Redesigning the work we do.
“Work should be what you WANT to do.”
karim rashid
I was first introduced to “good design” when my mother took me to an art museum to see an exhibit on the Bauhaus movement. This was not my first visit to an art museum, but I have to confess that it was the first time that I really enjoyed myself. It was not until many years later that I realized why this exhibit grabbed me. It was visually soothing and seemed to effortlessly blend the varied design disciplines—graphic, industrial and architectural. Or perhaps the exhibit reawakened a part of my heritage. My grandfather was a stonemason and the Bauhaus curriculum included stone as one of the key materials for building buildings. Whatever the origin of my interest in design, I am a passionate consumer of anything dealing with design.
What does design have to do with our work lives—unless of course we happen to be graphic, industrial or architectural designers?
Well, I like to think of our careers—our work lives— as works in progress. We should continually be refreshing not only our resumes, but also the work we do (or wish to do). I call this process work redesign, which is an on-going process and one in which we are in control. We may be “in transition” because of something that happened to us, but we choose to redesign the work we do.
We can learn from the design disciplines about redesigning our work.
Designers seek solutions. The design process typically begins with identifying a problem that needs to be solved. In the business world they like to call this an “opportunity.” How can we make something that is both functional and attractive? What can we do to reduce manufacturing costs? How will the end user actually use our product?
“Gregg Berryman writes in his Notes on Graphic Design and Visual Communication1, “Everyone ‘looks’ at things but very few people ‘see’ effectively.” When redesigning our work, we must be able to see “the problem.” Maybe it is that we are in a job we no longer enjoy. Or, we were laid off from a job that was “ok” on most days. Perhaps we are stuck—not knowing where to begin the search for something better. What would it look like? How would we go about finding it?
In the job market like we have today (challenging…) with record numbers of unemployed individuals, it is tempting to define “the problem” as finding a job.
If we start with this as our solution, any job will do.
The problem is not that we need to find a job, but that we want to find a job that works for us. It is tempting to jump at the first opportunity— even if we know that the work is not exactly what we had in mind. We feel pressured —by ourselves and others—to act this way and, we find all sorts of reasons justifying why the offer really is not so bad.
Designers teach us the importance of properly defining the problem, before searching for solutions. In applying this to our job searches, we should pause before dusting off that resume and be sure that the solution we are seeking fits the problem.