opolja/businessman
By James Egbert
Branch Chief, Human Capital Strategy, US Department of Health and Human Services
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One of my favorite questions is: "If all jobs paid the same, what would you do?" I've informally asked this question to hundreds of people in all walks of life and most often the answer is not what they are currently doing for work. It is usually something very different that they offer with a bit of hesitancy, almost like they are embarrassed to say it. When this happens, I am curious why. Why be hesitant to say what you would do for work if money was removed from the equation? I get it — we all have bills to pay. Or, we think it is called a job because we trade our time, energy and attention to earn a wage. Perhaps at some level, if it's a matter of survival, this makes sense. But I wonder.
As the future of work shifts to a more entrepreneurial and interconnected modality, with artificial intelligence now augmenting human intelligence, maybe now is a great time for you to make a change to your current career, or find a new job more focused on your talents. Before going on, let's take a moment to explore this concept of the "future of work" so often referenced in workplace news.
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The Shifting Future
I offer an example from personal experience. In the mid-1980s when I was an Air Force Recruiter stationed in Burlington, Vermont, the Air Force had a brand promotion unit called the Air Force Orientation Group (AFOG). AFOG provided recruiters with various promotional tools to help interest people to join the all-volunteer force. One of the tools was the Nav-Star Global Position System (GPS) information display. The display offered a look at the emerging navigation technology of the future.
There I was, standing beside this minivan-sized futuristic display in the middle of the then Burlington Mall, explaining to mall visitors how this GPS satellite system would work. How it was being put in place in space, satellite by satellite. And how it would, one day soon, help us in all kinds of ways, helping commercial aircraft navigate the sky and ships navigate the oceans. And each of us would be able to use this free system to get real-time driving or walking maps to take us anyplace in the world. Standing there in my crisp uniform, surrounded by blinking lights, I looked intriguing, and people would stop and look and ask questions. I did my best to answer their questions and make the connection to how joining the Air Force was a great career option. But in retrospect, I think the promise of GPS was so far in the future that it only registered as a foggy (pun intended) idea of science fiction lore in my mind, and perhaps those of my listeners at the time.
Fast forward to today and that future is here, with nearly all of us using GPS in ways we would never have thought possible a decade or two ago. The moral of the story: There has always been and always will be a new future of work emerging. And not just because of the recent pandemic, but because of changes in technology and social constructs. Think about Moore's law, which states technology doubles every two years (or as some say now, even less than two years). What was once a far-out concept turns through innovation into our new reality — think how quickly we went from having to use cash in taxicabs to credit card readers being ubiquitous to Uber and Lyft nearly replacing taxis.
Redesign Your Work Experience
So, back to the future of your work. What will it be? What could it be? What if you could lift the fog of day-to-day work and plan out a new future of work for you? One that better uses your talents and pays the bills? Would you be interested?
If your answer is yes, then in this article and my next one, you may discover the value of a five-step career planning model I developed to help you redesign your work experience. A way to think and act that ushers in a new level of engagement and satisfaction in your work of the future. This is a way for you to be the expert in your life's work. I use the acronym TIPAS to name each of the five interconnected phases of this career development model. T is for talent, I is for ideas, P is for planning, A is for acting and S is for study. Based on the Shewhart Cycle developed in Bell Labs decades ago, this learning cycle, if consistently applied, is a powerful method for advancing the redesign of a career path — especially when W. Edwards Deming's focus on the study phase is added.
Here's an introduction to the basic process:
• Start with identifying your talents (T).
• Then generate ideas (I) for how to make a living (or accomplish another career goal) using those talents.
• Develop a plan (P) for enacting your talents to make money (or pursue your alternate goal).
• Start acting (A) in new ways that advance your plan.
• Finally, take time to reflect, journal, collect and review your performance data to inform your study (S) of the results of putting your talents in motion to create a more fulfilling career experience.
For those who take this approach seriously, I say they are on a Talent Quest.
In my next article, I will go into each of the five steps in more detail. In the meantime, I want you to consider: If all jobs paid the same, what would the future of your work look like?
All postings are the opinions of the author and do not express the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the United States federal government.
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