Career Redesign Tools For Work-Life Balance
Partnering with the University of Pennsylvania Law School and
the Wharton School, Thirdpath Institute, a non-profit whose
mission is "to assist individuals and families in finding new
ways to redesign work to create time for family, community and
other life priorities," held a 2-day conference in May, 2004 for
lawyers, entitled "Having a Life: Creating Work-Life Balance in
the Law." I was part of a small team of career and work-life
professionals who facilitated small group breakout sessions that
were held throughout the conference.
Thirdpath Institute, under the direction of Jessica DeGroot and
Hanne Weedon, is a thought-leader and ground-breaker in the
work-life field because it works at two levels concurrently.
First, it developed concrete tools for thinking about and
implementing work re-design: analytic, structural, etc. Second,
into this highly structured and analytic approach, it also
includes a second methodology which allows people to tap into
the emotional and highly personal level of these kinds of
changes. A mother of young children might apply Thirdpath's
"Four Ways to Flex Your Work" and consider working a four-day
week. And through paired listening, she might get in touch with
how terrified she was of being "mommy-tracked" by the managing
partners and her peers.
Tapping into and working with the emotional and personal ups and
downs is a highly interactive process. In the small groups at
the conference we made room and set the context for people to
share some of their internal process. When I coach a client
through a work re-design process of any magnitude, the coaching
conversation becomes a place for the client to "check in" on the
issues, and determine an action plan. For example, one lawyer
who works from home on Fridays was on a 2-hour conference call
with several people, including one of her managing partners.
After the call, her managing partner called her and asked her if
she was "in" today. She responded, "I am working today, if
that's what you mean."
ThirdPath has come up with a beautifully structured approach to
work re-design. They offer "Six Steps for Integrating Work and
Life" and "Four Ways to Flex Your Work". Here are the "Four Ways
to Flex Your Work":
- Schedule. This pertains to the degree to which your
work actually needs to be done during a particular time of day.
Many professionals find that large chunks of their work -
research, writing, analysis, thinking, planning, etc. - can be
done during non-traditional work hours, such as very early
mornings, 9 p.m. to midnight, weekends, holidays.
- Physical Presence. This pertains to whether your work
requires you to be in a particular place. If you are an
emergency room doctor, you need to be in the emergency room for
your clinical hours. But your non-clinical hours, such as
planning the monthly meeting, or writing up your research, may
be put in from home.
- Workflow. This is about how much control you have over
the volume and the pace of your work. The lawyer who works 80%
time in a firm where the full time annual standard is 2000
billable hours knows she needs 1600 billable hours. But who
decides which cases she takes on - can she say no when her plate
is full? One part time attorney for a commission told of one
hellish year when she had put in all 60% of her hours by the end
of June. She took the rest of the year off.
- Substitution. To what extent can someone else do your
work? Are there peers who can take over for you, and/or are
there subordinates who can pick up some of your lower-level
tasks? Could you job-share with someone?
Are you stumped about how you could possibly re-design your
job? Are you convinced it could never happen at your place of
work? If you are going around and around, thinking about work
re-design but never taking any action, you owe it to yourself to
get some assistance. Most people cannot think their way through
these challenges on their own. I have helped many high achievers
get un-stuck and implement some real changes that result in more
satisfying arrangements.
Get off the hamster wheel!
If you're considering hiring a coach to help you with challenges
like these, contact me at www.stcoach.com for an initial
consultation at no charge.
Copyright 2004, Sharon Teitelbaum