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!

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.

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!!