Observations — №3
This isn’t a crossroads, there are no longer any junctions. In fact, where we’re going — we don’t need roads.
There are some consistent or common comments I hear from people when they ask me how my exploration is progressing, paraphrased into the following:
“Wow — that’s brave!”
“What are you going to do?”
“Have you got a better idea of where you’re headed yet?”
“I wish I could do the same…”
“I did the same thing… best decision I ever made”
“It seems like you’re at a really interesting crossroads…”
It’s this last one which is almost said in the same way, and using the same word each and every time — “crossroad”.
The analogy of a roads and junctions is obvious — we’re all heading somewhere, and every decision we make is some sort of turning in to a slightly new direction.
A T-Junction gives you a left or right. A cross road gives you three options — to stay on course, or two paths to veer off at right angles. I suppose you could stretch the metaphor to highways and on-ramps, roundabouts and cul-de-sacs, alleyways and mistakes made with your GPS which sees you up-ended in a lake.
[As a sub-interesting aside, as a child, I used to draw roads endlessly — or rather junctions — complicated beautiful crazy nonsensical junctions, not unlike Gravelly Hill Interchange (commonly known as Spaghetti Junction in the West Midlands.)]
But, this isn’t about junctions any more.
Those born in the 1960s, the average number of jobs held before 35 was around 2-3. For those born in the ‘80s, that has doubled to 3-4. People spend a great deal more time moving between roles, not just on a career path, but laterally and tangentially too.
In even more recent times, after two global recessions, and the oft quoted ‘millennial’ attitudinal shift towards work, talent in workplaces seems even more fluid — and the notion of ‘loyalty’ is eroding — on both sides.
Employers recognise their workforce aren’t going to be around for long, and employees recognise their employers aren’t going to invest in the long-term — creating a fast marketplace where fluid and liquid models are far more common than ever — more freelancing, more short-term contracts, hybrid ad-hoc teams fit for purpose thrown at a project, rather than using the available resources.
You can see it in changing hiring policies, contract terms and commercial models.
I’m not sure this is 100% “a good thing” — when you go through bad times as a business, you want your people to stick around and support what you’re doing.
If everyone jumps ship the moment they see something difficult around the corner, it can be the difference between a rebounding stronger company and complete failure of a business.
Why would people stay though? There is no direct compensation in the pocket for most employees if businesses do well, and there is little emotional investment in the business doing well if they are on more fluid and short term contracts. I don’t think many employees would rally around their bosses, and personally invest, reminiscent of the final scenes of It’s a Wonderful Life.
There are many progressive models of new businesses who are challenging the old structures and reflecting the new context. Businesses who offer shares as part of compensation, who open their salary books to the entire workforce to encourage transparency, who offer unlimited holiday and create more family-like environments than a simply a cube and 20 minutes for lunch, but even once you have ticked the ‘reasons to stay’ boxes, questions as existential as ‘will this role exist in two, three, four years’ appear.
The rise of AI and the varying levels of commentary predict huge numbers of job roles disappearing over the coming decades, and this is something which, no matter how good your ‘career planning’ is, we have little ability to see ahead and predict.
So, we, as a global workforce, are seeing fewer and fewer crossroads and junctions ahead of us — not moments where we stop, make a decision, and move in a pre-destined direction, but rather a sort of large dustbowl, with no clearly defined entry points or exit points.
A mix of roads and desire lines, which cross and collide. Tarmac, gravel, sand, grass. It’s hard to see which direction you should be pointing, yet alone what’s in the distance.
Cars are turning left, right, forwards, reversing, doing donuts, people are getting out of their cars and running away screaming or switching to unicycles.
How is one to behave in this circus of decision and volatility?
Disruption is now our business as usual — this isn’t a transitional state between one era and another, change and uncertainty is the new normal.
And in that sort of a context, you have three options:
- to hunker down and play it conservatively, defend your position until the circus has moved on, and then figure out what you’re left with;
- to look ahead and try and define what you could be in the future and ‘define’ yourself as a proposition, with intent and roadmaps and whatnot and be something new which is attractive to people;
- to be adaptable, and open yourself up to step into things which you aren’t entirely sure are right, or that you know how to do, learn quickly, be vulnerable and resilient, and roll with it;
I’ll leave it to you to choose which you think is the right strategy to take — but it’s really clear to me that we are no longer in a metaphor of FDR-like infrastructure projects which give us clearly defined tarmac’d roads, with on-ramps and service stations to refuel, the reality is probably a little more like Mad Max: Fury Road.
Someone commented on a recent post ‘You’re not a misfit, you’re multifit’.
So now, I reply to the “You’re at a really interesting crossroads” comment with the same answer: I’m not at a crossroads, this isn’t stopping and looking at the map, but rather taking in all of the options whilst continuing to drive. That’s the skill we need to support in people — the ability to look up and around whilst moving forwards.
The reality is most people, me included, don’t have the opportunity to take a pause from a career, so focusing on adaptability, agility and constant curiosity is an essential skill — no longer a ‘nice to have’.
This article has been published as part of an ongoing series of posts related to me looking for my next role. I’m working out a six-month notice period as Head of Strategy and Innovation, and wondering what I could/should/might do next. If you think someone might benefit from this article, please CLAP or SHARE, or leave a response to share your thoughts. I’m always available to chat over coffee or skype too.
