LEADERSHIP LIBRARY

In Brief

In this sequel to Designing Your Life, the authors provide new tools for thinking about shifting one’s job. Their focus is on how to reframe our current jobs to get more satisfaction before we do the hard and risky work of changing jobs.

Key Concepts

Life design should focus on incremental steps and experiments

On the contrary, changing our internal narrative to “good enough for now” makes it possible for everything in our external situation to transform. (Chapter 1)

“That’s how life designers work—they accept the reality of the situation or job at hand, they look for a reframe, and, by applying a bias to action mind-set, they build something—a prototype—then learn something, and do it again. We call this process “building your way forward” and it works in almost any situation.” (Chapter 1)

“The Set the Bar Low method is based on some pretty sound psychological studies and behavior change models that suggest that taking small, actionable steps is the best way to establish a new behavior or habit.” (Chapter 1)

“In order to feel like a designer in your job, you want to be creating and initiating things, most of the time. When you take it upon yourself to initiate an action, a change, or a new way of doing something, you satisfy what psychologists call an “innate need,” and these needs are uniquely human. And when you are getting your innate needs met you feel like you have more control of your world.” (Chapter 1)

Part of our dissatisfaction may be a lack of creativity and measuring the wrong “making”

“We also find that, when people do their Workview and Lifeview and create their compass, living more creatively almost always pops up in one way or another.” (Chapter 2)

“We believe that happiness in your work life comes from paying attention, and paying attention will help you get your Maker Mix dialed in. The trouble starts when you get your mix, well, mixed up.” (Chapter 2)

Solutions come from reframing the problem, often to the Minimum Actionable Problem (MAP)

“Creativity is all about playing around with how you frame your box and how you “play” within that framing. Step 1: Accept that there is always a box. Step 2: Remind yourself that you made the box when you framed the question, and you can change the frame when you need new, more helpful solutions.” (Chapter 3)

“We find that so-called insurmountable problems like Bernie’s are usually either (1) truly inactionable and therefore circumstances to accept and not actionable problems (we call these “gravity problems,” because, well, there’s nothing you can do about gravity, it just is), or (2) poorly framed problems that we can reframe to make them more actionable.” (Chapter 3)

“The trick here is to remind yourself that you’re going for the Best Doable Option (BDO), which is not the same as the Best Theoretical Option (BTO).” (Chapter 3)

Try to redesign your job before you quit

“Redesigning isn’t easy, but it’s a lot easier than starting over, so let’s at least understand the redesign option and try a few ideas before we make any rash decisions.” (Chapter 7)

“Even if the redesign doesn’t pan out, the time you’ve spent trying is never wasted. After applying your design thinking process to the problem, you’ll have learned a great deal about yourself and about your company (and therefore about your entire industry), and you’ll have a better story to tell as you start your new job search.”  (Chapter 8)

Four strategies for redesigning your job

#1 Reframe and Reenlist—“(1) Accept the new reality. (2) Identify new sources of “why” that you can use as your rationale for your job. (3) Reframe your relationship to the job and company. (4) Reenlist and live into it. (5) Look for new benefits and sources of satisfaction along the way to make it good enough…for now.” (Chapter 7)

#2 Remodel

#3 & #4 Relocate or Reinvent (aka: The Internal Job Search)

Finding a good job is the process of telling your story to the right people

“Here’s a simple but profound reframe: The best way to get a job is not to ask for a job, it’s to ask for the story. Ask for (lots and lots of) stories, and you’ll find a job.” (Chapter 9)

“As a sincerely curious person and someone not looking for a job, you can become an insider through connections built by getting the story. Then, once you become part of the “job community” conversation (and, remember, interested is interesting), things start to happen.” (Chapter 9)

Reframes

Dysfunctional Belief: It’s not working for me here.

Reframe: You can make it work (almost) anywhere.

Dysfunctional Belief: I am a cog in the machine.

Reframe: I am a lever that can impact the machine.

Bonus Reframe: I’m a human, not a machine, and I deserve a creative and interesting job.

Dysfunctional Belief: Good enough isn’t good enough, I want more.

Reframe: Good enough is GREAT—for now.

Dysfunctional Belief: To have a good work life I need to “go for it” and really shoot for the moon!

Reframe: The secret to “good enough for now” is to have a bias to action, but set the bar low, clear it, then do it again, and again.

Dysfunctional Belief: I must choose money or meaning because I can’t have both!

Reframe: Money versus meaning (like work-life balance) is a false dichotomy. Money and meaning are just two different measurements of what I value.

Dysfunctional Belief: I can’t make a living as an artist, dancer, singer, painter…fill in the blank.

Reframe: I know the money-versus-meaning problem is a false dichotomy, and I’m not letting the market define who I am and what I create. I decide how much money, impact, and self-expression works for me.

Dysfunctional Belief: My problems at work are insurmountable. I’m totally stuck.

Reframe: I’m never totally stuck, because I know how to reframe anything into a Minimum Actionable Problem (MAP).

Dysfunctional Belief: I can’t possibly do all this work, and I’m overwhelmed.

Reframe: I chose my way into this and I can design my way out.

Dysfunctional Belief: I don’t like my job, and I don’t know what to do.

Reframe: You have the power to reframe and redesign any situation and any job.

Dysfunctional Belief: I’m not happy in my job, and I have no idea how to make it better.

Reframe: I recognize my intrinsic motivations and I know how to increase my autonomy, relatedness, and competence.

Dysfunctional Belief: I do not understand how things work at my job; it’s all about the office politics.

Reframe: I can learn how to succeed by learning how to manage influence, authority, and power.

Dysfunctional Belief: I have a bad job, and I need to quit!

Reframe: There are no bad jobs, just jobs that fit badly, and I can redesign right where I am to make my own “good” job.

Dysfunctional Belief: My job sucks, and I need to go to another company to get a better one.

Reframe: Before you quit, make sure that you have maximized all of your available options in place where you work. The better job (or gig) you seek may be the one right next to you.

Dysfunctional Belief: I’m going to quit this *$#$%* job today.

Reframe: I’m going to springboard out of this job to a better one by designing my quit.

Dysfunctional Belief: My last job didn’t work out. I’ve got to start all over from scratch and find a new one.

Reframe: I can springboard from wherever I am to the next place, taking the best with me and leaving the rest behind.

Dysfunctional Belief: The only way to have a career is for someone to hire me, and to work for a company, in a job I can tolerate.

Reframe: One way to have an amazing career, with lots of autonomy, and have a job I love is to invent it!

Dysfunctional Belief: I don’t have a real job—I’m just doing temporary consulting—and this isn’t the career I thought I’d have.

Reframe: I’m not doing temporary work; I’m prototyping alternative ways of working and being my own boss, for money. Prototyping is a low-risk way to get curious, try stuff, and take control of my work life.

 Quotables

“You need you to be happy at what you do and how you spend your work life. And the world needs more happy and engaged workers.” (Introduction)

“The truth is, when we live our lives waiting to get somewhere, the only place we get is stuck.” (Chapter 1)

“One warning: In the modern workplace people aspire to having their income-producing work also be their meaning-producing work. You’re making the impact in the world you most care about and you are getting paid to do it. ...This is the unicorn.” (Chapter 2)

“The first step is to recognize that we’re going for an acceptable measure of resolution—not the perfect answer.” (Chapter 3)

“The important thing is not to let overwhelm turn into burnout.” (Chapter 4)

“And the research shows that passion is generally something that emerges in response to working hard in an area of interest. Therefore, you may not know your passion for years.” (Chapter 5)

Influence = Value + Recognition (Chapter 6)

“What we mean is—you choose quitting. Don’t let quitting choose you. Make quitting your positive, generative choice.” (Chapter 8)

“We often think that work frustration, overwhelm, disengagement, and burnout are personal problems. It’s our job and our fault if it’s not working, or our boss’s fault, or someone’s fault. The truth is it’s not a personal problem alone. It’s a societal problem and a global problem. With disengagement at work at epidemic proportions, our work culture is not working, and the reason is that our organizations are filled with dysfunctional beliefs.” (Conclusion)