by Danny Mucinskas
Drawing on two decades of research, The Good Project aims to help people of all ages, from young students to veteran professionals, in their efforts to do “good work.” Such work is conceptualized as excellent (high quality), ethical (socially responsible), and engaging (personally meaningful). These “3 Es of good work” are the pillars that support a productive and virtuous relationship to work.
Similarly, the Learning Innovations Laboratory (LILA) at Project Zero is a long-standing initiative that brings together researchers and practitioners to ideate together regarding organizational change and learning. For the past twenty-one years, the group has developed insights into the nature of human learning and change on the individual and systemic levels, including in workplaces.
Over the course of a lifetime, the work that an individual does will change many times. According to the American Bureau of Labor Statistics, individuals today may have held 12 to 15 different jobs by the time they reach retirement. Most of us therefore expect to go through many points of transition that require the reinvention of our career identities, as well as “unlearning” of habits, mindsets, and systemic knowledge from previous roles.
While the process of transitioning to a new role can be daunting in itself, it becomes even more difficult when previous modes of thinking and doing are no longer useful and in fact may get in the way. By paying attention to areas that might require adjustment and new approaches, “good work” can continue to be achieved.
These topics were explored in a new course, titled “Navigating Transitions: Unlearning and Good Work,” which I have developed in partnership with Marga Biller of LILA. The course was recently presented as a pilot to a group of learners in Singapore in collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Management, with a focus on helping participants navigate career transitions by becoming familiar with practices of “unlearning.”
As facilitators, Marga and I began with an introduction to the idea that transitions are part of everyday life and can be times of both excitement and anxiety. We then explored existing conceptions of “good work” that participants hold related to their current jobs and probed their relationship to the 3 Es framework. Next, we delved into the various dimensions of “unlearning” that require attention in order to successfully move from one role to another, specifically:
Mindsets we bring to our work based on our past experiences, including values, identities, and expertise (for example, an understanding of our skill sets and how skills might need to shift in new roles);
Habits we rely on in doing our work (which are shaped by cues, routines, and rewards, and which can be changed by paying attention to cycles of habit formation),
Systems we are embedded within (including organizations and teams with members who may or may not share the same goals related to work and the learning ecologies around us that support life-long learning).
Participants were invited to reflect on these themes in exercises that included The Good Project’s value sort activity, an identity map, and the design of a learning ecology based on resources in and outside of the workplace. We also used a dilemma narrative about an employee starting a new position who made a mistake by relying excessively on past knowledge rather than meeting the requirements of her new job, analyzing what she could have done differently to succeed.
Reactions to the course from the initial audience were positive. Interviews and surveys revealed overall appreciation for the unique blend of content that combined research insights with practical models that would aid people in successfully handling career transition. Based on the feedback we received, in future offerings of the unit, participants will spend extended time exploring the concepts as well as implementation intentions in between sessions. We seek to provide more explicit suggestions about how employees can readily and appropriately apply the ideas we introduced on the job and with co-workers.
Our ultimate goal in offering this course is to help people deal with workplace change, equipping them with the tools and strategies they will need to do their best good work across the span of their careers. As a result, we are considering ways to expand further iterations of this course for adult audiences in Singapore and perhaps elsewhere.
I invite our readers to ask themselves some of the following questions that were explored in the course.
What are some ways that unlearning preexisting mindsets, habits, and systemic knowledge could help you to better do good work in your own life?
What values, identities, and expertise do you bring to your work? How have these changed from previous positions you may have held?
What habits do you rely on in doing your work? Have you ever had a habit that was no longer serving you that you needed to change? How did you do so?
How does the way you view your work overlap with or differ from your coworkers’ views? How can you open conversations that might spark dialogue about areas of difference?
What is the relationship your work has to the broader communities you are a part of, such as your town, city, or society? How does your work affect people near and far from you?
What responsibilities do you feel you have in your work to others?