Where my identity was to a profession, these scenario boxes describe talent clusters of people identifying with their employer. They choose to work at organizations widely recognized by their brand or reputation.
“5” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “What you make helps you grow. Your work is a kind of projection. You’ll put the ideas out there and then try them on. This is all an experiment. If it’s not getting the desired result, you can try something else.” Pisces
Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 75 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 5th day of July in the summer of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.
Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year
S2 E74 — Summing Up Your Situation in an Intensely Psychological Game; S2 E73 — WorkFit: Chopping Off 12 Losers at the Intersection of Speed and Independence; S2 E72 — 20 Niche-Specific Opportunities Found After Making Soul Crushing Mistakes
Related from Season One, the Normal Year
S1 E75 — Dreams and Schemes and Workarounds ; S1 E74 — You Know What To Do, Yeah Right!; S1 E73 — Do You Need a Little Leo da V Time Too?; S1 E72 — It’s Taken so Long, I Could be Wrong
Context
This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.
Let’s return to the bottom two boxes which the human resource executive team built. It’s one that instead of independence values higher degrees of affiliation.
Where my identity was to a profession, these scenario boxes describe talent clusters of people identifying with their employer.
They choose to work at organizations which might be widely recognized by their brand or reputation.
| High Affiliation & Speed | High Affiliation & Mastery |
| 12. Director Electronics Distribution Company: Worse Fit | 3. US Army: Worse Fit |
| 31. Consultant — Defense Company Spin Off: Worse Fit | 4. Auto Insurance Agent: Worse Fit |
| 5. Retail Sales Big Ticket: Worse Fit |
High Affiliation and Speed
Better or Worse Fit?
12. Director Electronics Distribution Company — regional distribution company tried first grow nationally and then internationally. They ran into complications with the technology required to translate currencies for product ordering. Instead the acquirer from Europe already had systems in place. Less about innovating and more about sales. The joke told internally was “How do you tell who’s an engineer at a party? They’re the ones looking at their shoes. How do you tell who’s the sales engineer? They’re looking at your shoes.” — Worse Fit
31. Defense Industry Commercial Spin Off — to commercialize electron-beam sterilization of fruits and vegetables and hamburger meet to extend their shelf life. Doctors had invested after a round of salmonella outbreak. He had another client which was reinventing itself trying to both innovate and control their product development process. I learned that the talent cultures that inhabit defense contractors are no way the talent cultures that you need to commercialize a startup — Better Fit
High Affiliation and Mastery
Better or Worse Fit?
3. US Army — not loyal, not much in common with lifers, got to know minorities better, but more challenging work in preventive medicine; hated standard operating procedures, “There’s the right way, the wrong way and the Army way.”— Worse Fit
4. Auto Insurance Agent— Learned about reoccurring income as a business model for professional services, just not into the amount of sales effort and prospecting for leads — Worse Fit
5. Retail Sales Big Ticket — Hard on my feet, low amount of shoppers, didn’t feel like it was in their best interest to buy from this department store; more a consumer advocate. Learned about tricks of the trade, bi-polar character — Worse Fit
Oops, none of my work settings could be equated as a better fit. In fact it didn’t matter if the pace was fast or slow.
Summary
The vast majority of assignments fall within the intersection of high degrees of independence and mastery — 15 — with a mix of better fit (9) and worse fit (6). Where independence intersects with speed, six better fit positions out weigh one worse fit.
The final five positions fell within the higher affiliation degrees of identity but split between speed and mastery. Three worse fit positions fell within affiliation and mastery, whereas one better fit shared affiliation but was driven by time-to-market.
Please note: I’m using myself as a guinea pig to illustrate how the team’s progress with the scenario process fit my career. My goal, and their goal, is to describe a way for you to self-select talent cultures and organization types that better fit you.
So, the purpose of a four scenario exercise is to differentiate among trend-driven alternatives which carry easily identified distinctions. So far so good.
But, the team wasn’t finished just yet.
They asked themselves what happens if you connect a diagonal line from a corner of one box through the middle “+” to its opposite corner?
Now, they felt their four boxes yielded more compelling, yet different Organization Types. The very goal of the scenario process we undertook together.
So the bones of their boxes included an “+” and an “x”.
And, then what happens to my list of better and worse fits?
Stay tuned!
Evidence
“3” Steve Zahn, 51: “Put a quarter in; get a treat out. That is how it works today. The currency won’t be quarters, but the returns will correlate directly. What you see is what you get.” Scorpio
So, help me out here. Is it simply, “You get what you pay for” or something else? The last line throws me into a state of confusion.
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
“5” Steve Kerr, 54: “In order to point your attention in the right direction, you must first have all of it under your command. This requires you to protect your attention from possible drains.” Libra
You’re preaching to the choir, brother. Introverts require solitude to recharge batteries.
“4” Steve Aoki, 41: “It doesn’t take much for an ordinary thing to become extraordinary. The insight you bring to matters will elevate them. You go deeper; they get higher.” Sagittarius
Well, a Steve can dream, right? Insight is what my clients paid for.
“4” Steve Harvey, 62: “People who behave terribly in their personal lives can sometimes be extremely effective, productive and creative in their professional lives. It will be something to handle, process and move forward with today.” Capricorn
And that’s the back story, I’ve read, about Mr. Jobs.
“5” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “What you make helps you grow. Your work is a kind of projection. You’ll put the ideas out there and then try them on. This is all an experiment. If it’s not getting the desired result, you can try something else.” Pisces
What do you mean “kind of projection”? I’d say it straight up. It is. Trying on ideas is what I’m all about, in case the trees have masked the forest. “This is all an experiment” AMEN.
What’s Going On …
Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll
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- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4231 to 4341.
Foresight
Quality-of-Life
Long-Form
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- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate
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