Are You Using Your Assets to Get Americans Back to Work?
Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s contributions to the business of work discourse are usually very good, but the March 1, 2010 post on the Harvard Business Review site (www.hbr.org) was exceptionally relevant and inspiring. Her title was “Getting Americans Back to Work.”
Small and Do-able Ideas
Great, you’re thinking, lots of people are writing about that topic with big ideas and plenty of criticism to go around. Not Professor Kanter, her ideas are small and do-able, and instead of criticism, helpful observation and positive, applicable ideas. Granted, she still doesn’t share how someone without an income can make it while they work to find work, but I at least appreciate the attitude!
Advice for the Jobless Middle Manager
Here’s Kanter’s advice for the well-educated manager whose job has disappeared and is no longer even counted in the unemployment statistics because they’ve given up.
“What do I tell these jobless professionals who are holding their lives together with duct tape? I can say: Hang in there. Don’t give up hope. Develop a big idea to use later. Start your venture. Volunteer at a community organization. Find partners. Think internationally. Befriend immigrants with ties to an emerging market. Restore your sense of purpose. Remember what truly matters”
In the meantime, I think that there is other good advice out there for those in the well-educated middle:
- Now is a time to try that thing you never thought you would try. What do you have to lose?
- Focus on some other aspects of your life. Are you using this down time to exercise, eat right, learn a new skill, language, or perspective?
- Remember when you dreamed of working a shorter week or part-time? What were you going to do with those hours? Can you do that now while you keep working your “job” of finding a job?
- Take advantage of what your community has to offer – use the library, visit local sites, go to a park, find a new local diner, get to know the world that is right around you that you’ve never had time to experience before.
- Meet people – reach outside your first circle to your second or third. Have a cup of coffee and broaden that network. It may be more and more tangential to your job search, but sometimes the innovative idea is on the periphery, not in the core.
Asset Maps for Middlers
And another idea for “middlers” — I don’t mean those related to Bette, but those in the middle of their job transition and maybe even tired enough to be approaching things now in a bit of a middling way — draw your “asset map.” You’ve probably already thought about the assets you are bringing to your job search, but what about the assets you have to offer to others?
Kanter mentions small ideas that collectively could build jobs. She’s calling for a movement of small ideas based on all our assets – what do you have that you can offer to the solution of job growth in America? “Imaginative small actions could aggregate to bigger impact. Underutilized office space can become an incubator for others starting a business. Shared work and living spaces are becoming more common for recent graduates working on new ventures; communities should encourage and facilitate this. Those with international business ties can encourage business partners to invest in the U.S.; good people and cost-reducing incentives are available now.”
I like Kanter’s small ideas and I hope more individuals and organizations will embrace them. Wouldn’t it be great if we could see a movement across the United States, a movement of both workers and the organizations who hire them? I am hoping that organizations — companies, foundations, associations, universities, government, nonprofits — will get creative and think about different ways to do things. It would be a wonderful thing to see a boom of creativity and diversity in how we do things – our work, our products, our services, our decision-making, our politics, our day-to-day lives and our perspectives. Thanks Professor Kanter.
Yes! You may use this article by Barbara Demarest in your company newsletter, blog or website as long as you add the following bio box:
Barbara Demarest (www.barbarademarest.com) received her MBA from the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University and her BA from Duke University. After 20 years at the Center for Creative Leadership, Barbara launched a strategy consulting practice focusing on people leading change in associations, foundations, universities, nonprofits and knowledge businesses. You can find Barbara’s executive coaching profile on www.thecoachingassociation.com.
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