"AND when I grow up, I want to be ...": an integrative appraoch to your career path!

Before I dedicate this blog to EDUS 660 for a semester-long reflection on educational research, I want to memorialize some thoughts that I've been tossing around in my brain over the winter break.

The concept first struck me when I read Harvard Business Review blog posts by Roger Martin issued on 11/24/2010 and 12/10/2010. Mr. Martin discusses contrasts the logic, or lack thereof, of IF/THEN/BUT and IF/THEN/AND structures. He applies them to several corporate and artistic ventures where one can see the benefit of integrative thinking which produces something from nothing or at least something from that which wasn't expected or thought possible. I'll recommend Mr. Martin's posts for further and better description of his personal insights.

His reflections led me to think about the application of "BUT" or "AND" to one's career plan. When planning job changes or professional moves, isn't it freeing to say "AND what I want to do next is..." instead of, "BUT I need to make more money or have a grander title or expand the number of people or products that report to me?" This approach allows you to see the value of what you have done or been and apply it as you write the next chapter of your career path.

I just had occasion to catch up with an acquaintance from the local SHRM chapter and he described a new job he'd taken as what he had wanted to do "when he grew up." I am so happy that he found this opportunity. I also want to encourage him that this is an "AND" in his path; perhaps it is not the only time he can "grow up" as a professional.

Over the past few years, as I have taken time to step away from 60 hour workweeks in corporate HR roles, my "ANDs" have been graduate education, more hands-on motherhood, preschool teaching, as well as PTA leadership. I am looking forward to my next adventure as I return to work in the HR field on a full-time basis following graduation. I treat this upcoming adventure as an "AND" which adds value to what I have already been as mother, student, worker, wife. I look forward to what each of those accomplishments lead me to be able to do when I "grow up."