“Recommit yourself to the things that matter to you”: Meet Member Joel Worthington
In this series, we are spotlighting our community members. In the Adaptive Space, we make room to receive the insights our community members have to offer. This series is where we will discover each other’s gifts! We will be spotlighting one story per week. Please engage with our star of the week by participating in the conversation below.
This week, we’re introducing new member Joel Worthington! Joel has a unique and diverse background in a number of person-centered fields, and we are so excited to learn from his experience. He is dedicated to facilitating change, especially for people who need it most. Joel is currently the owner of JW Collaborative, a human-centered design strategy studio that aims to help groups facilitate holistic and purposeful change.
Name: Joel Worthington
Lives: Pittsburgh, PA
Affiliation: JW Collaborative
Superpower: Human-centered systems design thinking
How did you come upon your professional path?
In college, I started off in architecture, then transitioned into journalism, then strategic communications, then health care. I got a Master of Health Services Administration almost immediately afterwards, as I was looking for meaningful and purposeful work, even though that was not in my familial background at all. So, I did that for a while. I did a fellowship in hospital administration. I went into health care management consulting for several years after that. I kind of went from executive, high-level decision-making back to hard skills of data analysis, presentation development, and strategic recommendations until I found my way into human-centered design. I was always looking for a different way of engaging and thinking about serving end users or constituents.
I ultimately took the time to do some career reflection and pivoted at a point where I was a director of business development at a hospital system doing strategic planning. I did a bunch of informational interviews with people practicing human-centered design, and I ultimately went back to school to get a Master of Design Methods from the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago. At the same time, I took a role with a strategic innovation team at a company called HDR, a global architecture and engineering firm that does a lot of work in health care. I got to do a lot of cool work engaging with different constituents, typically from hospitals and health systems — patients, families, nurses, physicians, and all sorts of leaders in the organization. A little over a year ago I changed paths again. Basically, I set off on my own. So now, I’m a solo practitioner and I’m still doing similar work with similar clients, but I get to “control my own destiny” — choosing my preferred types of projects as well as the people with whom I collaborate.
Who was the first person who believed in you?
I’m thankful for many people at different points in my career, not the least of whom are my parents for all the foundational work they did and support they continue to provide in our weekly FaceTime calls. But I would say that the person who truly helped set me on the path to the newest manifestation of my career has been my wife, Rebeca. She’s now a physician, but our paths initially crossed while were both consultants about 12 years ago. A few years into our relationship, she helped shine the light back on me and let me know that there were likely other paths out there for me other than the one I was on — the one that was frustrating me. She bought me one of those career self-assessment books, which is something that nobody else had ever done for me. It allowed me to do the self-reflection that I needed to do. At the same time, seeing her passion and the dedication she had to the path she was on also inspired me. She showed me what it was to dream first and then figure out how to bring that to fruition. Once I started down the path, I couldn’t stop.
How do you define success for yourself?
It’s changed over time for sure. Early on, I did the hospital administration fellowship, which is something you don’t do unless you think you want to be a CEO of a hospital someday or are very curious about it. At the time, that’s what I thought I wanted to do, and I thought that was how I would define success. Quickly, I learned that wasn’t the life that I wanted, which pushed me to look in different directions. Fast forward to now, I’m my own boss, and health care executives are often my main clients. At some point, I might add employees to the mix, but it’s currently important for me to control my own time, energy, and effort. I get to shape my vision, rather than have someone else shape it for me. It just feels healthier and more aligned with who I really am as a person. And I get to spend a lot of time with my family. That’s all a big part of how I would define success now.
What’s a typical daily routine for you?
I’ve probably never been a routine person — I sort of enjoy variability to some degree. But my wife and I have a two-year-old son, and he needs routine to structure his day, so that’s forced me to adopt routine back into my life. I wake up around 7–7:15 every day and get myself ready enough so I can be present with my son. I’m often the parent getting him ready for daycare, which , anyone with a toddler will tell you, is either delightful or a nightmare (often both at the same time!). I drop him off around 8:45–9, and, if I haven’t had a bite to eat yet, I’ll have breakfast around 9–9:30. Today, I actually had time to go for a run because I had the time, which was refreshing. I don’t do that every day, but it’s nice to be able to mix it up. When I don’t do that, I get to work around the same time that I have breakfast. I think some people measure success by how many calls or meetings they can schedule in a day, but high volume is not as important to me as high value activities, so I tend not to schedule calls too early in the day if I can avoid it, just to give myself time to settle in. But I might have some calls or video chats in the 10–12 range, have lunch, then have the afternoon to do more heads-down work, or I might flip my morning and afternoon approaches from day-to-day — it’s really about batching and focus. I pick my son up from daycare around 4:45 or 5. From that point until he goes to bed at 7:30 or 8, it’s all about him as well as the dinner and bedtime scramble — I mean, routine! After that, my wife and I may do a little more work or reading as well as watch maybe one TV show in the 8:30–10 range. But we struggle getting to bed early. We still kind of hold on to our old way of doing things — being night owls and wanting to spend time with each other. We aim to wrap it up around 10–10:15 and be asleep by 11 or 11:15.
What’s the most important skill you’ve developed on your path?
Truly, actively listening and pausing for reflection. This idea of going on a journey for yourself is something I’ve done time and time again, particularly in my later 20s and early 30s, and now it’s an active part of who I am and what I do. I’ve found that I’m ultimately a better person and professional when I practice those things.
What’s been your greatest challenge so far?
I think it’s been finding a way to translate theory into application, and to get other people to see what you see so that they buy your services. When I made the pivot from this world of more traditional health systems administration and consulting into human-centered systems design thinking, I believed in it and I wanted to go on that journey. But it’s hard to get others to go on that journey with you, especially in the middle of a pandemic.
What’s been your greatest reward?
Control and autonomy. Having a vision and seeing it through. I started my company in July last year, but, because of all the foundational, networking, and proposal writing work that I had to do, I didn’t land a contract until February of this year with an academic medical center in the southeast. Of course, it was paused because of the pandemic. Still, those business results are tangible rewards. There are also intangible rewards, like the self-confidence that comes from seeing the fruits of your persistence enable your vision to come to life. There are also rewards like being able to be more present with my family and having more control over my time.
Give us a story that demonstrates the kind of person you are.
At one point I think I kind of lost my sense of personal self as I got wrapped up in my professional identity. I felt like I needed to throw myself into something while my wife was doing all of her medical training. But when my son came into the picture, that really reset things for me. That’s when I was really working through a lot of different professional configurations to become more present at home. Still, I like to have hobbies. I couldn’t exercise the way that I used to because I was no longer time rich. I used to be an elite athlete and I just lost all that. Several months ago, I realized that I had gained more weight than I ever had in my life, or close to it, and wasn’t feeling in control. I teach on topics like locus of control and resilience, but I didn’t feel like I was practicing what I preached. But since we moved to Pittsburgh this summer, and I gained some time back with my son going to daycare, I seized the opportunity. I joined Noom in early August, a healthy lifestyle program and app, and, since I’ve committed to that, I’ve lost nearly 30 pounds in two-and-a-half months. While that’s not the right goal for everyone, I do feel better. I feel more energized and confident. I feel like I can do what I need to do, both personally and professionally. The moral of the story is that the resilience that I’ve found in myself was fostered at many different points in my life. Every time you think you have it figured out, there’s always something new that comes your way. You’ve just got to find a way to recommit yourself to the things that matter to you.
What do you want to learn from this community?
I like to hear stories that are not my own, especially since my self-employed work can feel fairly isolated and esoteric. I’d like to hear from others about what they’re doing and triangulate this type of thinking to make it more relatable and understandable. Also, I’d like to get to know more like-minded and open-minded people in Pittsburgh while adding a diversity of perspectives on how different people approach these challenging times.
At what point in your life have you had to pivot, either professionally or personally? What did you learn from your change in paths?
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