Shape your Future - Life and Career Design

The value and benefits of LCD - for the individual and the organisation

WHY?

3 major questions that we ask and that the participants try to answer during the initial LCD workshop are:

1. WHO am I?
2. WHAT do I want?
3. HOW do I get it?

Before even entering into these simple questions with difficult answers, we ask an even more basic question:

WHY do I want to do this?

In another paper, I use the set of 'W-questions' applying them to projects. The WHY question for a project is related to clarifying whether or not the project will provide a product or service that produces a positive, beneficial and desirable change for the customer of the project, and all the other stakeholders as well.

The idea of the customer and stakeholders for your life-projects - which indeed are the outcome of an LCD session - is an interesting one.

Who is the Customer for your Life-Projects and who are the other Stakeholders for these Projects?

Let's start by proposing that the customer for your life-projects is you yourself. You may or may not agree with this, and indeed there may be an entire group of people that you will see as the customers of the projects. Perhaps listing potential stakeholders and their 'stakes' in your life-projects will help to clarify this. I will start simply by listing the potential stakeholders, this list will hopefully lead to the clarification of the potential stakes or impact that these people or groups of people hold or will feel if you decide, plan and then implement your life-projects(s).

Potential Life Project Stakeholders

• Clearly you yourself as customer are also a stakeholder
• Your partner
• Other members of your family
• Some of your friends
• Your boss at work
• Your colleagues at work
• The company that you work for
• Indeed anyone that is affected by the outcome of your project!

A major element in working through an LCD session is that the participants clarify what is important to them in their life. This leads through discussion on what motivates them to the clarification of their basic Values with a capital V. The value - with a small v - for the stakeholders is the basic question of this paper.

The next 3 sections give an overview of the content of and LCD workshop using the basic 3 questions of the workshop itself:

WHO?

This 2-day workshop is designed for people facing major decisions in their professional or private life. These decisions may be of the nature of what route to take for the next career-step, perhaps a totally new route after a forced or chosen career change, a personal project at a certain stage in one's life, or maybe just a feeling that something is not right and you need to review where you are and where you want to go.

WHAT?

The participants will have the opportunity through inputs from the facilitator, personal reflection and discussions with the other participants to:

• Gain insights into limiting attitudes
• Prioritise what is important to them at this point in their life
• Understand the implications of their decision
• Assess their skills and preferences
• Clarify and plan to realise their goals

HOW?

This workshop is a very special event - all the people attending have decided that they need to take control of their lives and focus in what is important to them at this stage in their personal development.

The flow of the workshop is thus driven by the needs of all the participants, and so in applying coaching and facilitation techniques, we use simple questions and models, various tools, exercises and discussions in a supportive environment to guide the participants through the initial stages of their preparation and planning for their next personal or professional project.

VALUES AND value

Once people have started to clarify their own personal basic Values - what motivates them, what de-motivates them, why they prefer doing some things and prefer not doing other things - it is much easier for them to decide what they REALLY want to do in and with their lives. In fact even the decision-making process itself becomes easier as people understand and live by their Values - some potential routes of action or alternatives are discarded immediately as they are against one's basic Values.

This leads us into the value of these life-projects both for the customer and the other major stakeholders.

Value for the Customer - You:

• Allows you time and free space to reflect on your life - this in itself is a worthwhile way of spending 2 days every now and then
• Clarifies your priorities
• Optimises your personal decision-making process
• Improves the Return On Investment (ROI) that you are making in managing this project - a desired, more positive and more beneficial life
• Maximises your potential both in your life and in your career

Value for your Organisation:

• Allows you time and free space to reflect on your present job and career
• Clarifies your priorities and how these relate to those of the organisation that you work in
• Optimises your decision-making process related to activities at work and the strategic direction of your next career steps and how this fits in with the strategic direction of the organisation
• Improves the ROI that the organisation is making from you, your activities and above all your potential - a desired, more positive and more beneficial perspective on the present job and career
• Ensures a better, reflected path towards the next career step to be of maximum benefit for the organisation.

In the Stakeholder analysis exercise, the participant lists all the stakeholders, the IMPACT of the project on them (High or Low) and their COMMITMENT (High or Low) to the change implied by the outcome of the project. The Stakeholders are then grouped into the four quadrants Hi/Hi, Hi/Lo, Lo/Hi and Lo/Lo. The proposed courses of action for the four types of stakeholder are:

Impact/Commitment

• Hi/Hi - Enlist their help in the project
• Hi/Lo - Address their concerns
• Lo/Hi - Involve as needed
• Lo/Lo - Keep informed.

Keeping now the sponsoring organisation in mind as a major stakeholder, we need to judge the impact on the organisation of the outcome of your life-projects and also their commitment to supporting the changes necessary to allow this to happen, or the changes that will occur once it has happened. This will then allow you to plan the correct course of action to get the organisational buy-in and support necessary to participate in an LCD workshop and also for the ensuing changes that will occur as a result.

Given the proposed list of values for your organisation noted above, the positive impact and results for these specific stakeholders should be clear and beneficial for all concerned.

Value of the LCD Program

- Allows you time and free space to reflect on your life - this in itself is a worthwhile way of spending 2 days every now and then

- Clarifies your priorities

- Optimises your personal decision-making process

- Improves the Return On Investment (ROI) that you are making in managing this project - a desired, more positive and more beneficial life

- Maximises your potential both in your life and in your career

Value for your Organisation

- Allows you time and free space to reflect on your present job and career

- Clarifies your priorities and how these relate to those of the organisation that you work in

- Optimises your decision-making process related to activities at work and the strategic direction of your next career steps and how this fits in with the strategic direction of the organisation

- Improves the ROI that the organisation is making from you, your activities and above all your potential - a desired, more positive and more beneficial perspective on the present job and career

- Ensures a better, reflected path towards the next career step to be of maximum benefit for the organisation.