Act for Justice

Early explorations like Ben’s are smaller, faster, lower-cost investments than full-fledged career changes, cheap ways to gain insight into vaguely defined possibilities. They are projects, parttime ventures, and limited partnerships set up as low-risk ways to diversify a portfolio rather than “big bang” investments. With each experiment, priorities become clearer; we progress from openended questions to more serious tests. Crafting experiments allows us to move, even if gradually, from exploration to confirmation, the only way to avoid becoming stuck, like many would-be career changers, in the daydreaming stage.

One thirty-four-year-old New York business consultant, for example, never imagined he would remain a consultant for ten years. He always wanted to write history books, and his dream was to become a professor. This was his version of Gary McCarthy’s scuba operation. But unlike Gary, he never put that possible self to the test. He failed to act on his dream, never discarding it or exploring it further. Every time a job opportunity came his way (since he was not actively seeking change, the options were close to his current line of work), it compared unfavorably with his cherished image of himself as a historian. To really know, to generate usable information vis-à-vis his dream career, he would have had to test his fantasy. He would have had to engage in activities and relationships that would uncover whether he liked doing history work, whether he was good at it, and, eventually, whether he could defy conventional wisdom and earn a decent living as a historian.

Exploration is about formulating hypotheses or best guesses; confirmation is about rigorously testing preliminary conclusions. Confirmation turns best guesses into sure bets. As in scientific discovery, the less we know about a phenomenon, the more openended our questions. As relevant knowledge builds up, we become more precise about what we seek to learn, and we start to anticipate (more and more accurately) what we will find. Because hypothesis-testing experiments (for example, taking a new job on a provisional basis) are usually more costly than exploratory experiments (for example, working on a side project without leaving one’s job), we prefer to defer the former until we have solid data suggesting that we are going in the right direction.

Variety for its own sake is not enough. In fact, a prolonged exploratory phase can be a defense mechanism against changing, and it can signal to others that we are not serious about making change. A true experimental method almost always leads to formulating new goals and new means to achieve them. As we learn from experience, we have to be willing to close avenues of exploration, to accept that what we thought we knew was wrong and that what we were hoping to find no longer suits us.

Taken From : Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career

In the exploratory phase of any investigation, looking into not one but a broad range of options is essential. Variety allows comparison and, therefore, discrimination: “This resonates and that doesn’t”; “I like X better than Y”; “Even in the best of possible worlds, I really don’t want to do Z.” Thanks to the comparative method, Ben was able to refine his hypotheses about what was more and less appealing to him. For example, he realized that he preferred the short time frames and immediate feedback of his consulting work to the long horizons of a research career. He also learned something new: Impact really mattered to him. Neither academic work nor for-profit consulting made a direct difference in the world in the same way his nonprofit work did.

Since Ben had several experiments going (a good design principle, as we will see), he was able to continue comparing and contrasting experiences as he moved from exploration to confirmation. The comparative method allowed him to rigorously test alternative hypotheses about what he wanted. One test was the road-not-taken test. Ben had always kept the possibility of moving into a corporate managerial position (a common turn for business faculty who want a more hands-on role) on the back burner. When the Manworks position opened up, he was forced to respond to a possibility he himself had created. At that point, it became clear to him that he did not want it.

Ben’s reaction to the Manworks opportunity helped him narrow his quest, and it also led him to reframe the questions guiding his search. Until then, his focus had been on the substance of the work: Which tasks do I enjoy most, and which do I enjoy least? What kind of work am I best at? What kind of work stresses me out? The road-not-taken test gave him insight into a set of drivers he had only been vaguely aware of. Since Manworks was not particularly well run, (that was why they needed him), he would be coming in as the expert, coaching them and exploiting a knowledge and experience base he already had rather than stretching himself. At Connector, it was the other way around. He was the protégé, at least at the start, and this assignment would allow him to grow. The mentoring he was getting from Tim made all the difference. In not pursuing Manworks, Ben realized he was not looking for a different job but rather looking for role models—people he admired, whom he wanted to learn from and work with.

The ability to compare and contrast also came in handy when Ben had to choose between doing the nonprofit work from his position as a business school professor and doing it as the new director of Connector. This was tough because, at least in theory, the substance was the same (namely, working with nonprofits). As is typical, some of his friends told him he was nuts to consider quitting such a good job. His coworkers told him they needed him, that in a couple of years he would get tenure; then, they argued, he could do anything he wanted. It made sense—except for two things. One was the toll it was taking on him, which his wife could see better than he. And, the other, as she pointed out to him, was that the substance of the work was not at all the same: Continuing as professor, even after tenure, would mean having to divide his time among many activities, most of which were peripheral to what had become his core interests.

So when an offer to run Connector materialized, Ben took it. Technically, it was yet another confirmatory experiment, since university rules allowed a two-year leave of absence, after which he could have his old job back. But the hypothesis was confirmed, and he resigned from the business school at the end of the twoyear period.

Taken From : Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career

To craft an experiment is to act in order to see where the action leads. It is to ask the most basic question: “What if?” Experiments come in many forms: Some are unintentional, others are conducted by design, some are exploratory, others, confirmatory. Scientists use the term natural experiment to refer to situations that occur naturally, without experimental manipulation, yet allow a clean, comparative test. The fact that life events separate some but not all twins, for example, creates a natural experiment that can be used to sort out the effects of nature and nurture. But, in most cases, the only way to learn what we want to know is to design a test ourselves.

Exploration means taking action only to see what happens, without trying to make a prediction or test a hunch. An exploratory experiment is a probing, playful activity by which we get a feel for things.^[1] Exploratory experiments succeed when we are able to formulate more specific questions, or when they lead us to a hypothesis or educated guess. Then comes a more rigorous test, a confirmatory experiment, in which the objective is to learn whether the hypothesis is supported or refuted by the evidence.

Let’s take a closer look at Ben’s experimental method. At the start, in that familiar “I’m not looking to change but something’s missing” period, Ben pursued different interests and worked on various projects. He was not asking, “What if I were to do this for a living?” Not yet. But his experience revealed some patterns, confirming, for example, that he enjoyed having a hands-on role in an organization.

His natural experiments were simple “we talk with our feet” tests of his true inclinations. How Ben allocated his work time was much more telling in deed than anything he might have been able or willing to articulate in words. It was clear to him that he was spending more time outside the business school than inside. He was spending more time on nonprofit work than on academic research or consulting to for-profit organizations. And within the nonprofit realm, he was spending most of his time on the project with Tim. The aphorism “I know who I am when I see what I do” (a twist on Alice in Wonderland’s famous words to the Red Queen^[2]) proved true for Ben.

Natural experiments get the ball rolling. They give us a peek at possible directions. But they only take us so far. After a certain point, a hypothesis starts to materialize, and another kind of test is required. Exploratory experiments are designed to answer fairly open-ended questions: Would I enjoy doing X? Could I be good at doing Y? Would I be able to make a living doing Z? Once a possible self begins to take form, we need to take more active steps to test the possibility more rigorously. Otherwise, we stay in the realm of daydreams.

As his hunches about enjoying hands-on and nonprofit work strengthened, Ben sought more opportunities to do those things within the scope of his job as a professor. In fact, he began to see the advantages of pursuing his new interests from inside, rather than outside, the university. Realizing that his job was indeed a great platform, he explored a variety of business school roles and possibilities: He worked more closely with a new group created to study social enterprise, taught in a course for nonprofits, wrote a case study about new models for nonprofits, and attended conferences. As a result, his contacts in this new realm grew, and he saw, with increasing clarity, how well his expertise in organizational design applied to change leadership in the nonprofit realm. He created a new niche for himself. Now he had to figure out how to best exploit that niche and whether to do it as an impartial observer, as an academic, or as a player.

Taken From : Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career

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There was no grand plan, just a deepening of involvement over time. About three years ago, when I looked at how I was spending my time, I could see that my priorities were shifting. I was spending less and less time on the projects that were going to get me promoted as a professor. I was spending more and more time on my outside activities, and especially on nonprofit consulting projects. Eventually, I was offered the job of managing partner of Connector, a nonprofit start-up. If I said no to this opportunity, I was not sure I would ever say yes to anything, and that really made me stop and think. It was a tailor-made situation.

Since his days as a graduate student, Ben knew the academic world was a less-than-perfect fit for him. He loved the intellectual stimulation of his field, organizational design. Institutions and their problems fascinated him. But he found research lonely and writing laborious. He enjoyed teaching, but he wished it took less out of him. He often found himself stressed and resenting the time and energy his career consumed.

A great advantage of being a professor at a prestigious business school, friends and colleagues kept reminding him, was that it provided a great “platform.” He had the freedom to work on a variety of projects, and contacts and resources were abundantly available. So instead of exploring alternatives to working as a professor in a university—after all, he had invested six years in getting a Ph.D.—he built a portfolio of diverse outside activities including writing, teaching, consulting, and board work. Yet he knew, come promotion time, the academic up-or-out system was relentless in rewarding research exclusively. Read the rest of this entry »

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By far the biggest mistake people make when trying to change careers is to delay taking the first step until they have settled on a destination. This error is so undermining because, as we have seen, we learn about ourselves by doing, by testing concrete possibilities. And few of us change careers from one day to the next. We don’t, as a rule, leap into the unknown. Instead, most of us build a new working identity by developing the girders and spans as “side projects”—extracurricular ventures that allow us to test possible selves without compromising our current jobs.

Crafting experiments refers to the practice of implementing the small probes and projects that allow us to try out new professional roles on a limited but tangible scale without committing to a particular direction. This chapter will show many ways to set up experiments that work. As Ben Forrester’s story illustrates, this experimental method is not just a means of exploring known possibilities; it is also a way of creating unforeseen ones. Moreover, experimenting is not a one-shot deal: It is a method of inquiry, one we can use to confirm or disconfirm our hunches about what options are feasible or appealing. Experiments allow us to flirt with our possible selves.

Taken From : Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career

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Most of us know what we are trying to escape: the lockstep of a narrowly defined career, inauthentic or unstimulating work, numbing corporate politics, a lack of time for life outside work. But finding an alternative that truly fits, like finding our mission in life, is not a problem that can be solved overnight. It takes time. Whatever the first step, the process gradually changes the nature of what we know and what we seek to learn. Learning happens in cycles. Early cycles focus on the most immediate (or surface) problems. Later cycles provoke the bigger questions: How do I put it all together? What other facets of my life do I need to adjust?

Even when we start a career transition with these deeper questions in mind, it can take time to discover what we truly want to change. Trying to tackle the big changes at the beginning can be counterproductive. Our customary mind-set about who we are and what others expect undermines us in myriad subtle ways. Just as starting the change process by trying to identify one’s true self can cause paralysis rather than progress, starting by trying to change basic assumptions inevitably leads to an exercise in abstraction and, all too often, avoidance of real change. We are simply not equipped to make those deeper changes until we come to understand what they really mean, not as concepts but as realities that define our daily lives.

Transformation, then, happens less by grand design or careful strategy than by the small wins that result from ongoing practices that enhance our capacity to change. As part 2 of this book makes clear, getting from an often clumsy or superficial first effort to the deeper changes we seek is a matter of working and reworking identity as an ongoing practice. Practice makes perfect, eventually allowing us to reaffirm certain fundamental truths about ourselves and to anchor those with new premises that will guide us in the next phase of our professional life.

Taken From : Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career