A job is an occupation, a career is something built through the love of passion.
Those building a career know the why, they are fuelled by the reasons they do what they do.
Those in a job know only the what, only the what must I do to keep this job and my “safety net” in life.
A career is a lifelong journey of exploration, the what if, the I could and the this would be amazing to try. It can be an arduous journey full of challenges no doubt and these will shape you, make and even at times break you.
Yet it is the building of a career that can define you, allow you to share with the world what you’re truly capable of, to understand maybe that this is what you were meant to do.
A job is a job, it’s an occupation that pays the bills, keeps the food on the table, it’s a steady approach to the modern way of living. A job is like a ship permanently in the harbour and ships were not made to stay in a harbour.
Careers are full of opportunities, full of ways to better and challenge oneself.
Careers are an opportunity to do something, be something and leave something bigger than yourself. They are joy, sadness, excitement, passion, failure and success all rolled up into one.
Jobs are like a bus, they come and go but rarely do they deviate from the”planned route”.
A career can be a labour of love, you’re building something that brings you purpose and hopefully joy. It’s a route for you to be of service to others and embrace all the opportunities life can bring if you’re willing to accept the challenge of course.
But a job or a career are just work you say, I’m not so sure my friend.
That’s what it’s all about really, the work, or is it?
Those who have jobs do the work with no questions, those who have careers are creating the changes to make our world that little bit better.
Do you ever think about what you’ll say when it’s all said and done?
I had a job and it was ok, it paid the bills and filled the days or did you do something more?
For those who chose the career, they built, they fought, they were lost at times but they built something that was true to themselves. It was hard, yet it was fun.
So what do you want?
The red pill or the blue pill?
A job or a career?
The choice is yours, but the real difference between a job and a career? Maybe it’s about leading a life worth living or living a life.
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This isn’t an anti-productivity post, so all you life coaches and productivity gurus out there can calm down.
In my line of work, I see streams of articles focused on improving people’s capability and supporting in their ongoing development (whatever that means for you).
One point that seems present across many publications I read is the concept of waking up super early to win the day, own the day or destroy the days as some of these have presented it.
A collection of thoughts on challenging the norm, lifestyle design and doing stuff that makes you happy.
“Because that’s the way we’ve always done it” — this is the single most dangerous sentence in the world today, this thought pattern prevents progression and the opportunity to find happiness.
It seems as a society, we are reaching a turning point in our beliefs on how the world of work should work for us as individuals and not as a basic blueprint that all most follow.
What do I mean by this? I’m referring to the archaic principles that every human on the planet works to, the same shift pattern (commonly 9–5) across the same days (again commonly Mon-Fri) as for whatever reason this is deemed as the only times that people can be creative and other people must be able to see you at those times to make sure you’re being productive and creative — seriously, someone actually said that to me.
But let’s be realistic, the framework for a workday that most of us follow on today’s world is complete BS. You can’t tell someone when they need to be creative, nor can you guarantee that every single person will be productive in the same timespan. It just doesn’t work like that, our minds don’t work like that.
It also makes me chuckle when I hear people say that you need to be in an office to do real work and that you can’t do this from other locations as it not as efficient, again total BS.
I feel like many people and especially those who sit across senior management and leadership positions are often close minded (not all, but a high number still are) to the ways of being agile, adaptable and embracing technology solutions. Today’s tools allow us to be connected like never before, whether that’s through sharing ideas or communicating, this can all be done in real time without the need to be in a physical space together.
Now I’m not saying that you should never come together in a shared space or have physical meetings as many people find this useful and prefer to operate this way, which is fine, yet we do have other options that needs to be recognised too.
Being in an office doesn’t = being productive nor does working remotely = not being able to be productive and creative.
In many ways, this framework and the practice of not wanting to evolve from it are a large form of control. It’s the control that mostly insecure people feel they need to have over other people, as of course controlling everyone and everything will guarantee results right? I’ll leave you to ponder that.
A great deal of this archaic style of thinking is based on a parent-child relationship and I feel sadly a lot of workplaces still run this way, in which employees view their managers as the parent who they cannot defy or disagree with, it’s a cultural theme that runs through many workplaces.
What we should move to is an adult to adult relationship, which is built on trust and of course repercussions if that trust is broken. We should place trust in each other to deliver the work we’ve been given in the way that suits our personal style and of course you would have structure around this in forms of milestones and deadlines, but not to the hours or locations you spend delivering this.
What works for one doesn’t always mean it will work the same for the other. As an example, you may have one colleague who finds that between 8am — 12pm this is their most creative, productive, innovative (add in another other adjective you wish to use) time and that’s great. On the other side, you have another colleague who finds their time for these activities is between 3pm — 8pm, both produce the same high quality of work, yet the latter example will routinely be labelled as not appropriate and this person will generally be forced to move their time to fit the “core” working hours of the business.
You can once again use similar examples for working locations and compare the output of an employee who spends all week in the office and another who spends it in a cabin on a lakeside.
The employee who is office bound can produce the bare minimum in terms of output but they are deemed as productive as they can be seen, yet the employee who resides in the cabin can produce 10x the output, which means better business performance yet they will be labelled as not productive as their controlling leaders cannot see them in front of their own eyes doing the work. It’s a sad state of affairs really and highlights for all the advancement we’ve had in a number of areas, the workplace has remained stagnant when it comes to lifestyle design or at the least, playing a lot of catch-up.
I can imagine a number of you reading this may have the opportunity to work from home once a week and you feel that’s progression, but really it’s not. It’s still a form of control, you’re told that you can only be away from the office for one day and that day is usually determined by someone else.
Don’t even ask to work in another location for one day or have a different working hours pattern for one day in the office because that’s just not right as you’ve already had your one working from elsewhere pass right? Face it, you’re still being controlled.
Recent research shows that in the UK, we are the least productive workforce in Europe, 27% less than Germany and losing billions to productivity issues.
We spend 31 hours a month in unproductive meetings (we’ve all been here) and 73% of us do other work during those meetings (guilty!)
YouGov reported in 2015 that 37% of British workers think their jobs are meaningless.
The Evening Standard’s survey results revealed that 80% of Londoners hate their jobs.
All of this data has roots in our working culture, the opportunity to work flexibly, smarter and trust between people. We should be looking at insights such as these and taking actions to make things better, not chaining ourselves to ancient thinking.
Be the change
So, now you’ve read all the context and somewhat moaning about the culture of work in many organisations today, you should ask yourself, what can I do to change this?
It’s simple in theory really, you need to be the change, be an example by designing your own workplace lifestyle and changing the way the game is played.
This doesn’t mean quitting your job, going to a startup or becoming an entrepreneur or any of that — that’s not the answer for those of us that enjoy the work we already do. Everything doesn’t have to be about quitting your corporate job to be successful and happy, I 100% feel you can have these things and more working in a corporate career so let’s not get the essence of this piece twisted.
You want to set out to disrupt the norm and change mindsets and the culture of your business in the right way. This can de done in the style of having adult conversations about the realities of work today and how technology, neuroscience and data can support in a healthier, happy, more productive working life.
Ultimately you have to live this and as cliched as it sounds, you have to be the change that you want to see in the world. Nothing ever changes by watching from the sidelines with a bucket full of ideas and not finding the courage to speak up.
What you can do
Let’s look at some tips to help you design a lifestyle that benefits you and make sure that you deliver performance for your company at the same time.
Grab a notebook and keep a journal over the coming weeks when you felt most creative, productive or innovative. When were these times? Where were you and what were you doing? This could be as simple as having a coffee with a colleague at 7pm at the office or while hitting a workout at 11am, it’s all personal to your style.
Review your answers to identify trends and insights so you can see where/when you work best and what supports this.
Schedule a meet with your manager to open the conversation on a smarter working approach for you and how the company can support this. Use the insights you’ve gathered from your research to show real world data, it’s difficult to argue with data.
Propose a test period to show how your approach could work.
This is not a complete guide to what you should do and nor have I written this piece to be that, as that is for you to design. These tips are ideas for you to consider when exploring how to live a more smarter working lifestyle.
Change is in the here and now. The way we work is constantly changing due to the brilliance of technology, yet it still seems very taboo to talk about how how we can use the opportunities available to design a better lifestyle for work.
A number of organisations are forward thinking and doing good work in this space, but for many of us, we need to make the conversation bigger. We’ve seen those of my generation aka millennial’s and the upcoming Gen Z challenge more of these stereotypes as they rate benefits of flexible employers more highly than previous generations.
Why should I make the change?
Do you want improved health, relationships, bank balance and maybe even alter the way you view life ? then change must happen to reach these.
If we take a look through history, all of those who brought about the frameworks, processes and systems we adhere to today were in the minority. As in some corners of today’s world, those who looked to bring about significant change were labelled as mad at the time, yet we’ve come to accept the use of many of those ideas as the norm today.
If you want to change your work lifestyle, to design your own and lead a healthier, happier life , then you must use your voice, challenge the norm and change the way the game is played.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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How many times have you been asked the question, “So, what do you do?”
I wonder if people even know what they mean when they ask that.
I usually respond to this question with comical answers for my benefit. Sometimes I revert to my completely sarcastic self. I’ll say, “Well, I’m a confused late-thirty-something with no clue what’s next, worries about the future, and now I’m trying to find my best self…what about you?”
They often respond with blank stares.
When I try to explain what I actually do for work, those stares become even deeper.
Although impressive in my head, explaining to others that I juggle 10 different job roles to make cold hard cash complicates things. The problem is that we use a ‘job’ as the reference point for the explanation. Whereas, the title means nothing. I deploy a diverse set of skills to create a career I enjoy.
But that doesn’t sound as sexy or aligned with the ‘societal view.’
So, I just mumble something like, “I work in learning and development. What about you?”
Conversations with strangers at parties, events, or whatever always turn into unexpected learning experiences. The weird intro of ‘Who are you and what do you do?’ has always felt odd to me.
Do they ask me what I do as a human, or do they just want to know about the job that pays me and provides my standing in society?
Come to think of it, why do we make professional occupation the first thing we ask people we’ve just met? Who even made this the norm? – so many questions.
Job titles create a mess
We often use them to determine how to value someone and what they’re good at. Most of us know they don’t work, yet we still play the game. They form the wrong metric on any playing field. Value comes from many measurements and is incredibly context-specific.
For work in the modern era, job titles mean nothing.
Skills act as the currency we must focus on in the career economy. Many companies have woken up to this in the last few years.
We’ve seen an explosion of “skills-based organisations” like they’re some newfound religion. In reality, skills have always driven success. The corporate world just chose to ignore them.
If you didn’t focus on skill improvement all this time, what were you doing?
The skills economy
We now play in a new economy of skills, and digital technology has only advanced this shift.
Era-defining tech innovations often bring this shift. We saw it in the eras of modern computing and the internet. We’re experiencing it now with the rise of generative AI technology.
New tech always enhances the way we do tasks. I think the word ‘job’ is where people get stuck. For so long, people moved through company tiers based on a job title.
We should step back to deconstruct what we mean by the term “job.”
Jobs basically consist of a collection of tasks for which you’re responsible. In exchange for financial compensation, you provide skills to complete these tasks. Today, we talk more about skills than titles. This makes sense because when tasks change, roles change.
For example, 20 years ago, the role of Social Media Manager didn’t exist.
Although commonplace today, the technology required to create the demand for this role had not yet exploded. We hadn’t become glued to our screens in a hypnotic state of doom-scrolling. These roles eventually came along to amplify that.
This role emerged due to the demand for new tasks.
Thus, the ‘job’ of social media manager was born. Over many years, it replicated into a family of roles to manage social media platform-related tasks. This family of roles is now evolving with the introduction of generative AI tools. The way people perform these tasks is changing, so the nature of these roles changes too.
Here we have the circle of life or the circle of work…something like that.
AI exposes the need for diverse skills
That sounds like a ‘captain obvious’ thing to say, but hey, it’s written now.
Each new digital tech innovation brings job destruction and creation. Again, a natural cycle in the shifting demands of life and work. I believe that in the long term, we’ll use generative AI, and other models, to manage boring tasks. This gives us the space, energy, and focus to do more human stuff.
I see Gen AI enabling more builders.
Not everyone can or will want to be a builder. However, the choice will be more accessible than before. This will offer a host of new skills, tasks, and jobs.
For L&D, we could enable more of us to design better solutions across the spectrum of our industry effectively. Finally, leaving behind L&D teams as a dumping site to take care of all the bits and bobs. Let AI do that.
In some ways, I hope Gen AI can enhance our skills and tasks, so we can be more strategic and meaningful in where we put our effort.
My last three years of exploring and experimenting have made one thing clear: The need for diverse human and tech skills is growing at a pace I’ve not experienced in my lifetime.
Skills, not job titles = opportunity
Outside of Gen AI’s potential to enhance learning, the value of your skills has been (and always will be) a big focus of my work.
I positioned the idea of skills being the currency in the career marketplace in my book.
I’ve seen many examples of this in my nearly 20-year (shit, I’m getting old) career. Those who do well and create the career they want all crafted a diverse set of skills. They didn’t rely on being so and so at x company.
To thrive in the modern era, we must leave behind what we know about the career economy.
“What got you here won’t get you there”
Technology will continue to change how we complete tasks. Focusing on our skills will yield better opportunities than aiming for a title.
Skills killed the job title and that’s not a bad thing.
Will x take my job?
The most popular question at the time I write this is, “Will AI take my job?”
As we’ve discussed, it’s not the jobs that are shifting, but rather the tasks that form that job. So, the job will likely change. You can take out the word AI and replace it with all these innovations from our history:
Will the Printing Press take my job?
Will the Calculator take my job?
Will the Internet take my job?
Will PowerPoint take my job?
Will Excel take my job?
We know what happened here.
For some, it did, but then they had new tasks which formed new roles. Those who did well were the ones who had diverse skills and adapted. In the early ’90s, accountants feared Excel. Now they wield it like some dark magic which has greatly enhanced how they work.
To ride the wave of inevitable change, craft the best skills for the era you work in.
The skills you should focus on
The answer to this is incredibly subjective based on your industry.
From a broader perspective, we can look at high-value skills that will serve us well in the future across any industry. I spent 12 months reviewing over 20 global skills reports to answer the ultimate question: “What are the 5 skills that matter for the future of work?”
The cardinal sins of culture and behaviour change projects
Developing a change in culture is difficult in any field, you’ve no doubt read articles on how to make a successful shift and how you can support a cultural change and nurture it for years to come.
This article isn’t one of those, this article is about the exact opposite, about what not to do if you want to really change a culture and the mindset of your people when it comes to learning. To help me in this piece and to explore the insights to not screwing this up, I’ll be using the popular film character of John Wick and various analogies to demonstrate my points.
