The Challenge of Coherent Career Practice Magnusson and Redekopp

1. Kris Magnusson Associate Vice President Academic The University of Lethbridge The Challenge of Coherent Career PracticeMagnusson and Redekopp

2. General Outline • 5 challenges for affecting change in the career development system; • 5 challenges for helping individuals; • 6 Principles for explaining client challenges • The 4 components of Coherent Career Practice Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

3. Pick a card – any card Do NOT share it with anyone! A Precautionary Comment:The Distressing Predictability of Career Service Providers Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

4. Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

5. Systemic Challenge #1: • Even when the services are done very well, some clients still seem to “fall through the cracks” • E.g., less than 1/3 of high school students surveyed found high school career services to be useful to them (CNS data) Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

6. Systemic #2: Many people who would benefit from good career services are never seen by career service providers. Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

7. Systemic Challenge #3: Increased complexity of issues demands increasingly complex strategies for helping people with career issues. Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

8. Systemic Challenge #4 How do we find a way to communicate fundamental career development concerns to “non-career” helpers (e.g., parents, coaches, teachers, managers, etc.)? Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

9. Systemic Challenge #5 • How can we develop a language and a way of thinking that helps people to see things in a different way? • How do we develop ideas and strategies, linked to a simple model, that helps us communicate across contexts (different training; different understandings about “career”; etc.)? Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

10. Individual Challenge #6: • How do we increase client competence – knowledge, skills and attitudes – to better enable them to manage their career paths? Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

11. Individual Challenge #7 How do we help individuals understand their current situation well enough to help them plan for their future? Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

12. Individual Challenge #8 How can people seem to make “bad” choices, even in the face of good information? Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

13. Individual Challenge #9: Why do some people seem to stay in non-productive ruts, and even maintain actions that cause them to fail? Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

14. Individual Challenge #10: • What do we do about all of those factors that are outside of the client’s (or our) control? Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

15. Remember your card? I have taken it from the list I showed you! Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

16. Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

17. Did it work? Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

18. Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

19. Principle #1: Action Over Meaning • We are “hard-wired” to respond to a situation before we stop to determine its meaning • “Sorry - I just acted without thinking” Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

20. Principle #2: Habituation • We quickly and unconsciously form habits. • We see things in patterns and fill in missing information to create patterns; • We form routines of behaviours; • We expect predictability. Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

21. Principle #3: Just Noticeable Differences • We have lousy change detection skills • We rely on major changes OR • Our memories of events Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

22. Principle # 4: Emotional Filters • All current experiences – either something in the moment, something remembered, or something imagined – are perceived and interpreted through the emotion currently experienced Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

23. Principle # 5: Reconstruction Consistency • We actively and unconsciously “reconstruct” events – in the past, in the present or in the future – so that they can be consistent with a prevailing belief • The prevailing belief may have come from a prevailing emotion Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

24. Principle # 6: Faith in Sensation • We assume that our experience is an accurate description of the “real thing” – we assign “truth value” to what we “see” Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

25. We cannot feel good about an imaginary future when we are busy feeling bad about an actual present. Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

26. 3 Fundamental Tasks of Modern Career Practice: • Identify client career development issues that may arise from a broad spectrum of possibilities; • To implement strategies or interventions that are closely aligned with the “real issue”; and • To develop career resourcefulness, capacity and self-sufficiency. Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

27. Caveat: The issue is not the issue. Client presenting problem is often not the issue that needs to be resolved; it is just the best place to start! Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

28. Primary Goal of Intervention: Not simply finding the “right problem” and fixing it RATHER, IT IS Helping clients develop a coherent base of resourcefulness for managing their career paths. We need to go beyond the “problem” and develop resourcefulness Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

29. The Challenge: To bring the various services and interventions of career development together into a logical framework that builds upon and complements each component Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

30. “Coherent” Practice • A systematic way of looking at career issues that “sticks together” - that coheres - and that integrates service components • A way to identify the source of client (and employee and student and child) difficulties Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

31. “Coherent” Practice (Contd.) • A way to consider not just “what” a problem might be, but also “why” the problem is there in the first place • We will NEVER help clients develop career self-sufficiency if we do not answer the “why” questions! • The “teach me to fish” adage Feed me a fish and I eat for today. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime. Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

32. The Basic Elements of Coherent Career Practice Getting Started: The Core of an Idea

33. The Four Elements of Coherent Career Practice Career Literacy Career Gumption Career Context Career Integrity Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

34. Hypothesis: • The source of client difficulties (e.g., the reason why they are clients) may inevitably be traced back to a “blockage” in one (or more) of these elements • If we can identify the source of “blockage”, we are more likely to be able to apply - or invent - interventions that deal with the “real issue” Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

35. Career Literacy

36. What We Mean byCareer Literacy: • A progressively acquired set of skills, knowledge and attitudes that are related to the acquisition, understanding and application of information needed to manage one’s own career development Acquisition, understanding and application of information Progressively acquired Skills, knowledge and attitudes Manage one’s own career development Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

37. A Comment on Literacy: • Literacy gives you the tools to read; it does not guarantee that you will like the book you are reading, or even that the book you want will be available • All readers understand that there is no “perfect” or “right” book Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

38. Ways to Develop Career Literacy • Directly via instruction (counselling, programs, etc.); • Incidentally (Vicarious learning); • Reflectively (thinking about what may be useful); and • Experientially (learning from mistakes, etc.) Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

39. A Note on Ability • There was a time when we tried to use ability (e.g., aptitude) as a predictor • Ability provides a global predictor at extreme ends of continuum • It is most important at lower ends of ability (e.g., thresholds) Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

40. Poor Career Literacy: • Information Problems: • May be the result of lack of information; • May be the result of misinformation; • Skill Problems: • May be the result of lack of practice; • May be the result of lack of feedback on practice; • Attitude Problems: • May be the result of lack of will; • May be the result of self-perceptions of skill or mistaken beliefs (Mistaken SOG’s or WVG’s, to paraphrase Kumboltz) Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

41. Levels of Literacy • Increasingly complex decision contexts require higher levels of career literacy • The more complex the world gets, the greater the need for career literacy Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

42. Career Gumption

43. What We Mean byCareer Gumption: • The energy, momentum, motivation or desire to engage in career development. • Being proactive, taking initiative and making change. • Rooted in optimism (the future will be better), hope (even if the future isn’t better, I’ll be fine) and self-assurance (I can handle whatever comes up) Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

44. Ways to Develop Career Gumption • Directly via instruction (counselling, programs, etc.); • Incidentally (Vicarious learning); • Reflectively (thinking about what may be useful); and • Experientially (learning from mistakes, etc.) Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

45. Wait a Minute - That List Looked the Same as the Last One! • It was! The difference is one of focus, and the content one embeds in each process. Therefore, career interventions must be more intentional to ensure the content, process and desired outcomes are aligned Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

46. Career Gumption Triggers: • Dissatisfaction: • (“I’m not happy so I should do something about it”) or • Anticipation • (“I’m happy now but I won’t be if I keep doing what I’m doing forever or if the world changes on me”). • They don’t CAUSE gumption but may result in • Learned helplessness • Denial/rationalization • Perseveration (working harder at old strategies) Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

47. Poor Career Gumption • Usually rooted in fear Fear of the unknown (and little known); Fear of failure, Fear of success, Fear of being unique, Fear of being different Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

48. Create a Positive Experience • The surest way to help people see new alternatives, or to reframe their experiences, is to provide them with a realistic positive experience together with accurate, descriptive feedback • E.g., Pride stories; work experience, experiences of success Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008

49. Career Context

50. What We Mean by Career Context • The relationships between: • How one perceives the larger world (the world as I see it), • How one perceives one’s immediate role (“my world” – how I see myself fitting into the world), and • How one may be affected by the immediate and larger world, even without realizing it Coherent Career Practice CDAA South 2008