Read: Planned happenstance: Constructing unexpected career opportunities

I’ve read the article; Planned happenstance: Constructing unexpected career opportunities, Mitchell, Kathleen E; Levin, Al S; Krumboltz, John D(1999)

This paper finds value in chance and opportunity in career path. The aim is to point out that the traditional counseling has focused on matching individual interests and skills with specific occupations and to advocate that the counselors teach clients to engage in exploratory activities along the way of “planned happenstance theory”.

Planned happenstance theory is a conceptual framework extending career counseling to include the creating and transforming of unplanned events into opportunities for learning.
計画的偶発性理論とは、キャリアカウンセリングを拡張し、予定外の出来事を学習の機会に作り変えていくことを含む概念的枠組みです。

The essence of this theory could be summarized into 3 factors;

• the unplanned events hugely affect on one’s career
• to get the unplanned events, the action and effort would be needed
• the clients should make actions by themselves, not just be initiated by others

Krumboltz suggests that the counselors encourage their clients to develop the following 5 factors.

1. Curiosity: exploring new learning opportunities 好奇心
2. Persistence: exerting effort despite setbacks 持続性
3. Flexibility: changing attitudes and circumstances 柔軟性
4. Optimism: viewing new opportunities as possible and attainable 楽観性
5. RiskTaking: taking action in the face of uncertain outcomes 冒険心

In addition, the 4 steps for planned happenstance are following;

Step1: Normalize planned happenstance in the client’s history.
自分たち自身が、計画的偶発性に影響されてきたことに気づく

Step 2: Assist clients to transform curiosity into opportunities for learning and exploration.
好奇心をまなびと探索の機会に変えることをサポートする

Step 3: Teach clients to produce desirable chance events.
望ましい偶然の出来事の生み出し方を伝える

Step 4: Teach clients to overcome blocks to action.
アクションのためのブロックを乗り越える手助けをする

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The importance of this paper was to focus on value of “happenstance”. In the paper, Krumboltz points out that in US there is a tendency that “careers should follow a planned and logical path”. Even under this common sense, he advocated the non-logical, non-planned career fostering.

On the other hand, I have to point out that this paper focused just on dichotomy relationship between the counselor and the client. Under this scale, the responsibility of creating career is reduced into the issue of self-responsibility.

Clients should not merely meander through experiences initiated by others while passively awaiting a “knock on the door.” They need to learn to take action to generate and find opportunities.
クライアントは、他者によって導かれた経験の中をたださまよい、「ドアがノックされる」のを受動的に待つべきではありません。チャンスを生み出し、見つけるために行動することを学ぶ必要があるのです。

Of course I couldn’t deny the importance of self-effort. However, his proposal practically means that “people who have curiosity and flexibility will get the success on career, and others won’t”.

How do the people who aren’t/don’t like be curious, flexible and risk-taking get success? Based on the epistemology of that human is not just the object, but complicated network, how can we be inclusive of the all of people?

Related these questions, Krumboltz referred Young and Rodgers and pointed out the role of “witness”.

A witness in their study was a person who observed a talent in others and encouraged them to develop the talent or interest. This encouragement was sometimes a brief encounter, yet the exchange left the participants willing to take risks.
彼らの研究では、目撃者とは、他人の才能を観察し、その才能や興味を伸ばすように励ます人のことを指しています。このような励ましは、時に短い出会いであったが、この交流によって参加者はリスクを取ることができるようになった。

Derived from followed sentences, I’m convinced that we have to focus on the system which increase such interaction, exploratory activities and unconscious self-transformation in our society.