Old Map, New World
Updating Your Mindset To Create Opportunities For A New and Improved Workplace
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This Edition Includes
Old Map, New World
Career and Workplace News
Resources (Podcasts+Newsletters) From Fellow Independent Business Owners
🌐 Old Map, New World 🌐
2 Weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending ASAE’s annual meeting and expo in Nashville Tennessee. This was the first annual meeting since 2019, and was a gathering of 5000 Association Executives, Consultants and Vendors that support the association industry.
If you’re not familiar with the Association and non-profit trade organization industry, know that these leaders have an interesting and compelling challenge - not only do they have to lead and manage their own organization, but they are also thinking about and advocating for their specific industry, profession or trade. Like many other industries, these leaders have faced a rollercoaster of challenges over the past 2.5 years - which is why it was both fitting and appropriate that the theme of the conference was “Disruption=Opportunity.”
Throughout the conference, I spoke with numerous executives who were dealing with myriads of disruptions and challenges, ranging from figuring out their own organization’s plan to improve employee retention or remote policies , to identifying new ways to drive revenue through new revenue streams to replenish ones that were depleted during COVID-19, to figuring out how newly enacted legislation is going to impact thousands of professionals in their industry and everything in between.
When I asked them if they had any through-lines or learnings from navigating unexpected challenges or disruptions over the past 2.5 years that they could draw upon to navigate these challenges I found a silver lining in their responses - “What got me here, won’t get me there”
There seemed to be an acknowledgement, at least among the executives that I spoke with, that navigating disruption and actually turning it into an opportunity requires you to briefly suspend the norms and views for how you approach and view a challenge and solution, and then to use a new perspective and through collaboration, ideation and tools, come up with a new solution.
This does not mean that old tried and true approaches are null and void, but using the same exact thinking and tactics when the conditions of the game have changed isn’t going to cut it.
As Albert Einstein once said, “You can’t use an old map for a new world,” and the reality is that for many of us, we are all operating in a new world.
There is nuance to this, of course. And for many of these executives, they have a reality to face in that they have stakeholders (Board of Directors, Staff, Members) as well as structures and (governance, systems, protocols) that they have to manage. And there are countless tales of change agents who fell short without the right approach to leadership, change management, and buy-in. But for the four days of the conference, speaker upon speaker and session after session gave each executive the chance to suspend their old ways of thinking, expand their perspective, and explore their curiosity about how might we think and work differently in this new world?” What would it be like to use technology in new ways to deliver value? What if we could experiment and fail, and learn from it to make the next solution even better
In the conversations I had with numerous association leaders, I appreciated the curiosity and eagerness to look at things differently, and the acknowledgement that the solutions to the disruptions and challenges they are facing might require them to think differently.
Contrast that with our latest war in the return to office debate. As we gear up for the fall, many of the work beat writers believe we’re headed to the next battle of employers vs employees in the Return To Office Debate. Companies like Goldman Sachs, Apple, and others have all put their mandates in place, and it appears that Executives have lost patience or believe that now is the time.
It should be noted that each employee and circumstance is different, but the general research shows that for people who can do their job remotely, most people want flexibility, and would want some ability to work remotely each week.
We also know that forcing people and mandates especially around returning to office do not always lead to positive results. But here we are again, using the tried and true approaches trying to win a game in the new world.
To quote Albert Einstein again, 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I am not a fortune teller, but using old maps for a new world doesn't make me optimistic about the mandates to come. But, like the theme of the conference, with disruption comes opportunity.
For the people who are willing, now is a time where you can rethink your tried and true practices for your employee experience and workplace culture.
If you’re struggling with hiring diverse talent, what new tweaks can you make to hire differently? If you’re struggling with employee retention, how might you be able to develop career pathways that enable people to stay? And if you’re training and learning efforts are falling short, what are new ways to use new tools, technologies and processes to engage learners in different ways?
There are endless other challenges in the workplace, remote, in-person or hybrid that need addressing, these are just a few. But one way to do this is to use this disruption as an opportunity to like the many association executives, re-think your old ways of thinking, and update your map for this new world.
💼 Workplace and Learning News 💼
What Every Company Can Learn About Career Mobility From The Healthcare Industry (Forbes) - While many companies desire for creating career mobility and pathways for their employees, few do it right. This piece, written by leaders from Guild Education highlights how hospitals like Secours Mercy Health, UCHealth, Sentara, and Children’s Hospital of Colorado are making this happen for their nurses presumably through education benefits provided by Guild. In addition to education, the key elements for career mobility include 1) work-based learning 2) access to social capital and 3) transparent view of opportunities
LinkedIn expands access to professional certifications from Meta, Oracle and more (Work-Life) - According to their research, the number of people on LinkedIn who have added certifications to their profile has increased 44% over the last two years. As a result, LinkedIn is looking for more ways to engage learners in its paid LinkedIn Learning product by allowing access to courses and certifications from giants like Meta and Oracle. This gives Meta and Oracle a chance to increase visibility of its courses and certifications, and a chance for LinkedIn learning to add some credible partners to its growing library of content.
Freelance, side hustles, and gigs: Many more Americans have become independent workers (McKinsey) - New research from McKinsey on the rise of independent workers points to more strength around an evolving workplace and workforce that supports more solo workers. 36% of respondents identify as independent workers, up from 27% in 2016. 25% select independent work for the autonomy and flexibility it offers.
Returning To The Office: The Current and Future State of Remote Work (Gallup) - Gallup key findings show that about 56% of full-time employees i.e. more than 70+ million U.S. workers can do their job working remotely and only two in 10 remote-capable employees are currently working fully on-site. The research also says that hybrid work has increased in 2022 (from 42% in February to 49% in June) and is expected to further increase to 55% of remote-capable workers by the end of 2022 and beyond.
Multiverse to Award Degrees (Personnel Today) - Multiverse, a UK-based workforce training and apprenticeship provider/marketplace has just been awarded degree granting powers for participants who complete one of their new apprenticeship programs. The 170 participants in this program will get apprenticeship training from partners including Rolls-Royce, Mastercard, and Trainline, a salary while they are enrolled, and a degree upon completion. This is a small but positive step, in providing accessible training within in demand fields that lead professionals to better career pathways, and to do so outside of the traditional higher education route.
➕Newsletter and Podcast Recommendations: Solopreneur/Independent Business Owner Edition➕
When you’re working as an independent, one of the best parts of being an entrepreneur is the chance to meet and build relationships with fellow entrepreneurs. And when you’re working by yourself, one of the hardest things to do is to find ways to both get clients and serve clients. Today, I want to highlight a number of entrepreneur friends who I have met over the years who have built podcasts and newsletters as a way of sharing knowledge and ideas, and building credibility in their space and market. There is something in here for everyone, and I hope you’ll find one that fits you, and subscribe, download, or follow along
Nathan Tanner: Progression(Newsletter) - Nathan is an Executive Coach and Author, someone who I’ve interviewed and featured many times over the years on my blog, and a former People leader at Neighbor, Doordash and LinkedIn. His Newsletter provides actionable and insightful career growth advice for professionals looking to level up their leadership and career
Jessica Wan: The Ampersand Manifesto (Podcast) - Jessica is a Leadership and Executive Coach, a former tech marketing executive, and a trained opera singer. In her podcast, she explores what fuels a “multi-passionate” life, and interviews guests who have multiple talents and strengths and who have found ways to bring them to life in their work and career.
Kathy Oneto: Sustainable Ambition (Podcast) - Kathy is a Leadership and Executive Coach and a former marketing executive. Her podcast explores how highly ambitious professionals can succeed on their own terms in work and life through different approaches to productivity and climbing the corporate ladder.
Priscilla Esquivel Weninger: The Early Career Moves Podcast Priscilla is a full-time management consultant and part-time career coach and podcaster. Her podcast aims to help BIPOC early career professionals with career advice to help them grow their career.
Ann Hiatt: Bet On Yourself (Podcast) - Ann is the Former Chief of Staff to Marissa Mayer, Eric Schmidt and Jeff Bezos, and is now a Leadership Consultant. Earlier this year Ann wrote a book, Bet on Yourself and released a podcast with the same name, which offers career and leadership lessons for professionals.
Yi Lin Pei: Tech Career Coach (Newsletter) - Yi Lin is a Director of Product Marketing by day, as well as a Tech Career Coach. She writes a newsletter for tech professionals which focuses on career guidance and tips for navigating the job search.
Jenni Fink (Fink Development Youtube Channel) - Jenni is the Owner of Fink Development, and recently launched a new YouTube channel to help to help professionals learn about career paths, transitions, and how to work effectively with a career coach
Have A Great Week!
Al