| | | | | The Deeper "Why" Behind Midlife Career Crises | | | For people in their 40s or 50s, career crisis is now so common it seems inevitable. The usual triggers include life changes, the collapse of longstanding business models, and economic turbulence. | | | But career crises also arise from a less obvious, deeper "why" — one rooted in dramatic workplace changes over the past five generations. Let's examine four stages of modern workplace history to uncover this deeper "why." | | | | The Craft | Bootstrap Era | | | Throughout the greater part of the 1800s, most working adults in the United States were self-employed, based on either an inherited occupation or a learned craft. People sold what they produced and were deeply connected to the end result of their labor. Most took pride in and assumed personal responsibility for the quality of their work. Self-employment, not employment within an organization, was the norm, and lifelong self-employment was widely expected. | | | We might call this the Stage 1 Craft | Bootstrap era of modern workplace history. | | | | But industrialization dealt a knockout blow to this era. By the early 1900s, most people were working in organizations rather than on their own. Remarkably, in just two generations the United States had evolved from a society of self-employed people who sold what they produced — and were deeply connected to their work product — to a society of professional employees who sold their time and were largely removed from what they produced. | | | The industrial revolution popularized the idea that people should specialize in functional tasks that "plug in" to organizations: a machine model of interchangeability and repetition. People sold their time and became largely removed from the end results of their work. | | | Organizations were highly bureaucratic, and lifetime employment within the same organization was a common expectation. | | | | But this task/machine model inevitably led to alienation, physical injury, and even moral despair for too many workers. What's more, as the economy diversified, internationalized, and became more service-oriented, organizations needed workers to become more self-directed in the workplace. This ushered in the Semi-Autonomy Era. | | | Workers continued to labor in machinelike bureaucracies, albeit with improved safety and less physical risk. Employers also recognized that workers became more effective when their personalities were matched to job responsibilities, and that some autonomy improved efficiency and job satisfaction. Yet long-term employment, or serial employment in the same or a related field, was still the norm. In their quest for prediction and control, organizations emphasized formal operations planning. | | | This approach was embraced by employees in "career planning" aimed at achieving orderly professional progress. | | | | But growing consumer prosperity and the accelerating shift away from manufacturing and toward services rendered this model obsolete. | | Economic turbulence, globalization, and the rise of the Internet brought both uncertainty and a need for greater worker autonomy. In turn, growing independence encouraged workers to pursue self-fulfillment both on and outside the job, especially amid the increasingly temporary nature of employment and the emerging "gig" economy. Short-term employment and multiple careers over a lifetime became the norm. Services accounted for a full 80% of the economy.
Meanwhile, the failure of "predict and control" in a rapidly changing world led organizations away from formal planning and toward business modeling: identifying the precise benefit an enterprise delivers to its customers. | | | Progressive workers followed suit, admitting that "career planning" had become irrelevant in a chaotic world. | | | | A growing number began focusing on modeling their work: grasping the logic and emotion underpinning how they create and deliver benefits to customers, then testing and modifying their "personal" business models to progress both personally and professionally. | | | A Recipe for Career Crisis | | When we recognize that neither people nor organizations belong exclusively to one stage of workplace history or another, we see a deeper "why" behind career crisis.
For example, people who work in school systems, government, or the military may recognize strong Task/Machine Era (Stage 2) tendencies in their workplaces — but such tendencies are incompatible with the need for Stage 4 professionals to function autonomously.
Similarly, many people who yearn for deep, Stage 1 connection to the fruits of their work find themselves struggling in Stage 4 enterprises, where they are largely isolated from the product of their labor.
Finally, those who work in modern meritocracies often grew up with parents or grandparents who spent their lives in Stage 2 or Stage 3 bureaucracies. Such an upbringing indelibly affects attitudes toward work. Even today, who doesn't derive at least some comfort from the repetition and routine characteristic of a Stage 2 workplace? | | | A Method for Resolving Crisis | | None of this is meant as a nostalgic yearning for bygone eras in a world that has changed irrevocably. But today we have a powerful method for identifying when our organizations, our teams — or we ourselves — are operating under multiple, incompatible workplace assumptions. This method enables us to make good sense of our organizations, the teams in which we work, and both the value we deliver and the values we hold as individual professionals. This method is business modeling.
Business modeling is a simple way to visually depict the logic by which an organization, team, or individual creates and delivers benefits to customers. Progressive meritocracies today use business modeling to understand, test, and pursue strategy — and to gain advantage over less-enlightened competitors.
Self-directed individual professionals do the same. They use the technique to understand the enterprises and teams in which they work — and to describe, test, and change their personal business models.
Those concerned with resolving career crisis — whether as team leaders, human resource professionals, consultants, coaches, spouses or individual sufferers — will do well to look beyond life changes and the external environment. When they model both the workplace and the individual professional(s) involved, they are sure to uncover a deeper "why." | | | To find a qualified business model training or coaching professional, visit the Business Model You® Certified Practitioner online directory. Or learn more by visiting the Business Model You community. | | | | | | |
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