Editor’s note: Besides tracking technological advancements and innovations, our author is a Juilliard-trained musical composer. He has created a musical piece titled “Guide on the Side” for you to enjoy while reading this column.
Back in 1970, Alvin Toffler warned us in Future Shock about a condition he called “overchoice,” the paralysis and disorientation that happens when we face too many options. That was before the internet, before smartphones, before streaming, before every question had 27 possible answers and 1,000 more distractions waiting in the wings. And yet, Toffler’s warning now feels even more urgent. We are overloaded, not because we lack information but because we have far too much of it.
What was once a futuristic warning has become a daily condition. Information is everywhere, arriving nonstop through screens, speakers, social media, and search engines. We no longer suffer from ignorance. We suffer from saturation. And in this state of constant overchoice, the traditional model of instruction, the one-person lecture, the unidirectional expert presentation is no longer working.
The idea that one person standing at the front of the room knows more than everyone else combined is no longer credible. It might have made sense in a time when books were rare and access to knowledge was limited. But today, when nearly anyone can look up nearly anything at any time, the notion that expertise resides in one person while everyone else is an empty vessel does not hold up.
This old-fashioned model has a name. When I was a professor twenty five years ago my boss Dr. Allison Handley, then president of Cogswell Polytechnical College now called University of Silicon Valley, told me I was acting more like a “guide on the side” than a “sage on the stage,” the expert who stands above and apart, delivering insights to a passive audience. That normal model is hierarchical and unidirectional. It assumes knowledge flows from top to bottom. She said a guide helps people navigate instead of telling them what to do and that was why people liked taking my courses.
In the 21st century, knowledge is everywhere. It flows laterally. It’s searchable, clickable, and remixable. And most importantly, it’s no longer limited to credentialed experts. The most accurate information on a topic might come from a research lab, a podcast, a YouTube explainer, or an online forum. The GroupMind, if functioning well, is now often smarter than any individual. Not always more correct, not always more ethical, but certainly broader and faster.
Of course, there is a catch. The group is only wise if it is curious, reflective, and informed. A willfully ignorant group can easily become a danger instead of a strength. But in a world where quality information is widely available, ignorance now takes real effort. You have to actively avoid or reject the truth to stay misinformed.
This now brings us to that unconsciously developed new model that is both more relevant and more respectful of the complexity we all face. Instead of a sage on the stage, we need a guide on the side.
The guide does not pretend to have all the answers. The guide is not there to dominate or dictate. The guide listens. The guide reflects. The guide helps others navigate. In a world of overchoice, the most valuable thing we can offer each other is not more
information, it is orientation.
This shift from commanding knowledge to facilitating learning is happening all around us.
In Education
Traditional classrooms have long treated students as blank slates. But today’s students arrive with smartphones, search engines, and access to massive online resources. They don’t need more facts. They need help making sense of them. The teacher is no longer a broadcaster but a co-navigator. The best educators today create learning experiences, foster discussion, and build the skills needed for lifelong inquiry. They help students learn how to learn.
In Healthcare
Patients no longer show up to appointments without prior research. They often have ideas, suspicions, or even anxieties based on what they’ve read. Dismissing that information only creates mistrust. A guide-minded physician works with patients to explore those questions, clarify what’s real, and create a shared path forward. The physician is still the expert, but the dynamic shifts from command to collaboration.
In Law
Clients now arrive with background knowledge, downloaded forms, and a sense of their own options. A lawyer’s value is not just in expertise but in helping clients understand the implications, limitations, and choices available to them. Again, it becomes a conversation rather than a decree. The guide listens, explains, and helps the client choose.
In Innovation and Leadership
The most effective innovators today do not lead by authority alone. They lead through facilitation. They create cultures where questions are welcome, diverse voices are heard, and experimentation is encouraged. They guide teams rather than instruct them. They learn alongside others. They enable emergence rather than enforcing conformity.
In Media and Public Speaking
Even the role of public speaker is changing. People are growing tired of long lectures and polished monologues. They want connection, not presentation. They want to be involved, not just impressed. The most resonant speakers today feel more like co-creators of meaning than distant authorities. They draw people in. They ask questions. They leave room for interpretation and response.
Society needs to embrace a new model of how to deal with information because the half life of knowledge is rapidly decreasing.
None of this means that expertise no longer matters. It absolutely does. But how we express expertise — and how we share it — has to change. The expert who cannot listen is no longer credible. The teacher who cannot adapt is no longer relevant. The leader who cannot learn is no longer safe.
Being a guide on the side is not about knowing less. It is about practicing humility. It is about recognizing that in a world this complex, no one sees the whole picture. It is about shifting from domination to collaboration. In a way, the guide role is actually more demanding than the sage role. It requires awareness, empathy, and responsiveness. It requires tuning into others rather than simply projecting outward. It requires balancing knowledge with curiosity.
What people need most today is not more data, more slides, or more certainty. They need trustworthy people who help them find their footing in the fog. They need context. They need perspective. They need space to think. So the next time you are asked to present, to lead, or to teach, consider this: you are not just there to speak. You are there to listen, to orient, and to support discovery. You are not there to prove your superiority. You are there to activate the intelligence in the room.
The world is too complicated, too fast, and too rich for any single person to stand at the top and issue instructions. That era is over. Now we walk together. And the guide on the side leads not with power, but with presence.
A new radio station in the Berkshires has just been granted a license by the FCC it is to be called WGSL and will be found at 107.3 on the FM dial. The GSL stands for Great Barrington Stockbridge Sheffield Lee and Lenox. I am experimenting with something I call “Guide on the Side Radio.” Stay tuned for more about this.
