Over the years I have developed my own approach to help people think through their professional options and the essential idea of the book, Learning to Fly which I published in September 2022 with Anthem Books.
The world was already changing before the outbreak of Covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The events of the last few years, however, have only accelerated changes caused by digitalization, geopolitical tensions, and the looming climate crisis.
Given the situation, it is not surprising that I find that the executives, middle managers, and MBA students that I normally interact with are increasingly concerned with their career prospects.
What does surprise me, however, is that most people separate their concerns about the changing world from their discussions about career management and their future prospects as if the two issues had nothing to do with one another. Another way to say this is that people look at the problem of what to do with their professional lives
in static rather than dynamic terms.
My conviction is that each of us has the ability and even the responsibility to think through how we feel the major trends affecting the world will play out when making choices about where to work, what to do, and where to live.
In 1970, Richard Boles published What Color is Your Parachute which had an impact on me when I graduated from Business School in the 1980s. The metaphor is that each of us needs to choose what to do and where to live in a way that is consistent with what is important to us.
In these complex, turbulent times, I fear we no longer have the luxury of choosing a parachute and gently floating to the earth. To take the metaphor a little bit further, what each of us needs is a winged suit, like the ones BASE jumpers use, to be able to really control ride the air currents and thermals and respond quickly to changing situations.
I refer to this idea as learning to fly.
Besides the book, these ideas are also brought to life on a dedicated website that you can find at learningtofly.careers. There you can participate in forums on different aspects of your professional career and also read about other people’s professional journeys in the stories section.