Hockey great Wayne Gretzky was once asked what made him different
from other professional players. He answered, "I skate to where the puck
is going to be, not to where it has been." If you're trying to find a
job right now, your success may depend on whether you look for where the
opportunities are now (the linear dimension) or where they're going to
be (the nonlinear and random
dimensions). Most of us take a linear approach. But learning to manage
your professional life along all three dimensions could put you way
ahead of the game.
In the linear world, it is expected that following a prescribed path will lead you to your goal: If you find the puck and start skating to it, you'll get it. In a traditional job search, for example, you assume that if you sort through relevant postings, find out who's hiring, and send out resumes to likely employers, you'll eventually land a position somewhere.
Seems perfectly logical — but how's that working out for you so far? The problem is that in a fiercely competitive situation like a job hunt, you can bet that if you start skating to where the puck is now, it'll be gone by the time you get there. Those "fresh" job listings you saw today? Get in line behind the people who've already set up interviews for those jobs. It can be tempting to act along the linear dimension because the expectations are clear, and you feel in control of the situation. But giving up a little control and allowing for chance events — the nonlinear approach — opens the door for greater opportunity.
In a nonlinear situation, you control the setup but not the outcome. The boundaries exist, but they are looser, and there is a chance for the unexpected to occur. In other words, you're skating to where the puck might be. Suppose, for instance, that you attend a trade association meeting with the hope of finding job opportunities. Though you choose to attend that particular event, and you can predict that you will meet new people, you really have no idea what will happen once you talk with them. Your best pitch to a potential, though completely uninterested, employer could fall flat. But the person standing behind him who overheard your spiel just might turn around and follow up about a position in their company.
Or consider an aggressive mail campaign to prospective employers: Your letters are like messages in hundreds of bottles that you toss in the ocean — they could end up anywhere. They could even end up in the hands of someone you might never have considered contacting but who knows of a job elsewhere for which you'd be perfect.
One step beyond the nonlinear dimension is the random. In random events, there are no boundaries, and you have no control at all. For example, we teach our clients to spin the dial on their Blackberry's contact list, then call the person whose name comes up and say, "Hi. Just thinking of you." You'd be shocked to know how many times the person on the other end of the line says, "It's amazing that you should call right at this moment. We happen to have a need for someone just like you...."
One company's experience shows how taking a three-dimensional approach can produce a surprising — and lucrative — result. Cabot Corporation produces carbon black, an intensely black powder that has traditionally been used as a reinforcing agent in car tires. Several years ago, the company decided that car manufacturers might be interested in a way to make tires of many different colors, which they could do with another agent, called carbon white. So Cabot bought the rights to carbon white and marketed it to the car makers — only to find that they really didn't care about different colors for tires. Cabot was stuck with the stuff; but rather than cut its losses, the company put out a call worldwide saying, essentially, "We have all this carbon white, and we don't know what to do with it. Can anyone help?" The answer was yes — and the company that responded was Revlon. It turned out that when mixed with water, carbon white turns into a gel that is very useful in manufacturing cosmetics. I'm sure no one at Cabot expected that outcome, but by creating the opportunity for chance, the company avoided a potentially heavy financial hit.
We live in the linear dimension pretty much by default. It takes deliberate thought — and courage — to reach beyond our comfort zones, give up some control, and allow chance to play a role in our professional lives. But the potential rewards are great. Just ask Wayne Gretzky.
Laurence J. Stybel is a cofounder of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire, an executive career management and board advisory firm. He is also an executive in residence at Suffolk University's Sawyer Business School. Stybel is based in Boston.
In the linear world, it is expected that following a prescribed path will lead you to your goal: If you find the puck and start skating to it, you'll get it. In a traditional job search, for example, you assume that if you sort through relevant postings, find out who's hiring, and send out resumes to likely employers, you'll eventually land a position somewhere.
Seems perfectly logical — but how's that working out for you so far? The problem is that in a fiercely competitive situation like a job hunt, you can bet that if you start skating to where the puck is now, it'll be gone by the time you get there. Those "fresh" job listings you saw today? Get in line behind the people who've already set up interviews for those jobs. It can be tempting to act along the linear dimension because the expectations are clear, and you feel in control of the situation. But giving up a little control and allowing for chance events — the nonlinear approach — opens the door for greater opportunity.
In a nonlinear situation, you control the setup but not the outcome. The boundaries exist, but they are looser, and there is a chance for the unexpected to occur. In other words, you're skating to where the puck might be. Suppose, for instance, that you attend a trade association meeting with the hope of finding job opportunities. Though you choose to attend that particular event, and you can predict that you will meet new people, you really have no idea what will happen once you talk with them. Your best pitch to a potential, though completely uninterested, employer could fall flat. But the person standing behind him who overheard your spiel just might turn around and follow up about a position in their company.
Or consider an aggressive mail campaign to prospective employers: Your letters are like messages in hundreds of bottles that you toss in the ocean — they could end up anywhere. They could even end up in the hands of someone you might never have considered contacting but who knows of a job elsewhere for which you'd be perfect.
One step beyond the nonlinear dimension is the random. In random events, there are no boundaries, and you have no control at all. For example, we teach our clients to spin the dial on their Blackberry's contact list, then call the person whose name comes up and say, "Hi. Just thinking of you." You'd be shocked to know how many times the person on the other end of the line says, "It's amazing that you should call right at this moment. We happen to have a need for someone just like you...."
One company's experience shows how taking a three-dimensional approach can produce a surprising — and lucrative — result. Cabot Corporation produces carbon black, an intensely black powder that has traditionally been used as a reinforcing agent in car tires. Several years ago, the company decided that car manufacturers might be interested in a way to make tires of many different colors, which they could do with another agent, called carbon white. So Cabot bought the rights to carbon white and marketed it to the car makers — only to find that they really didn't care about different colors for tires. Cabot was stuck with the stuff; but rather than cut its losses, the company put out a call worldwide saying, essentially, "We have all this carbon white, and we don't know what to do with it. Can anyone help?" The answer was yes — and the company that responded was Revlon. It turned out that when mixed with water, carbon white turns into a gel that is very useful in manufacturing cosmetics. I'm sure no one at Cabot expected that outcome, but by creating the opportunity for chance, the company avoided a potentially heavy financial hit.
We live in the linear dimension pretty much by default. It takes deliberate thought — and courage — to reach beyond our comfort zones, give up some control, and allow chance to play a role in our professional lives. But the potential rewards are great. Just ask Wayne Gretzky.
Laurence J. Stybel is a cofounder of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire, an executive career management and board advisory firm. He is also an executive in residence at Suffolk University's Sawyer Business School. Stybel is based in Boston.
Larry Stybel
Laurence J. Stybel, Ed.D. is President of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire and Executive in Residence at the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University in Boston. He is on the Board of Governors at the Institute of Career Certification International.Source:http://www.alumni.hbs.edu
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