Fast Track
How well do you tune in to these work scenarios?
Job sculpting - what’s that?
So what ARE Deeply Embedded Life Interests?
Once upon a time…a story of job sculpting
What’s your story?
Job Sculpting: test your knowledge with these web-based games!
Good stuff to read
In this 4th article in the EDUCHAOS series, Marie Jasinski explores job sculpting, an emerging human resources and career management strategy used by high performing organisations to keep their talented people both happy and productive at work.
The Australian Flexible Learning Framework has taken us to the edge by providing a range of opportunities to explore new and more flexible practices in teaching and learning. But are organisational work practices flexible enough to exploit or at least accommodate the outcomes of this substantial investment in human capital? Has significant investment in professional development lead to a more personally fulfilling work life for the individuals involved? Should flexible apply to work practices as well as delivery strategies to reap the greatest returns?
How well do you tune in to these work scenarios?
Scenario: You are an excellent and talented employee who consistently works to high standards. This doesn’t necessarily mean you enjoy what you do. In fact, you don’t. You often hear this tune ringing in your ears:
I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no
(Rolling Stones)
Scenario: You are an excellent and talented manager. Ever heard this coming from your mouth when one of your top-notch professionals unexpectedly hands in her resignation even when she was recently offered a promotion:
Oh won’t you stay just a little bit longer
Please, please, please say you will
Say you will
Oh won’t you stay just a little bit longer
Oh please, please stay just a little bit more
(Jackson Browne)
Scenario: Last year, you had a thrilling professional development experience that extended you heaps and you dreamt of great possibilities! Now it’s over and you find yourself back at work doing the same old same old. You’ve lost motivation as the thrill is no longer available. There seems to be little recognition that you’re now a bigger package. How could this happen? Now you have only one dream:
And if that's what you have in mind
Yeah if that's what you're all about
Good luck movin' up
'Cause I'm movin' out
I'm movin' out
(Billy Joel)
Can’t get no satisfaction at work even when you do an excellent job?
Can’t get your top notch workers to stay just a little bit longer?
Can’t wait to move out of the same old same old?
Well, add a little EDUCHAOS to your life and move to the edge instead! It’s time to explore the concept of job sculpting.
Job sculpting - what’s that?
Basically job sculpting is a very innovative and forward thinking human resources and career management strategy used by high performing organisations to keep talented people happy and productive at work. Its premise is simple. If you want to keep your good people, then they may need more than rewards, excellent performance reviews, bonuses and promotions to keeping them motivated and interested in their jobs. They may need job sculpting.
Job sculpting is about valuing and retaining human assets by sculpting the job to fit the person rather than expecting the person to always fit the job. It’s about changing work practices to accommodate both individual as well as organisational goals.
Underpinning job sculpting is the idea of deeply embedded life interests. According to career psychologists Timothy Butler and James Waldroop (who came up with the concept of job sculpting), retaining good people needs a serious strategic rethink and a move towards more contemporary approaches to career development.
So what ARE Deeply Embedded Life Interests?
As a result of over 12 years research with around 600 people in a career management context, Butler and Waldroop suggest that human resources personnel or managers may not be aware of or understand the dynamics of the psychology of work satisfaction: they assume that because people excel at their work, they are happy in their jobs.
Butler and Waldroop identified eight deeply embedded life interests that are better motivators of job satisfaction than either innate abilities or values. These life interests are not hobbies or superficial interests, but emotionally driven passions that often emerge in childhood and are relatively stable throughout life. Nor are they what people are good at - their skills, abilities and aptitudes. Rather, they drive the kinds of activities that engage people and keep them happy and fulfilled at work.
Here are the eight embedded life interests Butler and Waldroop identified. They suggest that incorporating any three of these eight interests into work activities is enough to sustain work satisfaction.
1. Application of Technology
You are intrigued by the inner workings of things and are curious about finding better ways to use technology to solve business problems. If you have this life interest, you enjoy work that involves planning and analysing productions and operations systems and redesigning business processes. You like to read computer magazines, manuals and LOVE the latest and greatest techno toys.
2. Quantitative Analysis
You love to crunch numbers and see business solutions as a numbers game. Your dendrites fire when you do a cash-flow analysis, budgets and can figure out the finer details of purchase agreements. You annoy others when you always get back max tax returns every year. You like to figure out things like teacher student ratios and patterns in customer feedback data.
3. Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking
You are a big picture person who prefers the WHY to the HOW. You like to spend hours exploring ideas or the latest learning, leadership and management theories and discussing them with a wide angle lens. You are more abstract than concrete and tend to be academic in your approach to life.
4. Creative Production
You are switched on by anything new and unconventional. You have imagination and love to explore the unknown. You come up with weird ideas that work and you have a passion for creative expression. You get really excited by new elements of a business. Anything routine or established is not your scene.
5. Counselling and Mentoring
You are passionate about guiding people reach their potential and be the very best they can be. You love teaching above anything else and nothing gives you more pleasure than to know you have made a difference to others and helped them to grow and improve.
6. Managing People and Relationships
You like to work with people, but with an emphasis on achieving goals and business outcomes rather than seeing them grow personally. You are a great manager and enjoy excellent workplace relationships. You have a desire to motivate, organise and direct people.
7. Enterprise Control
You are happiest when you are in charge and can make decisions that others act on. You find great satisfaction in making decisions that determine the direction taken by a work team, a business unit or an entire organisation. You thrive on responsibility and like to own a sale or a transaction. Let’s face it, you like being in control.
8. Influence Through Language and Ideas
You are at your best when you can express yourself and in doing so, influence others. You get a thrill from giving presentations and writing articles. You are a great storyteller and negotiator and there is no doubt that you have the power of persuasion! Writing and speaking are your forte.
Which three would you choose as your primary areas of interest? How well do they align with your work activities and your “work happiness” metre?
Once upon a time…a story of job sculpting
Maybe this story based on the Story Spine that Kat Koppett spoke about in last month’s EDUCHAOS interview will illustrate the implications and possibilities of job sculpting.
Once upon a time there was a creative and talented educator called Zena *. From an early age, her three deeply embedded life passions shone out like a beacon on a clear dark night. She was a born big picture person and used to drive her parents mad with that “WHY” word. “Why is the sky blue”? “Why are there waves on the ocean?”
Later in life when she was introduced to the Internet she was in Heaven. She spent hours exploring ideas or the latest learning and leadership theories and formed her own ideas. A lot of people found her ideas intriguing but weird as they tended to be more abstract than concrete. Still, she always tried to ground them in some kind of academic work. She was right into Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking.
Everyday, she explored something new as one of her passions was Creative Production. Anything routine or established was not her scene and repetition and detail made her downright miserable and her back started to ache as an early warning sign. She had the knack for storytelling and could Influence Through Language and Ideas. She started to present her ideas at conferences and designed them as workshops. She also started to write articles. People liked them and wanted more. She was truly happy and fulfilled in her work and her influence grew.
Then one day she got promoted to a Team Leader position. Her organisation rewarded her for all her achievements. After all, the money was better and she had more positional power.
Because of that, she found herself engaged in activities that were a complete mismatch to her deeply embedded life passions. She had to do purchase agreements and manage budgets when she knew Quantitative Analysis was right off her life passion radar screen. Still, she did it and she did it well, but it drained her enthusiasm. She also found herself spending a lot of time on Human Resource issues like developing job and person specifications, chairing interview panels and nasty things like audits and attending endless meetings. She never really wanted to be a manager or Team Leader as Managing People and Relationships was not something that engaged her passions. She did it and she did it well, but she was not happy.
Because of that, she found her energy and enthusiasm for her job began to wane. She felt drained and started to avoid meetings and when she did, she was disruptive and argumentative. On many occasions she just doodled and only commented when directly addressed.
Because of that, her colleagues started to ask “What’s wrong with her?” and she got off side with many of them. Although she did her work well on the face of it, underneath it all she was downright miserable and work became a real chore. Many people saw her as disdainful and a bit cocky. She was just unhappy in her work.
Until finally, at her annual performance review, it all came spilling out, much to the shock of her boss who had no idea she was so miserable. To him she seemed to be performing at her usual level of excellence. He thought he was rewarding her by giving her a promotion. Luckily, one of his three life passions was Counselling and Mentoring and it wasn’t long before the cards were on the table. They had a D&M (deep and meaningful) chat. Between them, they worked out that establishing a new role for her in Applied Research and Development that focused on innovative and creative practice in teaching and learning would tap into Zena’s life passions for theory, conceptual thinking, creativity and influencing through language and ideas. It was also an identified area of need within the organisation.
And ever since then, Zena is a changed person. She is steaming ahead with energy and enthusiasm. Her applied research is grounded in post-graduate studies and she is in demand as a conference presenter and workshop leader. Tapping into her life interests at work is very rewarding for both Zena and her organisation. She loves her job and every time she thinks of her boss and that D&M session that turned things around, this tune starts playing in her head:
You make me so very happy
I'm so glad you came into my life
You made me so very happy
You made me so very happy
I'm so glad you came
Into my life
I want to thank you
Thank you baby
(GordyJnr/Holloway)
* Any reference to a person now living and loving her work as a result of job sculpting is purely deliberate.
What’s your story?
What is your story? How well has your job been sculpted to tap into your deeply embedded life interests? When you think of your work, what tunes come into your head?
Come and join the forum and discuss the art of job sculpting: tuning in to making work WORK!
Job Sculpting: test your knowledge with these web-based games!
* You’ll need FLASH installed on your computer to play these games. It’s a snap to download and install!
Pieces of 8 – your life interests
Test your knowledge of the eight “deeply embedded life interests” identified by Butler and Waldroop by playing MATCH a web-based game where you try to beat the clock. Simply click on the two matching pairs and get instant feedback on your success. Then try the next level of challenge!
Job Sculpting: Deeply Embedded Life Interests
Here’s another game that’s a bit tougher. It’s called CHOICES and is an electronic version of multiple choice. Feeling confident? Then go straight to Level 3 and beat the time limit!
Good stuff to read
Butler and Waldroop. Job Sculpting: The Art of Retaining Your Best People. A summary of the original article. You can purchase the full version from Harvard Business Review Online.
Job Sculpting - The Michaelangelo Method
This readable case study from India’s national newspaper provides a good overview of how job sculpting can be used in a career management context.
Articles in the EDUCHAOS series
EDUCHAOS: out of control and thriving!
EDUCHAOS- Disruptive Technologies
EDUCHAOS: Using improv and storytelling in business
EDUCHAOS: Job Sculpting - in tune with making work WORK!
EDUCHAOS: Patchworking – showing off your assets
EDUCHAOS: Go Conative - where there’s will, you’re away!
EDUCHAOS: Tuning in to your own voice!
EDUCHAOS: Loose change – a new currency
