Why this book?

The book was recommended to me by Sonsoles Alonso, an executive/team coach based in Barcelona, while we both did our first Working Out Loud circle together in Q1 2017.

This was not part of my 2018 year of reading list but was part of my One Word of "Focus" for 2018. I read it as my personal goal when I was doing my 4th Working Out Loud Circle in Q3/4 2018. It took me from the beginning of September to Christmas Eve 2018. It is fair to say that I had put off doing this book for nearly 2 years after it was first mentioned to me. Being part of an accountability group was one of the main reasons for me doing my 4th WOL circle to make sure that I did do the book this time.

The main reason for reading the book was to review my career past, current and future and to formally address what I should be doing next. I am and was not looking to move job / career as a priority. Reviewing my career is something that I have never done proactively but I increasingly sensed over the past two years doing WOL circles and other online learning that there is much more that I could do where I work now and where I might work in the future.

My application of this book

I have started to get into a routine now of reading a (non-fiction) book and taking detailed notes as I do so and where there are specific questions in the book to do those at the point in the book where they are listed. I have never read a book with as many self-reflective questions as this one – a good thing – but it meant that it took a long time to read the book.

Also part of my routine now is to seek to get fellow readers to read along with me as well as posting my notes and exercise response into a Book Club-type platform as I complete each chapter. Currently, this is in Workplace by Facebook. All my notes were done in Open Live Writer (my Blogger post editing service) and copied to Workplace and when I had completed the book I posted the full set of notes (minus some minimal sections that I did not post publicly for confidentiality reasons).

I completed 213 exercises relating to the 25 chapters of the book.

To get specific, and I mentioned this to those in my WOL circle as we did our final (Week 12) call on 3 December 2018, I was detailed in the wording of my goal which I list below and including now a summary of my response to each part of the goal.

To read and apply Liz Ryan’s book “Reinvention Roadmap: Break the Rules to Get the Job You Want and Career You Deserve“.
Apply meaning to read the entire book and to do all the exercises in the book at whatever level of detail even if any are not directly applicable to me.
December 2018 update: Completed the book and virtually all the exercises. The only ones not done are the ones that need more real-life application. I did do one complete pass of a real-live scenario.
To do this in the context of a virtual book club on Workplace that will run in parallel with the WOL Circle L.
December 2018 update: A book club was set up. Numbers of people were invited and numbers accepted. Not clear how many read any part of the book. I am aware of 2 others.
To continue to recruit new members to the book club as we journey through the book.
December 2018 update: People were invited throughout my reading of the book and I am still mentioning it in Twitter Chats etc.
To seek out people to dialogue with during the 12 weeks including people who are and are not a part of the boo club.
December 2018 update: I had the joy of chatting with Jen from Belgium for over an hour about our respective careers in the context of our reading of the book. It has also been good seeing Niki’s video summaries of her responses to reading the book.
To seek out people to review my exercise responses and to act on those responses.
December 2018 update: I got the occasional response to my updates. The book would be ideal to do in a group of professionals to encourage one another especially doing the exercise responses. I note that my content is still in the Workplace by Facebook group that may encourage others as they read the book and respond. This would be do-able in a WOL circle but you would need to have a significant amount of time each week to do the book justice.
To assist others who respond to the exercises via comments and questions etc in a coaching type role.
December 2018 update: I did this on the very rare occasions when other people did post anything.
To come to a conclusion on my career path and whether it should stay as-is or should change.
December 2018 update: No firm conclusion but an amazingly helpful read and doing all the exercises certainly helped me understand where I am at and why I am there. Very clear that lots of my activities outside of work give me more joy than lots of what I do in my current day job roles and it would be great to job craft and incorporate those things into my working life. It was also great to spend time doing this for the first time in a deep way.
Where I conclude it should change, to actively start moving in that direction seeking help, encouragement and support from other members of the Book Club, others around the world and, most importantly, the other members of Circle L.
December 2018 update: I did one real life practical round of applying the techniques to a specific role. I still have a lot to learn with the techniques that Liz details in the book. It would be good to see examples of best practice human-voiced resume especially for someone with a 30+ year career to date. Some updates were shared in the circle and with hindsight may be I could have shared more with that circle but that may have started to crowd out some of the other circle activities. I still sense that groups of people reading the book and supporting each other beyond that would be helpful.
Where appropriate, consolidate my learning through the 12 weeks into a public blog post.
December 2018 update: Not sure how appropriate it has been and is but I have included a majority of my exercise responses in Workplace by Facebook and in this blog post in the spirit of working out loud and to encourage others.
To learn more about myself through this process.
December 2018 update: Definitely! It would be hard not to given the large number of exercises in the book that I completed as fully as I could. Interesting to note that some questions were asked in different ways and in different contexts through the book and in a number of places I wondered what I had answered previously. This is the main reason that I want to re-read these notes to get the full picture in the cold light of day.
To learn about the new world of recruitment and freelancing.
December 2018 update: This was also definitely the case. I do wonder what the typical response would be to pain letters and human-voiced resumes in the UK and the “risk” of using these approaches versus the traditional submit your CV to automated applicant systems. I am conscious that the things that I learned are helpful on a wider front by making me more effective in my existing career roles.
To identify any other opportunities that I could explore for future work and income or indeed anywhere else
December 2018 update: I would need to do more work on this in terms of consultancy opportunities based on the “what I am good at” and “what brings me joy” lists.

My general assessment of specifically what I plan to do next with this material was done in response to that question at the end of the book. Those responses are at the bottom of this post but repeated here for convenience.

My overall thoughts on the book and what I plan to do next with what I have learned:-

Glad to have read the book
I am awake now! AND NEED TO STAY AWAKE!
I must review the notes and my responses over the past 4 months to consolidate my definitive view
Practice my new skills and go deeper so they become second nature – helpful that my One Word 2019 is “apply”!
Go pain spotting
Look for pain in everyone I meet as I get to know them
Include in the WOL Self-Care learning I am doing the lessons from here
Get the joy back as a priority – job crafting, side hustles, use the skills that give me energy
Develop my services (pain resolvers)
Show up as the real “me”
Remind myself that if people do not “get” me they do not deserve me
Recall and document dragon-slayer stories
Do the 2-pager human-voiced resume
Ask myself the monthly-review questions at least monthly!
Do not let the busyness of daily life crowd out this ongoing reinvention process and divert or stall me from my path

Who the book is relevant for

Every worker, manager, leader etc

This book is an ideal primer on how to manage your own career and is relevant to people of all ages seeking employment
The book gives you language and processes to become your own career manager
In an amazing way, I found the book helping me view my day job in new ways and helping me to be more efficient and effective

People wanting to explore becoming freelance and/or doing consultancy assignments

The book encourages a process in how this can be explored and become a reality

Those with an interest in building human workplaces

Lots of the book covers the modern workplace and what helps and hinders that workplace becoming human in practical ways

HR professionals

In many ways I saw the book as a wake-up call to HR professionals to inform them of the detrimental impact of old-style recruitment processes

Life and career coaches – both people doing that as a full-time role and those who give career advice as one of many services that they provide

The book, in my opinion, contains processes and exercises that such coaches would find helpful to compare with their existing services to see whether they could improve their practice by adopting some of these processes and exercises

I highly recommend this book to everyone and would suggest that you do the exercises and ideally that you find 3-5 others to do the book with you.

My reading of the book

The way that I try to process and apply books is to make extensive notes and add notes of application. Also, I usually do any exercises that are included within the book or separately.

The remainder of this post includes my notes from my reading of the book and all my exercise responses.I started including my comments within the notes from each chapter but rapidly realised that I could wait for the exercises to come to pass comment on the book content.

Book Notes

Foreword (Ken Robinson)

“To be born at all is a miracle. So what are you doing with your life?” (Dalai Lama)

simple question with deep implications for all of us

each of us is a unique moment of history

our lives are affected by chance and circumstances but also shaped by our own attitudes and expectations and by whether or not we discover and develop our unique talents and passions

some cannot wait for each weekend as work does not excite or fulfil them

often more room for flexibility & creativity in our lives & work than our well-worn habits of thinking typically suggest

to change, we need to think differently and take practical steps to identify what we want from our work and how to get it

this book!

3 core ideas:-

we create our own lives and we can recreate them if we have the will and the confidence to do so
the world around us is changing at exponential rate and in the process is generating many new opportunities for how we can live and work
there are many simple, practical steps we can take to match our personal talents and passions to these opportunities

Liz is uniquely placed to offer this roadmap

advice/techniques from a lifetime of guiding people in all areas of work to more fulfilling ways of earning their living

written with her trademark passion, wit and humanity

[ Simon: I would love to write like that – I do try! ]

will help you answer “what are you doing with your life?”

[ Simon: I love that Ken Robinson wrote the foreword. That is a huge endorsement. Love Ken’s work. 1sts stumbled over him via MIT’s Learning Creative Learning MOOC.

This TED talk was the first time I had heard of him: https://youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY .
Worth listening to his Desert Island Discs programme on the BBC – a fave podcast series: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03g8d6d. These are his 8 fave music tracks: https://open.spotify.com/user/112724104/playlist/5VE3rVJvF1Ri9592czo6XY?si=w5svVzIORKOgraWqcHFIyA and his fave book from that programme - India’s Summer by Thérèse: https://goo.gl/RS9xMc
Also see his interview at UNLEASH Conference & Expo (formerly HR Tech World) in London, 2018: https://youtu.be/Gx2TheUVrVw ]

Introduction

days of years of employment in a single job career have gone

being a good employee and working way up hierarchy is no longer a given

job security has gone

you must manage your career

learn to break old rules & learn some new rules

book will teach you to how to take control of your career and run it like a business – your business

learn how to brand yourself for the jobs you want and how to get a job without begging for it

Is this book for you?

suggested audience for the book:-

looking for 1st job or for 1st job for many years
not happy with filling in online applications then hearing nothing
want/need to change careers but do not know how
want to be more proactive and have power and control over your career path
unemployed or under-employed (working in a role that is below your capability)
not being considered for roles that you know you could perform well in
recently made redundant
want to create plan/goals for career but need guidance on how to do it

book is for you if 1 or more of these applies to you

[ Simon: My hope for this book club is that the diverse perspectives from the group will come through so that our individual learning is deeper as a result and that we will see the content through different eyes as we see people apply this content to their lives and others assessing what parts of the process they can use when they coach others. I sense that this will require us to be real with each other. ]

What is reinvention?

process that starts when your life changes when your life changes – under your control or not in your control

change can be scary but does not have to be paralysing

book helps you deal with anxiety and helps you get the amazing learning and growth that this process offers

help you be stronger and more resilient

opportunity to reflect on career to date – how far you have come, obstacles overcome

most do not have cheerleaders – you are talented and capable

you can navigate your career, just need a roadmap

[ Simon: Reminded of “Designing Your Life”’s (DYL) take on maps – our career path is not a case of plugging a destination into sat nav and then following the directions. It will be interesting comparing DYL with Reinvention Roadmap (RR) as this journey continues. ]

What is the Reinvention Roadmap?

the path you follow in this book and your life

your path is unique from others’

equips you with tools to be CEO of your career

completely new way to manage your career and job search

examples of what you will learn:-

new-millennium job-search techniques that will give you the power back that broken recruiting processes have taken from you
how to reach hiring managers via a new kind of CV that show your power
how to stop pitching applications into automated recruiting sites and start reaching hiring managers via a 21st century covering letter

RR is a job search & career planning book with self-discovery twist

as you journey through the book you will realise you have more power than you thought and learn how to demonstrate that power in your job search to get the job you deserve

you will become the CEO of your career managing it like other CEOs manage their businesses – not letting your employer manage your career any longer, this is now your responsibility

you will realise that the only people who deserve your talents are the people who “get” you – those who resonate with your frequency and see the value in your experience and gifts

Why did I write this book?

hearing from thousands of people who were frustrated with their careers and the state of the job search process

passionate about helping people remember their gifts and talents because the working world is a tough place to navigate

easy to lose your mojo (life force) and your self-esteem as a job seeker

easy to feel alone and worthless

BUT you are mighty and powerful

this book is designed to wake you up and inspire you, to make you smile and laugh and may be even cry when you realise you have much more going for you than recent job-search experiences might suggest

book will remind you about things you have forgotten about yourself

my mission is to shift the way you look at yourself and remind you of the power you have to run your own life and career

also give you practical tips about the actual job search and how best navigate the new working world – showing you how to break the rules

my background is HR leadership – seen 1st hand how the job search process etc is broken

10 rules you will learn how to break

the only acceptable CV language is stiff, formal, governmental
the way to apply for jobs is to find job ads that interest you and respond to them in exactly the way spelled out in the ad
your value and worth are set by your employer, not by you
once you choose a career path, you have to stay in that career path throughout your career
when applying for a job, you have to do whatever the company’s reps tell you to do (and fast)
your best brand is a listing of your past employers and your skills
never contact a department manager directly
when you apply for a job, use your cover letter to explain how your background matches the job spec in the job ad (you won’t write cover letters at all(
the way to succeed in your career is to work hard at your job and, when you need a new job, to take the first job offer you get
your education and professional training and past job titles dictate what kinds of jobs you can get or can perform

by breaking these rules, you will grow new muscles so instead of seeing yourself as set of skills and qualifications you will see yourself as the vibrant, talented, creative and awesome person you are – a person any company would be lucky to have on its team

How is RR organised?

25 chapters in 4 parts

Getting altitude – look back at your path in life so far and look ahead to future stretching out before you
Finding your path – address the question “what is the best career for me and how do I pursue it?”
Taking steps – start dreaming up the life and career you deserve and taking practical steps
Growing muscles and mojo – you are going to keep growing and learning throughout your life – once you step into reinvention, you will never stop reinventing yourself

[ Simon: strong resonances with DYL re the ongoing reinvention and you never arrive. ]

You need a Mojo Journal to record your thoughts and reactions to the book as you go along

RR Glossary

terms used in book may be familiar or new and some may have different meanings than you currently hold

see glossary in back of book

Are you ready?

RR is a path to follow as you learn a new way to manage your career

you will learn how to:-

take control of your career and run it like a business
use powerful concept of Business Pain to your advantage
break old-fashioned job search rules & step into new perspective on your career, skills & value to employers & clients
choose your own career path & brand yourself for the jobs you want
directly reach hiring managers & stop applying for jobs through awful online recruiting sites
start a consulting business (either part-time with your full-time job or your job search or a full-time consulting business)
get altitude on your career: to see each job & assignment as a step on your path, a path that belongs entirely to you

My own reinvention roadmap story

… I learned … “only the people who get you, deserve you” …

you do not have to get every job you apply for

you do not need everyone to like your brand of jazz

no matter how hard you try, everyone won’t appreciate you or see your talents

enjoy the journey

Exercise (made up by me): Response to “Is this book for you?”

Template: https://goo.gl/rh6qNn

See my completed doc: https://goo.gl/iv8nbc

Exercise (made up by me): Responses to the "10 Rules You Will Learn How To Break”

Template: https://goo.gl/WTGccK

See completed doc: https://goo.gl/nJ8Es4

Exercise (made up by me): What are my learning objectives as I read this book in the context of a book club?

I am reading this book and doing so in a book club that I created as my goal in the Working Out Loud circle that I am a part of for the same 12 week period.

My learning objectives are as per my WOL circle goal as follows which I defined as part of my Week 1 circle activities:-
To read and apply Liz Ryan’s book “Reinvention Roadmap: Break the Rules to Get the Job You Want and Career You Deserve“. “Apply” meaning to read the entire book and to do all the exercises in the book at whatever level of detail even if any are not directly applicable to me.
To do this in the context of a virtual book club on Workplace that will run in parallel with the WOL Circle L.
To continue to recruit new members to the book club as we journey through the book.
To seek out people to dialogue with during the 12 weeks including people who are and are not a part of the booK club.
To seek out people to review my exercise responses and to act on those responses.
To assist others who respond to the exercises via comments and questions etc in a coaching type role.
To come to a conclusion on my career path and whether it should stay as-is or shouLd change.
Where I conclude it should change, to actively start moving in that direction seeking help, encouragement and support from other members of the Book Club, others around the world and, most importantly, the other members of Circle L.
Where appropriate, consolidate my learning through the 12 weeks into a public blog post.
To learn more about myself through this process.
To learn about the new world of recruitment and freelancing.
To identify any other opportunities that I could explore for future work and income or indeed anywhere else.

Chapter 1: The Reinvention Roadmap and Your Mojo Journal

taking charge of your career means running it like a business

things you will learn as you start doing this:-

decide what to do next and over the long term – your whole life not just your job
decide what kind of work you want to do

work you enjoy
what you’re good at
pay you what you’re worth

brand yourself for the kind of work you want regardless of whether you have done that work before
make a list of target employers/clients
explore becoming a full-/part-time consultant

when you grow your consulting muscles, you will watch your mojo and marketability increase dramatically

reach out to employers in a new way

bypassing automated application processes and reaching departmental manager directly with a powerful message just for them

the value of your services and being able to talk about money in your job search as easily as you do the weather today
get used to spotting business pain in the environment around you and being able to explain how you address that pain
adopt a consulting mindset about your work

seeing each job/assignment as a problem to solve not just a set of repeated tasks

grow your muscles/mojo to keep learning & keep feeling more confident every day

your reactions to this list of goals? daunting? simple?

What is “mojo”?

life source & energy level

level affects your ability to star perform or just function

The RR Steps

Get altitude

think about your life and career with perspective
get out of the day-to-day busy mindset
“what do I want to accomplish while I am alive? how can I take a step toward my life goals by getting a job that supports those goals?”
dream expansively
no one will judge you if you do not meet your goals or realise your dream straight away
walk your path according to your mission, making all the important decisions yourself

Choose a place to put your canoe in the water

you have choices to make as you go through the book
you will realise that doing nothing in the past was also a choice
you can design the life & career you want and your flame will grow tremendously when you do
you have more control than you think
your goal is to get in the water and start navigating
your perspective will be very different in the water than on land
it is a mojo-boosting experience to job hunt when you know how you can help employers solve their problems

[ Simon: me and the family (wife, 3 kids (15,17,20) had 2 weeks in Sri Lanka over the summer – a holiday of a lifetime for us – 4 of us were flying long haul for the first time. We saw some amazing “Ceylon”posters “Ceylon”. Having done some reading of Liz Ryan’s book before I went, I had to get this canoe poster! ]

(poster pic from this web page: https://www.yamu.lk/blog/winners-of-the-no-bill-piece-prize/)

brand yourself for the jobs you want

brand is the way people think about you and what they know of you
you have a brand whether you like the idea of branding or not
you get to choose the words you use to describe yourself to people who do not already know you – those words are very important
you will brand yourself as a living, breathing & talented human being not a set of disconnected skills and credentials
you will brand yourself as an individual – you are unique
you will brand yourself in a way that is relevant to the people you can help

create your target employer and/ or target client list

do not let your job search be restricted to organisations in recruitment ads
you can get a job or consulting work whether you look at published ads or not

think about how you could work for yourself

what could I do for money that does not involve working for a salary or wages?
you will explore your entrepreneurial side
if you were to start a business, what would it be?

learn the whole person job sea

bring your whole personality & talents to your job search – not just a list of qualifications that you get asked for
you will use pain letters and human-voiced resumes instead of online job application sites

know the value of your services

what are your talents worth to your employer and consulting clients?

learn to spot business pain

business pain is any problem that a business person is struggling with
your power in the hiring game is in your ability to spot business pain around you and to solve it

base short-term actions on your long-term plans and your vison

you are no longer a victim of circumstance , you are now in charge

grow your muscles and mojo

you will gain confidence in your own abilities and realise you are much more talented than you think
you will help others grow theirs too

Your Mojo Journal

a great idea to keep a journal to reflect on your responses to the book

add entries as often as you can

capture every “aha!”

write without self-censoring

do not judge yourself too harshly

Exercise: What will I use for my Mojo Journal?

I suspect that ideally I should be using paper notebooks. BUT my handwriting is often illegible. Also, as a Working Out Loud advocate, I am keen to publish my reflections electronically where that is appropriate.

Since starting to use Workplace and posting content there, I have now got into a routine of making notes directly into a draft blog post that is my master copy and copying and pasting sections of text from there into a Workplace document post. I have discovered that what works best for me is doing the paste in free-format text and then reapplying the formatting in the post (a direct paste is horrid and worse!).

I am aware that I will inevitably be capturing thoughts that are not for public consumption but those will be minimal and I will address that when I have completed the book and got a full blog post ready to go.

How about you?

What does personal growth have to do with my career?

looking at your place in the world and seeing how you can shift anything that is not working for you and live a healthy life

we need to make a change when something is not meeting our needs

take charge of your own life

you will feel stronger and more confident when you see you have a path and you are walking on it

an awesome feeling noticing yourself learning

growing muscles can be a challenge especially if you are flabby

Exercise: What have you learned lately? Learning from other people’s learning

how to facilitate a virtual Working Out Loud circle
how to use Zoom for video conferencing
how to set Workplace by Facebook up for different use cases
how to invite people virtually to collaborate with me
how to post content in various ways in Workplace
how to read books again
the challenges medics face
some history and ethics of the medical profession
starting to listen to my inner voice
how to use Wakelet for curating sets of tweets
how to host Twitter chats
what OKRs are and how to set them
how to test sytems where there is no documentation and all you have is the functioning software
how to work in a new office building
speaking to complete strangers on my lunchtime walk at work
about Leonardo da Vinci
what deep work is
the challenges of being a community manager
where my responsibility for someone else’s learning starts and stops
the power of new people joining a team in changing culture
saying yes more without me overthinking things that usually results in a “no”
learning with other people instead of on my own

Learning from the 3 case studies:-

learning reactively to a life situation to learn needed skills
learning skills that may not necessarily be relevant to workplace
learning to keep going and doing work that may not be your ideal preference
learning things to do with health and life (self-care appears to be a new term that is gaining currency in the world of life and work)
learning may not be formal but may just happen as you do things online

Things to learn for me from that list:-

I am good at learning things that I want to learn – almost like a hobby]
I am hopeless at learning things that I need to and should learn but fear factor and perception of that being hard work has until now stopped me
re health, I need to lose weight but love my food and the occasional drink too much
I could plan and prepare better for things but I enjoy the adrenaline rush of being spontaneous when I am tooled up for anything in any case.
Still wonder whether my learning is as a hobby rather than for a more productive purpose.
I need to get better at tracking what I am learning.
Wondering what the skills are that I deploy outside of work that I do not seem to use in work.

20 Mojo Journal Writing Prompts

things to trigger your writing off

1 at a time or more than 1, whenever you want to, or just write about anything you want

what made you read RR
ideal job
what you are good at, when you saved the day or did something important/ valuable at work
memories of childhood, what you wanted to be when you grew up
who inspires you, what do they do that is inspirational
career so far, how did you choose your current path, what else are you interested in exploring
most important life lessons
fave movie and why, what element of your personality does that speak to
fave memories from work, why are they so powerful
people who taught you most in the early part of your career, what lessons did they teach you
ideal living situation, sort of home, why would that suit you so well
what book would you write if you had time – fiction or non-fiction
worst/most embarrassing job interview you ever had, can you see any humour in that looking back
what problem do you love solving most at work, why
what do family/ friends tell you that you are good at, how can these be used in your next job or step on path
your beliefs, issues/ causes you care about, how do these connect with your mission
a story about a young person who follows similar path to yours, what advice would you give them
something you saw or heard that made you stop and think
your dreams – what you remember and what dreams you have for your life
your life in 5-10 years, how will life change

[ Simon: the following section added by me, not in the book ]

Wild-Mind Writing

I came across wild-mind writing via these 2 blog posts by Julie Drybrough:-

Wild Mind Writing & Doing What I Do: https://fuchsiablueblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/wild-mind-writing-doing-what-i-do/
Wild Mind Writing Revisited– Discipline & Grit: https://fuchsiablueblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/wild-mind-writing-revisited-discipline-grit/

When looking for further info on this, I discovered this pdf that is worth a read and I would encourage you to apply these techniques to the exercise responses for this book:
http://writ101van.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/7/3/22735066/goldberg_rules_of_writing_practice_text.pdf

I first made use of these practices in my responses to exercises on the Foundations of the Social Age MOOC in 2017. You can read my responses to the exercises from this index page:
http://srjf.blogspot.com/2017/04/foundations-of-social-age-mooc-2017-q1_50.html

Exercise: 1st Mojo Prompts

13: worst/most embarrassing job interview you ever had, can you see any humour in that looking back

In my last role in my last company, I was in consultation for redundancy at the end of 2011. I did not want redundancy. I was not aware of any other roles being made redundant at the same time. All the other roles were not appropriate for me in terms of package or career. I did agree to an interview for a role in IT but as a Business Analyst. I was currently managing 3 x BAs. Decided to pitch in for that role. Interview was with the recruiter (IT and Operations Director, my then line manager’s line manager) who had come into the organisation a year or 2 prior and was keener in bringing in his own people than developing etc the existing people. I felt he was after “suits” in his own image. I had felt increasingly marginalised as new people came in and did the “exciting” new work on new projects. He had been frustrating to work with and for but he was a “get things done” kind of person, like me. The other person interviewing me 2:1 was the Business Development director. She had progressed through the ranks rapidly and I knew who she was but we had hardly ever interacted. I am not sure that I really wanted that job – I loved the company and what it did – academic publishing to business schools and universities all round the world. I was also aware that it was highly unlikely that regardless of how I performed at the interview I would get the job. I did the interview for experience and to see how I got on. Main nightmare was me not being clear in my contribution specifically independent of the team I managed. I kept on referring to “we” and “the team” not “I”. It was a classic example of how I want to be seen as part of the team and the greater good rather than me and my individual performance. I am probably still the same way at my core but much more aware of talking about what I do and how I add value. Those were dark days but probably another example of me staying at an organisation for far too long when I should have moved on proactively a long time previously.

5: who inspires you, what do they do that is inspirational

Gerard Kelly: https://goo.gl/41pJfi

Christian leader
runs a mission organisation to Europe from France
writer, author, poet
poetry moves me to tears often (always?) when I deliver it verbally at events
1st person I ever saw using slide decks creatively, inspired me to do likewise
his use of film/video clips (eg Romeo & Juliet by Baz Luhrmann) in talks at large Christian events inspired me to do the same (have run a film club for over a decade and run All Age Worship events with video clips as a direct result)

Bono/U2: https://youtu.be/-l40S5e90KY

I grew up with them. 1st heard them in 1980 with “Boy” album
saw them 1981 for £1 on their first lengthy UK tour
their Christian faith
their use of their platform to communicate political messages
longevity
working as a team over the long haul
commitment to excellence in all they do
their creativity in their live show designs and delivery
the music!
Bono’s understanding of the world and the creative process and what it means to be a Christian in the 21st century
his passion

Michael Heseltine: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07m5gwm

politician
business experience
wanting to apply that to getting things done as a politician
clear communicator
clear thinking
resigned from a UK government on a point of principle when Thatcher was Prime Minster

John McEnroe: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08xxfz3

memorable moments watching him play breathtaking tennis
passion
successful singles and doubles player
varied life
art gallery owner
summariser and broadcaster and programme host
deep insight into his sport
can take conversations anywhere someone wants to go
ability to flex his communication style to different audiences

Will I Am: https://youtu.be/KOJUv1Kh47E

whilst I like much but not necessarily all of his music, I love his quirkiness in the creative process
an amazing coach of other singers as demonstrated on TV – role model – never nasty! always positive
sees things that other people do not see
another person who is keen to use his platform for good
a good business and tech brain
a fave human being – see documentary with Joanna Lumley

There are loads of other people but that is a good start.

Part 1: Getting Altitude

altitude means thinking about your life and career from a new perspective and asking important questions about where you’ve been so far in your life and where you are headed

[ Simon: altitude reminding me of David Allen’s horizons of focus: see https://gettingthingsdone.com/2011/01/the-6-horizons-of-focus/ ]

Chapter 2: It’s your life and it’s your career

have you had a career shock or lost a job suddenly? not so rare these days!

our ideas about work are not keeping pace with today’s world

we still look for jobs today like we did many years ago

we do not plan our careers very far ahead

your career story holds tremendous wisdom for you – it is a big part of your life story

Exercise: My Career Story

Just over a year ago I did this “Jobs Held Summary” document while I was facilitating a Designing Your Life book club and study group and then did a 2nd version with duration info in while facilitating a Show Your Work book club.

That exercise was light on commentary so I will seek to remedy that here.

My first degree was in Business Studies/Management Science. I ignored career considerations completely until very near the end of my 4 year course. My degree was a rare one in that it covered both quantitative and qualitative courses. It taught me to look at every facet of an organisation and to look at several at a time.

I applied for 8 positions towards the end of my course, got 2 first interviews and 1 second interview and 1 job offer which I took and that is how I started my career. It was Asda’s first ever graduate store management training programme. Asda pioneered hypermarkets and bar code scanning in the UK in the 1980s. I worked in every department of a large store for a few months from August 1984 to March 1985. I was then offered my first IT-related role (it was called MIS then) in Asda’s head office in Leeds. My IT career has continued ever since that day.

You will see from the “Reasons for Leaving” column that there are 3 redundancies and 1 resignation. Most of the internal appointments were as a result of organisational changes and not me applying to change roles. There is a core theme in my career revealed here of me being totally reactive and I know that I need to be far more proactive that has always seemed to be a challenge. I seem to stay reactive even when life at work becomes hellish. Becoming proactive is one of the main reasons I am reading this book.

Most of my roles have been in the area of capturing business requirements and project management with a core required skill of consultancy playing an increasingly key role.

It does seem like I need to make the present time a checkpoint to say where I currently am and to take a step in whatever direction is most important.

Losing a job

as you get older losing a job becomes a much bigger problem than earlier in your career if you have financial responsibilities for others as well as yourself

sometimes you lose your sense of identity

Exercise: Response to Elena’s Story

Interestingly I have never really experienced his depth of work relationships expanding outside work to friendships. I do take an interest in colleagues and have some understanding of their home backgrounds but this is patchy. I believe this started from early in my career when it was the norm to keep work as work and home as home. But I do share the darkness of the feelings you get once your role has been made redundant.

With my working out loud circle experience, I can see how if I was to ever do one in the context of a single organisation how this might change given the depth of relationships that tend to happen automatically over a 12 week circle.

I am also aware of the impact of virtual working and currently I am working with 3 colleagues who are full-time remote workers and we often talk about social aspects of our lives on calls whilst also working.

Feelings of Loss

it is a big deal to lose your job suddenly, traumatic

can be the end of your current career path

real world changes as whole industries rise and fall – ditto with types of jobs

shatters your view on your view of work and relationship with employers

[ Simon: This defo happened to me after my first redundancy, I was an idealistic business graduate that was just cast aside. A real eye-opener and shook me to my core. I went into work one day and was told about my job being redundant with no warning and was back in the car on the way home never to return within an hour of arriving at work. This was on the day that my first mortgage payment on my first house was being paid and we were getting married 5 months later and we were paying for it all. ]

emotions you experience during sudden/ unexpected job loss:-

sadness
discouragement
hopeless
tired
confused
overwhelmed

Exercise: Feelings of loss (my experience of emotions during redundancy)

My “best” experience of this was after the episode above. As part of that redundancy, I got outplacement counselling in a hotel in Hull (I was living in Leeds at the time). When I turned up there were people there like the IT Director, HR managers including the person who signed my redundancy notice and other IT colleagues. The very first exercise was a brainstorm about our emotions about being made redundant. The list above were all there including darker and more aggressive words including “why me?” and “it’s not fair” etc etc. My main emotion each time I have been made redundant thus far is fear and panic about how I am going to get a new job rapidly. ]

Jobs that aren’t a good fit

your whole world is rocked when you lose your job

more of a challenge when it is the latest in a line of jobs that have not worked out

Exercise: Jobs that aren’t a good fit

Never done a job that was not a good fit. BUT there have been examples of roles where the role scope has shifted into areas that I am less interested in and/or where I am spending a greater percentage of time doing one part of the role so I have lost the variety. I suspect that the main issue currently is what I am interested in doing now is not any part of my current role!

May be I need to have a play at different roles. Sounds risky to me …. The challenge is real.

Career Concerns

most common career concerns:-

current career path is going away and may not last to my retirement
my current career path may be the only one I have credibility in

who will recruit me in a new role in a new area of work for me

increasing age may go against me
may not be able to earn what I am worth
forget career, I need a job now!!

Exercise: My career concerns

Looking back over 35 years it does look like I have stayed doing broadly the same thing. Salary has stayed static-ish for a huge number of years which I have excused for probably invalid cop-out reasons.

Would love to be able to work doing some of the things that I am learning and practicing outside of work over the past 4 or so years and that is intensifying.

It does not feel like I am coming to the end of my career despite my age (56).

Would love to be able to contribute more in an environment when I am recognised more and be part of a world-class team of professionals (per the Google definitions of high-performing teams).

A fear that it could be too late.

Wondering whether I can find a Simon-shaped role.

Falling asleep on your career

we used to believe that we only had to think about our careers when our jobs went away – this is a myth

what it means:-

you stop thinking about it
you pretend that your current job is stable/secure – you have no way of knowing that
you forget what you are good at
you forget what you want from life/career
you forget the incredible range/variety of things you could be doing professionally (far beyond what you are doing now)

waking up is the 1st/most important step in getting to the career and life you want

Exercise: Falling asleep on my career

current state: drowsy and still in the process of waking up …

defo fallen asleep on my career, time is marching on and going more quickly seemingly as I get older

not just woken up suddenly

abysmally abdicating my responsibility to sort this out but reading this book is definitely part of my waking up

=============

From the book: welcome to the waking world! we are all learning together how to manage our careers

Exercise: Response to Keith’s story

some parallels with me, I do work for a company that has amazing clients for our size (household names in the UK, including the UK government, Victim Support, Network Rail etc)

I have accepted some things at work that with hindsight I should have called out re how people relate to each other productively or not

Started working on listening to my inner voice and responding more kindly to myself

At the mercy of the work that is won by our sales team and not that involved in pre-sales

I do look for new business opportunities

We are growing

The work is not my ideal and what is has not been run how I would have run it and hard to change when that work is underway

No detailed plan for retirement. I am not a financial expert and risk averse in financial matters as with my working life!

Defo on a pendulum of feeling confident and bold to total discouragement

Exercise: Changing careers or type of work

I am increasingly aware that I need to investigate different roles in other career paths, work that is more interesting than what I am doing now and that gives me the joy that I experience doing things outside of work.

I have been learning online for 5+ years. I have done no formal training & development as part of my employment in my current organisation. I have loved the freedom of choosing what I learn, when I learn and how I learn. I sense that all of this is directly relevant to the current world of work. I have explored and am exploring new subject areas to me via Twitter chats (e.g #LDinsight and #ESNchat). The work I have done in Workplace by Facebook and building the platform is part of that process. I am a builder and a user and an implementor. I see whole new areas of work opening up to me if I can leverage what I have been doing in these areas. My experience of doing WOL circles has also equipped and encouraged me in working globally and collaboratively with all kinds of people that I would not normally spend time with. This has all been positive.

The challenge is finding roles/organisations that I can marshal my experience for. I am actively seeking to do that and hoping that the current book and this community and my current WOL circles (Circle L and WOL-SC Circle #3) will help me with and cheer me on as well as telling me if I cop out at any point.

The Talent Marketplace

what is it? the set of physical and electronic space where employers meet job applicants and vice versa; any place where people perform services for other people; as long as work is being performed and people are being compensated for their work

so includes you sending CVs, doing online applications, your current physical workplace, virtual working spaces,

this marketplace has changed dramatically in recent years

nearly everything we know about getting, having and keeping a job has changed

every single aspect of employment has changed dramatically

biggest changes:-

people stay in jobs for shorter periods
traditional career ladders have changed: harder to get promoted
job specs/roles changing faster
long term employment with same company does not have as much value as it used to e.g. as protection against redundancy
employers less loyal to employees and vice versa
even after long service you may be made redundant or outsourced
more use of contract staff
many new jobs are low wage service jobs
many employers now using automated recruitment systems that are slow and unfriendly to job-seekers
HR budget/headcount lower with consequent impact on comms to job applicants
job seekers & employees fed up

A new way to view your career

most of us are still trying to use a 50 year old model for career management and it does not work anymore

the old model is broken

the new model?

you are a business owner

you are the CEO of your career

even more importantly, the decision maker in your life

in this RR journey, you are going to take charge of your career rather than letting your employer or others run it for you

it is your life, it is your career

Exercise: Thinking about my career

All the above exercise responses are indicating to you that I am thinking about my career.

I am asking specific people via direct messages if they would review any of my outputs as I go along.

But this now is an open invitation to anyone in this community, do you feel able to talk to me 1:1 about any of my responses?

One of my objectives of doing this book in the context of a book club was for me (and all of us) to get a wide range of perspectives on this content.

I am a giver not a taker or a matcher (from Adam Grant’s definitions) so I am definitely happy interacting with others who are reviewing their careers and/or explicitly looking for a new role. Also, it would be great to interact with HR/coach-type people to see what you are thinking about the material in this book.

Any input/advice/challenge of any sort from any of you would be gratefully received.

3: Reinvention and the Human Workplace

Liz is on a mission to reinvent work for people

Reinventing work

people, not machines, go to work

people are amazing … they can outperform any machine on earth … but they can only do that if they are excited about what they are doing … people are incredible … but they can only achieve great things if their work is valued by the people they work with and for

working people & job seekers need a new playbook

conventional wisdom says build your career around secure jobs … BUT no security in any job today .. we carry our security around with us

universities advertise their courses as gateways to specific careers as if students do not have anything else valuable to offer

Employers treat job-seekers poorly

our society teaches job-seekers to be doormats & to put up with horrible treatment from employers .. taught to beg for a job

BUT no company ever has enough qualified applicants

hard to find great people … hard to keep them

many talented people who could help organisations will not put up with broken recruiting processes

job-seekers know that most recruiting processes are horrible – unfriendly, slow, even insulting

big issue of hearing nothing back from recruiters

many organisations struggle to lead their employees in a human way

this requires a level of honesty & attention to human topics that many organisations struggle to attain

A new roadmap for job seekers

more and more employers now see the passion-performance connection & take steps to put a human voice in their leadership practices & their recruiting

Where did the Reinvention Roadmap come from?

the more energy we spend growing the good energy (Team Mojo) the better every business result will be

happier customers, better informed, more loyal to us when our culture makes it easier to hire great people who want to deliver great service to customers

we will make more money when our workplaces are more human

work will be more fun

as a leadership team easy to create your own Human Workplace regardless of what business you are in

to start this path, we only have to stop pretending that we can accomplish good things at work by making people afraid

stop writing policies that treat people as children

have enough confidence in ourselves to hire people we can trust & then to trust them

we have to be brave enough to lead through trust & then to trust them

employers who want to make their workplaces Human Workplaces have big changes to make in their approaches to leadership

workers and job-seekers also have big changes to make – manage careers like your own business

everyone wants a Human Workplace but often employer or worker/ job-seeker expects the other party to change first

the secret to your reinvention & to having the career and life you want …. everything will start to shift when you look in the mirror

techniques and approaches in the book will only work for you when you do the personal reflection that will allow you to see how your path has unfolded the way it has

you have to look at your power in every relationship you have – including your relationship with your job and your career

when you see that you have arranged your life the way it is for a variety of reasons and that nobody is responsible for your life/career you will gain tremendous power

you have learned an amazing number/variety of things along the way to getting here

nothing you have experienced has been wasted

nothing to feel regret about or embarrassed about

you will see you get to choose where you go from here

you will take responsibility for the path when you realise that taking responsibility is the only way to get the things you want

What is reinvention?

a career or life shift from one state/ chapter in your life to another

triggers:-

tired of old life/career
forced on them by redundancy or other life event of self or others

What reinvention means to Liz:-

change
adapting to changing environment
when you can tell you have to make a change
especially when you are not sure what change you have to make

have any of these changes shown up in your life recently:-

lost job
realised you need new job or new career
moved to a new place
finished a course
making changes in other areas of your life – taking charge

fill in the gap: I had been feeling antsy or dissatisfied for a few years but then ….. happened and I knew I had to make changes

people in reinvention often say these things:-

I was sleeping and now starting to wake up
as I look back I see mistakes but did not realise they were mistakes then but I learned from them
tuning back into my career
I do not mind going to work, I want to work, I want a job that makes me look forward to going to work – I feel like I deserve that
I want to know more about my own talents. I know I can get a job when I need one but tired of holding a job that is like the other jobs I have had
I want to go further in my life. I want to expand my vision for myself.

Exercise: What are your thoughts about these common reactions to personal reinvention?

Using the list from the book per my notes above.

I was sleeping and now starting to wake up
Simon: This is definitely what has happened for nearly all my career, Definitely starting to wake up. I could get excited!

as I look back I see mistakes but did not realise they were mistakes then but I learned from them
Simon: Definitely stayed at some companies too long and/or did not take responsibility to change some of the issues I have had in some parts of my career.
tuning back into my career
Simon: I am wondering what I could and should be doing next with the new skills and experiences I have acquired and gone through over the past few years of doing MOOCs, WOL circles, book clubs etc all of which has been outside of my working life and has been in my own time.
I do not mind going to work, I want to work, I want a job that makes me look forward to going to work – I feel like I deserve that
Simon: I would love to feel the same energy consistently at work that I get from my outside of work activities. Feeling like I have so much to contribute that I cannot do currently at work due to the nature of the work that the company does and does not do.
There is a great exercise in the Designing Your Life book that asks you to write your Work View down. See http://srjf.blogspot.com/2017/11/my-work-view-and-life-view-my-responses.html. The first question and my responses from that post below:-

Why Work?

Mandated by God. As He also mandated rest on the Sabbath
To do something useful
To get paid and provide for yourself and your family
To pay taxes for the wider community and nation to support those who cannot work and provide for themselves
To appreciate holidays and rest
To use your gifts and talents
To do good
To have relationships beyond the immediate family

I want to know more about my own talents. I know I can get a job when I need one but tired of holding a job that is like the other jobs I have had
Simon: Reminded of the Strengths Finder test that I should probably do again. It was scarily (in a good way) accurate when I did it in August 2006. See results @ http://srjf.blogspot.com/2006/08/sharpen-saw-book-now-discover-your.html
I want to go further in my life. I want to expand my vision for myself.
Simon: Certainly seems like I have much more to contribute with skills and experience I have acquired over the past 6 years via my online learning-related activities and that these are becoming increasingly important to workplaces and collaboration.

Who controls your path – you or someone else?

we always have a choice – even when we do not think we have

easy/ tempting when big problems arise to say what do you expect me to do about it, I cannot control everything

by doing this we become victims – we give away control

Paddy’s story

lost his job, took 1st job he could, less money, moved back to live with parents, mum told him to take responsibility for career, boss at work surprised when he started talking about better jobs as boss thought he had tuned out so was not considering him

Exercise: response to Paddy’s story

some similarities

cruising not proactively pushing myself

small company so no promotion opportunities but 2 recent very senior internal appointments that I knew nothing about (not roles I could do or want!), do need to take more ownership of career

also need to get my mojo back!

as per cricket term, I need to get onto my front foot

… resuming …

it is empowering to think … I’m in perpetual reinvention now. I’m not going to fall asleep on my life and career again. My eyes are going to stay open.

pressure when need a job to get a job any job

sometimes the people closest to us give the worst career advice

some people will encourage you not to reinvent yourself e.g. worry about impact on them

Exercise: People around me supporting my reinvention

certainly getting people commenting that I talk in a more animated way about my online learning adventures and experiences

get feedback from family that I stay for companies too long

no convo about moving home to reinvent myself

not really spoken about it with those close to me and certainly not to colleagues

interesting to hear how people pray for me at church and what they say encourages them and inspires them about me

I need to get more people around me that can spur me on and challenge/ encourage me to go for the reinvention more seriously – going to a networking event on Thursday evening locally to home that could be the start of doing this in real life rather than just online

reading RR as a book club book was one way I was hoping to put people around me to spur me on

… resuming …

RR designed to guide you through taking control of your own career – and your life as a bonus

the more thought/ energy you put into you put into the reading/ exercises the greater the results

Exercise: Most helpful idea from the book so far

Waking up, taking ownership again, being proactive, not being a victim, actually doing something about it .. finally

Your body

Your body is important in your reinvention. Beware just doing mental exercise. Get outside. Do something physical.

Exercise: Get outside

Currently writing this at home on a Saturday evening so a restful couple of days.

I walk for 3 miles in one hour on Monday to Thursday at lunchtime at work. I should use that more as rest. I always have podcasts on while I walk. That walk is all in the countryside so certainly helps taking a break from the business of work.

Photos: https://goo.gl/eSxWFA

Chapter 4: Your Learning and Your Path

we learn throughout life

if we stay awake & pay attention, we will never stop learning

some stop learning when they leave school & mind closed to new ideas

only the people who keep learning, keep growing – tuned in to the real world around them

you will not learn from everyday experiences unless you let the learning in

when you say yes to something new, your opportunities for learning grow fast

[ Simon: love Shona Rhimes on saying “Yes”:
TED talk: https://youtu.be/gmj-azFbpkA
Book: https://goo.gl/CYrKZh ]

[ Simon: also love Mel Robbins’ 5 Second Rule:
Talk: https://youtu.be/IaBg1XzDnSU
Book: https://goo.gl/tcX787 ]

the more you think about the learning that you have already accumulated in your life, the more you’ll keep learning

most of us seldom stop & think about what we are learning

Exercise: My path in learning and life so far

What are the talents you most enjoy using, at work or anywhere?

leading small groups to study a subject
picking films and leading discussions on them
producing events on a theme with publicly-available multi-media components
structuring things where there is no structure
planning things from vague ideas
identifying tangible/intangible products that need to be delivered
facilitating requirements and design workshops
facilitating groups of people online
learning new things proactively and reactively
developing digital skills in myself and others
collaborating with customers, suppliers and internal staff
sharing resources
asking questions
listening carefully
building things that can be used by me and others
facilitating online meetings
being involved in things at the start to help things start on a sound foundation
understanding problems that need solutions
note taking and actions recording from meetings

What talents would you love to use in your work but haven’t had a chance to use so far?

building collaboration platforms such as implementing enterprise social networks
video calls
creating experiences
implementing WOL circles and book clubs
building relationships for sales and biz dev purposes

What are you good at doing that most people are not good at?

most of my project management capability
sharing resources
trying not to reinvent wheels if I can help it
seeing big picture and the minute detail
knowledge of multiple business sectors and sizes of organisations
learning online

… resuming …

as you think about what you are good at, you are getting altitude on your career

knowing yourself is key to this

you should choose a career path that celebrates your talents

focus on job opportunities that will make the most of your gifts

you get to choose what to do

What do you love to do?

there may be things that you are capable of doing but you have no interest in

what are some things you never want to do or have tried and never want to do again?

[ Simon: I am good at admin, doing things right repeatedly, but these days I want to be more in a leadership role that leaves that behind to others.

I hate chasing people for work updates that hate to be interrupted.

I hate working with people without being able to change how the team operates for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. I am able to do this in some situations to some extent.

I would rather build things than support things once they are built. Happy changing things once they are built.

I hate software testing!! especially when there is no requirements or design document and we have to guess the expected results. ]

What are some of the things you love to do?

[ Simon: see earlier lists ]

If you did not need any money, what would you do all day?

[ Simon: learn new things and help others learn new things. ]

What are some of the things you have taught yourself to do so far in your life?

[ Simon:

Twitter
Taking part in Twitter Chats]
Hosting Twitter Chats
Documenting Twitter Chats in Wakelet
Learning online
Using YouTube to host videos
Building Slack teams
Building Workplace by Facebook communities
facilitating Working Out Loud Circles
Evernote
Pocket]
Pinterest
Blogger
facilitating online/IRL book clubs/ film clubs
MS Word
MS Excel
MS PPT
MS Project
Tweetdeck
Networking online via contributions, Working Out Loud
LinkedIn
Facebook
playing podcasts
using Zoom ]

Things learned from other people:

[ Simon: mainly subjects I have done in MOOCs, in books I have read, videos I have watched, podcasts I have listened to ]

Things I have learned recently:

[ Simon: from the lists above .. learning Wakelet and sending tweets to people in those Wakelets, building and developing Workplace by Facebook communities. Google Maps for my driving commute. Different ways of posting into Workplace including links, FB docs, videos, RSS feeds. ]

the more you know about your path so far in life by looking back and understanding what you have learned to get here now, the more altitude & perspective on your path you will have

you are never done learning]

Be aware of your learning

your awareness of the learning you have gained so far in life is key

cf computer games where you go from level to level as you learn how to play the game

the more time you spend here on earth, the more treasures you can find or earn

you cannot mess up as long as you are learning

Exercise: The top 3 things I have learned in my life so far

I have learned to be proactive in my learning to make sure that I continue to learn as I get older.

I have learned that I can learn with others and not always on my own.

I have learned that I am easily distracted when I am doing deep work and I therefore have to deploy all kinds of distraction defences.

Why didn’t we learn this in school?

most working people of all ages do not know how to manage their careers

we do a horrible job of preparing young people for the working world

our ed systems keep kids away from exploring the critical question “what do I want my life to be like when I’m an adult and what steps can I take to have the life I want?”

the approach to teaching in schools has hardly changed in decades

we do not teach kids to explore the world and discover for themselves what they want to do in their adult lives

Exercise: Memories of School

I am bad at recalling events that far back!

Went to an all boys grammar school, one of the oldest schools in the world, founded 1495. Main emphasis at the school was to get the pupils into Oxford or Cambridge. I played lots of sports and was in the army cadets (taking part in the army-related summer camps and the adventurous training camps at Easter. I came into my own at university doing Business Studies/Management Science. I knew from the very first lecture that I was in the right place. Great to study in a new university environment at the forefront globally of business education back in 1980-1984. Loved the semester system and the continuous assessment. Combination of quantitative courses and qualitative courses and was my first exposure to project management.

I mainly learned that I learned best when I was studying subjects that I wanted to learn about. This only really happened at university – I hated Law though!

Re careers, I got poor advice at school and at university but also did not do a lot of research etc it has to be said. But the world was different then which is the whole point of Liz’s book.

As a parent, this is now “scaring” me slightly in that I need to give advice to my 3 kids. One is just about to finish university but is already showing entrepreneurial flair with a sideline of buying and selling rare trainers from famous brands. He also has a temporary job at Ikea that he seems to be excelling at and is about to go into his final year of university studying Politics. I am getting the Liz message of being highly adaptable and owning your own career.

Worth saying that all my education was done pre-Internet and that I have loved learning how to learn online and that doing virtual WOL circles has been a revelation.

Career Paths

a poor job is done of educating kids about careers but is also bad for adults!

where can people go to learn about careers? banks teach money mgt, medical centres teach health care

lots of material about finances

why are we not talking about career management

well done for reading this book!!

Janine’s story

45, thought she had to stick to the career she chose at 22

current job destroying her health & sparky personality

started thinking about big picture alternative future careers without worrying about step 2 – the how to get there – she mapped out 6

hated her current job on Wall Street

lots of common sense, financial nous

Exercise: response to Janine’s story

Telling others can be a challenge so her brother’s response is not that surprising. I would probably have said the same a few years ago – shame on me!

None of Janine’s career ideas are out of the question and as per classic brainstorming rules every idea is worthy of consideration.

There remains a world view of what jobs are worth versus what people get paid to do them.

No one’s career ideas are less professional or significant because the person has not been paid for pursuing them.

Reinvention is not an equation

how could Janine use her financial skills in her different suggested career paths?

she needs to explore them by doing research about each one

her mind is wide open, she is in reinvention, she gained confidence by looking at her career from a greater altitude

she realised that she brought her competence & credibility and confers those to her employer

why do research for a new job identical to the current one and be same-old, same-old

she wants to get closer to her mission and learn new things

Exercise: response to Janine’s researching

I started doing this when doing Designing Your LIfe and the Odyssey Plans exercises from that book. I need to continue that process as I go through this book. It would be great to discover wonderful new career paths that are a better fit to the “new” me! This is simply adding additional impetus to me pulling my finger out!

What are your alternate career paths?

when you trust yourself to let your dreams expand beyond what you thought was possible, your perspective will change dramatically

obstacles you saw in past will look much smaller or disappear when you step on your path

your vision for yourself will fuel your forward motion

Exercise: Sides of me not reflected in my career to date

My 6 alternative career paths are …

Why I chose this alternative career path …

I still need to do research on this! This was a challenge too when doing Designing Your Life

Enterprise Social Network implementor

love building things for others to use
Workplace and Slack experience

Online Community Manager

increasing exposure to this role/field
Workplace experience

a role that combines both of the above

ideally I want to build and use

What I do now but fully working in an ESN

a dream ticket but may be a cop out

Coach

this role is increasingly of interest as this is happening automatically via my facilitation of circles and Workplace
not clear necessarily what sort of coach – work (people in current roles), life and/or career

Facilitator/Consultant

spending lots of time with L&D pros, lots of similarities with how IT teams can be perceived

Content Producer

love communicating what I know

Applied Research

all things digital, new world of work

Something/anything WOL-related

issues of WOL being trademarked

Perpetual Reinvention

an important part of reinvention is the simple act of paying attention to the external world around you & listening to your own heart and mind

listen to your body not just your mind

we are often caught unawares

reinvention is a process cf snakes with new skin

Exercise: Thoughts about stepping out into new territory and trying new things

Sensing now that all my online learning, WOL circle and book club facilitation and learning Slack, Zoom & Workplace has been doing this on an informal low-risk way. I need to take that a step further to see if I can get paid for doing this kind of work on a commercial basis.

Exercise: Greatest triumphs in life so far

Helping a friend in need

chaired the church’s AGM last Tuesday evening when the pastor had to pull out after his dad had a heart attack.
I had no warning and it went better than I expected.
I had no concerns myself.
Led it in my own style so was spiritual as well as a business meeting with lots or praying together in groups of 3-4.

Learning to do something completely by yourself

Setting up and managing Workplace by Facebook.
An amazing feeling having a completely empty platform to do whatever I wanted with.
Lots of learning e.g. how to run security.
Rollercoaster including people pulling out including one example of a group of 5.
Seems to be going well!
Would have more opportunity to do this if this was my paid job …

Teaching someone how to do something

A few examples of doing videos for people instantly to show them how to do something.
e.g. how to do a Wakelet, how to post in various ways in Workplace

Being proud of myself

project managing the implementation of Victim Support’s new case management system including being the lead requirements consultant facilitating 20+ workshops with staff at all levels of that organisation used by staff across England and Wales based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The system processes every crime reported to the police in England and Wales including terrorist attacks and supporting homicide victims’ families.

Chapter 5: Reclaiming Your Path

some people are full of career advice for us – take the 1st job offer you get … play it safe, stay in your current line of work even if you hate it … you do not choose your own path … take the most conservative course of action or else something terrible will happen

in my experience the exact opposite is true – the more you step into new territory by trying new things, the bigger your muscles get … as you learn to try new things all the time, the more confident, marketable & flexible you become

an important step in reinvention is to reclaim your path

Tell Your Story

[ Simon: As the main output of my first WOL circle, I wrote a reflective piece on “Who is Simon? Why is Simon, Simon?” which contains a bug chunk of my story.
http://srjf.blogspot.com/2017/03/who-is-simon-why-is-simon-simon.html
also see these “50 Facts About Me”:
http://srjf.blogspot.com/2017/10/50-facts-about-me.html ]

reclaiming your path means thinking about and talking and/or writing about where you have come from

going all the way back to your childhood and even before you were born

you have a story and it is unique … it is completely yours

you have a powerful life story and you will gain power by telling your story

Exercise: Thinking about my life to this point

For a good intro to me, see the blog post “Who is Simon? Why is Simon, Simon?”.

My birth

Nottingham, 1962. Late Dad from Manchester, late Mum from Aberdeen.

Sister, 3 years younger than me.

First years of my life in a university hall of residence then Shepshed then Loughborough all in Leicestershire, UK.

Early childhood

No recollection really. Nothing traumatic!

Loved being outdoors.

Not a big city, not even a small town (Shepshed), Loughborough was larger and was a university town.

People in my early life

Late maternal grandmother looked after me and my sister as mum and dad both worked.

Neighbours were childless. Welsh husband and Dutch wife. They enjoyed us going round to their garden/shed.

Went to church 3 times a day at Shepshed: morning, Sunday School in afternoon, evening

Vague recollection of seeing Dad’s side of family in early years but no contact from them on. No idea why. Dad had sister and brother in Manchester and North Wales. There were cousins.

Mum was a further education lecturer in Burton-on-Trent, Dad was academic at Loughborough University. Don’t remember getting help with homework. Expectation was that we would do our homework diligently. I was encouraged to do sport and be in the army cadets.

No recollection of direct impact of parents on career choice although working with mind rather than physical activity was a theme and was attractive to me.

My school experiences

Nursery school experience of playing with a black girl but I referred to her as the girl with the red jersey.

Arcott primary school in Long Whatton, Leicestershire.

Then Fairfield Prep School then Loughborough Grammar School in 60s/70s.

Always strict schooling. All about educational achievement and excellence,

Love of listening to music started in final year at Fairfield.

Always did homework listening to music.

Attended my first live gig in 1973 for a friend’s 11th birthday – The New Seekers at Leicester De Montfort Hall.

Played sports, always last to be picked or was sub even when only right number of people to play.

Not as bright as some of the other kids. Muddled through I would say.

Good at Maths due to amazing teacher at LGS.

All boys school so girls were an alien race really until university.

Lots of army stuff in army cadets – went to every summer camp and Easter camp with some memorable things done. Including walking 150 miles of the Pennine Way in 7 days, walking in Germany, live fire shooting at a range in Dundee, a week at Sennybridge in Wales where the SAS train etc.

A few close friends but mainly acquaintances.

Exam results: 2 x As, 6 x Cs at O level, 1 x AO level, 1 x B, 1 x C & 2 x Ds at A level'.

Not good! Ended up at Stirling University as my insurance choice in case I got poor results.

While all this was happening, very active church goer & Sunday School, was in the Boys Brigade, drum major in the bugle and drums band. A life highlight being at the front of a large band marching through the streets of Leicester.

Part of a close knit youth group that did lots of things together on Sunday afternoons and evenings and lots of weekends away. All of this was as part of Baxter Gate Baptist Church that merged with 2 other churches to form Loughborough Baptist Church.

Played a lot of football/cricket/tennis in my school days outside of school.

Bicycle rider.

Was better at subjects with a right answer but did OK with the essay type things too. Vivid memory of getting an A- for an English Lit A level essay on the poetry of RS Thomas (Welsh church pastor in the bleak Welsh countryside).

My career plans and dreams

No idea what I wanted to do for a career at school.

A profile test indicated banking and finance. I was going down that route even spending a week in London with the then Midland Bank. I remember seeing the high volume of cheques being processed. Loughborough (home town) had the best banking and finance course in the UK at the time. Needed good grades to get in but did not. With hindsight a lucky escape.

I have never known what my ideal role/career should have been. This is the main reason I am reading this book.

Stirling University as a modern university (founded 1967) was attractive to me but only when I was there and understood what that meant. I remember being amazed that the source content was mainly covered in journals and trade magazines and the text books even then were not keeping pace with how fast the world was changing. I could not take the course but in my 4th (final) year, I sat through the Retailing lectures. At the time Stirling and Harvard were the only 2 universities in the world with a chair in retailing.

Stirling also introduced me to project management which has been a recurring theme in my career to date, I posted about this here. I love and loved understanding the big picture, the why, how we need to break the big picture down, how to sequence activities, what deliverables are required and in what sensible sequence and to talk compellingly about the overall project and how we will achieve it.

IT found me via Asda. I did not apply. I was spotted within the organisation. I am not a technical person per se. I am a user of technology with a strong desite to make me and those I work with and for a lot more efficient and effective by using technology as an enabling tool.

I do not recall adults speaking into my life about careers. My parents were keen for me to get a stable, long-lasting career and saw banking as ideal.

A lot of credit must go to Helen Crabbe who recruited me to Asda on their first ever graduate store management training programme – my first role after graduating from Stirling. She remains the best HR professional I have ever worked with and for. Next is a shoutout to Marie Newton who was my Regional Personnel Manager at Asda who asked if I was interested in a job in IT in Leeds at Asda’s Head Office and off I went.

My MBA next comes to mind. I did mine at Strathclyde Graduate Business School. This was the first traditional university to run an MBA by distance learning. The course was more interesting to me than my first degree as I was doing it while working and after a few years of actually working so I was directly applying my learning to my day job. It was here that I learned more about marketing and the differences between marketing to individuals and to organisations. The manufacturing and operations management course that I remember as being especially helpful. The strategic management course had an amazing text book with the same case study running throughout it with exercises at the end of each chapter. Some of my fave text books were from my MBA. I devoured them.

Once into IT there were a number of paths that I could have followed but in summary my preferred roles are in managing the relationship between the customer (internal or external) and the IT teams doing business consultancy and project/programme management roles.

So no real career changes in my life up to this point. I am certainly up for a change if that is where I get to in my thinking while reading this book.

Re the questions in the book, I am typing not writing but I am conscious that I have spent a lot of time typing and could have said quite a lot more. It took a while to get back to those early days in my mind and in my memories.

No real aha’s. BUT I do think it is an eye-opener when Liz says that we do not teach career management as a life skill and I am becoming increasingly shocked that I am not alone in my meandering career-wise.

Your path has power in it

in our culture we talk about the future all the time – rarely do we talk about the past

a shame because your life story is incredibly important – tremendous learning available to you in your life story

to get that learning, think about your life stages

your path is a gold mine for insight about your future but only if you reflect on it

[ Simon: reflection has become a key word for me in recent months. I need to do more of it proactively and, as primarily a do-er, not see it as a waste of time. ]

Exercise: Retracing your steps

What did you love to do most, as a child?

playing sport as team or on own
reading
listening to music
making lists
writing in a diary
being with peers at church in formal and informal settings
Sunday School / Boys’ Brigade
Holidays with family or church youth group
being active

What did you know you were good at when you were little?

starting and finishing things
maths/numbers
organising things

What did you think your career would be about when you were a child?

I had no idea and I do not think I ever thought about it. I have no idea what I thought would happen if I did nothing about it. Really shocking in hindsight and this book is exposing that I have still never really proactively thought about it.

What talents did you show as a child that you haven’t yet had the chance to develop as an adult?

teaching people, leading study groups (lots of experience)

What did people around you tell you were your talents and gifts as a child?

numbers but that has long since gone as an interest
disciplined
focused
research
widely-read

What activities have you given up in adulthood that you’d like to pick up again?

started reading deeply again for the first time in years this year

What do you love to do, whether you can earn money from it or not?

being part of or facilitating small or larger groups
organising things and people
understanding business problems and how to address them
reactively/proactively learning and applying new things and sharing that
making it easy for people to use tech
making it east for people to find things/content
sharing information reactively/proactively
driving to a conclusion
being in wide open spaces such as Skye
being on my own and with other people for periods of time
eating with other people
being deadly serious and very funny in the same convo 1:1 or in groups

I learned from this process how hard it is for me to retrace my steps from birth but also reassuring that there was a path – obviously! – that I have walked.

A reminder that we are all unique and have walked our own paths.

Your Dreams

pay attention to your dreams – they are important

old memories will resurface as you reclaim your path

these memories have messages for you

what have you been dreaming about lately?

pay attention to other signals too – anything can be a sign worth paying attention to – pay attention to signs that catch your attention – they may have significance for you

Exercise: Me paying attention to signs

I answered these for the 2 year period since doing my 1st WOL circle

Which ideas and themes have you been thinking about more often lately than you did before?

WOL circles and how to widen out who is doing them. Would be good to see who is doing them in the UK.
ESNs – would love to work where that is the platform for doing real work
evangelising ESNs for doing real work
ESNs vs email
email etiquette vs ESN posting format
how to make things more findable/usable
rapidly enabling groups to form on ESN-type platforms
getting more and more sucked into the OD/L&D parts of HR
content management
how should I best become reflective
PKM – personal knowledge management
how to build/lead a high-performing team

What have you been dreaming about lately?

ESNs as a base camp for people before going off to do work, learn something, do a learning programme etc
recurring theme of reclaiming joy in every area of my life
working as part of, or leading, even, a high-performing team that is “making a dent in the universe” per @gapingvoid
loving my work again
being even more contagious
being more persuasive
seeing more people see the value of WOL, ESNs, PKM in doing real work quicker and more effectively
being a force for good in an organisation

What have you noticed in the weather or in nature recently?

the continuing importance of me walking at lunchtimes when in the office

Which songs have you been thinking about or singing or humming lately?

so many!
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds: What A Life:

Keep on chasing down that rainbow
You'll never know what you might find
Over the sunset on the horizon
It may be a dream but it tastes like poison
I'm going to take that tiger outside for a ride
U2’s Get Out of Your Own Way

Fight back
Don't take it lyin' down, you got to bite back
The face of liberty's starting to crack
She had a plan up until she got smacked in the mouth
And it all went south
Like freedom
The slaves are lookin' for someone to lead them
The master's lookin' for someone to need him
The promised land is there for those who need it most
And Lincoln's ghost said...
[Chorus: Bono]
Get out of your own way, oh, I
Get out of your own way, oh, I
Recalibrate; John Askew

(includes this Morgan Freeman reading of a poem)

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the shadow of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

Which slogans or quotations have been on your mind lately?

#AllIn #ShowUp

Which books, movies, or TV shows have you been thinking about lately?

Leonardo Da Vinci biography from Walter Isaacson: amazing life story of someone who was interested in everything
Strictly Come Dancing came to mind where people who cannot dance are taught how to dance
Not recently but The Newsroom is a fave TV series about a great team
TV: This is Us – family saga with lots of looking back to tell the family story in a variety of ways and filling in the detail
Films: Darkest Hour

Which people from your past (or inspiring people you don’t know personally) have been in your thoughts lately?

remembering Sue Dixon and Penny Farren, my first 2 project managers that I worked with on their projects
Helen Crabbe who recruited me to Asda from university

What other signs or symbols have been nudging their way into your consciousness lately?

Self-care due to a new Twitter Chat that I am not participating in but has piqued my interest in terms of how bad I am at self-care
Self-care also the theme of a pilot WOL-SC circle that I am in
Base Camps prior to expeditions where people congregate to prepare

We’re responsible for our careers

Remember, job security is gone

the world of long-term stable employment has gone

now we are all entrepreneurs and business owners regardless of whether we work for ourselves or an employer

any job could disappear at any moment

we have to manage our careers like businesses now

when working at one job, keep your eyes open to be aware of other organisations that could hire us if our job was to disappear

we will not have job security but we will have income security

if you want to make big changes in our life, start by looking back at your path to this point and ask :-

“how did I get to this place, where I stand right now?”
“what’s in my way right now & how can I move that obstacle out of my path?”

Don’t blame others

do not make somebody around us the bad guy

other people have nothing to do with your path

we make them more significant than they are because it gives us an “out”

you are the star of your movie not someone else

Exercise: Bad guys in our story

Yes I have made other people the bad guys in my story.

New people coming in to an organisation in more senior roles who excluded me from decision making, new roles, strategy etc who wanted to bring in their own people.

People who want to work and think in their own way and being critical of how others work and think including how and what and when to communicate.

At various times, I have felt ill-equipped to address these issues even though I tried to a certain extent to name the issue and try to understand where the other person is coming from.

I may have an idealised standard of how I expect others to work and where that conflicts with how I work it makes me less effective/efficient.

I am not good at playing politics and although I always have win-win in my mind I also have a clear idea what the right answer should be.

I am probably too “nice” in how I try to work – even doing some formal training in that area including role play (see the book “The Nice Factor at Work”).

I am also not good at confrontation except when an issue is so extreme something needs to be tackled.

In the worst cases of “bad guys”, the issue may be that the world has moved on in specific organisations and I have not recognised that and done specific things in response.

Also coming to my mind is who I think has responsibility for what re formal roles, historically and experience and what my response is where that is inconsistent where people do what they are not responsible for and don’t do what they are responsible for.

Be willing to make personal changes

to get the life and career you want, you have to be willing to make personal changes, rather than waiting for other people to change

you have to step into new territory even if it feels scary to do so

Exercise: my starring role in my movie

When you were a child, were you encouraged to explore a lot of different topics and activities and choose your favourites?

Yes. Including holidays in different places in the UK. Encouraged to read. Listen to music. No real pressure to pick a fave, Encouraged to do the Boys Brigade, army cadets at school and do the summer/Easter camps.

When you were little, were you ever discouraged from doing something you enjoyed on the basis that it could never be a viable career path?

No recollection of that happening. The career of banking & finance was revealed by a profile test so that was encouraged as my career.

Were you ever discouraged from doing things you liked to do because other kids were better than you were? Did you ever stop participating in an activity primarily because you weren’t one of the best kids participating in that activity?

No never discouraged in that way. Played sport even though was never the best. When picked last for teams it just encouraged me to play harder.

Have your career choices so far been based mostly on your own preferences, or on other people’s opinions or guidance?

Career mainly driven from my 1st degree but not really proactive. University milk round type jobs were from careers info.

Do you feel that you get to choose your own career path—or do you feel that many career paths are unavailable to you because of your age, your past experience, your education, or some other obstacle?

As a person who lives life IRL and online, I would hope that my age does not preclude from any new careers from this point on. Likely to be over-qualified for a lot of roles these days based on my number of years in IT. I am well-placed for future roles due to types/sizes of organisations that I have worked in and the various business sectors they operated in.

As a child, were you taught to pick a “safe” career path?

I suspect most career paths in the early 80s were safe especially for a business graduate.

Life Path Stages

no safe career paths these days

the only job security that exists today is what you build yourself and carry around with you

stages:-

baby time
kid time
teen time
grown-up time
more adventures
now

Exercise: My life path stages

baby time

nudge: the nursery & primary schools I went to

kid time

nudge: the junior school I went to
nudge: Sunday School/ Boys Brigade/ holiday camps

teen time

nudge: the secondary school I went t
nudge: do army cadets at school including camps
nudge: Boys Brigade officer training at a national centre
nudge: university applications

grown-up time

A-ha: 1st lecture at Stirling, I am in the right place
nudge: university milk round job apps
nudge: Asda role from the 1st set of apps
nudge: headhunted/taken to next role by the project manager I was working with
A-ha: getting married
nudge: redundancy from Comet
A-ha: Willow Creek conference
nudge: redundancy from Yorkshire Electricity
A-ha: leave job with no job to go to so I could see the kids
nudge: redundancy from Emerald

more adventures

nudge: becoming church secretary and member of the church leadership team
nudge: moving house for the 1st time in 22 years
nudge: holiday in Sri Lanka with the whole family
nudge: doing my 1st MOOC
nudge: doing my 1st WOL circle after them being managed to me by a complete stranger online
nudge: being asked to explain Degreed to the lady above in a con call
A-ha: realising as I do the WOL circles that I have skills that are valuable and making me dissatisfied with what I am currently doing and where
nudge: getting a free licence to use Workplace by Facebook
A-ha: Workplace by FB can be used for any community of any sort online
A-ha: taking part in Twitter Chats

nudge: attend my 1st Connecting HR event in Bradford
???: lots of questions about what I should do next – I do not feel like I should be gearing up to retire, want to enjoy work as much as doing what I do outside of work, feels like I am at the start of doing something

Chapter 6: Getting Altitude on Your Career

altitude is height above ground

Three Levels of Altitude

The Cloud

where you look down on your whole life and career

your entire path from birth to now and looking forward

at this level you ask “what am I trying to do here on planet earth? what is my mission?”

where you set your vision for your life and career

The Hilltop

from here you can see how to move left and right and forward

you can see how to overcome obstacles on your path

level for strategy and planning

exciting to see a new way to surmount an annoying obstacle

you are not only the visionary creator of your life & career, you are also the chief engineer and principal strategist

The Ground

where most of us spend most of our time

always something else to do on our to-do list

we have a lot to get done every day and most of us are easily distracted

you will step into your reinvention at this level step-by-step

control of your life and career comes through your actions – you have to take steps

you have to try things even if they are daunting/scary

Give yourself permission to get altitude

you will think about why you are here and what you can accomplish in your lifetime

some may say who am I to have a mission but Liz says who are you not to have a mission:-

why shouldn’t you do what you want to do & what you believe you were born one earth to do
why should you not achieve your dreams
why shouldn’t everyone at least try to do that

Envision your future

accomplishing tour dreams probably will not happen by accident

you need to take steps every day to make your dreams real

you will start by envisioning what you want to do and be in your lifetime

create a vision for your life:-

where you want to live
what sort of work you want to do
what kind of family & friends you want to have
what sort of house you want to live in
what you want to do with your time

time is precious

you can design your life the way you want it to be

you can get your perfect life, or get much closer to it, by taking steps all the time to accomplish your goals and live your mission

Exercise: My perfect life

In your vision for your life, where will you live?

No plans to leave Bradford. Romantic view of being on the Isle of Skye but would it lose its allure if I was there all the time plus how would I earn money there. No issue with other family members living there. Only moved house as family once in 23 years, 3 years ago.

Who will live with you or be closest to you?

Family (wife, kids, mother-in-law) are all very close and I could not see us living hundreds of miles apart.

How will you spend your time?

Work
Church activitie
Holidays
Play
Reading
Watching quality TV/film real-life drama
Not necessarily thinking about retirement as I feel I still have lots to contribute.

What is your mission in life?

Seeking to be the best version of me

[ Simon: The Manual of Me came to mind. It is a web resource. It is on my list to do! Now might be good … but is there time …. ]
Building effective and efficient organisations
Thinker and a do-er
Be a giver/sharer
Live as a disciple of Jesus

What do you feel you were put on this planet to make happen?

Build communities – online and in real life
Make it easy for people to learn (and me!)
Encourage people to develop themselves
To bring about harmonious relationships
Live for Jesus as His disciple
Connect people
Share resources

… resume …

most of us cannot easily or quickly answer that question

important to keep asking it as it is central to every big decision you make – or it should be !!

small/ ordinary decisions do not need this

key is to stay open to possibilities

Roadblocks to overcome

roadblocks are not failures but obstacles in your path

the only way to fail is not to try at all

need to stay open to possibilities

remind yourself that nothing you set as a goal is impossible … put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward

You are on a journey

you cannot succeed or fail in your reinvention … it is a journey

you are on your path

every time you learn something, your muscles get stronger

instead of judging yourself, ask these questions:-

what do I want to make happen while I am alive?
how can I move in direction of carrying out my mission?

Exercise: My journey questions

what do I want to make happen while I am alive?

The things that I listed above for this question: “What do you feel you were put on this planet to make happen?”
They all seem very specific

how can I move in direction of carrying out my mission?

doing this book is helping
saying “yes” to more things directed at me specifically and the world generally
trying more things with more people per learning adventures I am already doing and starting to do
being more aware that I do have agency
ignoring the naysayers

…. resume ….

only the people who keep asking hard questions & keep exploring their options see ways to live the lives they envision

if you stop looking, you will not see the opportunities

Exercise: Changing my life circumstances

Which parts of your life are within your control, and which parts are outside your control?

Virtually all of them. I am realising this increasingly as I go through this book.

What could you do to change your answer to the last question, and get control over more aspects of your life? What steps could you take to regain control over parts of your life that you don’t feel you control right now?

Again, this book is helping me. I do need to act on my reflections through reading the book.
I need to be braver and proactive rather than continuing to be fearful and reactive
The WOL-SC work on my inner voice is proving interesting in how negative I am continually being about myself.
Get myself out of my comfort zone even more than already.

Dream Big

people say to us .. who are you, after all, to think you can design the career and life you want?

Exercise: The messages I got as a child

Did you get negative and limiting messages when you were a child?
Did some grown-ups caution you and the kids around you not to dream too big or believe in yourself?

I do not recall getting any of these messages. It was more a case of the world is your oyster. The stammer I had when I was younger is coming increasingly to mind in this part of the book. Where I had the confidence internally in my own abilities but outwardly was not able to communicate that to others.

… resume …

a wonderful way to grow your muscles & mojo is to mentor someone

could you find someone to mentor?

Know Your Passion

when you know what you are passionate about, you can include your passions in your mission

Marissa’s story

single woman without kids, finance job, laid off, wanted to work with kids

the power of a support group

went on to consider mission of helping kids with finance things

Exercise: responses to Marissa’s story

Reaction to Marissa’s story?

interesting to see that people do jobs where it is not their passion, challenge is to think outside the box with your passions and see if you can earn money doing that

Who did Marissa think she was to change careers at age 35 and strike out on a path she’d never walked before?

this is definitely the new paradigm of not having a single career/role for life
I empathise with only thinking about this when forced out of your role/complacency
I am guilty of accepting first available job each time I am out of work
not really done a career shift thus far, this may be the time

Who are you to try to shoot higher, and find work that has meaning for you beyond a paycheck?

increasingly thinking I need to be this sort of person
defo want more of the joy I get doing things outside of work than I normally do at work

What makes you think you are special?

I am a unique human being, made in the image of God, with a unique sets of gifts, talents, experience

… resume …

does it not make sense, as long as you have to work to find a new job anyway to invest the time/energy it will take to get the best job possible

Exercise: What work means to me beyond a pay cheque

re my ideal job …

The setting - what kind of workplace will you work in, or will you work from home?

happy to do some virtual working
prefer a modern workplace which is pleasant to work in and has all the kit for workshops, meetings etc
ideally, close to where I live
no plans to move cities and am mobile …. kids getting to end of school so may be a trigger for considering that, I am usually a stay where I am sort of person but do love other cultures

The work - what kind of work will you be doing?

doing and creating new things
changing how I/we/people work
ideally across business sectors in public/private/third sectors
love variety
facilitating and implementing and using new “systems” which requires me to be always learning new things
may be delivering service from one organisation to others

The mission - how will your work support your personal mission, and vice versa?

making my hobby my work would be amazing if I have the flexibility to do that

The people - think and write about the people you will work with.

not people who hate their work and live only for weekends/holidays
not workaholics
people who want to be in high-performing teams
not fussed about ages of the people I work with
ideally not working with total Luddites but happy teaching/coaching people with new tech
may be working with people I have more of a personal relationship with and not just work relationship
people who are not jobsworths
people that think deeply about their work but who are not obsessed with work

… resume …

envisioning your ideal job will help you to get that job and bring it into reality

the more clearly you first envision then articulate your dream scenario, future life, career you are designing for yourself, the more easily you will spot opportunities to move closer to that vision

do not lose sight of it in your day-to-day

keep your vision clear in your mind

Chapter 7: The Seven Stages of Reinvention

reinvention is a process & gradual

works in the background

you are always changing

Exercise: My terrible experiences that turned out to be a great thing

each of the redundancies in my career have prompted changed experiences, new roles, learning new things

not too many other terrible experiences in my life – struggling to think of any

have I been blessed by this or is this an example where I have not experienced failure lots of times – I am aware we learn most when things do not go well and when we experiment doing new things

I seem to have lived my life on an even keel with not many very high highs and very low lows

… resume …

when you are job hunting or just thinking about your career or changing jobs, you are already in reinvention

you would not change jobs unless one of these is true:-

you need a new job because old one went away
you want a new job because you feel you can get a better job than the one you have now

Exercise: My current “nudges” towards reinvention

you need a new job because old one went away

does not apply currently but has applied in the past
in the redundancies, I have been so fearful that these have not been used by me as opportunities for reinvention because priority 1 has always been earning money to live

you want a new job because you feel you can get a better job than the one you have now

this currently applies to me now
not clear what better means
defo want to enjoy working life much more than I do now
defo want to use new skills and experiences outside work in my paid working life
continuing to take and make every opportunity I can to widen my experience and learning outside of work

… resume …

you are in reinvention whenever you are making changes or contemplating making them

the goals for your life may not be easily reached by staying doing what you are doing now

may need course correction

reinvention happens when you allow yourself to expand into greater possibilities

Arnaud’s Story

house painter, accident, became graphic designer, now working in an office, completely different career but lots of crossover, reinvented myself

Exercise: my response to Arnaud’s story

Positive thoughts re starting again, using existing skills in new ways in a new environment, encouraged

… resume …

any change can be scary

easy to doubt yourself

wonder why hiring managers would hire you in a new role doing something you have not done before

feelings of self-doubt will recede and diminish the more you reflect on the many challenges you have overcome in your life & career

jobs are not that different from each other

confidence & competence can translate into other career paths

to build your mojo, think of your career achievements

Exercise: the one career accomplishment I am proud of

Project managing the implementation of a new case management system for Victim Support across England & Wales from September 2015 to July 2017.

Was also lead requirements consultant to understand the business requirements of that organisation.

What was going on when you accomplished your biggest career triumph so far? Was it an emergency that you took care of? Was it a project that you were responsible for, or did you help someone who needed a hand?

I was involved from start to finish. Influential role. Responsible for making it happen. Widely different views on what was needed. Wide range of staff involved from directors to counsellors. Working with caring professionals. Use of Microsoft Dynamics was mandated as the platform. Deep working relationship with client staff. Facilitated multiple 20+ workshop sessions on requirements, design, testing, implementation, business change, training.
What is it about your favourite career accomplishment so far that makes you feel proud? What qualities in you did your favourite career accomplishment call forth?

Working with an organisation doing significant work for the country. Sensitivity of the data, processes and the work that the client does supporting victims of crime including burglary, sexual/domestic violence, hate crime, terrorism, homicide etc. Doing something significant e.g. not like shipping washing machines up the M1 !!

Qualities: facilitation, tenacity, leadership, listening, getting things done, refereeing, politics, documenting meeting outputs, working relationships with wide range of people, keeping people engaged, not allowing senior people to have all the airtime, inputting my expertise. Asking questions to probe in a new business sector to me and being totally comfortable doing so.
What does your favourite career accomplishment tell you about your path going into the future? What does it signal to you about the kind of work you should be doing?

Client-facing. Start to finish involvement. Facilitation. Service deliverer. Wide ranging role. Learning about a completely new organisation and business sector.

The 5 Stages of Reinvention

5 common stages of career change however small/large in this/any sequence:-

Stage 1: Reclaiming your path

looking back at life/career to date
capture the learning you have accumulated thus far
powerful way to learn about yourself
once you have understood that you can look forward
before taking another step reflect

Exercise: Looking back at my path

Looking at the events in your life that you feel have had the most significance in putting you on the career and life path you’re on now.

Which events have influenced your career path the most? (Did you choose a college major that influenced your career path? If so, why? Did you follow in your parents’ or another relative’s footsteps in choosing your career? Did fate choose your career path for you? Did you change careers when something in your life shifted?)

Bad “A” Level results took me to my 4th (of 5) choice of university. Ideal place to study. Set me up for my organisational, analysis, project mgt career.
Fate (God definitely involved).
No change in career to date.
Doing an MBA at Strathclyde helped me understand organisational marketing, ops mgt, strategic mgt.
Redundancies have widened my experience of different organisations and roles while maintaining a central core of understanding organisations, their problems, recommending then implementing solutions.
No one in the family thus far has worked in IT.

Did the events that shaped your career path put you on your path, the path that feels right to you and that aligns with your passions, or did some of the events take you off your path?

The redundancies seemingly took me off the path at the time but helped me rejoin that path.
Still passionate about lots of the things I do at work.
Feeling as I write that the path may be OK but may need course correction in other ways e.g. not necessarily IT projects but also to walk the path with a different set of travellers and more colleagues doing the same as me.

Now that you are getting altitude on your career and your life, where would you like your career to go?

The last question got me answering in an interesting way.
Defo on an “increasing my joy” trip so work is as fun as the learning and work I do outside of work.

Stage 2: Getting altitude

helps you look at past, present and future as a connected line and make a vision for your future

1st question we ask any tourist/ traveller is where did you come from and where are you going?

most of us do not ask the same questions of our own lives

Exercise: Where have I come from? Where am I going?

+ how has your view on this question shifted from when you reflected on it in chapter five?

Still in IT after all these years. Meandering. Not much intention. Minimal decisions and thought from me. Eeek the word “stale” came to mind. Joy ebbing away …

Looking ahead starting to think that the “what” I do needs to change slightly or may be significantly leveraging off the back of my experience, skills and knowledge plus.

“Who” with may also need to change. Increasingly envious seeing the gatherings of WOL advocates around the world and seeing the passion and enthusiasm like mine.

Wondering how I can make that happen for me ….

Stage 3: Wandering in the desert

middle, exploratory phase of your reinvention

transition from old to new can be disorientating & can wear you out

can feel like middle of desert re not knowing where you are or destination and without a clear idea of where to walk

BUT is where most of the powerful learning happens

may get some of greatest A-Ha!s

can take weeks/months to seep in

e.g. seeing new opportunities that you would not have seen as opportunities for you before, taking bigger steps & trying new things less cautiously than you may have done before

you will see that being on your path is more important than getting 1st job or putting up with a bad situation so you do not have to deal with it

you are worth the time / energy your reinvention requires

streams and flowers will start appearing and become larger as the desert begins to bloom

you will feel stronger and more confident

realise you always had power to change your life / career but never knew you also had permission to change them

Exercise: My thoughts on confusion or uncertainty over my career decisions or career steps

I do get excited when I proactively/reactively get opportunities to do new things especially when this involve making new connections and doing new things with other people.

I sense that I am playing at this rather than it being a specific move to get on with something new career-wise.

It is certainly adding to my mojo but I need to reflect more on that and praise myself more for doing this.

I also need to document more what I am doing and have done per some of the exercises in this book and may be more of this will come in the book soon.

I did a learning profile blog post some time ago on my online learning activities. It make for a good read and I surprise myself at all that I have done outside of work over the past 2 years. I need to bring this up-to-date to further provide content for others to understand where I am currently at and to help me tell my story.

Still wondering whether these activities are purely enjoyable hobbies or could and should become a core part of any future career (r)evolution.

I defo have confusion and uncertainty as I try to articulate where I am at but from a learning point of view I am enjoying the journey re WOL circles and book clubs etc.

I am conscious that as I go through this book and do all the exercises things are starting to take shape. I can see me having to revisit my exercise responses as I seem to be answering similar questions in different ways and all my responses are adding to an overall picture but I am losing track of that overall picture!

Stage 4: Choosing a place to put your canoe in the water

as you go on your journey you will see ways to plug into your new career & bring more of yourself to your work – out of the desert into a clear spot – a place to start your new journey

a career path you CHOOSE for yourself

not your dream job necessarily but a next step that moves you down your path and closer to your mission

a job that really exists or that you can create

Exercise: my ideas of where I can put my canoe in the water

This is topical having just created a 10 slide deck of graphics to tell my Working Out Loud Circles story so far.

Loved the variety of being able to try things either on my own (where I can decide) or with others (where I invite and they decide).

Love using platforms to share content.

Love building platforms that I can use and then share.

Coaching and encouraging people – galvanise.

Lots of book-related things – wrote discussion guide for an ESB book, interviewed one of the co-authors, book clubs.

Facilitating people doing real things that is important to them.

Stretching people.

Leading by example in all of this.

Inviting people to do things who I do not know or hardly know.

Love these adventures.

Stage 5: Taking a step, reflecting and stepping again

you will not stop thinking about and reflecting on your path & your reinvention in this stage

BUT this stage is all about forward motion:-

research prospective employers/ clients
send out pain letters & your human-voiced resume to organisations that you suspect could use your help
network with everyone you know

you will take control of your job search and your career

no one is better qualified to do this for you than you !!

you are the star of your film

Exercise: My thoughts on the Reinvention Roadmap stages

What are some of the steps you can take to learn more about possible new career directions than you know right now?

Start identifying the types of organisations and the types of roles that I want to work for in what roles.
Could I run my own business? So fearful and short of confidence to do that …What are your thoughts about the five stages of reinvention?
Given that I am community managing a Workplace by Facebook community in my spare time, start researching job roles being performed by Facebook and where.
Build on my Life Design conversations that I did as part of applying Designing Your Life in possible futures for me.

Why is a career change more complicated than just choosing a new career direction and applying for jobs?

For me, this is now about how deeply I am thinking about what I want to do.
Need to be clearer and more specific.

Why are there emotional and even physical aspects to career change?

I am starting to get much more in touch with my passion and enthusiasm for doing certain things and how much I hate and get down about things that are “hard work” re how those things make me feel. I sense this can be all so much better for me than it is now.

10 steps to make your reinvention roadmap journey work for you

1: Give it time

do not rush the book

reinventions run to their own timetable

your new identity will emerge slowly

slow speed will help give you clarity of your new direction, self-image & self-confidence

2: Allow

when you allow your reinvention to proceed without you feeling you have to control it, you can relax

practice allowing things to unfold without judging them

practice feeling however you feel & accept your shifting emotions as perfectly wonderful things

3: Notice your reactions

during reinvention we may feel like we have less control over our futures than we would like

you may feel under pressure during this process

you are in control, you still make your own decisions

4: Use your Mojo Journal

it is a powerful tool if you use it

writing in it every day is ideal

not just words necessarily, do pictures etc

the info you need is in you, the purpose of this book is to draw it out

5: Talk about it

… to others

with people who are also in transition

share all your ideas – the logical ones and the however crazy ones with people who get you

6: Try it

this all depends on you taking steps

you have to interact with the real world and other people, you cannot reinvent yourself in your head

7: Get the learning

beware getting frustrated, go again

learn from all your reinvention experiences

get out of your comfort zone where you feel incompetent to get better at something new=

8: Get out of school mode

there are no tests or pass marks!

this is about self-discovery

you are the athlete, Liz is the coach

no one can take your muscles away from you

there is no one to impress

9: Don’t judge yourself or others

hard not to judge yourself

talk back to your critical voice – “no one cares what you think”

try not to judge other people even if they are judging you – some will not understand your reinvention – but try to understand them

10: Relax into the process

good to relax physically and mentally each day

you are in reinvention, you deserve to relax

your brain is always busy … you need a break from the tumult

Exercise: My reaction to the 10 steps

1: Give it time

I so needed to hear this and it has encouraged me. It is taking a long time to go through the book. I am realising now that I grossly underestimated the time I (and others) would need to read and apply the book. I am committed to reading the book properly and doing ALL of the exercises.

Glad to read that my new identity will emerge slowly … it does seem to be .. but it is not rapid!!

2: Allow

It does feel like I am trying to force it. It has not felt relaxing. I am a driven person so relaxing does not come naturally.

Learning to learn from “bad” things happening.

It is often emotional as I go through the book with joy and fear etc at different turns.

I do often say that I am glad that God made me/us with emotions as it proves we are not robots/machines.

3: Notice your reactions

From time to time, I do sense the process running away with me which I view as positive. I do need to let go more and encourage more things to happen.

Being less in control when I respond to things may be especially helpful to me to get me out of my comfort zone.

4: Use your Mojo Journal

As you have seen I am adding answers to the exercises in and amongst my book notes.

I am only writing in here those responses.

I can see me writing somewhere as a journal when I have completed the book – aware now that that will not be the end of the process. Every day would be interesting but I am not currently a journal-er.

I am feeling that the book is drawing helpful info out of me as I continue.

5: Talk about it

It has been good talking to Jen – a fellow-traveller – and to read his responses.

Also discussing some parts of this with my WOL circle but not in too much detail. May be I need to say more – it is my circle goal after all. So far I have major-ed on how long it is taking which is hardly a positive message to give!

Ideally, I would be doing this with more people.

6: Try it

I am definitely doing this. See my recently-updated Summary Learning Profile.

7: Get the learning

I sense that I tend to stay well within my comfort zone. Even though I have done some amazing things, lots of these are related to the core of who I am. Not sure what that means for doing other things and what those things should be.

8: Get out of school mode

I do sense I am in this mode re finishing the book with all exercises done and getting a good “result” in terms of clarity of what I should/could be doing next and may be even starting to do that or making steps towards doing that.

Defo not trying to impress anyone!

This is encouraging me as there are definitely people who do not get me and think I am mad doing the things I do.

Sensing that I should be enjoying this more! It is not a chore BUT I could be more joyful about it!

9: Don’t judge yourself or others

Loved this as this is the main theme of the first self-care practice in the pilot WOL-SC circle that I am a member of.

Defo not judging anyone and always seek to understand others to see how I can be a support and encouragement to them,

10: Relax into the process

Defo need to do this!

It does feel like I am under pressure to get a conclusion.

These steps are helping me see that the end of the book is not the end of the process. As I always say, some pressure is good, too much pressure is not.

I will try to chill more …

Hoping that the WOL-SC circle will further help me in the area of relaxing and being less relentless

Exercise: On completing Part One – Getting Altitude

Good process and experience so far.
Interesting how different questions on same subjects have led me to different answers.
I need to stitch the different answers together ...
Reminded me of taking 2 pictures on Friday while we were at the funeral of a close family friend and a fellow member of the Church Leadership Team at Holme United Reformed Church in Bradford ...
I took them at random but Google Photos stitched them together as a single seamless panorama picture ....
I so need that to happen for me with this process ….
Definitely helping me get altitude – it is a long walk uphill ...
Hoping for a good view from the top and no more false summits :)

Part 2 – Finding Your Path

You have looked at your life/career from several different perspectives - you have gained altitude – and thought about your learning to date.

Now, we look at where the path leads you from here.

Chapter 8 – What does it mean to be on your path?

sometimes something wonderful can happen in the midst of personal turmoil on losing a job

this may be you being suddenly free of a job you did not really like anyway

Seeing the possibilities

if you view your job-search project as emergency to get 1st job you can, you will not see the potential to take a step on your path

may be you will get a much better job now & grow new muscles in the process

career change and job search is a great time to grow personally & professionally

that will only happen if you trust yourself enough to allow some reinvention in

you got one new problem – you need a job – but you solved another big problem – you can now do lots more things than whatever you were doing before

can be scary but also a wonderful feeling

sometimes Mother Nature knows what we need better than we know it ourselves

Exercise: Unwelcome changes turning out to be a good thing later

Each of my redundancies arguably have been like this. Never felt like that at the time. Feels worse each time – more financial responsibilities for more people over time.

Defo been guilty of taking the 1st job offer that I receive.

Need to be more proactive to decide to do this myself and not have it forced on me.

Had different experiences in different sizes of organisation, types of organisation, business sectors as a result whilst delivering a range of related services.

So I need to recognise when I need to move for me and not move for the organisation’s reasons.

The time to do things certainly resonates e.g. had to take half day leave to do the LBG Halifax time as it was not considered CPD.

.. resume …

every job search includes some reinvention

you do not have to do the same sort of job next time

can be exhilarating … and scary

questions to ask yourself:-

do I want a new job like my old one? should I try something new?
I know what jobs I can get most easily – but are those still the best jobs for me?
what do I really want to do next? should I pursue a “safe” job or one that will challenge me?
am I doing the kind of work that I like the most?
is my career making the most of my talents?
am I being paid appropriately?

Exercise: The best kind of work for me

Defo feeling that I should be doing different things now such as business change and not just managing projects.

Yes, still doing requirements capture and problem identification.

More on service development (see David Maister’s Professionalism).

Still professional services.

Combination of project implementation but also personally using what I deliver.

Strange combo may be.

But e.g. implementing ESNs & community management for other organisations while being expert user of those platforms and a role model community manager myself.

Answers to the earlier questions:-

do I want a new job like my old one? should I try something new?
See above. Assume would be relatively easy to do more of the same.
I know what jobs I can get most easily – but are those still the best jobs for me?
Not where my passion and interests currently are. Ideally want to work with and for business people more than technical IT people unless not on IT projects (e.g, coaching, skills development)
what do I really want to do next? should I pursue a “safe” job or one that will challenge me?
Would love to feel on fire again re passion and desire. Mostly happens outside of work these days.
am I doing the kind of work that I like the most?
Seemingly not per earlier answers ….
is my career making the most of my talents?
Increasingly aware that ESN/community management are key needed skills to get real work done
am I being paid appropriately?
No, never been good at salary discussions, don’t think I have ever had a successful salary rise convo but they are very rare! Never been money motivated. Not fully aware of my market rate. Part of this is due to me being able to do and actually do all sorts of things but not clear what box I fit in – this is all part of the generalist vs specialist debate, I have wide interests with lots of depth in several.

Am I on my path?

your path is the road that you will follow as you live your life

everybody has a path

your job is to find your path and follow it

finding your path means listening to your heart and mind NOT just doing what other people tell you to do

it means deciding for yourself what you are meant to be doing in your life and career rather than staying in the much easier rut

you will know you are on your path when you feel great about what you are doing

your path is connected to your purpose here on earth

not random that you were born – you were born with a mission to complete on earth

the more you give yourself permission to ask big questions like “what do I want to do with my time here on earth?”, and the clearer you allow your mission to become, the easier it will be for you to take steps towards realising it

Exercise: My mission on earth might be …

Learning, using that learning to equip me to do new things and existing things more efficiently/effectively

Sharing things to help others e.g. my learning

Enabling others to do/learn new things

Explaining things simply

Looking for the potential in people

Being a role model in all I do

Living out my Christian faith in a cringe-free way

Creating/Co-creating “content”

Bringing joy and fun to people

Being the same person in each role I perform in life

Galvaniser

Leader

Connecting people

Working Out Loud

Taking Responsibility

when you are on your path, you will know why you have made the choices you have made

including:-

the sort of work you do
where you live
who you live with
who you spend time with
the car you drive
the clothes you wear

you will be happy to take responsibility for those things

easy to push off responsibility to other people & blame the world for our problems

when we take complete responsibility for where we are at every point in our lives, we also see we can change the situation

you will then feel really powerful

Exercise: When I changed something that was not working in my life

Resigning from a role with no other job in mind.

I was consulting around the UK and not seeing wife/kids as the kids were growing up. I did 2 major multi-month assignments while living in Bradford. 1 in Leicester and 1 in Bracknell (near Reading).

Reading 2 books heavily tipped me over the edge!

The Heart of Success (Rob Parsons)
Google Books entry: https://goo.gl/AgUptE
If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat (John Ortberg)
Google Books entry: https://goo.gl/nNwgMR

I rarely talk about this period of my life but I must have been in a bad way to actually do this! It is one of the most scariest things I have ever done in my life – may be the scariest career-wise.

I was conscious that I would not get those years of the kids growing up back and it had to be done.

This is back to there historically always being an external stimulus.

This is reminding me that I have done a scary thing once!

As it happens I got my next role quickly which lasted 10 years.

Otis’ Story

One career that he enjoyed ended when company went out of business. 6 jobs in a warehouse.

Took his time to sort out what he wanted to do next.

Started working in a grocery store to pay bills. Still deciding what he wants to do.

Enjoyed his warehouse jobs but bad places to work.

Exercise: My response to Otis’ story

Never thought of my career in chapters. More of a continuous stream.

Never done what he did re taking a checkpoint to think about what he really wants to do. I am doing that now!!

Starting to think about when I have over-stayed at a company when the job was OK but the managers above me were not in how they treated me. Arguably, toxic working environments for me personally. I may have been partly to blame for that by not trying harder to turn certain situations around.

Otis did not read his emotional responses to his working environment and did not check companies out before starting working for them. I certainly did not read my emotional responses and simply let them fester and get worse rather than seeking to talk back and process them constructively.

Re Otis feeling like his old self, trying now to remember when that would be for me. This definitely ebbs and flows and can be project by project and stage by stage and who is involved. There are definitely certain periods of time when I would say that was the “real me”.

Who controls your career?

in new world of jobs, hard to make the case that you have grown and developed your skills rapidly in a job you have held for years

but when you have a new job every few years, you are obviously stepping into a new situation every time

how can you/anyone else manage a career in this crazy work environment?

just keeping a job today is a challenge for many

having a job that you might enjoy, would grow your flame & teach you something new, can feel like a fanciful, unrealistic goal

we need a new approach to managing our careers … we have to look out for ourselves

we cannot depend on employers to manage our careers for us

we have to manage them ourselves

we have to take a much more active role in our careers than just performing whatever jobs we have

we have to take steps to manage our careers as businesses

Exercise: Who is managing my career?

I have already admitted in an earlier exercise that no one is!

I know I need to!

I have been passive, reactive.

I know I will be in a stronger position if I start owning this issue.

I cannot leave it to an employer.

Why should they bother? … I am aware that some will as they will want to retain key staff, presumably …

Continuing to have the view currently that I want the joy of what I am learning and doing outside my paid employment to be a core part of what I do in my working life and to be rewarded commensurately. Looking like these new skills and experience will not be used directly any time soon, if ever, where I work now. I should be viewing this as an issue to be addressed not one to ignore.

When I started this book. I was not actively looking for alternative futures BUT the whole point of doing the book is to start that review.

… resume …

you need to look out for yourself and those who depend on you

does not mean getting a secure job with one company and hoping for the best

good news! we can start building our muscles at any age and after any amount of time sleeping on our careers

you can take charge of your own career & get better jobs/assignments whether you work for yourself or someone else

you have the same responsibility to look out over the horizon and plan your steps

Exercise: What I want from my career right now?

help my organisation (& any orgs we are working with) to be the best they can be re working practices

work where enthusiastic/dynamic/forward thinking colleagues are on a continual quest to improve how we work

commitment to learning and building great teams

being stretched in my own learning as I stretch others

work with various organisations over a period of time

variety of work including leading and being led

being left to learn what I want and being trusted that this will make me more efficient and effective

How you get paid is not important

old model: salaried, full-time position

new model: contract or temporary assignment could be better choice for next career adventure than a full-time job – why?:-

gain powerful resume fodder and/or contacts
grows your flame (powerful feeling inside)

you carry your job security around with you

you will grow get-hired-and-get-paid security

comes from your ability to market your services and get hired by clients/employers to solve their problems via a job or consulting project or starting your own business

lily pad: any job is a lily pad – a resting place to gather your strength and think about what next in your life/career

we will have more stories to tell as we move from place to place

staying in one place does not teach you how to deal with change

resume fodder:-

as you move from lily pad to lily pad & learn more and more about your own talents
how to spot and talk about the problems you solve
how to value yourself so that other people will value you
stories

the more new experiences you have at work & more your muscles grow, the more exciting your stories will be & the more reasons for your next employer or client to hire you

not every job will be your dream job BUT as long as you are learning new things and supporting yourself and people who depend on you and looking ahead to plan/control your own future, you are in great shape

Exercise: my lily-pad experiences

What did you learn on a short-term job (whether the learning was positive or negative)?

Trying to remember short-term roles

Acting Head of IT

In time of crisis when Head of IT and 4 (?) staff from small IT team left in space of 2 weeks and I had to maintain continuity
Learned IT departmental mgt skills including IT budgets
Challenging time

Consulting role

How much time is spent as employee on politics
As consultant, I just got on with the job, so much time to work!

Interestingly, in my Learning Profile online of what I have done learning-wise in my own time, I have included very small pieces of “work” to demonstrate the range of things I have done. Definitely muscle-growers in Liz Ryan speak.
Often said I need to do a learning log but may be I need to do a work log on the variety of what I do

How have your “lily pad” experiences influenced your thinking or your views about yourself and your career?

Paid minimal or no attention to this historically.
More widely sharing of this info for others to learn from is my main driver today but I now see this is ideal resume fodder
Demonstrating lots of out-of-comfort-zone activity and thriving in so doing

… resume …

do not focus on the question “am I going to be a full-time employee or a contractor?” so intently that you block out all other aspects of the job search:-

may be a better opportunity for you in a consulting engagement than in full-time job
you are broadening your field of vision
considering a wider range of opportunities than you may have before

Exercise: Thoughts on where my path lies …

Working on business transformation activities in a single or several organisations as a service supplier – employee ideally or contractor

Doing significant business changes

Needing use of new tools that have not been used in these ways

Operating at speed

Virtual and real-life networking and connecting to get real work done

… resume …

try something you have never done before

take a step – it is how your muscles grow

Chapter 9: Frame Shifting and the Reaction-o-meter

traditional ideas about work & careers:-

the longer you keep a job the better
full-time employment is always better than other kinds of employment
if you get a job, keep it – risky to change jobs
if your employer has a plan for your career, follow their plan!
your job is to please your boss at work every day
if you have to take a different job at your employer, or take a pay cut, do it – still better than changing jobs
people who own their own businesses are risk-takers, very different from the rest of us
the more secure a job you can find the better
does not really matter what kind of work you do, as long as you can pay the bills – your job is just a way to make money
it is not supposed to be fun – that is why it is called work

Exercise: My view on traditional ideas about work & career

the longer you keep a job the better
In the past: agree
Now: can see it being amazing working for a growing forward thinking organisation where you do not nee dto move on tyo get new experiences and contribute to the organisation’s success. Downside if nowhere to go up for promotion, more pay etc
full-time employment is always better than other kinds of employment
In the past: strongly agree, always been risk-averse about doing anything other than paid employment
Now: some aspects of freelancing etc are definitely appealing or working with people you know/like/ can work with
if you get a job, keep it – risky to change jobs
In the past: strongly agree, risk & fear has prevented me from being more proactive
Now: seeing the potential in how this may make me happier and more fulfilled, more of a feeling that I need to be proactive finally
if your employer has a plan for your career, follow their plan!
In the past: some employers have had this and it has been positive, that has been a mutual thing
Now: no plan so I need to sort one out!
your job is to please your boss at work every day
In the past: strongly agree, with some that has been easier than others with whom that has been impossible
Now: the challenge is real but always seek to say what needs to be said re my professional advice on how best to get things done
if you have to take a different job at your employer, or take a pay cut, do it – still better than changing jobs
In the past: refused to do this in last job change, could have applied for other lower position and lower paid roles as part of a redundancy process
Now: unlikely to be an option or offered currently in any case, generally, depending on what was offered that might be one to consider depending on org and role
people who own their own businesses are risk-takers, very different from the rest of us
In the past: strongly agree, I always viewed freelancers as guns-for-hire and frustrated when they seemingly got the major roles on big projects, never before now considered this route of paid work
Now: still do not think I could live with the risk of doing this and the need for business development etc, my “mojo” would need to grow exponentially to make this happen …
the more secure a job you can find the better
In the past: strongly agree
Now: experienced that this is defo no longer the case and I had a rude awakening to this when being made redundant for the first time
does not really matter what kind of work you do, as long as you can pay the bills – your job is just a way to make money
In the past: this has always been a strong driver (per Maslow’s security needs!) but in past IT has been buoyant market and still probably is
Now: I still see work more positively than this and ideally want to have more joy when I do it
it is not supposed to be fun – that is why it is called work
In the past: Strongly disagree, per prior answers.
Now: strong desire to make work more fun for me and those I work with

Working Person, Job Seeker, Consultant – we are all in the same boat

the same issues to surmount:-

pay the bills
stay afloat financially
manage our careers
manage our lives
take care of the people who rely on us

sounds easy but it is not

Exercise: My most challenging aspects of being an adult

Budgeting – I do not do it, no issues currently but aware that we over-spend month on month and are using savings

As a husband and a dad, it is not all just about me

Competing priorities on our time

Decision making as a family

Career issues now affecting the kids as they come to the end of school and university

Think like a business owner

how employees & business owners think:-

priorities

employees

I have to please my boss
as long as boss is happy, I’m fine

business owner

I have to listen to my customers + the people who do not buy from me
I have to watch my marketplace constantly because things keep changing

income

employees

I have a steady pay cheque so I do not have to think about my income, thank goodness7
I only have to watch my spending

business owner

I have to think about my income constantly but that is good …
… it keeps me on my toes

long-term plans

employees

I just hope I keep this job for a long time
It is a pain to job-hunt

business owner

I am always planning for my business – I have to!
I have a long term plan but have to stay flexible too
thins never work out exactly how we think

working hours

employees

I work a lot of hours but when I leave the office that is the end of work …
… unless the boss calls me or I have to finish a work project at home

business owner

I work a lot of hours but it is my company
I get to decide what products and services I sell, for how much, what to spend money on and where to take the business …
… it is mine!

Exercise: my view of employee vs business owner mindset

priorities

I am more committed than just an employee e.g. treating company money like it is my own
often more in customer camp than company’s
agreed that owner is more cognisant of marketplace
know that I need to be more cognisant of trends re me and my future
more committed to doing a good job than pleasing the boss as the 1st will lead to the 2nd

income

given that my time is chargeable I am aware of the commercials of the work I am managing/doing
defo need to take more ownership of my income and what I need to do about it
I need to watch my/our personal spending more!
I am aware personally of my own spending re the “business case” – not an impulse purchaser these days

long-term plans

hoping for job longevity is/was a goal
more aware now that this is more under my control if I pull my finger out
yes, it is a pain to job hunt but realising now that I need to pivot that to make it more fun
defo need to plan more personally re career to identify/pursue opportunities
need to get rid of the excuses/objections

working hours

if I was to do a job more consistent with my now core interests then working hours would become more joyful and therefore would ne more hobby-like
work has not been fun for a long time
in all my roles I have often thought about work out of work and that is a self-care issue
do find it hard to switch off out of work from things work-related

Why not start your own consulting business?

every muscle we need to manage our careers now is a muscle that consultants grow

if you can land/ cultivate just one client, that relationship will tie you to the outside world in a way that very few if any full-time jobs can

you will have fun designing your consulting persona:-

what kind of work
what kind of clients
design the consulting business
step into it

creating your consulting persona is one concrete way of taking control of your career

don’t have to quit your job or abandon job search

can consult part-time or when you want

even if you do not want to be a consultant at all, it is still worthwhile to walk through the steps to design your consulting persona

you may discover a new and insanely powerful side of yourself through consulting

the power in developing your consulting business is the power that comes from knowledge of yourself and your environment

developing your consulting persona answers important questions that you also need to answer to get altitude on your job search:-

what am I especially good at doing?
what kinds of problems can I solve for my consulting clients?
what kinds of business pain can I solve for my clients so that they will be happy to pay me to make their problems go away?
what kind of consulting work do I want to do?
how can I tell stories in my branding materials that will make clear to consulting clients that I can help to solve their problems?

Exercise: My consulting persona

what am I especially good at doing?

business analysis
project management
understanding problems/ opportunities
learning online
using online tools
community management
collaborating
listening to people
advising people
motivating people
inviting people (nearly put sales …)
applying what I learn
understanding and stating the why
“event”/”meeting” planning and delivery
writing
comms
enterprise social network design and use
interviewing
asking questions
facilitation
facilitating small groups online and IRL
Working Out Loud circles and WOL myself

what kinds of problems can I solve for my consulting clients?

implementing new systems solutions
implementing learning
introducing ESNs and new ways of working
implementing WOL circles and WOL
gaining consensus in thorny situations
managing most forms of projects
cross-sector knowledge applied to their situatuation

what kinds of business pain can I solve for my clients so that they will be happy to pay me to make their problems go away?

getting things done
co-ordinating things so things happen
getting problematic projects/teams back on track
initiating new things on a sound basis
understanding and defining how change brings benefits

what kind of consulting work do I want to do?

moving away from IT to general business roles
variety
where I can be me
cross-sector
working for several clients over time
deep relationships with those I am working with
ideally, using myself and implementing the services I deliver
where learning, online elements and tech all combine

how can I tell stories in my branding materials that will make clear to consulting clients that I can help to solve their problems?

giving examples of where I have done these things
I am getting better at telling stories rather than just bulleted/number lists
I am getting better at showing how things have connected in amazing ways on my learning adventures
Making a conscious effort to track and record how these things happen
defo need help in this area to learn how to do that even more compellingly

Muscles and Mojo

If anybody’s going to save you, it will be you!

when job hunting or looking to transition, easy to feel hopeless

easy to think “why does someone not take pity on me and hire me”! OR “why won’t someone solve my problem and tell me what kind of work I should be doing once and for all?”

the problem is that the “please save me” mentality will keep you from getting a new job or discovering your path

the discovery – your personal experience of it – is the key to finding your path

no one, no employer, can save you from the challenge of learning who you are stepping into your power

the working world has changed, you have to step into it with confidence, equipped and prepared for the new workplace

we have to grow muscles in this workplace and no one can grow those muscles for you

you will grow them by doing new things & listening to your instincts – they are a better indicator than your busy problem-solving brain

when you feel desperate you give off that energy

most of us are attracted to those who are confident & comfortable in their own skin

we are not attracted to those who are cocky and over-confident or to those who are desperate and needy

who would respond to being begged for a 2nd date … employers/clients are the same

they want someone who knows what they bring to the talent equation and is confident in his/her abilities

when feeling fearful, your judgment is impaired

cf times when you have taken the wrong job

Exercise: My panicky job searches

With a rapid look back, I have been panicky in all 4 redundancy episodes but I have not taken a job that has been inappropriate or which with hindsight I have regretted. Some may view that as being very lucky. There have certainly been jobs I have pursued where I have not met the mandatory criteria or were more junior than I should have considered. I can barely remember but there may have only been one case where I had a job offer and was seeking others. I have never had the situation where there have been more than one job offer on the table.

Mojo-sucking jobs

there are some jobs that are worse than another few months of employment – the wrong job will suck your mojo away

means you will not have the energy to hunt for a better job or even to remember that you are awesome and powerful

Exercise: My current mojo level

There is lots of crossover with this content and what I am learning about my inner voice while participating in the WOL Self Care pilot circle that I am in!

When your mojo is depleted, how do you build your fuel tank up again?

Historically, I have been passive and let it decline to dangerous levels. This process and the WOL-SC process is teaching me that I can do things in response to this. Now including remembering how far I have come, reminding myself of career highs and what others think of me not just the critics. Doing positive things. Being part of a WOL circle certainly helps me be encouraged. Continuing doing things for other people as a giver. Reading fiction. Praying (need to do that more!). Talking positively to myself. Speaking kindly to myself. I need to stop being my worst critic.

Which activities at home and elsewhere build up our mojo level?

The company of others. Meals together. Socialising with others. Reading non-fiction self-development books. Watching inspirational TV drama. Doing new things outside of my comfort zone. Acting on instinct. Asking strangers online to do learning things with me e.g WOL circles, book clubs etc.

Which activities deplete your mojo?

Working with people who do not “get” you and seemingly have no desire to. Mundane, routine tasks. Working with people who can only work in their way. People who dictate how you should think and operate. People who are incapable of working as a team. People who do not communicate in send or receive mode. People who only take and never give. People who assess you without knowing who the real “you” is. People who are incapable of working to allow continuity in their absence.

What steps can you take to manage your mojo level throughout the day and the week?

Being more aware of my mojo and its level to understand the ebb and flow. Is there a scale? I need to find one. Cf fuel tank. Seek to minimise the depleting people and tasks and maximise the people who and tasks that increase my mojo.

You are qualified

most people think they are restricted to a very narrow career niche

beware believing your professional credibility resides in your job titles and your degrees

you carry your professional credibility around with you

when you decide to switch careers, your credibility comes with you – it is portable, but only if you believe that it is

Exercise: My current feelings about career and job search

How are you feeling about your career, and about your job or your job search?

Increasingly positive but it is all academic at the moment. Action needs to come as I go further through this book.
Increasingly feeling that I need to DO something about it. This is the best opportunity to do that ever in my career to date.
Current role and my feelings about it are dependent on the contracts we win and my role in those contracts and who I work with on those contracts.
Not actively looking currently but know that will come as this book progresses
I recognise that “do nothing” remains an option ultimately as a valid option if I consciously make that decision.

How do you feel about your ability to move to a new career path if you want to?

More confident and excited about that prospect than ever before.
Could be a new service line(s) at current employer but certain constraints in terms of negative views of decision makers in the kinds of services that I am interested in.
Doing lots of new things outside of work that are likely to be of interest to other organisations
I am currently not clued up on possible roles in these areas but aware that this is coming in this book

Growing those muscles

when you learn how to do something new, you get a little stronger – your muscles grow

when you learn something by doing it, you change a little – your muscles get bigger

you are more confident too, you can do that thing you learned again

doing the exercises in this book with intention, helps you get stronger

“with intention”:-

not just race through the book skimming it and hope to see big changes as a result
you have to take the time to think about your own life as you go
look at your place in the movie for which you are the star and the director
you have to stop and think about your life and your goals to get the value of the RR process
you have to slow down and ask questions you may not have answered for a long time or indeed ever!

the benefits of following the RR will not come through just reading the book – you need to do the work

What is frame-shifting?

it means to look at something differently

could be something that you last looked at years ago or never

discarding old ways of looking at something, old mental models, for new ways and mental models

Exercise: My frame-shifting experience

Hoping this does not mean that I am wedded to old ways of looking at things ….

can’t think of many examples at all

this is a bit like my view of “unlearning”, everything I have ever learned was valid at the time and then that gets built on

cannot think of examples where I should unlearn anything

the only major one I can think of is that I have gone from being someone who always wants to learn on my own from experts to someone who loves learning online in groups with other people known or unknown to me

I did a Harvard MOOC “Leaders of Learning” and I am confident that I my mode of learning assessment on that course would have been totally different if I had not done a large number of online courses prior to taking that self-assessment test. I came out as Distributed Individual. I suspect I would have come out as Hierarchical Individual prior to those online courses:-

Hierarchical individual: individuals who primarily fall into this quadrant focus on the academic content that can be measured and assessed. For them learning comes from the effort they invest in their academic work, and teachers are the ones who provide the knowledge they must acquire.
Hierarchical collective: individuals who primarily fall into this quadrant believe that the learner must acquire knowledge that is valued by the community, and that learning comes from working respectfully and collaboratively with others.
Distributed individual: individuals who primarily fall into this quadrant learn for their own benefits, to develop knowledge and skills as they want. They believe that learning is an inherent biological imperative, people never stop learning, and that sources for learning are broadly distributed throughout society, including but not limited to formal educational institutions.
Distributed collective: individuals who primarily fall into this quadrant learn what is of interest to them and to members of their learning network. They learn by taking both learning and teaching roles, and join different networks and communities. Success in learning for them is determined by the learning community and its members, and is based on communal interests and priorities.

(list taken from http://knowledgehub.cef-see.org/?p=319)

Learning also to cross-fertilise stuff I do outside of work to the work side. I even have a learning profile that definitely needs merging into my CV given that it is all recent and directly relevant to anything I want to do next.

Learning not to take personally things said to me and instead understand what is being said, why it is being said and not to always accept it as true but to validate it and accept or reject it appropriately. Ditto to my inner voice.

New Ideas, New Frames

some new ideas we accept immediately

others might be harder to take in

we learn mental models from when we are young – “frames”

these shape our understanding of the world

we may hold strong beliefs about how the world works but they may rest on thin evidence or none

new things we hear may rock us to our core – it shakes our frame

Exercise: My frame-shifting experiences

Have you had the experience of being offended or put off by a new idea you were hearing for the first time?

Again my first thoughts is that these have been few and far between.

My first redundancy was one of these. I was shaken out of my rose-tinted view that jobs were for life. This was especially true for me as a business graduate thinking I was well-placed to have a solid career. It was a shattering experience.

My Christian world view means that I often hear things that are contrary to that world view but rarely offends me.

Have you seen someone you know have a strong negative reaction to a new idea that you shared with them?

See Christian world view comments above. This works 2-ways …

… resume …

reframe bad situations by looking for the positives – use them to nudge you

remind yourself that only the people who get me deserve me

Exercise: Me and bad career situation nudges

Currently, I am keen to get to the end of the RR process with clarity on what I should do next. I have been excusing things in my working life without doing anything about them or the things that I have become passionate about. This will change as I continue to explore new opportunities.

The Reaction-o-meter

without mojo to power your learning, you will not learn anything

you will not try new things unless your mojo tank is full

if you do not feel confident enough to take a step, you will stay stuck

low mojo fuel tank means you will not step out of your tiny comfort zone – you will give reasons/excuses for not doing them

low mojo fuel tank also means you will not learn

you will say you are tired

this reaction is so common, there is a diagram to explain it – the Reaction-o-meter (see graphic)

new ideas can take you all the way from fear and trust

Exercise: Me against the reaction-o-meter

For each of the following new ideas from RR, think about your reaction to it.

My responses are based on what I know now and may be recently held due to this book!

I get to run my own career—and I must run it!
Can no longer leave it passively. I know I need to do this.
I can choose a new career at any age. It’s up to me
Exciting. There may be lots of opportunities. I have lots of needed skills and experiences and passions.
Reinvention can be a scary place, but there’s tremendous learning in it, too.
Learning already and thinking about things I have never consciously formally reflected on it and definitely not written anything down.
No one is responsible for my career apart from me.
Always known that but relied on career progression within the organisation by a structure chart as people moved up or out. Although that has rarely helped me re applying for roles and not getting them. All far too reactive.
My belief in myself is the most important element in my career and life success.
This is a challenge as I need to believe in myself more and demonstrate that so others can see that is the case.
My experience and education are less important in my career than my own goals and my commitment to them.
Historically relied on that with not much reward. Doing more to tell my story about my education from school to now.
I don’t have to bury my personality or beg to get a good job.
As and when I do start thinking of other opportunities, this will be the first time that I view this as an asset.
When I see my own value to employers and clients, they will see it, too.
Really challenged by the para in the book about desperation being visible to potential employers.
Maintaining my Mojo Fuel Tank is the most important thing I can do for myself.
This is giving me a language I have never used before. I need to get into this and use it to my advantage in this process.
I don’t have to run my career or look for a job using the old rules.
I need to shed the old rules. I have some experience of this via Designing Your Life – Life Design Conversations with people doing jobs that I aspire to.
It’s a new millennium and new rules apply.
Realising that this is the case! And that this may help me!
Only the people who get me, deserve me.
Wondering whether anyone will ever get me fully. I am a unique mix of traits and personalities and interests and skills. I would love this to be the case and to work for/with people who do actually get me.
Anyone who doesn’t care for me or value my talents is not someone I need in my life.
I need to action this and is becoming a key driver.

Where have I come from and where am I going?

obstacles on the ground look small and insignificant when you view them from altitude

give yourself the gift of allowing yourself to envision a career that is more interesting, more rewarding & more financially appealing than the work you may feel you are forced by circumstances to perform now

Exercise: Reviewing my current career position

What obstacles feel like your biggest hurdles to surmount right now?

Fear of choosing badly.
Fear of out of the frying pan into the fire.
Lack of Simon-shaped roles
Inner critic being so loud
People speaking negativity in my life
The way some people make me feel

What is your biggest frustration at this moment?

Not doing something that gives me joy a majority of the time
Not being able to do what I do outside of work in my working life

What would you change, remove, or fix if you could wave your magic wand right now?

Work on wider projects that better play to my strengths
Business change work
Being more influential in the work I do
Being listened to more

What steps have you taken so far to surmount or get around the obstacle you are thinking about?

Lots of work on identifying who I am and how I got to here
Starting to do concentrated work on moving on from here

Common obstacles job seekers and career-changers put in their own way

the new workplace is not filled with impenetrable, monolithic corporate institutional fortresses that mere mortals cannot possibly enter

it is not a scary evil kingdom that you could never gain entrance to

the working world is becoming more human every day

BUT

only for those people who insist on being human and bringing themselves to work

How you bring yourself to work

when you do this fully, you speak with your own voice at work

you bring your ideas and opinions to work

you do not fall into character and do/say the things you are expected to say

you say what you mean

Say no to bad work

when you have gained altitude on your career and see that you get to decide what sort of work to do and who to work for and with, you will see that you do not have to stay in a bad work situation

you can leave or look for something better

your choice … your responsibility

when you realise this, your situation will start improving

people who take charge of their own careers do not stay in abusive or mojo-crushing situations

do not be a doormat

once you act, things will start happening

you will have a new power source fuelling you – your own clarity about what you want and need in your life

your clarity fills up your mojo fuel tank

Exercise: My “saying no” or “not saying no” experiences

Have you ever inadvertently sent a message to the universe that your needs don’t matter?

Yes, often. Whenever I have not challenged things that have been said to me in a rude, unhelpful etc way.
Whenever I have not spoken up for myself.

Have you ever spoken up or made another change when you were being treated badly at work or somewhere else?

Rarely. I have been the doormat referred to in the book. Usually through fear of repercussions.

… resume …

People following their path have no time to tolerate bad behaviour in an organisation or in the job search process

they move org or drop out of the process with a specific recruiter

they trust that saying “no” will invite the right thing in

Exercise: My saying no to bad behaviour towards me

Do you believe that when you slam the door on a situation that would dim your flame, a better situation will show up?

Probably for the first time in my life, I can say yes to this. The challenge would be in the heat of battle to actually act and slam that door! Lots of the outside of work experiences I have had have amazed me in their variety and although the numbers of people who have accepted my invitations is a minority I have still learned lots. As per the slogan “I go again!”.

Graziela’s Story

Single career, 30 years, wanted more but no time, she should be grateful but wants more!

Exercise: Me and Graziela

2 peas in a pod, identical feelings/views. Same issues re time to think and feeling greedy wanting more. Both of us need to be greedier

Taking the long view

regardless of your career background and education, you can have the career and life you want by simply stepping back & looking at what you want out of your life

simple but generally we do not do it

distractions & daily life gets in the way and it takes time to do this

what do I owe myself out of this lifetime?

our life is short, no time to lose

no one else gets to tell us how to live

we get to do that!

beware pursuit of nice things taking us off our path

Mojo Fuel Tank exercise

what activities, people, situations deplete your mojo tank?

ditto that fill up your mojo tank?

this is 2 lists

we seldom think about managing our mojo supply

now need to start focusing on the goal of keeping your Mojo Fuel Tank full

needs you to manage your time and activities to keep that tank full

eliminate the things that deplete

add to the things that fill it up

the RR process teaches you to protect your precious mojo supply

this is the only fuel you have to power your reinvention & your life

do not take your mojo supply for granted

Exercise: My Mojo fuel tank

See my current mojo level exercise responses above. I will progress this exercise in the context of my WOL circle.

Chapter 10: The Last Job Candidate Standing

as HR leader in past, people who successfully got jobs were those that knew themselves & knew they brought something valuable to the roles

they were confident people who knew thy could learn the role if done similar things before

not necessarily those who had done the role before

you will not get a job if you are desperate or grovelly OR a job that really deserves you, by putting up with bad treatment and giving in to unrealistic demands

as consultant, you will not grow your flame and get better at what you do by begging clients to hire you and put up with bad treatment

it is just the opposite!

your ability to find a job or a client that deserves you rests on your own understanding of your value + your ability to speak up for your value when the situation requires it

you do not want to be the last candidate standing

this is no way to grow your flame or follow your path

Exercise: My thoughts on standing up for my value as a job seeker or a consultant seeking clients

I have done some formal work on this in the past re service lines. What are our services, how does the customer name them, how do we price them, how do we deliver them, how do we develop them, what templates/ processes do we use, what do we name them.

I have never done this for myself as me but is a next logical step. How would I market my service lines ….

I often say I am not a sales person disparagingly but know that I need to get over myself and get on with it.

I am sure there is content in David Maister’s Professionalism that will help here.

The content earlier in this response was triggered by a “The Service Account Manager” training I did many years (decades) ago. And as I type, I am reminded that the account planning process helps here re what new business accounts am I targetting for what services that I can deliver to them and at what cost.

Abigail’s Story

2 interviews for 2 roles, did not hear back from first, got offer from 2nd, knew what budget was, offered less, held out, did not answer question about speaking to other employers, got the role for the money she wanted

Exercise: My response to Abigail’s story

Abigail was very wise and played it cool. My old self would have been totally honest and explained precisely where I am up to with other employers and may be if out of job may have caved in on lower salary offer. My emerging self would be more wily and strong (speaking to myself now!).

…. resume …

you will have more fun at work, earn more money, have more control over where you work and who you work for when you take control of your own career and stand up for yourself

common feelings of people:-

feel the same fear when financial security at risk
feel same anxiety wondering how to pay the rent next month
but they still say I will trust myself to follow my path and not get sucked into a bad position only because I am desperate for a job

Running your own career

most people have never run their own career

their career plan is simply turning up every day on schedule

this is a plan for one day only! not for your career, or your whole life

Exercise: What would I do if my current job went away tomorrow?

(or today! even!)

Reminding me of an Odyssey Plan scenario from my reading of Designing Your Life. I did not think wildly enough then. Thinking more wildly as I go through this book.

The old me would concentrate on roles similar to all the roles I have ever done already. Would attempt to get a new role ASAP almost regardless of what and where and with who to make sure money continued to come in.

The emerging me would be more philosophical about it and try to address the fear by doing what I have learned and will learn from this book. May be even a first resort to look for roles where I get energy and engagement per outside of work learning and those new found skills. Conscious that I need to get to the end of the book rather than cutting loose too early. I am detecting I have moved on in my thinking since summer 2017 when I did the DYL book. Would use my Twitter network for the first time to seek assistance and opportunities. First time I have said that! Need to work out what my value is at this point of my career. Salary history is not ideal so I am interested in Liz’s strategies for not disclosing that and concentrating on my value to the candidate organisations.

… resume …

give yourself the gift of allowing yourself to envision a career that is more interesting, rewarding, financially appealing than now

give yourself that permission even if unemployed and feeling desperate

no one knows your current state of mind unless you tell them

Grow your flame

your goal as a person on the path is not to get the fastest job offer that you can possibly get

if you do get a job quickly you can continue to job hunt

you can stay on your path and continue growing your muscles and growing your flame

flame is the spark inside of you – what makes you “you”

it grows when you:-

do work that makes you feel successful and whole
can bring the full you to work
work with people who value & appreciate you
speak with your own voice and say what you believe
are paid what your talents are worth
acknowledged by other people for your work

it dims when you have to play a part at work or believe you cannot be yourself there

Exercise: My flame growing and dimming moments

grew when:-

I was part of a team when everyone was listened to and was needed
I get in the zone delivering service whilst learning along the way
people were interested in how to get the most out of me
I was included in decision making
I was asked for my opinion
I help people learn something new in any subject area
facilitating workshops with a wide range of staff from client organisations

dimmed when:-

I not listened to
I get zero feedback
not valued as a core person on the team
my passions are decried as not helping me
I am put in a box and not asked for opinion etc on things where I could be helpful to move the game on
I do not get coached
I do work that I do not enjoy
I do not get a proper brief

acknowledged at work:-

“you project managed the implementation of a national 1k+ user CRM system”
praise from customers on implementing projects

it felt:-

shocking as often acknowledgement does not come as a norm
great because it is a novelty and very rare – not because I am not worthy of acknowledgement

Trying something new

you are not obliged to get a job similar to what you have always done

you can easily brand yourself for a new job

even if that proves to be not what you expected it will be good learning, would grow your muscles

NOT a waste of time/energy

BUT could try a new path and might love it!

Exercise: A possible next job title for me to explore

Enterprise Social Network (ESN)/ Collaboration Platform Implementer

Does this type of work use your talents and abilities?

Yes and may be ideal.
Needs to be more on the business and business change side
project mgt
business analysis
consultancy
planning
implementation
channel design
knowledge management
personal experience

Does this kind of job make you feel powerful and successful?

It would do.
I get a buzz from implementing/ facilitating communities and collaboration
I would have to learn a lot in some areas but am up for that
would love to work for a world class organisation and contribute significantly

Does this type of work pay you what you are worth (or close)?

I have not investigated but probably
not sure where these would be located – do not want to move, necessarily
would be great to do a job that I am totally passionate about and be a mover and shaker

… resume …

when you are clear what you are passionate about doing and bring that passion to work, it will be your life’s work

you will sail over obstacles standing in the way of you and the career and life you want

you will be powered by your own belief in yourself and your passion for the topic you want to pursue

potent combination of energy sources

in next exercise do not censor yourself re how can this be included in any future job

you are qualified for more jobs than you think

Exercise: My passion subjects

the future of email and other comms channels
using ESNs as collaboration platforms to get real work done
how to communicate for speed and clarity using posts, comments, docs, links
learning in all its forms but mainly online
Working Out Loud
Working Out Loud circles
personal development
learning with others
collaboration
connecting people including me
data definitions
understanding how organisations work and how they can be improved
helping people be more successful
sharing content – being a giver
book reading with others
learning with others
helping people do things for the first time including use of tech in that
doing new things
reducing barriers for people to do things
applying what I learn

Setting big goals

RR is about more than “how-to” advice

the mission is to shift how you look at yourself, remind you of the power you have to run your own life & career

you are much smarter, more capable, smarter, creative, powerful than you think

you can accomplish the ambitious goals you will set for yourself the minute you give yourself permission to set your sights on the life you really want

setting big goals them committing to pursue them regardless of what others think is the single best way to reach them

give yourself permission to dream really big

some of us do not set big goals through fear of others thinking we are too big for our boots

you do not have to tell anyone

the key is to envision big goals and then to commit to them

Exercise: My immediate flame growers

The things, people, ideas that grow my flame and what could I do today!

Workplace

learn more new functionality

ESNs

understand suppliers
understand roles in those suppliers
Life Design Convos with people in those roles and higher
review the Workplace groups I have set up

Learning

invite more people to new things
seek collaboration opportunities

Listening to people’s stories

explore formally what it means to be a coach

No Email

explore research in this area

Communication in project and business teams

how best to do this to maximise reach and understanding e.g. posting so people see it
understand more completely how notifications work

… then do it!!

Chapter 11: Life After The Corporate Ladder

Intro (from Simon)

A quick word to say that this chapter was very insightful and, via the questions in this chapter, got me digging out my Odyssey Plans from Designing Your Life that I read/applied in the summer of 2017. What was encouraging is that lots of that material that I documented remains valid in terms of my interests for work and career and have been built on significantly by what I have done in the year and a bit since then. I am encouraged and heartened.

The Corporate Ladder

historically this is where you started a job and over time get promoted to more responsible jobs – climbing up the “ladder” step-by-step

we expected promotion – we earned it, we worked hard

how did corporate ladder affect your career?

had good points:-

a lot of people climbed and had good careers
lots of job security

had bad points:-

not as much opportunity to try new things and grow new muscles as we have today – we must grow muscles

this system has almost completely disintegrated – corporate ladder now sawdust under our feet

cannot rely on it anymore

create our own career ladder or better our own career roadmap

“moving up” not necessarily the best path for you

this upwards direction makes you more entwined with the organisation’s goals and your financial/emotional well-being becomes increasingly dependent on the organisation you work for

NOT ideal

ideally, your goals are your own

when on your path does not matter if with one employer for a long or a short time

your career, you get to choose when you start and stop with an employer

you are driving, not your employer

Exercise: My thoughts about the disappearance of the corporate ladder system

I have relied on this or assumed this would help me but it has not.

In some organisations I have worked in there has not been a career structure.

Becoming aware via this book and reflection that I do have opportunities to break free.

I sense that the ladder was a long term hope for me. It has not been good to me.

Increasingly aware now that I need to drive my career if anything is going to happen. My reactive, laissez-faire needs to stop.

A fave book “The Heart of Success” also revealed to me early in my career that the ladder may be leaning against the wrong wall ….

… resume …

many jobs today have no opportunity for upward advancement & no career path

you can be there years, do a good job and never get promoted or paid more

Exercise: My disappointing experience of career ladders

Always been conscious in the world of IT that you are at the mercy of the projects/contracts that your employer wants to do or win.

Some of these projects/contracts are long term and as a result have soaked up lots of my career time with in some cases poor results and rewards to me, in best case same position/rewards and in other cases redundancy.

More aware now that I should be seeking directly and consciously what I can and have learned to grow my muscles to coin Liz’s term.

My expectations have often been met as those expectations were low!

… resume …

you can still get value in “poor” jobs if they move you down your path and give you experience and stories to grow your muscles, mojo and marketability for your next career adventure

you are not looking for a job to take you from here to retirement

should be looking for a job/consulting project that will grow your muscles and make you more marketable the next time you look for a job while growing your flame

Exercise: My gathering of learnings from one job for my portfolio as I journey on my path

For me, this is more about packaging up what I have learned from my online learning over the past 6 years.

There is lots there that does not appear on my CV.

Ironic as the timing matches when I started working where I am now. They are almost parallel universes in terms of learning and what I love doing.

Re something valuable learned in a role that became not a good long-term career job for me: exposed to CRM in one role and gained deeper knowledge in how to run a CRM evaluation process and working alongside consultants from specialised consultancies.

… resume …

jobs without upward career path can still give you valuable contacts, great learning, wonderful dragon-slaying stories

the trick is to stay long enough to get those then jump

working world and talent market has changed

means that we have to be as good at getting a job as we are at doing a job when hired

knowing how to get a job now is a critical career skill

your career is your business

people who run their own businesses know these:-

you can be incredibly good at what you do but you also need to be good at winning new business
knowledge of your market is key
listening and paying close attention to customers helps you understand changes and new pains you can solve

Exercise: My assessment of my career situation as a business using the 3 things that people who run their own business know

you can be incredibly good at what you do but you also need to be good at winning new business

understand the B2B sales process
rarely involved in the sales process historically as external supplier to customer
aware of benefits mgt processes and some practical use of and input to business cases
majority of career has been working for internal IT teams delivering services to colleagues – some were very commercial re outsource all to retain all in-house
account management aware
service specification aware
no input to pricing

knowledge of your market is key

poor for my current services as well as services I would be well able to deliver
no idea of my current market rates for roles that I perform
needs to be way better especially for the new services that I could deliver but some understanding of how I get that info

listening and paying close attention to customers helps you understand changes and new pains you can solve

an active and deep listener
always seeking out the customer’s real issues and requirements via any means including responses to questions from me not being convincing or decisive enough
even yesterday got an amazing testimonial from a senior customer sponsor of a project I have just delivered as PM
some awareness of changes in what people need re new services, technologies, new ways of working

Overall, not well placed immediately but lots of scope for improving that situation rapidly.

Lucie’s Story

Librarian role, 20 years, fixed structure, not much scope for job crafting to her passions, thinking of changing role for demotion

Exercise: My advice to Lucie

Is it really the case that there is no flexibility?

List the things that give you energy/engagement and take it away

Can you maximise the energy tasks and minimise/eliminate the tasks that take it away?

What can you suggest to improve the way the library works to move the game on?

Is it likely that other libraries would lead you to the same position re out of frying pan into the fire?

Defo worth looking at roles elsewhere that are more “you”.

What do you really want to do?

Staying on top of your career

when you realise you are CEO of Simon Inc (SF: my term!) re career and life, you will play closer attention to the question “does my job or work situation support my life goals?” and take steps to manage your career like business owners run their biz

this will be way beyond the question “am I working now?”

that is a booby prize if you flame and your muscles are not growing

cf career like planned maintenance on your home

you have to stay on top of your career like an owner stays on top of their biz

Exercise: My entry to my career path

business degree

then

milk round job applications at university

6 interviews, 3 1st interviews, 1 2nd interview, took that role on Asda’s Graduate Store Management Training Programme (1st time it ran)

got offered role in IT at Asda after 6 months, IT ever since always business analysis, project mangement for a range of internal/external suppliers of services, worked in various types of organisation re ownership, size, business sectors

have never looked outside the IT sector for new roles

this will be the first time and is a definite possibility

always worked on the interface between business and IT

… resume ….

people believe that their credibility as worker & their ability to get a new job come from their experience in a particular career path

NOT TRUE – comes from your belief in yourself and your knowledge of what kind of work you are meant to be doing

“meant” meaning being true to yourself & your dreams

who is anybody to have a dream? … and who are you not to have a big dream?

Exercise: My answers to 10 questions about my career

all working people must be able to answer this set of questions in the modern workplace

Why did you choose the career path you chose? (If you aren’t sure of your career path, why did you apply for your current or most recent job?)

fell into it after university
IT has been good re variety of work and types of organisations and business sectors

Why are you especially well-suited to the work you do (or the new career path you’ve chosen)?

independent, detached
strong focus on what products need delivering
structuring things
clear end point to drive for
listener
detail person
big picture person
owning issues
completer/ finisher
planner

If you weren’t working at your current job (or if you’re not working right now), what sort of work would you like to do?

something learning and development related
collaboration
implementing collaboration platforms in organisations that I also use myself
variety of orgs, business sectors
helping people work more efficiently/ effectively

What are the biggest problems you solve for your employer when you go to work?

keeping track of issues and work that needs doing
dependable
loyal
not a time-waster
getting things done
quality
understanding clients’ real requirements

What problems would your employer or clients face if they hired someone less capable than you are for the kind of work you do?

would divert coders to have to do more managerial work for projects
less happy customers re where are we up to with developing and implementing their solutions
would take longer to do projects
would need more people with the skills that I have given I deliver a variety of services

Tell a story about a time when you solved a problem at work.

on every project gaining consensus on the real business requirement
bringing my knowledge to the table for a client that was over and above what we were contracted for because I care about what I do

What are your talents worth to an employer or client? Write the number that represents your target annual salary or hourly/daily consulting rate.

10-20k more than I am paid now

What is a typical project that you could complete to solve your employer’s or client’s Business Pain?

any IT-related project requiring end-user functionality do their day job and specific operational business process support eithe rusing bespoke software or an off-the-shelf solution that needs configuring
NOT interested in exclusively technical infrastructure projects – this may be a blind spot for me re no interest in that kind of project, does not get me excited

How would your client or employer be better off after you completed your project than they were before they hired you?

we would know what the benefits were of the project pre-implementation and then measure those benefits post-implementation; this would not be left to chance we would do this formally throughout the project

How will completing your ideal project for a client or employer grow your muscles and mojo?

Better make use of my interest, passion and enthusiasm
I was born to do this and I am increasingly realising that this is what I want to do next.
This is not devaluing my career to date but simply leveraging that past experience and channelling it to the new world of work and collaboration platforms

Casey’s lessons about big goals

CEO that Liz worked for. Ambitious plans. No answer to the how and OK if did not meet it. Just wanted whole org to commit to it.

The goal was real when we committed to it . No question about us not achieving it. Everything we did was right in step with that mission.

We hit the goal. Fun and exciting environment to work in.

When everyone is energised around same goal, you can feel the electricity in the air.

Exercise: My experience of taking on a big goal with others and accomplished it

Not an example that was a roaring success but is close to what I am thinking of doing next

The goal was to run a Working Out Loud circle on Workplace by Facebook.

Tried to get access to the platform via contacting a FB person on FB. No response.

2 tweets from me in #ESNchat in November 2017 asking chatters for help to get me access

2 senior FB staff in London and Paris arranged for me to get access.

Invited people publicly to join me in a WOL circle on Workplace

25 requests

Too many for a single circle (5 people).

Agreed to do a super-circle of 3 circles

Arranged times that people were free from San Francisco to New Zealand

Split into 3 circles

During this process, we communicated regularly and deeply across the 3 circles

I configured Workplace to achieve this and learned lots of lessons in iterative cycles re security, how to set groups up, how to post content, how to use Zoom and post videos.

How-to guides created

Assigned volunteers to facilitate the 2 circles I was not in

Calls took place in all 3 circles.

My circle came to a halt when a majority of the circle bailed out en masse in a co-ordinated process giving me no opportunity to understand and address their issues.

Reviewed my lessons learned with John Stepper as some of those people were known well to him and I learned lots of other lessons as a result.

Many success stories of people blogging for the first time or blogging/posting more deeply than before

A recurring theme for the people leaving was about access controls and videoing/posting the circle calls within the super-circle despite us all agreeing that we would do that.

Amazing depth of sharing during setup and during circle meetings

Deep learning for me and others.

Use of video to get to know people.

Loved the analogy of a base camp where people get together prior to embarking on a number of different learning adventures

The platform is still running.

No one completed a post circle questionnaire. Very disappointing.

Admittedly the bulk of the setup was me.

Felt a great sense of achievement at the end as I personally completed my circle exercises and finished the calls with another member of the super circle in another circle.

Loved how people were so real with each other and how the vulnerability encouraged others to be likewise. It was a caring set of people.

Loved the opportunity to help people share their goals, cheer them on and help them firm up what they were doing

Amazed that I got the opportunity to do this and it built on my work on Slack/Zoom running 2 other circles and a book club on there prior

Would love to do this again on a grander scale with more people as part of the setup team and do it as part of an operational business and wider eg with their customers and suppliers.

Currently running 2 other circles on that platform and book clubs etc and 1:1s etc

The possibilities are endless …

Career Names

what will you call your company – which is also your career?

e.g. Jason’s Career, Inc. Allyson’s Adventures, Srinivas Industries

you are President/CEO/sole owner

you get to choose its name!

Exercise: My career/company name

given this no thought at all before

used the hashtag #clearthefog which is at the core of how I try to do everything re not using jargon, explaining and showing how to do things, making everything accessible from an understanding point of view

Simon, Inc? too American?

I often use the word adventures for my learning online experiences. Too “exciting” for clients? Does capture my spirit

Could do with something exciting and not corporate, I do want to be real and be me

If I become huge should it have my name? Later it may be about more than just me!

Should it include my surname – Fogg, Inc etc

Questions:-

Can you give yourself permission to set ambitious goals for your career?

I am learning to. This is more proactive than I have been since last redundancy. Would love to be excited as I start the real work of discovering my ideal next role.

Can you give yourself permission to dream as big a dream as your mind and heart can create?

As above so “YES!”.

What would your ideal career situation be?

Playing a significant role in an organisation that is doing significant work.
Able to use all of my talents, skills, experience.
Laughing and enjoying myself more at work.
Minimal drudge work.
Variety.
Using and implementing tech for my own organisation and others.
Feeling valued by colleagues and wider teams
Customer raving about the quality of my services.

… resume …

when you take the time to figure out what you can do professionally apart from type of jobs you have done previously, you are taking a big step

you are telling yourself & the universe “yes, I am worthy of more than I have right now. I have a right to live the life I want”

it is the 1st/most important step to taking charge of your own career

your call as to doing the same job again or doing something new

Exercise: My alternative career paths

Did 3 Odyssey Plans when I did Designing Your Life last summer. I revisit what those plans were below:-

Consultant & Event Facilitator

Year 1

Read Liz Shaw’s Reinvention Roadmap
Review Internal Consultancy Skills course notes
Review David Maisters’ content on professional service firms
Review 42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role
Firm up my methodology/ approaches
Free-up drudge time in current role to do this activity more
Do some “Brand You” work
Sell myself in current role more
Understand the market more for these services
Cut loose if any opportunities arise

Year 2

Decide which route to take re stay, go with an external service provider or be part o internal team or freelance
Understand freelance route implications
Job/Role Hunting in the Liz Shaw way (incl via a WOL Circle)
Confirm/get new role/ position
1st 100 days
Ongoing personal development

Year 3

Deliver services
Ongoing personal development

Year 4

Review whether this route was all it was cracked up to be
Consider pivot-ing again.
Continue delivering services as per year 3 or change
Ongoing personal development

Year 5

Deliver services as before or in a new way
Ongoing personal development

Content Creator

Year 1

Revisit the Project Mgt 101 MOOC, recast vision for it and build it
Do a blog post on Tom Peters’ MBWA but targeted at senior execs online
Do the blog posts from the WOL circle list
Do more WOL/Show Your Work (possibly as part of a WOL Circle)
Define my view of “expert”, “thought leader” etc.
Do the above by end 2017 latest.
Continue in current/new job role in parallel

Year 2

Review online course for doing more or not
Review blog platform (i.e. professionalise it)
Review what subjects are now uppermost in my mind
Find my medium and platform
Continue creating content
Consider blogging on the back of specific Twitter Chats
1st steps to commercialising this
Continue in current/new job role in parallel

Year 3

Content creation on a commercial basis (book? In a job role?)
Continue creating content
Continue in current/new job role in parallel

Year 4

Continue creating content
Review ongoing for flex-ing, pivot-ing
Continue in current/new job role in parallel

Year 5

Continue creating content Review ongoing for flex-ing, pivot-ing Continue in current/new job role in parallel

ESN Implementer & Community Manager

Year 1

Push for a date for me to host the #ESNchat on ESN evaluation that I have already submitted questions for
Understand the ESN market including evaluation criteria, digital workplace terms, collaboration
Understand ESN implementation roles Understand community management roles (possibly as part of a WOL circle)
Read Isabel de Clercq’s book
Read Julian Stodd’s The Social Leadership Handbook
Revisit Euan Semple’s Organisations Don’t Tweet
Explore the work of Dionne Lew from recent #ESNchat
Consider widening out to knowledge management #
Review job market
Pitch in for 1st roles via Liz Shaw (Reinvention Roadmap) process (via WOL circle)

Year 2

Make the decision on whether or not to pivot to this path
If yes, identify and get role.
Deliver services
Rapidly become a practical authority
Ongoing personal development

Year 3

Deliver services
Ongoing personal development

Year 4

Review whether this route was all it was cracked up to be Consider pivot-ing again. Continue delivering services as per year 3 or change Ongoing personal development

Year 5

Deliver services as before or in a new way
Ongoing personal development

This made for very interesting reading! Lots of this is still valid. Lots of this is firmer and fleshed out more in my thinking. Some of this I have done!

Increasing interest in how WOL Circles approach to networking and Designing Your Life and Reinvention Roadmap all powerfully overlap/intersect.

Given the scale of the above content, lots is already there for me to simply do as next steps.

One year on, I sense an interest also in coaching, promoting new ways of working via WOL circles and “show your work” approaches.

Madelyn’s story

Lady constrained by 1st degree as very specific. Got a role, then 2 others. Liked each of them but at 30 realised she could choose her own career. She wanted to do more of what interested her. Went from healthcare to consulting. Lots of fun and learning but now not afraid of changing careers anymore.

Exercise: My response to Madelyn’s story

Sounding very familiar but she is actually stepping out and doing the career change.

Her comments about career change looking scary looking at it from now but looks very small on the other side of that career change.

Give yourself permission …

… to set a big ambitious goal for your life and career

keep it to yourself if you want

1st step in getting the career / life you want is to give yourself permission to dream big

I am formally instructing you to create a huge, ambitious vision for yourself, I hope you will give yourself permission to do it!

nobody ever accomplished anything ambitious without a big dream to power their effort

Exercise: My ambitious dream

Reading the odyssey plans from summer 2017 have encouraged me. That was the start of firming up my direction of travel.

What is coming to mind now is intertwining all three of those odyssey plans to really push my boat out. This is all eminently doable from my point of view. The challenge is to find an organisation who would want me to be that for them. Not thinking doing this as freelancer is a great idea for me but still open to the idea – scarily.

ESN and collaboration platforms remain at the core of my interest but also working and encouraging others to work and learn collaboratively.

Delighted and glad that the odyssey plans were worthwhile and have helped me see where I have come from in my thinking on futures. Encouraged!

Chapter 12: Decide what you want and go get it

different definitions of “improve my working situation”

e.g. more money, working from home, more holiday

Exercise: How I work best?

when I can plan my time and others plan my time with consideration – not last minute the whole time

flexibility of working hours

pleasant working environment physically

with people that “get” me

when I can establish clarity of what is required of me and the work that I am leading/ managing

when people communicate appropriately

in high performing teams and helping other teams get there

Marshall’s Story

discovers that some people work from home for some of the time, he wants that

decided to speak up at work and ask to work part time from home

example of him starting to speak up for himself at work

Exercise: My response to Marshall’s story

Again some similarities to me, not thought about a lot of aspects of work until information comes in someone else talking about their work

I do work from home on Fridays – some positives and some negatives: no drive time! flexibility, school run, beware distractions, fewer interruptions

How would you like to improve your working situation?

so that it is joyful and brings me joy a majority of the time
so that I can be the real “me”
make use of the skills and do the things that I do outside of work
doing new things and being asked for info/resources
included in company decision making
work with people that “get” “social”
working with people who communicate what they are doing

Are you looking for a job right now, or thinking about getting a different job than the one you have?

not specifically
need to sort out what I should do next and make a conscious decision about that
assess whether I can job craft in any way, shape or form

What is the next step you want to take to improve your career situation?

Research what roles would make best use of my skillset and experience
clarity on what my future career should be if it is to change

What would your improved career situation look like?

I start talking positively all the time about my working life
Working with people who “get” “me”
feel like I am using and being valued for my skills and experience

Where should I work?

the old deal: come to work every day and work hard, you will be guaranteed a job and you might get promoted too – had a name … the social contract

this has now gone!

the only job security we have is what we build in ourselves that comes from:-

our knowledge of what we do well
our understanding of the reasons why employers hire people in the 1st place
our understanding of the problems we solve for our employers and the stress & money those problems cost orgs until they are solved

our built-in & portable job security comes from our understanding of the kind of work we do and the talent market in which we operate

need to know which people/orgs typically need the services we provide

sources of that info:-

published job ads
local news pages for who is building new facilities, entering the area, starting big projects

create a Target Employer List & follow them on social media, read their press releases

How to create your target employer list

size should not be the key consideration

small orgs good for growing your flame

look at fast-growing organisations

lots of sources

beware Best Places to Work For lists as often orgs apply to get on the list so is PR

better to look for reputation info from working people and job-seekers

start a list:-

name
address
web site
Social media channels
reason for them being on the list

How many on the list?

10 – 20 or 50

you will be researching each one

How will I research them?

web-site, LinkedIn, FB, Twitter, profiles of staff on LinkedIn incl bosses of likely target positions

networking events to find out from others what they think and to get new names

add/remove names as you see fit

Exercise: My other ways of identifying target employers

What other steps could you take to stay in touch with your local (Simon: & national!) talent marketplace?

Workplace user profiles, post
Twitter feeds for Twitter Chats and those who take par
Twitter feeds generall
Understand organisational structure and roles from profiles and job ads and industry articles
local job sites

You need to know which organizations and people are likely to run into the problems you know how to solve. How could you figure that out?

Researching as above and derive from info found including understanding more what my skills could be used for
Continue the Twitter Chat work

How could you learn more about the Business Pain your target hiring managers are likely to be experiencing?

As above and read between the lines of job ads, articles, LinkedIn etc posts

Glenn’s Story

skills becoming out of date as tech changes, sorted out what skills he had and could be used for different things, used being a fast learner as a way in

Exercise: My response to Glenn’s story

Good to see how he used pre-existing skills and other experience to get a foot in the door

My position is that all my “old” skills are still in demand is my perception and I have “new” skills to deploy in new roles.

What jobs have in common

lots of elements are common to a number of job roles

some basics and some specialised

pre-reqs to make a career change that feels ambitious or daring:-

what do you want to do next in your career? what sort of work would grow your flame?

different from asking what jobs am I qualified for? what would I be accepted for?

you have to brand yourself differently for your new career direction

clearly see yourself in new role
when you see connections / crossovers between old career path and new, you will communicate them in a way that anyone could understand

stop focusing on qualifications / credentials you wish you had for new career & remind yourself you have tremendous work / life experience that can help employers

only the people who get you deserve you

Exercise: My task list from past jobs and outside of work activities

do not censor yourself!

document requirements
scope projects, work packages
initiate projects/programmes
manage projects/programmes
manage benefits realisation
manage stakeholders
plan projects generally
plan projects via gantt charts & MS Project
plan via product-based analysis
produce requirements specs
model data
model business processes
define data
define business processes
manage risks
manage actions
manage issues
chair IRL/virtual meetings
facilitate IRL/virtual workshops
present content
drive actions out
document actions and information from “meetings”
chase actions
manage service
design services
sell services
manage accounts (relationships)
develop accounts (relationships)
identify problems/opportunities
consult with internal/external parties
write reports
write requirements specs
manage testing
lead business change
coach internal/external clients
keep the customer informed
define strategy
implement strategy
define business change
implement business change
manage expectations
build collaboration processes
manage communities (IRL, virtual)
use Excel (lists, pivot tables)
use Word
use PowerPoint
implement / use Slack
implement / use Workplace by Facebook
write content (blog posts, tweets, social network posts)
facilitate IRL / virtual meetings
use Zoom
use Evernote
curate content
use Wakelet
manage personal/corporate knowledge
chat in Twitter Chats
host Twitter Chats
work out loud
facilitate working out loud circles
analyse Tweets
use of RSS feeds
communicate verbally (including audio)
communicate in writing
communicate visually (including video)
test functionality
share content
build teams
implement working out loud circles
collaborate IRL/virtually
learn online on own and in teams
design learning
facilitate book clubs
find content
research subjects
comment on social network posts
write ITTs/RFPs
evaluate supplier responses to ITTs/RFPs
manage suppliers
manage ongoing/project-based staff/teams (direct reports, non-direct reports, within my organisation and external to my organisation
manage accounts
create account plans

Is my credibility transferable?

most worry about how hiring managers will find us credible or qualified for a job I have not performed before

the power of framing!

set a new frame around your background to demonstrate to those people that you already understand their challenges at work and are ready to dive in and help

the words you choose to describe yourself to any reader tell a lot of important things about you

Human-Voiced Resume

the words in this tell the reader how you chose your career path and why

pay special attention to Summary at top of HVR – comes straight after your contact details

summary may be most important part of HVR – sets a frame or mental model for your reader, tells the reader how you view yourself

a lot more important than past job titles, role descriptions or education

your HVR Summary brands you in the way you want your reader to understand you and your background

can be changed for each person you send it to

Bernice’s Story

working in one role, changing career direction

may end up with multiple human-voiced resumes

each version branding her perfectly for one type of job

this version is a working with clients one

para explaining how she operates with example of past role

emphasising the parts of old role relevant to this one

Exercise: My reactions to Bernice’s HVR

made her skills generic and applicable to any role involving clients and not limiting herself to identical roles/businesses

… resume …

her goal is to widen out the role to include getting students employed thereby making the org more attractive to new students

does research on org prior to writing the pain letter which will join the dots to understand the org before she reaches out to people there

What do you do?

to get built-in job security, you have to know how to rebrand yourself for new opportunities

when one door closes another can open

practice answering the question “what do you do?” in writing and verbally

you have to know the value of your own services regardless of what employers tell you

cannot negotiate without this

must be ready/willing to start conversations with people you do not know

networking comes naturally to some people

you will get better at networking and grow new muscles as you follow the RR path

Exercise: My target employer list

ESN suppliers including Facebook
ESN users concentrating on those using Workplace
consultancies implementing Workplace
research analysts in the ESN and digital workplace market
recruiters of business/IT project managers
recruiters of community managers
organisations implementing collaboration platforms
end users implementing collaboration platforms
anyone looking for Working Out Loud Circles implementers

Exercise: My market value for each of my likely future career directions

I used the Indeed web site salary comparison tool. I have no idea if this is authoritative.

I used job titles similar to my current roles. My actual job title was a made-up one to reflect the wide variety of services that I deliver.

I also used job titles that I thought represented what I may want to do.

See table below.

This made for interesting reading.

It also revealed that I will need to look at specific role descriptions to identify ones that are a closest fit to my ideal future scenarios.

So I have more research to do to identify organisations and roles.

What kind(s) of Business Pain will you solve for your next employer?
I would be implementing business changes to deliver business benefit to the end client so could be reduced cost, increased revenue, new product launches.

I have a wide variety of skills and experience. All of that comes in one person – me! So having me may mean not having to recruit others in overlapping roles. I bring cross-business sector experience meaning I can work on projects in a wide variety of sectors and may even mean a wider market for the organisation employing me.

All the usual hygiene factors re loyalty, dependability, getting the job done, team leader, team player, passionate about understanding and delivering solutions to meet the real business requirement.

What does it cost an organization to suffer from the kind of Business Pain you identified on the lines above?

Slow delivery times. Lack of co-ordination of workstreams. Missed market opportunities. Inefficient/ineffective working practices. Not taking advantage of digital tools for service delivery and personal development. Not being able to have confidence in the organisation’s ability to deliver. Having to micro-manage to ensure certain key things get done.

Calculating the cost of that pain is a challenge.

I currently have a charge-out rate. I need to find out what my salary and on-cost figure is to see how many days delivery it takes to cover my cost to get to a “profit” figure.

This is revealing to me that I need to do further work on the cost of the business pain I would solve in my next assignment. This is making me think about the pain for the employing organisation but also the pain to the end client so I would be addressing pain in both! I am aware that business pain letters are coming as an exercise! That exercise needs to help me understand further.

Chapter 13: How to find and apply for jobs

when thinking about reinvention browse some job ads regardless of whether you will apply for them or not

visit your fave jobs site (Simon: I do not have one … yet!)

read some ads and look at some employer web sites

“blind” job ads where employer not named

trouble with these “blind” ads is they tell you very little about the employer

advice is to ignore them or unblind them

How to unblind a “blind” job ad

read job ad carefully to look for clues
search for phrases in the ad in Google – may lead you to employer or unblind job ad for the employer

Using LinkedIn

use headline to say you are looking for a new job (if you are out of work now!)

Example headlines:-

seeking a new challenge
looking for
ISO next assignment (“in search of”)
seeking new adventure
available

What is LinkedIn? – free web site, allows you to create an online profile & interact with other people online in various ways

recruiters and hiring managers often spend a lot of time on LinkedIn

headline key for who you are and what you do professionally

Am I qualified?

most people qualified for wide variety of roles but are turned off by the job ads

do not let badly written job ads suck away your mojo

the job behind the lousy job ad may be fantastic

need to get over the wall to talk to a live human being to assess whether the job is for you re grow your flame and move you down your path

need a job interview to find that out

hardest part of working these days is getting the job in the 1st place not the job itself

How much time should I spend on published job ads?

by all means apply for a posted job ad if you want to, being sure to send your pain letter and HVR rather than completing an online app form

other ways to get a job:-

reach out to employers who do not have job ads posted or you have not seen them
reach out to hiring managers who do not have job ads posted or you have not seen them
use your network

a critical part of your job search and taking ownership of your career
helps with roles
helps with moral support

Exercise: My network

Write the names of people you know - friends, relatives, neighbours, co-workers, and past co-workers. Could your network help you in your reinvention and career, or in your job search?

Lots of people online especially in ESN, WOL etc spaces. The challenge would be not making public contact.

Challenge too of being really specific.

Network has never been wider.

I would want to be clear when contacting my network so as not to waste their time.

Still doing WOL activities to get my name known widely.

Need to bear network in mind when I am clear as there will undoubtedly be people in organisations with roles for me.

Reputation and brand is becoming more widely known.

I can see Life Design Conversations being a good way for me to do this without betraying necessarily that I am after a job with them. This is market intelligence as well as me seeking to tap into the unadvertised job market.

Lots of questions coming to my mind re which UK organisations are doing WOL Circles, using Workplace, using other ESNs, implementing these.

Also explore with contacts about coaching and facilitating on a formal basis.

… resume …

allocating your job-search time & energy:-

responding to posted job ads – 33%
reaching out to target employers – 33%
networking – 33%

Pain Letters

need to research & compose a pain letter to send to hiring manager inside the org that posted the job ad

skip the automated app form – that process is broken

use the side entrance

send PL & HVR in one envelope

send the 2 docs stapled together in paper post

Exercise: My LinkedIn account

advice: bring it up-to-date and use a great photo which shows you clearly

Simon: changed the photo to a more professional look, changed the current job title to reflect what I currently do (keeping the actual job title as an AKA in brackets).

Checking in: finding your path

well done on completing Part 2!

superhero! what is your super-hero name?

half-way!

Exercise: What I have learned about my path-finding process so far

Thoughts about the process

the exercises were soul-searching and very reflective – a good thing
I have done an amazing amount of different things
lots I do outside work that has never been included or even considered for my CV
much of the past few years learning online is directly relevant to the new world of work
it has taken longer than I expected to go through the book
it has become all-consuming, I need to finish the book
not sure there is an off-the-shelf role for me
not sure exactly what I want to do still
I will have to re-read my exercise responses to marshal the sum total of my thoughts – I sense that I have answered different questions on the same subjects in different ways – does this indicate a lack of clarity on my part or that I have a diverse range of interests that I want to accommodate in my paid employment?
it would be great to have a closer fellow traveller on this journey – does get quite lonely but I know this is my journey and we all have our own paths to journey

Work I am best suited to

variety
details and big picture
planning and implementing
community-related
collaboration-related
understanding people’s problems/opportunities as organisations and individuals
working in high-performing teams

Work that grows my flame

using my knowledge
using my learning
doing new things
implementing new things
working with people who “get” me
working with people who appreciate me
being involved from the start to the end of something
delivering things

Part 3: Taking steps

reinvention cannot happen by just sitting on sidelines and observing

you are participating & stepping out of old frame into a new one

let’s move forward

Chapter 14: Dragon-slaying stories

a frame is a mental model

we see the world through our mental models

our brains build mental models from when we are born

help us make sense of the world

once a frame is set in our minds, can be hard to change it

need to change our thinking about our careers

starting to take control of your career, one of 1st steps is to question the ideas you have learned and taught other people

frame may have existed for decades

we are all entrepreneurs/ business owners now

we have to be ready to make a change

that way you will be prepared

doing RR means you make important choices about what you want and do not want to do

you get to choose every day else you are not choosing

we have grown up with the idea that:-

others tell us whether we arte good or bad at what we do
others confer titles and salary increases on us
we have to please the higher-ups at work
pleasing people above you at work is the way to get ahead

Your power and credibility

as a working person these are now in your ability to help other people solve their problems

have to know what problems you solve and what they cost the people with those problems

business owners know the value of their services

they know market rates

education/ qualifications will not help if you cannot solve problems

people in pain do not care about those, age, ethnicity, gender, political views etc

when you know your real value to employers/ clients, you can stand in your value

who you are and how you operate at work more important to career than education & past job titles

track record will speak for itself when you know how to convey the power of your accomplishments & your understanding of the problems you solve for employers / clients

this applies even to young people – all have stories to share

what makes you the amazing person you are:-

personality
point of view
crazy sense of humour
ideas
values

these also contribute to your value to people who hire you or engage you

you are much more than your resume

Exercise: My value & my understanding of the ways I work helps employers & clients and …

I can operate in any business context and make a difference.

I can ask questions to understand any problem or opportunity.

I can talk about people’s businesses & organisations in an informed way and suggest solutions and opportunities.

I can relate to people of all ages, positional status and knowledge in an organisation.

I can think on my feet and lead where no other leader is present.

I want to identify the real problems and opportunities that the person, team or organisation faces.

I want to introduce new ways of working from a position of me using those tools myself.

I can structure pieces of work however large and plan them.

I am action-orientated and drive to resolution.

I can hear what is not being said.

I am not fearful of others’ position and status in the organisation.

I am a trusted advisor.

I build long-term relationships.

I am dependable and loyal.

I can make small talk and serious talk interchangeably with anyone.

Exercise …. my attitude towards the pace of change

I love change.

I thrive on change

I take advantage of change to make me more efficient and effective

I love to use new models, techniques, tools.

I am a learner at my core.

I say yes to things where others would hesitate.

I love adventures in my working and learning life.

Telling your stories

Your story is your brand

your story is the most significant thing about you:-

your power
your strongest branding choice
best representation of who you are and where you have travelled

the old world of employment has not valued a job-seeker’s story

you value is your ability to solve people’s problems

beware using lists of skills/ abilities with no context to evaluate them

so weak a way to write resume

we do not have shared definitions of skills – they need to be illustrated to show scope and scale

technical skills should be listed

non-technical skills need stories

dragon-slaying stories are quick stories about times in your career / life so far when you stepped in to make something good happen

Writing down you dragon-slaying stories

will remind you how many problems you have solved already in your life, regardless of whether you got paid to solve them

prompts:-

A story about a time when you helped an angry customer
A story about a time when you helped close a sale
A story about a time when you came up with a great idea
A story about a time when you taught somebody something
A story about a time when you invented a better process
A story about a time when you pushed for something important to happen, and it did
A story about a time when you represented your employer well
A story about a time when you created a manual or educational tool
A story about a time when you went above and beyond
A story about a time when you helped your employer save money
A story about a time when you jumped into action to solve a problem
A story about a time when you helped people work together who had had conflict before
A story about a time when you put a plan together (whether your managers acted on your plan, or not)
A story about a time when you acted without supervision and saved the day
A story about a time when you found a creative way to solve a problem

A name and some detail

Exercise: Naming and detailing some dragon-slaying stories

Simplifying DB table design for MIS apps early on in career – generalising tables for product, time period, branch
Business manager grabbing a whiteboard pen to update entity diagram
The 2-day requirements workshop in London with a colleague (Chinese food)
The series of requirements and design workshops for a case mgt/CRM system – no one died
The day I got an ed license for Workplace by Facebook
Being invited to be an external participant in an internal innovation session
Facilitating a super-circle of 3 WOL circles around the world over 4 months, multiple timezones, all collaborating
Starting/ running a film club
maintaining IT team intact after Head, a DBA, developers left in space of a few days (large % of the team)
simply doing my job as I see fit and being involved in meetings at short notice when I was already prepared without being prepared specifically
ensuring continuity is always possible when I am on extended periods of leave
getting a shared drive created for files for whole company and using links instead of attachments

Using your dragon-slaying stories

ways you will use them:-

in your HVR, in summary in HVR, in descriptions of jobs held so far
in your LinkedIn profile
one story in each PL
in job interviews
talking with potential clients about consulting projects

Pain hypotheses

you will not see requests saying here is my pain, tell me how you can solve it

your ability to get a great job, one that deserves you in a field of your choice, depends on identifying the likely kind of pains being experienced by your hiring managers

your task is to formulate a pain hypothesis

this pain is the source of your power in the hiring equation

when pain identified, match it to one of your dragon-slaying stories

Sarah’s story

dry cleaner job, studied AA degree in parallel, interested in education, job search for roles connected with education, no experience of office work but had talked on phone, customer service, money handling, target employer list of 12 at start, one version of HVR as all jobs in same sector, branded herself for jobs she wanted, headline was “Education Co-ordinator” so Ed as up front and central, PL sent for each job, developed PH for each of the 12 orgs, some easy, others harder, wrote one that the hiring mgr may have heard of not related to dry cleaning, he had not but she got invited for a chat, no money for a role but invited on to a panel, met someone from another org on her TEL, got video of her panel presentation (added it to LinkedIn), getting adept at picking DSS for specific business pains, muscles growing fast

Exercise: My response to Sarah’s story

loved the assertiveness, creativity, saying “yes”, building momentum, telling her story, explaining her process, I can do this!

More on Sarah’s story

long story

condensed in DSS in a PL

setting the stage for the story

tell the story so people can see what you are like – do NOT give self-descriptions, tell stories that show the reader what you are like

condense DSS further for interviewer question

Exercise: My further response to Sarah’s story

good use of same story in different contexts in different levels of detail

I need to learn more about telling stories

Starting to write your dragon-slaying stories

start thinking about how you will compose your HVR

this is NOT a boring list of jobs you have held

reader needs to know more about you, wants to know your greatest triumphs on the job

Exercise: My immediate thoughts on writing my stories

some came to mind earlier rapidly but seemed to soon run out

need to look back at my life story to rake up more! see Who is Simon? Why is Simon? blog post

think of at least 1 story for each part of that blog post

Storybrand material came to mind – would this help me tell my stories? – may add it to Year of Reading 2019 list

getting better at telling stories via details and sequence of what happened, who was involved, surprises etc

Chapter 15: Understanding Business Pain and Solutions

understanding business pain in context of your career & job search

helps you decide which orgs to focus on

Everyone has pain

“pain” used in several contexts even when no physical pain

every business has pain, problems

e.g. growing pains

orgs/people hire people to solve problems

e.g. on a need basis where no skills internally

may not be sufficient pain to justify salaried employee

e.g. pain:-

unhappy customers
long phone wait times
faulty products
products not selling

Promote your ability to solve problems, not your skills

no longer branding yourself on skills but ability to solve problems

what kinds of business pain do I solve?

you may have the skills but do you know how to use them

need to look for pain in your environment and focus on reaching out to people who are in pain

your value to employers is your ability to solve pain

Noticing business pain

your job as a working person & CEO of your own career is to spot BP in your environment

your value is your ability to spot pain in a business setting, to talk about pain & to solve that pain

1st spot pain then reach out to decision makers who can hire you to solve that pain

What types of business pain have you solved?

common types of BP:-

customers unhappy with products
competitors growing faster than us
we are not developing new products fast enough
our tech is outdated
can’t find good employees
not enough sales leads
expenses too high
retaining key employees
processes out of date and slowing us down
cash flow not strong enough
workplace too small for us
not visible on social media sites
health care costs killing us
internet security makes us vulnerable
customer support not strong enough

Exercise: Other types of business pain I am familiar with

our tech supplier does not understand our business
we are blinkered in our thinking
we need to be more innovative
I need a supplier who adds value beyond what we can see ourselves
I need a project manager who can lead projects as well as understanding our businesses
I do not want a supplier who is simply after our money
I want to develop a trusted relationship with my supplier
I want more versatility in the people we recruit as our market is changing exponentially and I want people who can harness that to our advantage

What types of business pain have you solved?

the more clearly you can identify the types of BP you solve in your work

not just work examples – think about examples in every area of your life

understanding the pain you solve is the key to taking control of your career and you will step into the new millennium workplace with confidence

this is a new/ different way to look at your background/ value

Exercise: The business pain that I solve in my work

To anyone who employs me

A versatile person who can perform many roles well so means fewer people on headcount
A dependable person who represents the company well in all situations and contexts
A front-line service deliverer with high quality
Owns and nails problems
Can work on multiple workstreams at once
Not constrained to a job spec or role spec
Wide variety of business sector experience that I bring to bear on any organisational problem
Challenges ineffective/inefficient processes with suggested new ones
Making order out of chaos

To customers I deliver services to

Structure work out of chaotic thinking
Challenges assumptions to get to real issues
Kept informed throughout the process appropriately
truth teller
independent
best advice for the situation even if not to get services from us
not after your money per se, we want a long term relationship to our mutual benefit
strategic delivery not tactical unless short term fix is clearly critical
unique approach to your specific problem
good bridge into delivery organisation
understandable project plans as a story
offer solutions to seemingly intractable problems
clarity of communication via no use of jargon
rapid understander of your jargon

Learning to spot business pain

you need to always be on the lookout for business pain

the only place in the employment/ consulting equation where you have leverage is in your ability to solve another person’s pain

learn to use your Pain-Spotting Glasses

Pain-spotting stories

Makayla’s story

friend of eldest daughter, offered to pick up youngest son and give him swimming lessons, snack then home, Mum accepted, specific and addressed pain, became a product!

when you develop your pain-spotting abilities, you will see problems & possible solutions everywhere

Bruce’s story

a good IT person but how can others tell? often get asked by former managers to help sort their problems, but can’t rely on that! need to make my own market for my own talents, sideline business to daytime work, also consulting, day time, evenings, weekends, consulting reminds me that I am a business

Exercise: My career names

Simon’s Adventures
Simon’s Quest
Simon’s Narrow Path
Simon Consulting
Simon’s Pain Relief
Simon’s Solutions
Simon The Advisor
Simon’s Partnership Services
Simon – The Answer is Yes
Simon’s never-ending adventures
Simon’s never-ending path
Simon’s the path less travelled
Simon’s curiosity-fuelled path

Exercise: My thoughts on Makayla’s and Bruce’s stories

Makayla: this can work for anyone and anything, trial something, get creative, a specific offer showing you have thought of it

Bruce: various ways of doing additional work, use opportunities to develop your thinking and the end game

Exercise: My consulting services

event planning & facilitation
coaching
digital skills
personal development coaching
content creation
course content creation
troubleshooting
interim mgt
business consulting
L&D coaching

The value of knowing the pain you solve

makes you stand out from the crowd – lots of people will be saying you are a <job title A> or a <job title B>

gives you power

if there were no pain, no one would recruit you or engage you as a consultant for your services

Knowing your worth

we have been taught that employers are mighty and we are ants

you are worth more than your salary e.g. your services may get charged out on client projects

they have to make money on your work

You do not have to beg for a job

you do not have to do what the HR person or the process says

Exercise: Why do employers say “lots of applications” & “we are being very selective”?

To try to make you feel grateful and relieved if you get a job offer

It is a big hurdle to get over to get any form of offer

Intimidation

Exercise: My responses to questions about job hunting

Do you know anyone who works for those employers (employers who treat job-seekers badly) right now? If not, how could you learn more about those organizations and their Business Pain?

Not aware of any employers who are using new ways of recruiting! But I am not market savvy currently.
Web sites, articles about their business sector and that reference them.
LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook etc

Would you take a survival job to pay the bills while you’re hunting for a better job?

Would need to. Have a fear of running out of money!
Would likely not be my 1st thought but I would calculate burn rate to see how long we had before the cash ran out

What kind of survival job might you look for, if you needed to earn money right away?

This time round would look for roles in my areas of interest and passion that are not currently part of my day job as well as those that are.
In prior periods of redundancy I have toyed with the idea of freelancing but no further than that

Would you go to work for a friend who has a business? What other steps could you take to react and recover if your job disappeared suddenly?

Do not know many that have or that are relevant to me re my skills etc.

If your job has already gone away, how are you paying your bills and keeping a place to live right now?

Not relevant currently.
In prior periods of redundancy, we just tried to switch the spending taps off – a challenge as lots of expenses are fixed on monthly etc schedule.
More savings currently than in past but I hate using savings to live off!

What kind of work would you look for (or are you looking for, if you’re job-hunting now)?

Similar to core of my current role as plan A but also opportunity to widen that out to other more passion/joy/mojo areas

Which specific organizations (employers) would you seek out if you were made redundant or laid off right now (or are on your target list if you’re job-hunting now)?

ESN suppliers, ESN users, L&D-related orgs
Would focus on roles than specific organisations
No real target list currently apart from what was listed in earlier exercise

If you are job-hunting now or if you suddenly had to job-hunt, which job titles would you be focusing on in your job search? Write them here.

Business Analyst, Project Manager, Consultant

Positioning yourself

your direction & brand are evolving, they will not stay the same, that is good!

you are allowed to shoot higher & aim for jobs you have not held before

you are not just skills and past roles …. you are a pain-reliever too!

despite having solved hundreds of problems in past, we have not been taught to think about or capture them

trad ways of branding ourselves re stiff and boring … and NOT how we describe ourselves to others

Stories about business pain

Miranda’s story

receptionist then Admin Assistant, pain solved = customer directing to right person, keeping Exec in right place at right time, filtering requests to that Exec, only passing on things that s/he could only do

Rajiv’s story

solves late product release pain addressing org losing money, goodwill, market share

Decker’s story

always having the right tools/parts to do each unique customers job

Exercise: How i relieve pain

Put me into any project at whatever stage and things will automatically become calmer, more focused, addressing the why we are doing this, what has been done, what is ongoing and still to do, drive out actions, issues blocking progress

Understand your business problem & context, clarify your objective, what constitutes success, how we measure that success when, drive out requirements and what needs to be done then design, build, test, implement with others as appropriate

chair or facilitate any meeting of any sort of any size to meet your objective including design of that “meeting” etc

.. resume …

all orgs have pain

won’t be listed in job ads

people seeking consultants may be more open to sharing the pain as part of the brief

the lower the level of trust in an organisation, the less likely pain will be freely shared

What school taught us

how to pass knowledge tests – not helping us be entrepreneurial

in real life we learn by doing, watching, asking questions

we learn by trying new things not by reading chapters and answering comprehension questions

why do schools not teach kids how to be entrepreneurial

message for kids should be – you do not need anyone’s badge to have the life/career you want … it is up to you how you spend your precious time and even more precious mojo

whatever your ed experience, good news … many career paths to choose from, esp if willing to shake off idea that you must have full-time job with benefits

Exercise: My thoughts on my education & my prep to enter the grown-up world?

School: subjects probably consistent with Liz’s view, Classics may have helped my logic, army cadets much more helpful re working in teams and doing hard things in teams (army training, adventurous training), sports teams good for team work as well

University – undergraduate degree: mostly vocational with some school-type subjects, solo working, self-organisation, up to me to deliver, lots of understanding organisation

Masters degree (MBA): totally practical and applying everything to real world situations, strategy text book theory then case study the same throughout book, detailed work on ops management, organisational marketing etc, invaluable, all of this is a fundamental part of who I am today

Working for yourself

most of us were taught that this is hard and scary and easier & safer to work for someone else

no longer true

impact of losing job is high

running your own business teaches you to put your faith in yourself and those you work with

the more you see yourself as person following your path and the opportunities that come at you at every moment vs person who needs job security from an employer, the more control of your life you will retain

Brett’s story

VA, earns less now than when employed but when does the maths and periods of job hunting it is actually more now, plans his work time and how much holiday

Exercise: My response to Brett’s story

Working virtually defo of interest.

Aware that freelancing may be more lucrative if always working than permanent employment

working and holidays when want to is attractive

never explored the finances of freelancing

still holds a fear factor for me – I need more muscles & more mojo me thinks!

Exercise: My thoughts about my own need for security of full-time employment vs other forms of paid work

see above.

The delivery of the service would be fine.

Selling and winning new business and making sure I had work all the time is the big fear factor

Good relationship builder for the long term.

Supporting the family with my wife is a key consideration

As per earlier comments, only really considered freelancing etc during periods of redundancy and that has only been a last resort if I failed to get work rapidly which I have done each time in the past.

RR is helping me think about what services I could offer more widely than my current role

Some thoughts via Q&A

Q: go for internal promotion?
A: only if it is on your path and not the org’s only

Q: do I have to start my own business?
A: no, but make sure you adapt to the new world of work re running your career like a business in one or more portfolio roles; if you do not manage your career no one will – cf who is driving your career? if not you, where are you being driven?? we know how to take care of our own car but how are others looking after it? cf your career! only you can truly say what you want to do NOT your employer

your job to keep you car running in top condition

it is a big step to decide to manage your own career – no one else gets to drive it !!

taking that decision means 1st decide what you want over the long term and then plan the way there

Exercise: My long term career vision

What themes or topics are you passionate about that have never made their way into your working life?

learning, helping others learn, sharing learning resources, facilitating study groups, organising events with a specific objective, running a community of people learning and doing real work, connecting people for specific purposes, research, new ways of working for doing real work, virtual teams, virtual working

What are some career paths you’ve thought might be fun or interesting to learn more about?

ESN management & implementation, content creating, coaching, facilitation, L&D design

What gifts or talents have other people told you that you should be using in your work (or getting paid for)?

the way I make connections across multiple subject areas, my ability to talk on a wide and deep range of subjects
connecting people in a variety of contexts
making things happen
following through on commitments

Exercise: My first pain letter

## to do later – I do not recall Liz talking extensively about format etc for human-voiced resume – also this is where this turns from being academic to being real – contacting real people for real reasons – I do not want to do a poor job of this – this could be me procrastinating but I am aware that my CV is not ideal and does need to be radically changed to fit Liz’s model – I am thinking that I need to finish the book first and spend some concentrated period of time on research to get this “right” ##

Do this exercise regardless of whether you are job hunting or not ..

Choose a (local) employer
Research their web site and its company page on LinkedIn
Decide what sort of business pain you can solve
Find the hiring manager inside the employer by any means
Compose a pain letter to your hiring manager & send it to that person via paper post + your human-voiced resume
Celebrate!

## as part of my work on this exercise, I located the following resources that I need to read and apply to produce my first human-voiced resume – this is likely to only be when I have completed the book – I am still on a mission to finish the book ASAP ##

How to Write your Human-Voiced Resume - A brief step by step... (includes video)
Video of Liz talking about these resumes (4 October 2013)
Put a Human Voice in Your Resume (with Examples!) (The Denver Post, 11 December 2012)
How To Write Your Human-Voiced Resume (Forbes article, 17 July 2014)

Chapter 16: Avoiding the black hole by sending pain letters

comments about how recruitment has changed e.g not knowing who, where, how much, whether organisation is real etc

Black Holes

job search process in nearly every medium/large org is an absolute disaster

process for welcoming applicants into recruitment pipeline is terrifying at most orgs

using ancient/creaky Applicant Tracking System (ATS) tech – these repel people from applying!

Liz calls these sites “black holes” – nothing comes out

terrible way to hire people – insulting to job seekers

some CEOs realising this and say I would not apply via that process

smart employers are humanising their recruiting process

you cannot rest your job search hopes on broken recruitment apparatus

Exercise: My experience with automated Black Hole systems

luckily to date minimal! not for the last 6+ years but I have vivid memories – depressing – challenging – soul-destroying – depressing – bad image of the recruiter

Getting round the broken recruiting process

sometimes you have no option but to use online application process

you can write directly to hiring manager

ignore warnings not to!! – you are an adult!

fear no one

if a recruiting process worked, applicants would not need to find a back door

bad image of the org – poor leadership

back door indicates to org that you are prepared to devote the effort to finding that route

correct answer to recruiters is to fix their process

Angie’s story

HR Director, followed Liz’s columns for years, bothered me that advice was to bypass recruiters’ processes, but my mgrs say they love pain letters, shows us whether applicants understand our business, preferable to reading standard forms/CVs etc, starting to make pain letters part of our process, makes recruiting process quicker, better image of the org

Exercise: My response to pain letters vs online job applications

reduces the uniqueness of people sending pain letters! Winking smile

assume a resume would still be needed so some distinction there between applicants

need to learn how to do them – similar challenge to me of writing covering letters – still need to do the work of tailoring applications

be interesting to see if I detect any of this in the UK – not clear to me whether UK is the same as the States for Liz’s wrath

should allow you to personalise your message more BUT will still take time and may be more time than covering letters

Do not yield to fear

re saying do not send pain letters or we will not hire you is ridiculous and medieval

grown-ups do not threaten other grown-ups

childish and unprofessional

what would shareholders say if fearful HR person was threatening job-seekers who could make massive impact to the organisation

if do threaten then clearly not the place for you to work there

you are not obligated to apply online

Pain letters

direct to hiring manager

can use email but our experience is more effective in paper mail (Simon: is that still the case now since the book was published?)

why use different route via pain letters instead of online application:-

hiring mgr used to seeing boring covering letters – your pain letter will not be boring! – talks about the hiring manager, their pain, their org
the hiring mgt has pain if they have job ad posted or not – your PL will touch on one – addressing that will get the mgr’s attention – they just have to read your letter
not every PL you write will get read but some will – you may get email or phone call back – real people like to hear from real people
PL will make clear you are paying attention to their needs – your DSS will explain how you have relieved similar pain in the past
PL/HVR demonstrate your personality and encourage the hiring mgr to contact
PL/HVR are branding documents – does not matter if hiring mgr hates them – is OK as you do not have time to waste with people who do not want you to be a human being
as you research employers and write PLs, your muscles/mojo will grow – reminder each time that you have evidence of relieving pain – is a mojo-boosting activity

Exercise: My response to the reasons for sending Pain Letters

hiring mgr used to seeing boring covering letters – your pain letter will not be boring! – talks about the hiring manager, their pain, their org

I assume that some covering letters are similar to pain letters?
A good covering letter may be better than a poor pain letter
May miss the point in the pain letter and talk about a pain that is not a pain
Defo worth trying!

the hiring mgt has pain if they have job ad posted or not – your PL will touch on one – addressing that will get the mgr’s attention – they just have to read your letter

A good way of getting yourself known and tapping into unadvertised job market
An encouragement to get on with it and send them in!

not every PL you write will get read but some will – you may get email or phone call back – real people like to hear from real people

Personally, more adept these days at speaking with people with no prep time so this would be good to happen.
Trying to communicate more authentically.

PL will make clear you are paying attention to their needs – your DSS will explain how you have relieved similar pain in the past

This speaks to me of doing a great job of identifying the need in this case and then identifying a matching DSS to substantiate how I have addressed this pain in my career to date. I have a large numbers of years to go at!

PL/HVR demonstrate your personality and encourage the hiring mgr to contact

I would like to think I can tailor my communication to the person in question via my WOL circles work and reaching out to people to give and contribute
More able these days to be the real me in communicating and then flexing as needed.

PL/HVR are branding documents – does not matter if hiring mgr hates them – is OK as you do not have time to waste with people who do not want you to be a human being

Defo aware that reaction may be mixed
Defo want to work somewhere where the process is better than a machine treating people as numbers/objects

as you research employers and write PLs, your muscles/mojo will grow – reminder each time that you have evidence of relieving pain – is a mojo-boosting activity

I do sense that this is the case as I think more about identifying pain and marshalling DSS that are relevant to this pain
I can see that a good pain letter and response is a great way to start with a recruiting organisation

… resume …

sending a PL/HVR with DSS will distinguish you from other applicants

your PL may be most exciting communication the hiring manager receives all day

it is a great experience for a hiring manager to get a PL – you are acknowledging them and their pain

Exercise: My last acknowledgement by someone I worked with or for

A recent senior client on a project sent me this via a LinkedIn private message:

“Hi Simon, I wanted to send you a message to thank you for helping us to get the XXX [project] competed recently. This is a massive step forwards for XXX & such a crucial part of the overall programme. I appreciate we are not always the easiest organisation to work with & I appreciate your patience. You went above & beyond to flag risks based on your considerable knowledge & experience in this space which definitely helped us. The enthusiasm you put into your work & career is clear & I have enjoyed working with you. Thank you again & onto the next [project]”

Writing the pain letter

find hiring mgr’s name
search on employer’s web site on About Us & Mgt Bios pages
use LinkedIn to search for hiring mgr using likely job title & org name
read employer’s web site & LinkedIn company page
read managers’ profiles for the org in LinkedIn
which one most in need of someone with your Pain-Solving abilities
compose the PL

Pain Letter Components

The Hook

1st 2 sentences after Dear X
grab your reader’s attention by talking about them and their org
praise them

The Pain Hypothesis

para break after hook
a simple suggestion that you would not be shocked to hear your reader is dealing with
not long!

A Dragon-Slaying Story

no para break
the most relevant DSS you can muster
explains why you needed to act, what you did to make things better, why you did the right thing when you acted

The Closing

e.g “If (pain point) is on your radar, I would be happy to talk by phone or start an email conversation. All the best.”

A PL is short – helps it get read – a welcome message of hope – not an imposition

5 things pain letters do

tells hiring manager you are awake and aware – not passive
you are paying attention to the hiring manager’s organisation
you understand through personal experience what s/he is going through
shows that you have solved similar pain in past and how
short PL means hiring manager is excited about you and then turns page to see your awesome HVR

Exercise: My thoughts on pain letters and how they are a welcome note for hiring manager to receive

different way of communicating interest in role

makes you think what difference you can make to the hiring manager

way of getting hiring manager more interested in you more rapidly

effectively starting answering questions you have not been asked yet and may not get asked directly in an interview

could accelerate their interest

may be easier to write than a covering letter

means you have interpreted info in public domain to state your case as problem solver

Exercise: My first pain letter for an organisation on my Target Employer List

For confidentiality reasons, I am not posting my response and it is not for sending to an employer in any case at this point.

Good to have the challenge for doing this almost for “real”.

I have not been able to discover the hiring manager for the role in question (yet).

…..

Chapter 17: When every job is a temp job

every job is a temp job these days

if that is true and you do not know how long each one will last, what is your best job strategy? gather up valuable things on the job

the pay cheque you get is the least valuable thing you will collect on every job

the pay cheque only gets you through to the next pay cheque

The good things the right job gets you

even very short jobs/assignments get you:-

contacts

but you need to seek them out
your task on every assignment is to meet people and start convos with them
nearly every assignment gives you opportunity to grow your network

learning

opportunities to learn something new on nearly every assignment
some more than others

exposure to tools and methods

organisations change all the time with new methods/approaches that can be learned

new ideas

we learn new ideas at work
new perspectives on old info
convos help us think differently about ourselves, our goals and best ways to accomplish things

references

people you meet at work are contacts
need to collect at least one professional reference person for every assignment

people who can speak knowledgeably and from direct experience of your work

ideas for your own path

we can get new ideas for our lives/careers from almost anywhere
look for inspiration for your path

credibility

comes from many different sources

doing a great job
teaching other people how to do things you have already learned how to do
delivering challenging task
speaking up to solve a problem

in the right role, your muscles/credibility keep growing all the time

new muscles

in right job, these grow quickly

tricks of the trade

have to be learned on the job and you are doing
helps train/coach others

“A-ha”s

sudden or gradual

Exercise: My response to things I have acquired in the various job positions and roles I have performed

Contacts

Lady contractor who worked for client whose project I managed and delivered and then supported.

Confidence

delivering a major CRM solution to c 1,000 users
facilitating 5 Working Out Loud circles

Clarity

what I am good at, not so good at]
things I enjoy and do not enjoy quite so much]
what brings me joy and what is drudge
how I best work with others

Exposure to tools and methods

how to facilitate and be a member of global Working Out Loud circles
how to host a business-related book group
MS Project for planning work
Getting Things Done
Workplace by Facebook

New ideas

Shared drive
Sharing knowledge
Work planning and weekly agenda with a team of developers

A creative outlet

writing content more persuasively and confidently
designing a Workplace by Facebook community from scratch
Year of Reading 2018

Affirmation

the recent example from a senior customer owner quoted earlier
comments from customers and colleagues over the years

Feeling of accomplishment

delivering projects in past 3 years of varying sizes and complexity

Credibility

commenting on a blog post and receiving a positive comment from the author saying “good piece of advocacy”
being sought after by others doing Working Out Loud circles

Stories

getting the Workplace by Facebook access
recruiting and running my 1st WOL circle with complete strangers where we were all new to the approach and my selected tools (Slack and Zoom)

Alignment with your mission

Speaking as external participant to a Lloyds Banking Group internal workshop on WOL circles as they celebrated the end of the first set of circles and deciding how to proceed next

Intellectual stimulation

this process of reading the book and doing ALL of the exercises has been hugely self-reflective
my Year of Reading 2018 has been hugely rewarding – glad i read the Leonardo da Vinci bio

… resume …

anything that you spend 7.5 hours on each working day should give you good things in return and not just a pay cheque

this is the reason why you should not simply be happy that you have a job, any job

do not underestimate the incredible benefits of doing the right job for you

do not underestimate the damage the wrong job can do to your CV and more importantly your precious flame

Exercise: My assessment of what my current/recent roles/assignments have given me in work and outside of work

Contacts

In Work: some, obviously work with colleagues and clients on projects etc for varying periods of time including some a year +_
Outside of Work: lots, via Twitter chats, PLN, 1:1 video calls proactively, reactively, WOL circles

Confidence

In Work: some, environment can sap that at times
Outside of Work: lots, via saying yes to prompts to do new things

Clarity

In Work: meander, passive
Outside of Work: on a mission, active

Exposure to tools and methods

In Work: limited but there are some that I should be learning eg Jira
Outside of Work: lots as simply down to me as to what I want to use to meet new learning needs

New ideas

In Work: limited but aware that I could suggest new services, markets etc
Outside of Work: lots as all down to me and my creativity

A creative outlet

In Work: using standard tools with some opportunity of learning new
Outside of Work: lots and not enough time to explore all the things I want to do

Affirmation

In Work: rare, 1 recent example was so encouraging to get and out of the blue from the person in question
Outside of Work: frequent directly and via invites for convos, to host Twitter Chats

Feeling of accomplishment

In Work: some
Outside of Work: lots

Credibility

In Work: some
Outside of Work: seems to be lots via comments

Stories

In Work: some
Outside of Work: lots with more passion and more adventurous

Alignment with your mission

In Work: still core to my career path from day 1
Outside of Work: learning that there all kinds of other things that I am capable of, good at, would love to get paid to do

Intellectual stimulation

In Work: some
Outside of Work: lots

Comments:-

This was not a full exercise in the book but I was prompted/challenged to make it one.
I am aware that I can do more job crafting and offer up myself for different assignments as and when other work commitments allow
Also aware that I am at the mercy of the contracts that we go for and then win.
A good exercise for me to specifically run through rapidly. Confirms some of the other exercise responses re where my passion and joy comes from whilst still continuing to deliver high-quality and appreciated services to my clients on projects that I manage and applications that I run support for

Exercise: My best job role to date and what were the benefits to me

Not thought about this at all in the recent past or may be even ever.

Possibly when I managed a team of BAs and PMs for an energy supplier.

Learned the most of anything I have ever learned in a job in that position:-

amazing customer service training that I still use to this day – whole company, 1 day with some pre- and post-work – Kaset International as-was “Managing Extraordinary Service” based on Jan Carlzon’s “moments of truth”, included 360 feedback that I went on to use for my future team members there and at other organisations – attenders were whole company including call centre operators and the Chairman – all about we all have customers whether they be internal or external
training course “The Service Account Manager – also still use to this day
member of account management user group by supplier of the above course
implemented account/relationship mgt for internal customers where they had budget and could outsource etc any/all of their spend
competency profiling of IT staff including setting competencies
great line managers – inspirational, competent, team workers/leaders, strategic, good atmosphere – had 3 in my time there
Prince 2 training
programme mgt training
internal consultancy skills course
memorable work

Not all roses but interesting listing these things on this job role with how much I learned and did

Probably added more to the core of who I am today as a service deliverer, business/IT professional than any other role

Interesting to note that I have had feedback that I reference this organisation a lot …

Making me think what could I do now in current role to look back in a similar way

Posted this pic in my goal group on Workplace by Facebook

.. resume …

work is a big part of our life but it is not our life

big goal to set – to make the commitment – I’m going to get the kind of work that celebrates me and grows my flame” – but there is no downside to working towards that goal

there is no way to fail in your career as long as you are always learning from every experience

Martha’s Story

church secretary, low paid, loved the work, divorced, could not afford to live on the pay, retail job, hard physically, long hours, overtime, not my calling, job hunting, very few responses

Exercise: My response to Martha’s story

mojo tank will be very low, keep at it, apply RR Smile

assume aftermath of divorce not helping

start to understand her calling, jobs to apply for that makes best use of her experience, skills

lack of response to applications could be because issues with her CV or wrong jobs

understand how she is feeling, best foot forward

re new roles: caring role, people-related, probably not admin necessarily, coach in relationships

Exercise: One of my mojo-drop experiences

being passed over for roles that were “mine” given my prior roles, new person brought in by new manager, I then stayed too long, mojo empty when made redundant, taking the fall for a project that had gone off-track re time/budget that I was consultant for, no comeback on project manager

actually multiple people brought in for new projects/process work while I was left with the big ongoing project which was mojo-sapping for a variety of reasons – lots of lessons learned!

never really understood that manager

defo wanted his own people, all “suits”

Roadblocks to a job that deserves your talents

(relating to Martha’s situation)

a powerless resume

jobs list
zombie language
strength, humpur, goodwill not shining through
need branding materials

a losing job-search strategy

lobbing applications into faceless Applicant Tracking Systems
take charge of own career by reaching out to hiring managers directly

they could become future bosses or future consulting clients

depleted mojo

emotional and physical – need to build up your mojo fuel tank

Simple steps to change career and life situation

(relating to Martha’s situation)

dramatically change your branding
broaden scope of job search

cluster jobs into one type
single version of HVR with minor tweaks for each role applying for
move on to next cluster if poor results
listening to signals from talent marketplace

silence is a loud message

put a human voice in CV to sound unique
practice writing pain letters
stopping using ATS
make a serious but fun game of Mojo Fuel Tank refilling process
be a rule breaker

not everyone will like PL/HVR/DSS

Getting one’s mojo back

when mojo level is high, you think you can do anything

when mojo level is low, you think you can do nothing

steps:-

give yourself a break!

your history is fine
bad things do not mean you did anything wrong

get a journal

write in it every day
no structure – whatever comes to mind
handwritten or typed

your goal as “journalist” is to write enough that you stop thinking as you write

do not judge your writing
goal is to open a channel that the words flow

write about your life so far

from as far back as you can remember
the vivid memories then others

recalling your path is called “Retracing Your Steps”

a lot of power in it
you will remember times when you felt strong & powerful even if you do not feel that way now

sleep/exercise – as much as you can

take healthy life options
do not beat yourself up
you are inviting your mojo back in – you cannot command it

collect your DSS

from any source and from wherever/whenever it happened

spend time with people who grow your mojo, do not spend time with those who bring you down

you cannot change your work or life situation with a depleted Mojo Fuel Tank

Exercise: My “growing my mojo” ideas …

when looking at job ads, do not get intimidated

assess objectively what you can do on each item, what you cannot do, include experience of doing that and where no experience, list skills needed for the item and what you have and do not have
no one has all the attributes required
if you really can do everything in the role spec without stretching, is that the job for me
hold yourself in your mind objectively
go for it as an experience to see what happens
where there looks to be no way, may be there is no way (e.g. location)
apply what I have learned in DYL/RR – you did these books for a practical reason not just for the academic head knowledge – this may the start of my One Word 2019 of “apply” (put into practice as well as actually applying!!)

getting more productive – able to start “work” rapidly without being distracted

clear the admin, papers

celebrate when finished RR – reread my notes, 12+ weeks worth now, loads of exercise responses – all valuable ideas for possible futures for me
surround myself more with those who fill my mojo and only that needed with those who empty it on sight
play more music I like

Mojo blockers

role and cultural confusion
disturbance in the energy field

eg bad working relationships involving you or others that you work with
need to be addressed

crossed wires
red tape

trust the people we work with
we are all adults
trust ourselves to hire brilliant people and then trust them

approvals for everything
elephant in the room

sucks the air out of the room
thoughtfully and with compassion name the elephant

fear

the greatest mojo blocker
do not use fear to get the job done

no vision, no plan

everything starts with the vision
a vision for yourself, every team you are a part of in every area of your life
know your part in that vision
without a clear vision & a team to get there, how can team mojo grow

Exercise: My experience of the mojo blockers

role and cultural confusion

some, but usually not an issue on projects
challenge re others’ roles on day job
wanting to own the problem meaning that you try to fill the gap left by others but you cannot let them fail to prove the point as service from the team will be compromised, tricky

disturbance in the energy field

a few people through my career who have done this
working to address my side of that and work on my own self-awareness

crossed wires

this is rare as I tend to ask questions if I do not understand and confirm re plan

red tape

rare in organisations I have worked at
some process issues with client organisations I have worked with

approvals for everything

most are needed when commercials and delegations of authority are involved

elephant in the room

often speak out but there are some exceptions

fear

a big issue for me and I am trying to address via being more inner voice/critic aware
RR helping too!

no vision, no plan

often guilty of that for my personal life/career but as you can see addressing via RR!
another example where I need to apply what I know eg GTD to maximise my productive use of time

The importance of being human

hiring mgs do not care about your accomplishments until you have made a connection

what can you say in PL to make that opening? talk about something they care about – their work situation and not you

they can start to care about you when they get the message

some mgrs will not respond – not right for you just now

even OK if role/org you deeply want

may not get role but could consult for the hiring mgr

planning is at least as important as actually “doing” re managing your career

easy to criticise ourselves but depletes our mojo

can still get amazing learning experiences in bad roles/orgs

for many onward promotion and ever-increasing salary is not the be-all and end-all

some prefer just to bring themselves to work and perform work that speaks to you

People you know and impact on your mojo

spend as much time with boosters as you can

spend as little time with depleters as you can

Exercise: My mojo-boosters and mojo-depleters

boosters

learners
thinkers
question ask-ers
don’t play politics
encourage me
get me
come for advice
contribute to me
don’t only come to me when they need something
suggest things/resources that are relevant
positive

depleters

only take
always coming at last minute for something they need urgently
people you have to walk on egg shells around
those who insist that you think and work like they think and work
those who are send communicators
people not taking the time to know me
those who think everything they do for you is a favour and you should b grateful even when it is their job
people who do not communicate for continuity in their absence
those who leave you out of communications
people who make it hard work to respond to their email messages, requests etc
people in cliques

Chapter 18: Stepping through reinvention

grand prize is to line up career path with your life path so you are always growing, learning, bringing yourself to work all the way

process not a one-time event

your body involved in your reinvention not just your mind

listen to your body

Exercise: What it would mean and feel like to line up my career and life paths

all aspects of my paid work would be a joy and I would rarely get negative energy from that work

mojo full more often than not

more of me invested in my work with no constraints

learning more in my paid work

more overlap in all my life roles

not having to be careful what I say or do

always being stretched to learn more as I work

helping others to also be the best worker they could be

job crafting – doing more things to grow and learn in my day job

Reinvention can be exhausting and demanding

some thoughts of people going through RR process:-

just want to be done with RR, hate being indecisive about my career, I just want to be told what my new career path is, I hate not knowing next step
feelings go up and down, hot and cold, excited/fearless one day, next day useless
feel like baby learning to walk again, feel competent in my old working life, now totally unsure of myself
one day clear about what I want to do with my life, next day clear about something else totally different, brain just grasping for certainty, I want it to be over
memories of the past of being told what i was good at

Exercise: My response to other RR-ers’ feelings

uncanny timing! exactly some of my own feelings! helping me persevere! still on a mission!

my responses to Liz’s headings

just want to be done with RR, hate being indecisive about my career, I just want to be told what my new career path is, I hate not knowing next step

Part of my WOL activities work is to be seen and spotted – partly a cop out but I m doing real things
still very indecisive
is there even a role out there that can maximise me doing all the things I am capable of and bring me joy

feelings go up and down, hot and cold, excited/fearless one day, next day useless

this one is scary, days when I feel invincible and days when I feel hugely challenged

feel like baby learning to walk again, feel competent in my old working life, now totally unsure of myself

often worry about my practical outworking of my knowledge, just because I know something, can I deliver on that
an opportunity would be great
a step of my own faith in myself is needed

one day clear about what I want to do with my life, next day clear about something else totally different, brain just grasping for certainty, I want it to be over

certainly seeing things of interest for me to do as paid work
wondering if any are my “ideal”
RR is all-consuming, seems like I have been reading/applying the book for ever now over 3 months, relentless quest to complete, on track to do all the exercises regardless
concern about starting the jobs process before I have finished the book
but even today thinking starting would be simply putting into practice what I am learning about the process and myself
not wanting to waste people’s time but it would be good to explore
still not got the CV up-to-date, not clear whether Liz is going to say more on this!

memories of the past of being told what i was good at

the thing that came to mind immediately on reading this part of the book was how I felt at Stirling doing my 1st degree, worked hard, played hard, a very few close friends, striving for excellence, doing new things, sitting through lectures for a course that was not mind, representing the university to the University Grants Committee, being a loner as the only person doing the joint course I was on, lots of challenges all of which were surmounted, First!
also amazing hearing fellow leaders at church praying over me recently and what they affirm in me in their own words i.e. what they say and are people who know me best – connecting IRL/virtually, resources, use of resources in events of all shapes and sizes, caring, loyal

The desert of reinvention

the confusing, rootless phase

wandering around for a while until you find your new home

scary not knowing what you are supposed to be doing next

when we stay terribly busy & overloaded, we do not have time to think or to look into the abyss and ask the hard questions like “what is my life supposed to be about?”

most of us do not want to ask that question

but there is a reinvention waiting and it has our name on it

Exercise: Why people stay busy and not address the reinvention questions

excuse, avoidance, too hard, don’t know what to do next, no one to help, cop out, better the devil you know, fear of getting an answer that means we have to do something, do anything but answer the question

my own experience through this book is that it is a challenge and hard work to think! even reading the book today lots of other preferable things to do come to mind and almost hoping some notification comes where someone wants something from me, shocking!

Vijay’s story

hardware engineer, all project work the same, pigeon-holed, signed up for contract work, market dead, ran out of money, started writing my path to now, could not stop! reminded interested how things worked, PL sent to a head of product devt, call back

found a place to put his canoe in the water as a product devt person that he had never thought of himself before

Exercise: Why do people not call themselves as a type of person with a job title that is understood

being blinkered about what you have to offer, short-sighted, forget, get carried away with roles we have been paid for, not creative enough, do not take the time to review the past path to here

Phase transition

we change all the time

eg boiling water from cold – transformation from liquid to vapour is transformation or phase transition

our transition can be chaotic and unpredictable too

phase transition is not easy

Exercise: My emotional or physical reactions to reinvention process so far

What feelings or physical reactions has your reinvention created in you so far?

Simon: excitement, joy, expectation, relentless quest to find out what I should be doing, fear, trepidation, what will it mean if my ideal role is in London, say

How did I feel about my reinvention when I first realized that things were changing?

Simon: excited that the joy I get from things outside of work may be usable in a new role, is there a role for me out there with all my diversity and curiosity

How have my feelings about my reinvention shifted since then?

Simon: wanting to finish the book before I start the real work, but thinking that just going for it may be a fundamental part of the process, is it really reinvention or is it simply transitioning to using more of my skills from outside of work

What emotions have I felt during this reinvention? (Fear, confusion, excitement, nervousness, etc.)

Simon: yes all of those and more, roller coaster, fear is mainly not confident in my abilities especially if I jump ship into the uncertain, risky world

What can I learn about myself by noticing the passing clouds of emotion rather than letting them control me?

Simon: increase my self-awareness of how I am feeling and not just giving up or pausing, I need to finish! be good to better understand why I have these emotions and what is triggering them specifically so I better understand root cause

What can I do when strong emotions hit me, to stay calm and feel better?

Simon: remind myself of who I am at my core, reread my blog post “Who is Simon? …”, re-read lists of what I can do

How can I manage my time to watch my mojo level and keep my Mojo Tank full?

Simon: make sure I do not spend my whole life doing this, that is hard when the book needs to be finished, there is already one role that is a combo of an ideal job on many fronts BUT is in London and I am defo not moving!

Other people and your reinvention

while we do reinvention, those close to us may be concerned about us & tell us just to get a job and stop blathering about our path

they liked us the way we were before

some people around you may not want to hear about your reinvention

it can be hard for us to talk about it

important to spend time with people who will support you in your reinvention

can you enlist people around you to help you?

some may have shared interest in this subject

Exercise: My reinvention team

Names of those you can talk to about reinvention

Simon: Rachael (wife), kids (2 are in a similar position re choosing career paths!), select numbers of colleagues close to me, my Personal Learning Network, Workplace at Facebook Community, Leadership Team & Life Group at Church

How can you arrange your schedule to spend time with people who get you and your reinvention and don’t put pressure on you to take the first job you can get?

Simon: making time to have these convos, ideally I would have had fellow travellers along this process but a challenge to find people in the same or related position to me. Good chat with Jen a few weeks ago and more recently with Christian & Axel. Good for my mojo!

How can you gently set boundaries with well-meaning and loving people who tell you, “You should just go back to your old job!” or “You should go down the street and get a job at the store on the corner—they’re hiring!”

Simon: I just have to get on with it. I can vividly remember 2 such negative conversations with people close to me in the recent past where I just had to stop the convo as it was not helpful and to simply move on without me responding in kind. Also a reminder to pick my times wisely for such questions and chats. I am bad at not picking good times. I just need to address things NOW!

Nghia’s story

started new job and org went out of business, thought new role was too good to be true, lots of “advice” from people about career, took 1st job, learned a lot, low money, got interview for job from supplier rep in that liquor store 20 miles away, people close to him not happy, heart to heart with wife re wanted job he enjoyed not just a job, find job without some other people’s advice and ignored advice from others when they would not stop, taking steps for himself

Exercise: My response to Nghia’s story

I have never really taken advice from anyone on career at the start of my career or even since. More of a challenge now as I consider new options.

So not much similarity with Nghia. While Mum and Dad were alive, they just mentioned safe organisations in terms of being household names with good reputation.

Lots of people not too clued up on IT-related jobs but I am aware that I may need more input from others for non-IT-related roles.

The Life Design Convos I did with 3 people while reading DYL were helpful and I could see me doing more of those as part of this process.

Grow your career-coaching muscles

pick 2 of the stories in the book & write coaching responses to the storyteller about their situation

write directly to storyteller about their situation as follows:-

acknowledge them for telling their story
acknowledge their feelings
lay out the scenario / problem as you see it
share possible solutions to each storyteller’s obstacle, describing steps to follow in acting on your coaching advice
give the storyteller (your new coaching client) a mojo boost by reminding them they are amazing & talented

Exercise: Coaching Keith

acknowledge them for telling their story

Thank you for telling your story. I am on a similar journey.

acknowledge their feelings

I empathise with your rollercoaster of emotions. I am having similar experiences.

lay out the scenario / problem as you see it

how to get back into work doing a job you love and start to manage your career
be open to tactical role or hold out for the right job, depending on cash balance situation and burn rate
also be open to consulting assignments along the way

share possible solutions to each storyteller’s obstacle, describing steps to follow in acting on your coaching advice

assume not seen RR
start using RR and going through the RR process
what do you want from a job – mojo killers/depleters
dragon-slaying stories from career to date
identify roles/employers
identify pain
human-voiced resume with DSS overall for role and one for each role in your CV
pain letters
for each role, identify hiring manager and send PL, HVR with DSSs
watch your mojo level throughout
repeat

give the storyteller (your new coaching client) a mojo boost by reminding them they are amazing & talented

Great to hear you being positive at the start of your career managing journey
keep at it, there is a role out there for you
you have skills and experiences that employers want
you are awake now, stay awake!

Exercise: Coaching Janine

acknowledge them for telling their story

thank you for sharing your story
it is good to hear other people’s experiences and help if I can, even if that simply means cheering you on

acknowledge their feelings

I understand from what you say that your current role is getting you down
loving your positivity about thinking futures
and thinking about career goals
some similarities with my own situation

lay out the scenario / problem as you see it

current role not satisfying
large number of possible futures, may not be able to pursue them all at once
get joy back in live by getting joy in work
what do you want to do most
retain financial skills use but not a majority of the time
love kids
lots of scope for doing lots of thing
giving yourself 12 months max

share possible solutions to each storyteller’s obstacle, describing steps to follow in acting on your coaching advice

ideal job for all your interests
mojo fillers/depleters
contacts
how merge interests to get to some ideal roles
dragon-slaying stories overall and for each role done in past
human-voiced resume
pain identification
practice pain letter
employers and roles
identify pain for specific role
send pain letter + human-voiced resume
off you go

give the storyteller (your new coaching client) a mojo boost by reminding them they are amazing & talented

loved reading the diversity of your career interests
loved the difference between the current “you” and the future “you”
you are an amazing lady with a wide variety of interests
you would do lots of roles amazingly well
loved your enthusiasm

Exercise: How I found doing the virtual coaching experience

easier telling other people!

lots of empathy as I thought of responses – I picked the 1st 2 I found similar to my current situation

need to revisit the RR to get the sequence fixed in my head!

I am sure I missed some things

the RR process can apply in widely diverse situations

reminder to stay awake once awake

easier doing this in person than writing it down – artificial when writing down, would be happy having a chat with either of these people and take the convo in whatever sequence it came from the other person

lots of questions I would ask in the chat but also making sure RR steps were all covered as they are all important

RR process is helpful framework for the chats

… resume …

reinvention can be seen as an unexpected and unwelcome break in your routine

you were not doing as well as you thought when RR started!

maybe the shakeup will be good for you – could that be the case?

Exercise: My feelings on waking up

What would you have said was your biggest problem or obstacle before you woke up or were shaken awake regarding your career?

Simon: complacency, victim, going through the motions, getting joy outside of work doing work-type things, lack of joy spilling out into personal/private life, dissatisfied, low morale/motivation, expecting the worst at work, reactive most of the time, declining confidence, lack of clarity in what I wanted, still delivering high-quality service, being careful how I operated which is not a good place to be, looking at others doing roles elsewhere and wondering how they got there, feeling like I was missing out, so much more to give, mojo so low repeatedly

What is your biggest problem or obstacle now?

Simon: converting the proposed actions to real actions, not being defeated without even trying, using excuses for not progressing this process, managing the rollercoaster of emotions, finding a role that needs all my diverse skills, not being put in a box

If you lost your job, that may have been a painful experience. You might feel that there couldn’t be any positive aspect to that jarring and disruptive event. As you think about it, could there be a positive side to losing your job?

Simon: in the past, I have stayed in roles too long, being out of work means you can job hunt full-time BUT fear kicks in of how long do I have money for, hard not to come across as desperate when talking roles with agents etc, patience is a challenge, it needs to be more of a career management process than job hunt, challenge of doing the RR tasks e.g. finding out who the hiring manager is, pain identification etc,

What possibilities can you imagine for yourself that you weren’t thinking about before you got the nudge or the shake that started your reinvention?

Simon: doing the list of things I can do was a great mojo boost, I need to get those into my CV, ironic that this information was in a completely separate document (a public blog post), lots of different roles and possibilities need the things that I am good at that are not on my current CV, a move away from IT into a more business role may well be appropriate, how to apply my love of learning into a job role is a current challenge in my thinking, RR has given me a framework to think through all these issues, now on the turn from being reactive all my career to being intentional and proactive

Reinvention is a passage between one chapter in your life and the next one. What gifts could your reinvention give you?

Simon: a totally new career path that brings me huge amounts of joy and transforms my life and confidence, I would love that to happen, those that are close to me would love that to happen, Simon with full mojo is irrepressible. This is sometimes the case in my current role but is not always and ideally needs to be always. Opens up even more possibilities. I do want to take on the world in my work. I do want to be a key influencer in all roles that I perform and get things done. Definitely open to this being in my current role but would need a lot of job crafting. May be my thinking in the RR way will change the universe to bring sales leads in areas that I am strong in and can take a lead on where I work now. That would be great! This is not me copping out!!

Gifts your reinvention can give you

awareness – waking up is a gift
possibility – start dreaming about what is possible, new reality to live in, dream about a fantastic reality, infinite possibility
permission – to design your life and step into it, your old life was not fixed and unchangeable, you can bring your life into alignment with your purpose here on earth

staying asleep is like clinging to a cliff face with the rocks falling down all around you

How do I survive?

Liz, half of me wants to listen & to fully apply RR, the other half terrified I will lose my house and be destitute

the fear half often wins

recommendations for people fearful about money to allay those fears:-

get a consulting business card & actively network as a consultant not a job-seeker

gives moral support
grow your consulting & conversational muscles

write in your mojo journal often

every day ideally
about job search, career ideas, reactions to your reinvention, anything else!
best out on “paper” and not in your head

take control of areas of your life that are most easily controllable while you are job hunting

e.g tidy the house, clear out things you do not need, work in garden, do a YouTube exercise regime
tackle a part of your life that does not need patience & steady application of pressure that job-hunting needs
invest the time in you & your new chapter

various ways of getting off the cliff!

you can rely on yourself more than you can rely on any job/ employer

Exercise: My current feelings

worried about failing, getting a role that is not right, there not being a role that is ideal for me, starting on my own or freelancing, finding an ideal job that is not near where I live and possibly taking it and costs of travel being greater than any pay increase, losing my job before deciding whether staying was actually good from my point of view, out of the frying pan into the fire, not applying for roles where I am not a 100% fit and missing opportunities as a result

excited about finding a role that is really and fully me that uses all the skills I now have and allows me to be my own person and work in a help lead / build a world-class team and actually change the world for the better, truly loving work would be amazing

Chapter 19: Congratulations! You’re a consultant now!

in the new workplace we are all consultants

Liz thought working for herself would be the scariest thing ever

we all work for ourselves

the muscles you need to survive / thrive in new workplace are same as entrepreneurs need

Considering consulting

easiest way to step into entrepreneurialism is to start a consulting practice

you can consult in parallel with job hunting

anyone can consult

you solve client pain and by so doing grow muscles and find your voice

Rita’s Story

made redundant from school job after 20 years, big shock, hard to get new job, 1st time wrote CV, submitted online, minimal response, networked locally, started part-time consulting job, biz cards including 1st time LinkedIn profile, fell into after-school youth ministry, loved kids, never done this before, a project, just needed breaking down, huge success, good for both parties, no longer felt like a needy job-seeker, feeling valued now, 57 but feel like in 20s, learning is incredible, knowledge in my head just needs tapping into

Exercise: My response to Rita’s story

so encouraging! like me, lots of knowledge and experience just needs an outlet, reminding me that my One Word 2019 may be “apply” to apply my learning and not just get a fat head, another story of taking opportunities as they arise, nothing too big or too small, I even call myself a consultant in work-related stuff like LinkedIn but not on my own

Types of consulting work

work for orgs or individuals

everybody has pain!

so many options! too many to list!

all paid jobs have consulting equivalents

do not eliminate any ideas!

be open to anything and everything

Exercise: My consulting opportunities

project management

business analysis

community management

collaboration platform implementation and running

sourcing process

tools education – Slack, Workplace, Zoom, MS Word/ Excel/ Project/ Powerpoint/ Skype

facilitation

coaching

Evernote

GTD

small group leadership

virtual teams

training

research

content creation

collaboration

Twitter

Facebook

online presence

book, new product/ service launch

Jeremy’s story

music person, youth music pastor, little salary, wife childcare job, not enough money for health insurance, wife told him to get consulting card, one word + contact info, 1st opportunity to organise a speaking series in local library, 12 talks by 12 prominent people, $1k, asked the 12 if they wanted YouTube channel creating to spread their ideas, 3 said yes, launched my video consulting business, wants to grow business to $10k pa

Exercise: My response to Jeremy’s story

Inspiring. Great start. Great 1st project. Good to start business so easily. Encouraging.

Advice: widen out the video business to other clients. Families, weddings, corporate events etc

Basics

What would I put on my consulting business card?

easy to find companies that print business cards

name, role title, mobile, location (city/ state), email address, LinkedIn URL, graphic

can redesign, reprint any time

give one to everyone you meet

colleagues (IF appropriate!)

Supposing someone calls me about consulting, what do I do next?

depends what they ask and what you are capable of doing

get into dialogue to see if there is any way you can help

always remember – whatever clients say their problem is, that usually is not their problem

Alicia’s story

poet looking for web site designer, Jeremy and her chatted, just needs online presence for her readers to gather

Exercise: My response to Alicia’s story

beware assuming what client problem is

you may not be able to do what they say their need is but it may turn out that what they really need you can do!

even reading her story reminded me of additional consulting things I can do (and added them to list above)

also a parallel with me saying one thing as the need but actually is all sorts of other things as well

How should I set my consulting rate?

take your target annual salary and divide by 2,000

most FTEs work 2,080 hours a year

do the maths for current/target salaries

most consultants add 30-50% cushion to hourly rate

others add 100% for business expenses

what would your hourly consulting rate be?

Exercise: My consulting business persona

What is the name of your consulting business?

Simon: I was reminded of a hashtag that I used on Twitter a few times that is still relevant today – #clearthefog (with 1 “g” not the 2 in my name). This then reminded me of my 1st Working Out Loud Circle goal in Q1 2017 that emerged over the 12 weeks life of that circle:

To create more long-form content than I have done prior to starting in my first WOL circle and to do so in a way that:-

(1) leverages both my personal knowledge and practical experience
(2) inspires people to engage and apply that content in their daily lives
(3) reduces any "barriers to entry" for the subject area
(4) encourages the reader to continue and build on the conversation
(5) is jargon-free and accessible to people unfamiliar with the subject area

and where the content takes the form of:-

(1) blog posts and comments on other people's blog posts
(2) Facebook posts and comments on other people's Facebook posts
(3) Tweets and replies to other people's tweets

and is either:-

(1) proactive with no specific prompt from another person's content
(2) reactive indirectly to another person's content
(3) reactive directly to another person's content.

This will include making explicit content that historically has been "hidden" behind "Like"s and "RT"s."

What kind(s) of Business Pain will you relieve for your clients?

Simon: See the list earlier. I am a user of tools. I love learning about new features of products that help people be more efficient and effective. I love making things simple and easy to learn.

What will you charge your clients for your services?

Simon:

in 2019. from 1/1/2019 to 31/12/2019, 365 days in year, of which 104 days are weekends, 8 are public holidays, 25 is my current leave days

leaving 228 working days times 7.5 working hours per day is 1710 hours in year.

Picking target (NOT current) salary of £80k, say, gives hourly rate of £47

plus 50% cushion £23.5 = £70.5 plus 100% for business expenses = £117.5

I have no idea what needs to happen to set up a business to do this but you need to pay tax on all income received etc so that needs to be taken into account in any financial considerations!

I should take a quick look on what is needed to take income for services and stay legal.

Not closed to doing this.

Exercise: My assignment to start a consulting business

get a card and start handing out to people, you have been a consultant all the time but you are giving youself permission to call yourself one now

Simon: see example layout below, not doing this at this point but the chapter has made me think …. also that some of the learning things that I am opening myself up to are effectively trial runs at consulting but free at this point

current mobile is a work one, I do have a personal one but is never used and the phone model is dire and so out-of-date now, would need to sort that out if I go down this route

ironic given my online activities but I do not have a personal web site, i do have a blog but I have said in recent years that if I was to start business in my own name I would need to make the blog more professional looking

Simon RJ Fogg
Consultant, #ClearTheFog

mobile: +44 (0) 9999 999999
email: xxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com

Checking In: Taking Steps

completed Part 3, Taking Steps, of your RR

Exercise: My current position on my RR path

Continuing to do all the exercises. Practised for real with a real role spec via PL, DSS, HVR. A challenge to do it. Did the consulting chapter open mindedly. Not comfortable progressing on that front with cards and giving them out. Still work to do to process all the things I have learned. Still keen to complete the book and re-read my exercise responses in the cold light of day to make more sense of it all. For the role I mentioned earlier, in many ways it is an ideal role spec so regardless of what happens with that I can see me working up responses to all the requirements for my own benefit and to target some further personal development, reading and application.

Part Four: Growing Muscles and Mojo

all about keeping your reinvention muscles and mojo growing throughout your career & life

your career is process not an event

when you stay open to the learning that the world has for you, you will never stop growing

Chapter 20: Stepping Out

you build up your own job security

your job security is in your reputation, your ability to spot an org’s pain and articulate it, your ability to get work as a consultant and/or as an employee, your ability to keep learning & growing all the time

totally different to the things that brought us success in the old job world:-

following instructions
completing procedures precisely, repetitively & fast
being self-motivated (i.e. making as little fuss & asking as little of a manager as possible)
working well with other people
accumulating training hours and certifications
getting a positive performance review

we still need to do 4 !!

when you focus all/ most of your energy on pleasing other people, incl your own line mgr, you weaken your muscles

your brain changes, easy to become fearful

not appropriate or healthy for one human being to worry about what another human being thinks of them

how do you build job security in yourself? it is a muscle-building exercise

Build your own job security step-by-step

the kind of job security you want is that you can get work when you need it – work that inspires you, pays you what your talents are worth

steps to building your own self-contained, self-powered job security by becoming a Champion Pain-Spotter and Pain-Solver …

Answer the question “what business pain do I solve?”

specific and unique to each individual

Become an expert on “your” flavour of business pain

you have to know what it looks like when it shows up

(Simon: the root cause not the symptoms, but the symptoms help me get there!)

lots of this is poorly understood because most of us think we do not need to understand about organisations

we have to know about everything that affects our life and our health

Study your talent marketplace

look at the talent market to see where your business pain is most likely to exist

e.g. in small, medium, large organisations

e.g when business is growing, shrinking, remaining constant or all orgs

do Employer List of these orgs to focus your job search efforts

Brand yourself for the jobs you want

you have to develop your brand

includes HVR, LinkedIn profile, consulting business card, list of DSS for your first pain letter

Zero in on target employers and/or clients

you will focus on their current situation, trends, news & anything else you can learn about them, their leadership, goals, challenges

use contacts in your network to find out what they know about them

Find your hiring manager in each organisation

locate the most likely person via role titles etc

use LinkedIn etc to research

if cannot locate that person, try to locate that person’s boss

need to understand who is called what in the org

Customise your HVR for the specific hiring manager you are writing to

needs to be customised slightly for the opportunity you are pursuing to make it as relevant as possible

e.g. summary, switch DSS

Send your pain packet in the mail

PL + HVR in one envelope through snail mail

same process for employment or consulting assignment

Track your progress and pat yourself on the back

track progress on same xls as target employer list & then celebrate

Putting the pieces together

think about what you have learned as you composed your pain letter

mangers will read your letter or they won’t – either is OK bcause the right opportunity will find you

Ariana’s story

a new millennium working person, sussing out pain everywhere, marketing person in wifi device mfr, lost the job, marketing in local community college, on the hunt again. wants more interesting & better paid role, happy doing consultant role too as would earn more money! sees pain where orgs not getting customers interested in their products but she sees success in what she does, now looking for orgs with that pain, local paper, read about a choc company in growth, sent PL, based on marketing in her wifi devise role

Exercise: My response to Ariana’s story

Interesting for me that this was seeing pain in a growth org where pain might not seem quite as obvious and simply builds on the pain hypothesis to further fuel demand for the org’s product. Again using skills from prior roles directly to the current org in question. Increasingly of the view that this is not difficult!

Ariana’s story (continued)

sent her 1st PL, not a no response but no role, option of a call next week, arranged a slot (did not say I can speak any time!), call, offer of consulting assignment to see if opening was needed! was a door opening slightly, no one else interviewed for the consulting role

Exercise: My response to Ariana’s story (continued)

A good first result, loved her being positive, small steps, did well with her use of words throughout the process

(see Ariana’s HVR – makes her sounds like a human being NOT a robot)

Exercise: Me writing about me as a human being

Decided to simply copy here the example Pain Letter that I did as an exercise for a real role

(not copied here for confidentiality reasons)

……

Chapter 21: Writing your human-voiced resume

An HVR sounds like a living person is talking not a machine

we have been taught to write as machines not people

not good for us or readers of CVs

you are writing for a human reader

humans like to read interesting things

HVRs more fun to read than trad CVs

How to put a human voice in your CV

to start think about the pain you solve

think about your flavour of business pain the way the hiring manager experiencing the pain thinks about it

how does your flavour of business pain show up?

how does the hiring manager become aware that s/he is suffering from the kind of business pain you solve?

typically people brand themselves in the most fall-asleepy way they can

Exercise: Why do people write about themselves in the same boring way?

Seen as the way to succeed, fall in line with trad practice, most CV writing hints/tips written with same corporate lingo recommended, story telling in the business world is still new but making huge inroads, having a personality not seen as ideal in recruiting process, people not told to use “I”, “me” etc, too much enthusiasm seen as a bad thing, no role models to do this in a fun way, never been encouraged to be exciting, just be factually accurate

…. resume …

taught to write about ourselves as bundle of skills/ credentials

BUT we have powerful stories to tell

we are unique from each other

once you understand the pain you solve, HVR

summary:-

1st sentence: tell us what function you perform and how you view your function

show you are excited about what you do

short DSS

show the hiring manager that you can join the dots between their role and you

short descriptions of jobs held so far

what you accomplished and how

things to avoid:-

do not use zombie words / phrases
do not list daily / weekly tasks you perform, reader can figure that out
do not talk about trophies

do not brand yourself by what other people think

take the reader to a different place, how you can help solve the reader’s pain

get the reader to focus on their pain and how you can resolve it

Writing your HVR, step-by-step

determine your brand

you are not stuck with just one
you can do several versions of HVR but you only have 1 LIP
lots of hiring managers will go to your LIP so it needs to bear some resemblance to each version of your LIP!
what area to focus on in this version

have your list of jobs handy

including start/end dates
you do not have to include every job you have had
do not need to go back to year 1
1-2 pages long and no more!
purpose of HVR is to get an interview

write your contact info

name & contact info at top (phone, email, customised LIP URL)
no need for full address, just city/state

compose your HVR summary

sentence that tells the reader what you do professionally and either why or how

branding statement to attract the right people and repel the wrong people
no time to waste talking to wrong people
2-3 sentences lon
most people under-value themselves – you have done amazing things in your life so far; kep a list of them in Mojo journal!

add your career history

list in reverse chronological order
for each

why join the org = set the stage for reader
2-3 DSS
if major change (role / location), 1-liner for why
years not months
location where worked
page numbers
be the real “you”

Exercise: What ideas does Alex’s HVR give you?

Made me think about what to include in an HVR and why. Transition of location comment was helpful. Loving the be “you” and if it attracts or repels that is a good thing! Need to sort out how I make that clear and how I communicate the real “me”. Also aware again of the brand of me and what do I want to do and how I communicate that in an HVR.

Note that I did an HVR version for a real role as an exercise so interesting reading this chapter 1 week later!

34 year career so far so too much for 2 pager! How do I cut that down when most roles I have done have some relevance to all roles I could do. And also lots of things I do outside of work is not covered by work roles but will be powerful as all are in-demand skills.

Good to see a real-life example! I struggled finding any on-line!

… resume …

Liz invented HVRs, PLs & rest of Whole Person Job Search approach in RR when she saw trad job search process broken beyond repair

we are evolving away from zombietastic resumes and talent-repelling online app systems

we are waking up to remember that only human beings powered by mojo fuel our org’s forward motion

do not panic if 1st HVR does not thrill you – writing takes time

little and often when you get time

Avoid zombietastic CV phrase

e.g. (so many!) results-orientated pro with bottom-line orientation; motivated self-starter, superior comms skills, meets or exceeds expectation, strategic visionary

when you sound like yourself in your HVR, you will feel more confident as you remember that only the people who get you, deserve you

SO why write zombie-speak to try and please people who do not deserve your talents in the first place

Exercise: start/continue writing your 1st HVR

Posted in here my 1st exercise attempt for a real-life role. Not included for confidentiality reasons.

Some comments: I did this version earlier in the book so before this more detailed explanation.

Too long I now realise.

Need to understand how I reduce 34 years career to 2 pages – not seen any examples of this duration.

Unique version of PL/HVR as I included for the 1st time on any CV I have done an unpaid ongoing role outside of work as it was directly relevant to the role and I guessed who the hiring manager was as I had a direct relationship that person and one of their colleagues as part of my ongoing online learning adventures.

This was/is one large experiment. I think I out Liz-ed Liz with what I did. Hopefully, she would be proud of me!

I will practice again when I have completed the book.

Also keen to review my LinkedIn profile to see if doing it along these lines would also be helpful!

…….

Chapter 22: A place to put your canoe in the water

no one tells us how to run our career

you have to find work, the right work, not a random job, on your own

you do not need to know your dream career path to start your talent-market exploration

you can choose a place to start your career research = a place to put your canoe in the water

use self-reflection to narrow search down for type of job that:-

you would enjoy
pay you enough to live on
would make great use of your talents

Exercise: My current ideal job titles

Customer Success Manager
Community Manager
Coach
Facilitator
OD Consultant
Collaboration Consultant

How much will I get paid?

conduct enough salary research to understand what your background and talents will be worth to employers in the jobs you are interested in

use salary research sites e.g Glassdoor reviews by employees often includes salary info

most job ads do not quote salary

Exercise: My online salary research findings

Community Manager: https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Job/community-manager-jobs-SRCH_KO0,17.htm

Customer Success: https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/uk-customer-success-salary-SRCH_IL.0,2_IN2_KO3,19.htm

OD Consultant: https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/uk-od-consultant-salary-SRCH_IL.0,2_IN2_KO3,16.htm

… resume …

salary research is basic form of research that every job-seeker should perform

other ways to research your market compensation value …

Cost of Business Pain Exercise

questions about the value you create for employers and/or clients when you solve their problems

make reasonable assumptions about cost of the big problem – the business pain – that you will relieve for next employer & use those to estimate cost of business pain you will solve for your employer or client

choose a hiring manager on your Target Employer List, answer the following:-

what is the business pain you intend to relieve for for this person?
why is this type of business pain a big enough problem for the person to consider paying you to relieve it?
how does this type of business pain cost the person’s company money?
how much money is the person’s company wasting as the business pain goes unresolved?

Exercise: My real-life response to a real role

what is the business pain you intend to relieve for for this person?

to build a world-class customer community that is seen as the role model for all other organisations to aspire to

aspire: direct one's hopes or ambitions towards achieving something

or where that community exists, to retain the good parts and eliminate the poor bits and to build as above
to get customers to self-serve answers to their pain
to build a community that begins for prospective customers when they are evaluating our product and other products
cf customer loyalty ladder

why is this type of business pain a big enough problem for the person to consider paying you to relieve it?

save lots of remediation work
part of the sales process
may reduce defections
leverage customer advocates on a platform to broadcast our/their knowledge
worrying that this is an issue that needs addressing – I just want to put the problem in someone’s capable hands to sort

how does this type of business pain cost the person’s company money?

direct money in answering specific customer problems/questions
may slow down adoption and slow market growth

how much money is the person’s company wasting as the business pain goes unresolved?

support staff costs
sales staff costs
opportunity costs as could be missing sales opportunities
000s of £

Basia’s Story

national accounts sales, not actively looking but bored, depressing thought of staying, no possibility of job crafting, stick to spec, no creativity needed, looking at marketing comms, education (coaching & trainng), leadership – did Path Exercise, revealing – reminder always wanted to be a teacher, also working in a group not solo, so took her more down coaching, training & leadership, did LinkedIn summary (without saying job hunting!), writes single HVR Summary, will apply in response to ads, builds Target Employer List, picks fastest growing ones as preference, stealth job search, does 5-item New Job Wish List, ignoring HR staff unless HR role, targeting hiring managers directly herself

Exercise: My suggested roles for Basia

Any line manager role for an operational team! Coaching is becoming key for employee engagement!

Trainer, facilitator

Manager, supervisor, team leader

Exercise: My New Job Wish List

high-performing teams

user of new tools or, ideally, about to implement

flexibility of office and remote working

14-28% pay increase

able to stay living where home is now unless exceptional role and it allows me to stay based at home

variety of work

working with multiple organisations

research

learning encouraged and needed to star perform

people who get me and want/need me to be me

people who have seen what I have done online

opportunity to implement WOL circles for a variety of use cases including new ones!

… resume …

to find your new career direction, look at what you do well, what you love to do and what employers / clients will pay you to do

look for where your passions (the things you care about), your talents (things you do especially well) & the business pain you solve all come together

Exercise: Things I love to do at home & work plus things I am good at – at home & work

Love to do:-

meet new customers/people
understand people’s interests and concerns
designing sessions to meet objectives
planning
reading
researching
communicating
writing content
learning

Good at:-

asking question
connecting with all sorts of different people
structuring complex problems
planning to meet an end goal
involving people
soliciting people’s point of view
doing new things with tools
chairing and facilitating meetings/workshops etc
leading

Reading job ads

no one has all qualifications listed in a job ad

apply if have 40% of them

send a pain letter anyway – it cannot hurt you

How do I find my place to put a canoe in the water?

to find out what you love to do, what you are good at AND that will also solve business pain for employers / clients, we need a research tool

go to https://www.indeed.co.uk & search for available positions in the region you are looking to work in using as search terms your lists above

Exercise: My findings of using my search terms in Indeed

terms used included “Workplace by Facebook”, “Microsoft Teams”, “knowledge management”, “Jive” and facilitation

not posting the search results that I retained, interesting experience of seeing results for the specific search terms

……

Heather’s “Aha!” story

use of “conflict resolution” in IT job ads was a surprise! an IT person with that skill!

decided to mention this in all her IT pain letters

Exercise: My response to Heather’s story

good use of terms to suss out the lie of the land

already had similar experiences in searching above, need to do more searching to spot more surprising linkages

a good way of understanding the pain in roles/businesses that I am less familiar with

Ezra’s canoe story

forced to choose new career as all jobs in that area went away, 45 so lots of years to retirement, rebranded as project manager as role he loved to do, HVR slanted in that way, exploring, fun sending pain letters, makes me feel more confident / competent, stepping into my consulting persona

Exercise: My response to Ezra’s canoe story

A challenge when forced to do this but at least it brings focus, some experience of confidence when sending a pain letter (in my case this was low risk), good to follow your passion and a field where there are lots of roles

Tierney’s canoe story

college athlete, 3 prongs for career – ski instructor, swim coach, nanny – none of the 3 resulted in a career,took stock, concentrated on leadership development to get experience and not just qualification, 2 part-time roles, earning more than 1 full-time role, expressed desire for full-time leadership role and employer gave ger role, put canoe in real water! great start, happy

Exercise: My response to Tierney’s canoe story

Good example of taking stock and making moves in the water, and expressing career desire to employer, good to see focus from the 3 original paths, analysis of situation and then acting on findings

Dieter’s canoe story

not clear when career searching, had “good at” and “enjoy doing” but not clear how to combine them in a job role, data processor to inform decisions, knew had to focus on one career path to brand myself, saw job spec that was “me”, no idea who hiring mgr was, sent pain letter to a senior exec, got interview with the hiring manager

Exercise: My response to Dieter’s canoe story

also saw a job ad that was me and did exercises for that specific role, ditto re not knowing hiring mgr, need to go for it, nothing to lose, adventure, mojo increasing etc

Exercise: Where will I put my canoe?

I find it informative reading job ads to see what gets majored on, mentioned, qualification listings, as I consider widening out from IT roles all my career seeing job ads and searching for keywords helps me understand roles that are out there that I am not familiar with, lots of insight from WOL tweets re what WOL advocates are using and doing with circles, earlier in this chapter I had pictures in my mind of putting canoes in varying types of water re still, fast-flowing etc and that may help me understand the state of the water as well as the pain for the hiring manager where the water reflects the organisation’s pace of “life”

Questions and answers about putting your canoe in the water

Q: no clue on what job focus to have
A: read job ads till you find one that grabs you or you say I can do that, send pain letters, you will learn by doing this, understand more about the types of jobs in your area of interest

Q: keep changing my mind re career
A: have as many as you want! called prongs, manage each one separately, HVR for each prong, beware too many as focus helps your branding

Take bigger steps

can you take one of these steps now?

take on a consulting project for friend / family member as launch pad for your consulting business
reach out to a local business person who you do not share mutual acquaintances with, ask for a coffee
send a pain packet

Chapter 23: Using prongs in your job search

Greta’s story

using 3 prongs – marketing, PR, fundraiser

all 3 would take her into a great job for her

3 versions of HVR

needs to wrap into one LinkedIn profile

Exercise: My thoughts on job search prongs

may come across as indecisive, what am I at my core, if all related in some way could be powerful combo, may get job or consulting assignment in my least fave prong, what if I want to do something new it may be easy to prioritise comfort zone type prong, what are my prongs, is my ideal role all n prongs combined, more work the more prongs I pursue

Emily’s story

office worker and part time student, now thinking about business pain she solves all the time! keeping a busy office organised, orgs have procedures but most people do not know them, disorganised means cost and poor customer service, writes procedures for small orgs who contact her direct “The Streamlined Office”, consult at night and weekends, earned $6k + her full time salary

Exercise: My response to Emily’s story

possible to earn on side on things that you love to do, love the marketing being word of mouth, creative lady, doing the business and being successful, sideline work is doable, what is my side hustle?

Joaquin’s story

IT person, taught himself info security as hot topic via courses, contractor, out of work for 4 months, no income over that time as freelance, went to agency as Info Security person, no roles, said had wider IT experience, roles going in those areas for $20/hour, asked for $40, got £30 for network role, started and was called IT security guy per his own branding, you have to decide for yourself what your talents are worth, you have to be prepared to walk away

Exercise: My response to Joaquin’s story

I would not have been as forceful prior to RR, fear still big but mojo increasing, would be a challenge if outside of work and trying to be courageous, an encouraging story and a lesson in simply proceeding down your own path and being yourself and what you want

Marcel’s story

social worker for govt, hard work, lots of paperwork, could not care for people as he wanted, no qualifications but lots of years experience, opening for Head of Talent Devt for international aid foundation, felt qualified for the role, did PL, drew parallel re training youngsters to go to developing world and going into housing projects for social work, interview, got role as only person who understood how youngsters felt, stopped worrying about qualifications and used experience at a human level

Exercise: My response to Marcel’s story

good use of business pain, good that qualifications rendered irrelevant as a result, good reframing, lots of resonance with me if I pursue prongs different to project mgt & biz reqs, fearless is good and going for it is good, reminding me of all my out of work experience re church leadership and activities as well as all the online learning

Exercise: My use of business pain

On commute today heard Pain-Solutions-Result from Storybrand (Donald Miller), exactly the same, reminded of #ClearTheFog, I bring clarity to chaotic / complex work/projects or for new things that are starting up, same process/skills just different contexts, project recovery is basically applying what the best project managers know they should do but are often not allowed to do and senior business people wonder why projects fail! BUT I have a preference for new things! When I manage anything I bring all of me to the table, powerful mix for any project. See the “Does your project have a pulse article”

Exercise: Teach one of the RR concepts to a friend to grow your muscles

Will seek to do this in a 1:1 call that I next have with anyone

Did this with Jon, an NHS Consultant, a friend at church 2 evenings ago, using a real-life example.

Also try to do this explanation all the time e.g. in final WOL circle meeting I ran through the whole end-to-end process for my real life example.

Chapter 24: Staying on your path

you are a business owner now because your business is your career

you can run your career like a business and you must

the new millennium requires it

the old world of work and career has gone

Staying awake and aware

to spot pain around you, you must have an awareness of the kind of business pain you solve

with this awareness & your senses you will talk with people and read and pay attention to the world around you in a way you may have never done before

lots of people do work and read nothing about that work often because it is boring to read

Exercise: My view of business news

hard to find a source that is ideal for me

did read The Economist for years earlier in my career when I did my MBA by Distance Learning, amazing writing and brevity to convey huge amounts of info

interested in everything so a challenge to focus but the “prongs” work may help me!

… resume …

most around us do not know how world of biz works, we have made the topic boring!

biz increasingly important and yet not covered in schools

biz is not complicated! as you will find out when you work in it

Beware of weenies

they try to make biz sound complicated but it is not

a weenie is someone who has :-

found a comfort zone in rules / structure of biz world or institutional world
stepped completely out of his / her human form just because they are at work
a love for rules / policies
a love for structure
a love for telling people what to do
a hatred of ambiguity
a hatred of people being creative and having fun

the biz world reinforces weenie-type behaviour

weenies get everywhere in the biz world

we forget how to laugh and be ourselves, to be vulnerable to our colleagues and being real

Bring yourself to work

you can do this! with your ideas, heart, passions, quirks, sense of humour

your employer / client is paying for YOU to come to work

still need to be professional at work

have to be open / friendly because that is what good community members do for one another

all happier when we can work together comfortably without tension

entrepreneurs have advantage as they have to flex all the time with changes in their biz environment

people who practice bringing themselves to work all the way have advantage over people who let their suits / job titles do their jobs for them

people who go “under cover” at work show up and do what they’re told, but their minds and hearts are far away or crusted over by layers of frustration and apathy

being a grown-up is simply hard and we do not talk about it

we can ease up on ourselves and focus on moving toward the life we want rather than playing by old rules & listening to people who may not have our best interests at heart

stop worrying about what other people think about us

only the people who get you, deserve you!!

a great way to begin taking control of your life and career

Exercise: Me and worrying about what other people think of me and me and goals being sidetracked

Increasingly getting more comfortable in my own skin and being me, the way that God has wired me, love hearing others talk about me and what I am good at

work on self-care recently has increasingly put people’s comments into perspective

no one sees me in every area of my life so arguably no one other than me can fully pass comment

being the real me therefore takes on more significance so people can pass comment on the real and the full me

a general worrier so that does not help … more self-care and talking to myself about this is needed

defo want to be the real me working with others who are the real them and both parties toning down the parts of us that make us difficult to work with

with some people it is as if we need a clean start to forget any history e.g. as if we were working with new customers

my inner critic/voice work is helping me track when I am talked down to, not treated as an equal, not treated as someone with a contribution to make, not allowed to work in flexible ways to get the most out of all members of every team that we are a part of inside and outside the organisation in question

re goals and being sidetracked, sometimes life does take over, trying to do RR as little and often to get through it in a ritualistic way at the start of most days to make progress

more focused on personal development and life path than ever before, this is still an issue of discipline (my One Word 2017) and focus (my One Word 2018)

Getting altitude on your life

part of our stress is due to living life at too low an altitude

hard to take the time to think longer term and envision the life we want

we do not dare to ask:-

what could my life be like if I changed everything I need to change?
what could my career be like if I were not afraid to shoot for the moon?

Exercise: What keeps me from getting altitude on my life and career?

the busyness of everyday life, time to spend doing this, it is hard, imposter syndrome, inner critic saying “you will never implement these grand plans” and “who do you think you are?”, writing CVs a challenge, not wanting to be put in a box

Exercise: My description of the life I would live if I could do anything

What sort of work would you do if you could do any kind of work you wanted to?

varied, detail and high level, working with lots of different people IRL and virtually, research, applying research and current knowledge to problems today, multiple projects, ideally not supporting the technical solution once implemented, helping people through business change, using the tools that I implement, some (not lots of) travel, world-class work and teams

Where would you live if you could choose exactly the spot you wanted to live in?

love the Isle of Skye! probably a move too far re work opportunities unless totally remote working, Achnacloich? Not in a major city, near countryside.

What would your living situation be like? Describe your dream home.

love watching Grand Designs, all open plan, large ground area, sliding windows/doors so inside and outside blurs (like ours now which I love), bigger work office space, tidier, book cases, screen for TV, films, PC, all electronically-controlled, music throughout, able to work as a team at home, great space for hospitality, ideally countryside but part of a small community not completely isolated, close-ish to services, shops etc, blending in to background, would be great to design our own home if budget was no object …

Who would live with you, in your high-altitude plan?

Rachael !! (Mrs Fogg), kids to have rooms to come back to as and when they leave, other rooms for stayover guests for work and play, granny flat for MIL

How would you fulfil your life’s mission, in your dream scenario?

Everything I do would be part of my Designing Your Life life and work plans

How would you like to be remembered, after you’re gone?

He loved God’s church in all its forms, he was a giver, he cared, he contributed, he was loyal, he was passionate, he made connections rapidly, proactively and reactively, he co-created, he showed up, he was a leader taking people to a better future, he wanted shalom (wholeness) for each person whatever that meant for each person, he loved his family, he was a thinker, he was always learning, he was respected, his advice was sought, he asked amazing questions that unlocked situations

What desire or passion that has been burning in your heart for a long time would come out and be realized in the dream life you’re envisioning?

I finally started doing something for my career that made huge use of my talents and desires far greater than all other roles in my career to date, total joy came into my life, I was sought after to do a variety of things

… resume …

high-altitude thinking pays off the most

incredible things happen when we do this

obstacles get smaller

happens frequently

your commitment to your path will change your path

walking in unknown territory grows your muscles

as we get older we forget how to take risks – we were fine when young!

you can teach yourself again!

Baby steps

challenge yourself to do things that may feel a little scary

go to networking event and call yourself a consultant when asked
design your ideal job or consulting project including BP you solve for your client/ employer & how that will help them
volunteer to speak at a job-seekers networking event & share your experiences
write a blog post and publish it on LinkedIn
write a one-page bio describing you doing your ideal working situation as if you were actually doing it

make it real in your mind first and then in reality

ultimately you will get to place where you will see opportunities to relieve pain everywhere you look – some consulting opportunities, others full-/part-time jobs

when working, half of brain will be on that job, the other on managing your career – this latter time & energy needs reserving because your job could end at any point

running your own business because off of this is intertwined

even running your own business means things can change if you do not succeed – your career still needs managing

Keyhole conversations

these are entry points - we do not know where these convos will lead

you can start convos wherever you go

you can meet new people anywhere

start convos

start convos about business pain & solutions!

we call this “Slipping through a Keyhole”

ask:-

generate consulting opportunities
find a new job
learn more about the biz world & your community

you can start these convos naturally everywhere – you are a consultant now

Exercise: My places to start a keyhole conversation

home, church, work, walking at lunchtime, shopping, Twitter, FB, Workplace, LinkedIn, waiting in queues, when looking for something/somewhere, when visiting other churches, meetups, conferences, whilst socialising, having haircut

Keyhole conversation script

example of chat at kids basketball match between a dad and a mum

Exercise: My view of keyhole conversations

lots of helpful questions to find out info and to encourage answers, taking an interest, this is not difficult, you just really need to be interested and demonstrate your understanding, empathy and how you can help, just a natural chat

… resume …

often people will not have the pain that you can resolve

this is networking … you are in this for the long haul

the more you do the more confident you will become

even when no fit, get a business card (or contact details) from the other person – mention LinkedIn connecting

Networking for people who don’t want to network

long term activity – like gardening

invest the time and energy

build a stronger relationship

focus on them not you!
your muscles grow when you give OR receive advice

Exercise: My networking prospects who I have not communicated with for a long time

current/former work colleagues
online learning contacts
people on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram
Twitter Chat contacts

Start meeting with people

meet/contact the people above

put yourself out, you are contacting them

put their needs above yours – let them decide place, time, venue

Exercise: My experience of networking and networking events

more of this since learning online

need to do better at what I need from these people

often unload the truck re resources and helpfulness – I just need to be careful

often spend too much time with each person

happier now than at any time in my life at doing this

just need the opportunities and to take those when they arise

You and your network

you are in the middle of your own network

name 15 people – friends, neighbours, colleagues, ex-colleagues, other people who you could chat with for a keyhole conversation

Exercise: My network

As I often say in WOL Circle exercises, I am good at doing this reactively as I stumble over people I know and new people that I a getting to know.

for me this is now about being more proactive (again!) and actually doing something about this

As I read the book I was thinking of client staff that I have never had this kind of convo with.

Also thinking about how I engineer this situation to job craft and win business closer to my specialisations and pain solving areas

Networks and RR

your network is a huge part of your RR journey

they are great conduits / connectors to consulting/employment work but also critical mojo builders – we feel good when we help others

Exercise: My attitude towards networking

love doing this these days

love understanding people, how they tick, engaging with them, making a connection

my giving attitude is helpful here

some awkwardness with some types of people but as soon as I get started it is all good

reading lots in this area to learn/practice new things, improving all the time

I enjoy it now !! how did that happen!! WOL Circles happened, Twitter happened!!

recently went to 1st IRL networking event which I intend to continue

Chapter 25: Your reinvention, your path, your life

Long-term employment is not the goal any more

one company for life is the exception not the norm today

the ability to get a job or to get paying work, such as a consulting gig, is even more important than your ability to do the job once you have got it

won’t do you any good to be an expert in your field if you do not have any way to get a new job when the old job goes away

so it is important as well as knowing how to do the job to know how to get the job

Exercise: My ability to perform a role and to get a role or consulting assignment to do that role

My ability to do the job:
In areas where I already have any form of experience that is all good. Where I have the knowledge but not the experience then I would need to quickly master that when doing the role. Excited at the prospect of doing that!

My ability to get work when I need it:
My standard fear response kicks in here again. I am getting more comfortable doing new things re networking. As I complete this book, I know I need to practice doing the pain letters, HVR, DSSs far more than I have had the opportunity to do so far. I know I need the confidence to do this and that will only come by doing it!

…. resume …

if it was easy to get a new job or consulting assignment, you would not need the tools in this book

Liz’s intention in this book though was wider … to shift the way you look at yourself and remind you of the power that you have to run your life/career

you are much starter, more capable, creative & powerful than you think

you can accomplish the ambitious goals you set yourself the minute you give yourself permission to set your sights on the life you really want

setting big goals and committing to achieve them against all odds is single best way to reach your goals

it takes hard work

give yourself permission to dream really big

envision those dreams and commit to them

reinvention is forever

even if you were asleep before, you are awake now and tuned into your own priorities

no one will make these decisions for you unless you fall asleep and you are at the mercy of your employer

Monthly review

To stay awake ask yourself these questions each month (or more frequently):-

am I happy in my work? am I doing work that grows my flame?
am I learning something new every day, week, month at work? am I growing new muscles?
am I being paid what my research and my experience tell me my talents are worth?
can I see the path ahead at my current job or in my current working situation?
can I see more learning experiences ahead at my current job or have I reached a point where the learning will slow down or stop entirely?
do I work among people who “get” me and therefore deserve me?
do I get to use my talents on my job or not?

Exercise: My monthly Reinvention Roadmap review at 23 December 2018

…..

Your work is your art

career paths were well-defined, not any more – some no longer exist!

new career paths now, many and varied, not straight line

applies to all sectors of society with new ways of doing everything

your career is a piece of art, it is your creative expression

you can take it wherever it goes

Exercise: How my personality shows up at work

very rarely as the full-on me, often suppress myself to not rock the boat, fewer inhibitions outside of work, the odd moment and it feels liberating when people see the real me, part of the suppression is me knowing that some do not “get” me at all, increasingly comfortable in my own skin however!

We are waking up

the new world of work and consulting is forcing us to wake up

we now realise that if we are going to have to manage our own careers anyway it may as well fit into our life and not the other way round

work is important but not as important as your personal life!

health and loved ones are top priority

your work will inspire you and get the time & energy investment it needs to blossom if your work is aligned with your mission

2 pages even of a HVR can never convey your spark, brilliance or sense of humour

you are much more than your resume

Exercise: My fave characteristics not in my CV

culture club

all age worship planning and delivery

life group leadership

WOL circles facilitation]

book clubs

Twitter Chats

connecting online with anyone and everyone

Workplace by Facebook community of learners

all my crazy learning adventures

reviewing books

Humans go to work

given that work involves human beings, work can and should be a lot more human than it often is

we are being reminded that when work is fun & stimulating, people get more excited about it and work is easier & more successful

work is a human place & people are reasserting themselves at work simply by coming to work as themselves rather than disguised as cardboard cutouts of themselves

when we force people to comply with fixed processes, this is a sure-fire recipe to get people to give only the minimum amount of effort at work

why should people care about their work if we have made them machines?

Exercise: My views on humanity at work

What are your ideas about how human or how mechanical work should be?
Lots of scope for being more human to get the best out of each person and not to have clones of each other. Would love for mine to be more human than it is. Some aspects need to be procedural to follow a best practice process.

Do you feel that you can bring the real you to work, to your business, or to your job search?
Increasingly so as I will perform better if I do with less inner critic. Interesting applying this to the job search example exercises. Liberating. Always said that selection process was 2-way but rarely behaved like that. Getting more encouragement at church for who I am as a person and what I bring to the table.

What your job gives you besides a pay cheque

people get excited with work that stimulates their heart and brain

so it is important to find a job that does that for you!!

your flame will not grow in a job that does not allow your spark and brilliance to show through

next exercise is a reminder of a list of what the right job brings you …

Contacts
Confidence
Clarity
Exposure to tools and methods
New ideas
A creative outlet
Affirmation
Feeling of accomplishment
Credibility
Alignment with your mission
Intellectual stimulation

Exercise: What I need in a job or consulting assignment

Which of the elements in the list are important to you? Which have you already experienced on the job and which are you looking forward to experiencing?

What do you feel you deserve in a job, apart from a pay cheque?

I am not posting my responses to this exercise.

…..

Moving forward from here

we all feel like we cannot bring all of who we are to work totally at times – so need baby steps

growing new muscles takes time

Listen to your body

to practice bringing yourself to work etc, start by paying attention to your body

notice how you feel at work, what lowers your mojo, what builds your mojo, people who drain your energy, who builds your energy

your body is sending you messages all the time

beware taking painkillers and not tackling root cause of the pain

Exercise: The activities that make me feel most like me

facilitating groups, prep-ing for group facilitation, inviting people to do new things with me, building collaboration platforms then using them, reading then note-taking then applying, working with new people, understanding new people, helping, coaching people, expressing an opinion, using videos/ music to communicate, taking the lead, filling a vacuum when it needs filling

Exercise: The activities that depress me

meetings where not everyone speaks and speaking is pointless as input not welcome or properly considered, wondering how I can vindicate myself but knowing I cannot, admin tasks including time recording, pointless calls/meetings with clients that they “need”, “all staff” sessions where no discussion, trying to get updates from people when it will interrupt them, waiting for people to arrive on time for meetings/calls, anything to do with technical things and related staff who are not interested in speaking your language, chasing people who do not have the same level of urgency as you

Exercise: When I have ignored my body

examples of how I have felt prior to a specific redundancy and not knowing how to tackle the issue given the line manager and some history of new people he had brought in

recent period where doing too much outside of work and being too relentless (also poorly with cold at the time)

becoming more aware that I need to respond to how I am feeling to make corrections or address or acknowledge the root cause issues and move on and not dwell on them

at times it has been bad just interacting with certain people when the relationship has not been totally open and transparent (usually when I have not been involved which in itself was a warning sign that I did not act on). My new RR self would have been better equipped!

Find your voice and speak your truth

as you grow your truth-telling muscles, you will feel increasingly comfortable sharing what you actually think and feel rather than reading from the standard script at work or in your job search

e.g saying “no” to the wrong things to bring right things in

you will remember that not everyone deserves your talent

if they do not “get” you, they do not deserve you

Exercise: How I will use my new muscles and mojo

be much more aware of what I should and should not tolerate and act on that

seek to use what I am capable of increasingly in my daily work and elsewhere

continue to grow them

make sure I use them

being more fearless

look to use them in any and all situations

be wary of anything and anyone that weakens my muscles and reduces my mojo

stretch myself

suggest more new things to do

invite people more

practice my new RR skills

The path ahead

career & life goals for next 12 months
next step on your path
celebrate by sharing your RR experience and learning with another person
what do you know now about yourself that you did not know before you started RR
who is running your career
what does it mean to run your career

Subject headings for Mojo Journal

my career direction
my brand
my job-search “prongs”
my market value, target pay level
my target employer list
my target job titles
my target hiring manager (by job title)
the business pain I solve in my work
my network
how I will keep my mojo level high

Checking in: growing muscles and mojo

great job walking the complete path

all 4 stages completed

you will not go to sleep on your career again

you are driving now … so many wonderful places to go

Exercise: My final thoughts on this process

Glad to have read the book

I am awake now!

I must review the notes and my responses over the past 4 months to consolidate my definitive view

Practice my new skills and go deeper so they become second nature – helpful that my One Word 2019 is “apply”!

Go pain spotting

Look for pain in everyone I meet as I get to know them

Include in the WOL Self-Care learning I am doing the lessons from here

Get the joy back as a priority – job crafting, side hustles, use the skills that give me energy

Develop my services (pain resolvers)

Show up as the real “me”

Remind myself that if people do not “get” me they do not deserve me

Recall and document dragon-slayer stories

Do the 2-pager human-voiced resume

Ask myself the monthly-review questions at least monthly!

Do not let the busyness of daily life crowd out this ongoing reinvention process and divert or stall me from my path

Liz Ryan’s Mojo Journal (and mine!)

I have everything i need to have the life and career I want. Not everyone will like my brand of jazz and that’s fine. Only the people who get me deserve me.

Pages

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Book: Reinvention Roadmap: Break The Rules To Get The Job You Want & Career You Deserve

Why this book?

My application of this book

Who the book is relevant for

My reading of the book

Book Notes

Foreword (Ken Robinson)

Introduction

Is this book for you?

What is reinvention?

What is the Reinvention Roadmap?

Why did I write this book?

10 rules you will learn how to break

How is RR organised?

RR Glossary

Are you ready?

My own reinvention roadmap story

Exercise (made up by me): Response to “Is this book for you?”

Exercise (made up by me): Responses to the "10 Rules You Will Learn How To Break”

Exercise (made up by me): What are my learning objectives as I read this book in the context of a book club?

Chapter 1: The Reinvention Roadmap and Your Mojo Journal

What is “mojo”?

The RR Steps

Your Mojo Journal

Exercise: What will I use for my Mojo Journal?

What does personal growth have to do with my career?

Exercise: What have you learned lately? Learning from other people’s learning

20 Mojo Journal Writing Prompts

Wild-Mind Writing

Exercise: 1st Mojo Prompts

Part 1: Getting Altitude

Chapter 2: It’s your life and it’s your career

Exercise: My Career Story

Losing a job

Exercise: Response to Elena’s Story

Feelings of Loss

Exercise: Feelings of loss (my experience of emotions during redundancy)

Jobs that aren’t a good fit

Exercise: Jobs that aren’t a good fit

Career Concerns

Exercise: My career concerns

Falling asleep on your career

Exercise: Falling asleep on my career

Exercise: Response to Keith’s story

Exercise: Changing careers or type of work

The Talent Marketplace

A new way to view your career

Exercise: Thinking about my career

3: Reinvention and the Human Workplace

Reinventing work

Employers treat job-seekers poorly

A new roadmap for job seekers

Where did the Reinvention Roadmap come from?

What is reinvention?

Exercise: What are your thoughts about these common reactions to personal reinvention?

Who controls your path – you or someone else?

Paddy’s story

Exercise: response to Paddy’s story

… resuming …

Exercise: People around me supporting my reinvention

… resuming …

Exercise: Most helpful idea from the book so far

Your body

Exercise: Get outside

Chapter 4: Your Learning and Your Path

Exercise: My path in learning and life so far

… resuming …

What do you love to do?

Be aware of your learning

Exercise: The top 3 things I have learned in my life so far

Why didn’t we learn this in school?

Exercise: Memories of School

Career Paths

Janine’s story

Exercise: response to Janine’s story

Reinvention is not an equation

Exercise: response to Janine’s researching

What are your alternate career paths?