Blind Sided By the Chaos of Change

This article was printed in the UTD Coaching News Issue #033, November 2009.

In dealing with unrelenting change for myself and my career clients, I remember that I am a graduate of the School of Hard Knocks. “You can no more teach what you don’t know than come back from where you ain’t been” according to Mark Twain.

I may have learned more from this reality education than the academic Ph.D. Perhaps the combination set me up to be extremely committed and successful in plowing through the fear, chaos and uncertainty of the “dark night of the soul” and the pain which results from unexpected change!

When I read Toffler’s Future Shock in the early 70’s I was already making my third career change, which he was predicting for all in the future. Incidentally, he also predicted our career coaching. He said “life organizers. . .a cadre of professionals would be needed to provide practical assistance for structuring one’s life under the high social and technological turmoil and overchoice”.

Consequently, I dropped the Ph.D. in English, moved to Higher Education and wrote my dissertation establishing a community based career center for adults with career/job issues. I obtained a grant from the Department of Labor and the City of Garland to establish a career center in our library, trained eight career coaches and we provided information and services to 6,000 citizens. I then opened my own company, Career Design Associates. True, I was ahead of my time with helping adults changing careers.

However today I face a new learning crisis! To keep moving forward I personally must take my own advice and learn and use Web 2.0, which is a chaotic, but necessary challenge to learn and use. I am sharing with you my understanding of the chaos of change.

How to live and work successfully in our Age of Constant Change?

• Accelerating change can create crisis/stress/loss or growth/learning.
• Change can be painful (Change = Pain > Fear, C = P > F). We change only when
our pain is greater than the fear.
• A crisis can be opportunity blowing on a dangerous wind.
• Change is the only guarantee in life. Major failure today is failure to
change.
• An unpredictable event or sudden insight can trigger change.
• To change - step out of your "comfort zone," and live with positive
uncertainty.
• Develop a new paradigm; see old situations in new ways.
• Change occurs internally or externally. Outward change happens to us; inner
change is self-directed.
• Change is not linear: not in a straight line, or on a specific time line.
• We have less to give to others when we are changing. We can help others when
we get our act together.
• We impede change by denying that it is happening.
• Planning for change provides a measure of security, but it is difficult to
plan for the emotions that accompany it.
• The change process has predictable stages; it can trigger a “dark night of
the soul”, the emotional reaction of the loss/grief process.
• Overcoming fear and resistance to change is the first step.
• We live in change, uncertainty, ambiguity and contradictions, but have been
taught to value and seek stability and security.
• Today we are learning that the old rules don't work but we don't know the
new ones.
• We need countless unique and fresh personal and professional skills for a
New Age, however we may see only dimly what these are.
• Learning to embrace change, to thrive creatively during chaos will build our
self-esteem.
• If privately we see ourselves as a failure, we may talk of success but
unconsciously seek defeat!

Change is a challenge! Much underlying and industrial management theory of the last 100 years is obsolete! Toffler in speaking at the 2004 International Conference on Complex Systems said:

“At every level, economics, social organizations, culture, politics, we’re in the process of inventing a new civilization.” According to Toffler, “Everything is transient: families, corporations, governments, universities, organizations, religions, communities and nations are all temporary … most human institutions haven’t caught on – all in denial – operating as they did almost three centuries ago in the Industrial Revolution!”

Sharpen Your Crap Detector!

Constantly sharpening your Crap Detector is an absolute necessity for career success today!

As you know I remain deeply involved in the career/work world issues which are now reeling from “Future Shock” as predicted by Toffler. The workworld has entered a new age of heightened turbulence, dramatically different from the last 30 years. The demise of the “Womb to Tomb” career model and the rise of the “Yo Yo stratagem - You’re on Your Own”! So it’s imperative to know your Brand!

The reality is that no traditional conventional format system will prop us up. Countless realities compel as 95 degree redirection and rethinking of our workplace, career, education, our definition of success and what we value. Getting real dictates reevaluating the myths – the half truths that have unconsciously guided us in all phases of our careers. They must be identified and reexamined to determine how on target they are.

While my work remains focused on adults with workplace problems, I am deeply concerned and am researching issues relating to the younger generations and the very serious current and future education, work life and career issues they are experiencing currently and certainly will face in the future. I will keep readers in the loop on what I am learning and the actions I take.

Positive Psychology: Science of Happiness

This blog post is taken from an article printed in the UTD Coaching News Issue #031 - July 2009.

I recently returned from the first World Congress of International Positive Psychology Association in Philadelphia. It was definitely worldwide with 1600 participants from 54 countries. It was a superlative learning experience for me to participate in what I view as a major achievement in our current world!

Personally, I had read a brief mention about the Positive Psychology Master degrees being offered at Penn Statue which focused on adults capitalizing on their strengths. Intuitively I said “This is what I have been doing for 20 years, I help clients through a process to understand and work on their strengths, not fix weaknesses.” I bought the text books the Penn professors were using in their college courses and have read and followed the research. I bought a membership in the IPPA (http://www.ippanetwork.org/) for $90.00 per year and the researchers who conduct top notch web seminars are outstanding. If you join now you can download much of the conference information.

Positive Psychology had its birth pains only about 10 years ago. This was when Martin Seligman, a University of Penn Psychologist became President of the American Psychological Association (APA). At this time he shared his vision and for a new approach in psychology: He said he wanted to take the focus beyond what ails the human mind to conditions that help human beings flourish. He saw the field only helping people move from a minus five to a zero. His question was “Now how do we get from zero to a plus five?” He strongly felt mental health should be more than the absence of mental illness and that happiness could be learned. Working with other like minded professionals, Seligman has successfully promoted an explosion of research on happiness, optimism, positive emotions and healthy character traits.

For me, this conference demonstrated the rapid and notable worldwide response in spite of countless naysayers. What is really important is that the participants and other speakers represented the positive acceptance from those in the psychology field, also medical and organizational behavior, and educators (elementary, high school, college). There were several sessions focusing on Evidence Based Coaching (of which our Dr. Hicks is an authority).

Frankly, this conference was not a focus on the warm and fuzzy feeling good approach, but serious and in-depth research on the Science of Happiness.

What will be the direction forward for the future of IPPA? Seligman closed the conference by naming three plans for the future: 1. Positive Education of young people (This is the focus of a proposal I am currently writing to get positive career planning stared in the middle schools), 2. Physical Health factors, and 3. Positive Neuroscience for which he had just received a sizeable grant for scholarships.

The major product or goal of the IPPA is for 51% of the world to be flourishing by 2051. The research is now to determine and define what we mean by flourishing. My goal is to live long enough to experience it, since I plan to become a centurion – our fastest growing age group. How is that for positive thinking?

The next IPPA meeting will be in Great Britain in 2011! Can’t wait!

Free/Agent Entrepreneur Characteristics Indicator

Becoming an independent, free agent entrepreneur is rapidly becoming a focus of millions of contemporary Americans from corporate baby boomers moving from misery toward Meaning and money at midlife. The independent Gen X & Y with their “Yo Yo – You’re On Your Own Career Model”, since few suitable jobs are out there to embrace them.

Take the following quiz to see how you fit:

FREE AGENT/ENTREPRENEUR CHARACTERISTICS INDICATOR
(Extracted from full 100 Characteristics Indicator)**

Indicate how true the following statements are about you by placing the corresponding number in the blank by each numbered statement, using the following scale:

NOT AT ALL - 1 SLIGHTLY - 2 SOMEWHAT - 3

QUITE WELL - 4 COMPLETELY - 5

1. Need to feel a strong sense of control over my own destiny.
2. Have foresight and commitment to work toward these long-term future goals.
3. Have firm belief in my ability to achieve my goals.
4. See myself as an over-comer with a high level of tenacity and determination.
5. Know how to build on successes and learn from failures.
6. Tolerate frustration and ambiguity.
7. Deal successfully with modest to high levels of uncertainty and job insecurity.
8. Have the knowledge and/or technical skills in my field for building a business.
9. Have a healthy respect for making and managing money.
10. Have a close family member who has owned his/her own business.
11. Have a clear vision – a purpose – a plan to create and implement.
12. Take only calculated risks, though others tend to see me as a risk-taker.
13. Do not fit in a conventional, traditional organization.
14. Have a knack for spotting new ideas, concepts, and coming needs.
15. Control over my time and choices are important to me.

______ TOTAL SCORE

According to the literature, the higher you score on the indicator, the more traits you have in common with entrepreneurs.

Range = 60-75 (high) Indicates strong free agent/entrepreneurial characteristics.
Range = 45-60. (moderate)
Range = Under 45. (low) Think carefully before going out on your own.

** For the complete Entrepreneur Characteristics Indicator List please refer to pages 170-174 in my book, Don’t Stop the Career Clock: Rejecting the Myths of Aging for a New Way to Work in the 21st Century. Contact me with your thinking.

Copyright © at Career Design Associates, Inc

Facebook presentation this past Saturday!

Shama Hyder with Click to Client, a local Dallas company presented Facebook: Use it to Build your and Business, Get a job, Get more clients, or Just Get Known! this past Saturday at Career Design offices in Garland. The information she shared with the 40+ attendees was valuable and much appreciated.

Shama, author of Zen of Social Media (http://zenofsocialmedia.com/) was recently recognized by Fast Company as the “millennial master of the universe and an online marketing shaman.” Do check out the article: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/wendy-marx/brand-u-wendy-marx/website-design

Career Design will continue this series to assist clients with gaining valuable information to further their businesses and their careers. These meetings are open to the public at no charge http://www.career-design.com/ for more details.

In the meantime, follow us on Twitter @CareerDesign or Facebook http://www.drhelenharkness.com/

LinkedIn Presentation this past Saturday!

The 3rd meeting in the Social Networking series was this past Saturday. Stephanie Cross with The Destani Group did a wonderful job presenting LinkedIn for Strategic Networking and Job Search to CDA clients and guests.

The information she shared with us with insightful and thought provoking. Her knowledge of LinkedIn and Marketing came across strongly. I highly recommend, if you didn't make the meeting you request checking the DVD out of the CDA Career Resource Library.

The next meeting in the Social Networking Series will be on May 2, 1 - 3 pm. Shama Hyder with Click to Client is presenting Facebook: How to Use it to Build your Brand and Business. Use it to get a job, get more clients, or just get known! Learn the do’s and don’ts, and how to leverage its applications.

Aging continued . . .

I have many clients that are older and have successfully refocused their career, usually starting their own business. Many have retired from their "womb to tomb" career, gone home and spent many days playing golf, remodeling, redecorating and just sitting around the house. They are now bored, unhappy and realize they don't have a purpose.

Many have to overcome the "I am too old mentality" and realize they can do whatever they set their mind too. Just because you are older, it doesn't mean you can't work in a particular career field or start your own business. It means we just take a different approach. A man come in to meet with me last week. He had sold his very successful business and retired. He said "I am now bored and tired of playing golf", yet he continued that he was too old to get a job now. I thought: why did he come to a career counselor. Maybe he was hoping I would say: "You are right, you are too old to work." No way!

My point is, the minute you stop having a purpose, you are just waiting to die! Don't let this happen to you.

Focus on Functional Age!

As a continuation of yesterday's post - Chronological Age is Crap! I would like to add Focus on your Functional Age! Whenever I have a prospective client come in to my office they fill out a personal data sheet, which ask them their Chronological Age and then Functional Age. Many of them put a question mark in this blank. These words really puzzle them and they often they ask my assistant, Lissa, what this means? She responds "How old do you feel? vs. How old you actually are?" Then they laugh, smile and fill in the blank.

I tell my clients that are in their 50's and 60's that they should forget about their age, it isn't relative to their success. It today's chaotic work world you don't need a clock or a calendar to survive, you need a Compass! Helping my clients to find the purpose they can pursue with passion until they die is my major meaning magnet. I plan on living to be a centurion helping others survive today's chaotic work world. People ask me when I plan to retire, I say never!

Chronological Age is Crap!

In reading a recent Twitter post, (RT @fight_ageism: old is not a bad word) the following comes to mind, Chronological Age is Crap! (Hope this word doesn't offend you.)

Think about what you would be doing if you were 20 years younger and go out and do it!

When I am at a speaking event I often have people come up afterwards and ask me my age. I tell them I am 50, then I say, if you can find a 50 year old that does as much as I do, I'll reveal my real age. This usually ends any further questions on the subject. I have written a book on aging, Don't Stop the Career Clock that discusses ageism. Check it out http://www.career-design.com/cda_pubs.html

Social Media - the New Way of Marketing

As you may have learned from the newsletter and speaking with me, social media is the way of the future. CDA has been busy scheduling open (free events) to educate CDA clients and the public about social media tools, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. . . . We have been able to get some excellent speakers that have generously volunteered their time. Thank you, volunteers, your time and information is appreciated.

Do check out our website for information for these free events and RSVP for those that interest you. We have LinkedIn - Stephanie Cross on April 18th. Facebook - Shama Hyder on May 2nd.

Dorothy Beach presented Twitter on April 4th (available on DVD for those that missed it). We also had the introduction to the series on March 21st - Maria Whitworth (also available on DVD).

Social Networking Event at CDA offices this past Saturday!

The Social Networking Series started out this past Saturday with a bang! We had 65 participants in attendance. Maria Whitworth did an excellent job presenting an overview of all the Social Networking sites available. We did video Maria's session for those that couldn't make it. Maria has generously agreed to make her presentation available via a PDF download. Do email Lissa at options@career-design.com if you would like the PDF of Maria' presentation. She'll send you the link.

The next presentation in the series is on Saturday, April 4th at 10 am. Dorothy Beach will be discussing Twitter indepth. This meeting is open to the public at no charge. Do RSVP to CDA Inc. if you are interested.

Check out DMN article -- Coaches help jobless boomers work out frustrations, careers

Do check out the Dallas Morning News article Coaches help jobless boomers work out frustrations, careers in today's paper (03/12/09). Dr. Harkness is featured on the front page. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/031209dnbusboomercoaches.3d78893.html#slcgm_comments_anchor

Stay on a learning curve

Staying on a learning curve is absolutely essential in our fast paced, rapidly changing "future shock" world as Toffler predicted 40 years ago. However, Pogo, my favorite philosopher, reflects my current frustration: "Every time I find out where it's at, someone moves it!"

Stagnation today is deadly and prepares us only for the compost pile. The bottom line may be that we can't change the world problems, but we can alter our response to them. I maintain that we change when our pain is greater than our fear: C = P > F. We shift our thinking when we use our intuitive right brain and our organized left brain to gain new insights, awareness, judgment and techniques.

I spent years researching the Chaos/Complexity Theory to understand how to strengthen our career actions under pressures of change. Later, I branched into the rapidly growing worldwide field of Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness. I am attending their first World Congress conference in Philadelphia in June (www.ippanetwork.org for more details). I am currently synthesizing and integrating these two growing concepts for a lecture on careers, Positive Psychology: Creative Cure for Careers in Chaos for the World Future Society in Chicago on July 17-19, 2009 (www.wfs.org for more details).

Special Notice: I am coordinating free career counseling for attendees. Any career counselor who volunteers two hours each day can receive free registration to the conference. Email options@career-design.com for details.

Yo Yo Model for Your Future Career

I just received in the mail today the Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, Volume 24, Number 2, Summer 2008. My article, The Yo Yo Model for Your Future Career: You're On Your Own was the featured article of the publication. I had forgotten I'd even written it. It is an excellent article. I am including the first paragraph below. Email me if you'd like the full version.

The job as defined in the past is dead. The path of loyalty to a company in return for 40-year employment, a gold watch at retirement, and then going home to wait to die is totally defunct. As career professionals, we are currently in the process of helping our clients move through the grief and burial of this former womb to tomb career ideal. Our responsibility is to communicate this demise effectively and replace it with alternatives. The world is moving painfully fast compared to even half a generation ago. Many of my clients do feel totally dissatisfied by the rapid disintegration of what they once found comfortable and reassuring. There is no longer a safety net. In fact there is no longer a net at all, except what the individual creates.

What actions are you taking to to move forward? Share your comments.

Moving from Chaos to Confidence

We are pioneers in a radically different work world. Our current career challenge is to creatively move from chaos to confidence. Please share your thoughts on what you are doing to create your future success in spite of countless roadblocks and detours!!

First Meetings of Three-Day Intensive Skills Course complete

We have completed our first group meetings, and eight attendees have learned their RIASEC codes for the Self-Directed Search, and have looked at a few of the jobs typically aligned with those codes.

One of the primary goals of this course is to introduce these concepts to the group and provide a foundation for moving forward with this information and additional information received from assessments administered prior to our meeting.

In our next weekend meeting, we will begin to share our findings and discuss the types of jobs or activities from our past that were rewarding and meaningful. Each participant will receive valuable feedback from their peers in the group and well as insights I can provide from my experience with the temperaments that seem to suit certain activities.

One of my hopes for all of the attendees is that the core information they receive about themselves in this process will help them to move forward with either a new career or with a new attitude and sense of understanding in their current life focus.

What We're Doing This Weekend at CDA

This weekend at Career Design, we are hosting the second Three-day Intensive Skills Focus Workshop. This program is designed to provide short-term clients with a quick-hitting (and reduced cost) introduction to my comprehensive skills identification and assessment services.

Due to the economy, we are pleased to offer this option, which allows people on a fixed income or in career transition to experience some of the benefits of a longer, in-depth re-careering process.

This weekend, we have a full class, and hope you will contact us to learn more, or visit our website at http://www.careerdesignassociates.com

These courses begin to arm you with the critical information to thrive in this new career chaos and uncertainty. Essentially, this special workshop comprises one-day of completing CDA Career Design Profile™ assessments and two-days of in-depth skills identification and career focus. I have selected the most helpful exercises and activities relating to the 4-step Career Design process and carefully compressed the usual 40 hours (16 weeks) Skills Group Series Workshop down to 24 hours over 3 days.
The short video below discusses my attitude regarding finding your passion.