleges lament the difficulty in recruiting and (especially) retaining great faculty and staff.  Nearly ever strategic plan we see in independent and higher education gives (mostly) lip service to the importance of recruitment and retention. 
We have never been sure that recruitment and retention issues are (all) about money.  Maybe figuring out a way to operate with greater individual customizability is a worthy experiment in this regard.  Like it or not, your customers/parents/students are already insisting on it and the world seems to be heading that way.