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The Organization of the Future: Linking Meaning and Value Through Career Counseling By Ronald Elsdon An Extract Was Included in John F. Kennedy University's Career Development Center News, Summer 1998 "Let the beauty we love be what we do" is how Rumi, a 13th century Islamic poet, expressed his search for meaning. He anticipated our world by seven centuries and captures the timeless need to find meaning in our work lives. Today's gurus use somewhat less poetic imagery, with Rifkin in The End of Work questioning the stability of our social order and the value of human labor, Hall in The Career is Dead arguing that the protean career, owned by the individual, is finally upon us, and Schwartz in a recent issue of Wired projecting a kind of technology induced nirvana of prosperity. How is it that what was clear seven centuries ago, is now confused, that we seem to have lost our connection to deeper meaning, and that our working relationship with organizations is fracturing? Is this a time of self-indulgence where we strive only for ourselves, or are we about to see a new relationship between individuals and organizations where our individual fulfillment translates into organizational value? This raises the question, what does value mean? Traditional financial measures look at some sort of return on capital assets, similar to the interest we earn on a bank account. But this measures the past, not future potential. In today's world, future potential comes from pooled knowledge. Pooled knowledge comes from the skills and expertise that we each bring. Like a giant snowball where each tiny, beautiful snowflake bonds together, our individual contributions add together to create the value of the whole organization. How does this relate to career counseling? We contribute most when we are fulfilled and can express our gifts and ourselves. We play a key role as counselors and individuals in helping understand the key driving forces for the organization and their meaning for each of us as individuals. To do this, it is helpful to examine the parallels between an organization and an individual.
The organization is chartered with creating value and realizing a purpose, where the individual is striving to seek meaning and express a dream, perhaps unconsciously. Achieving the latter will help create the former. Career counselors can both help individuals express their dream and explain how this can link to organizational value. Even small organizations are complex. They have people specializing in different areas, and employees are of various ethnicities, ages and responsibility levels. Similarly as individuals, our lives reflect a delicate interplay of personal needs, family requirements, work expectations and social obligations. Career counselors can help individuals comb through these complexities to express their priorities, and can work with organizations to meet the needs of their multiple groups. Organizations evolve through a life cycle, and a few successfully negotiate the difficult transitions needed to retain their vitality. An example is the DuPont company which was founded by French immigrants at the time of the French Revolution, bringing explosives technology to the U.S. DuPont evolved continuously to a broadly based company today, with many high technology components. Navigating the difficult rapids of transition requires forward-looking employees who themselves are able to express their unfolding life needs. As individuals mature through a life cycle, needs change. Career counselors can help their clients recognize their transitions and relate them to the transitions that occur in organizations. Organizations are interconnected in complex business systems that include competitors, customers and suppliers. As individuals, we are interconnected in complex personal systems that typically involve hundreds of contacts at any time. Career counselors can help their clients realize the value and importance of nurturing these interconnections, and their relationship to the interconnections in organizations. Organizations and individuals need to be self-sustaining. We express this as Career Self-Reliance ® for individuals. But both organizations and individuals need to link to their environment, and career counselors can articulate these links. Finally, many organizations today and most in the future, operate in a global arena either as a result of competition or as a result of customer needs. As individuals we operate in a universal environment where our colleagues represent many ideologies and cultural backgrounds. Career counselors can help both individuals and organizations find their meaning and value in this diverse world, and as such enable each to "Let the beauty we love be what we do". |
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