Things to do while you’re waiting for luck

1. Things to do while you’re waiting for luck Thomas S. Krieshok University of Kansas tkrieshok@ku.edu

2. What is it that controls human behavior?

3. “Our modern skulls house a Stone Age mind” Cosmides & Tooby • Suited for life on the Savannah • Modular brain yields different systems for wanting and liking

4. We are of two minds • System 1: Intuitive, non-conscious mind -related to “older” functions of the brain • System 2: Rational, often conscious mind -related to “newer” functions of the brain -especially language

5. CONSCIOUSNESS • Consciousness is limited • 20 bps processor • Information processed is vast • 11,000,000 bits per second

6. Conscious thought is very expensive • Conscious processing uses valuable mental energy • Drivers given mental puzzle • Cell phone use

7. Is Intuition in Charge? • Our capacity for rationality is constrained. Simon (Nobel Prize 1955) • Which leads to satisficing • a crude application of reason • We settle for an adequate selection • as opposed to the optimal one.

8. The Elephant and the Rider (Haidt) • The elephant (Bargh’s ‘Wise Unconscious’) • Makes most day to day decisions • The rider • Has some input, but not as much as we think

9. Interpreter Module (Gazzaniga) • Fabricates what must be happening

10. Intuition runs the show But depends on good experience (Klein vs. Kahneman 2009) • Good intuitive decisions are possible • when there are consistent learnable patterns underlying outcomes • But…People do not have a strong ability to distinguish correct intuitions from faulty ones

11. We experience the world as conscious choosers • Either not that way at all • Or at least much less conscious authority than we believe • Anti-Introspectivist view of career decision making (Krieshok, 1998)

12. The heart has its reasons, that reason knows not of PascalThere’s someone in my head, but it’s not me. Pink Floyd

13. Cognitive science and neuroanatomy • Our preferences and desires are not necessarily dependent on conscious awareness • Brain’s left hemisphere fabricates reasons for behavior, largely without referencing right hemisphere’s experience Seriously? It’s because she smells good! Stop ignoring me! I like her because she is smart and funny and quotes Nietzsche

14. What we imagine and expect leaves out inconvenient truths. • Rational choices can lead to disappointing outcomes • Miswanting: We think something will make us happier than it does. We avoid things we expect will be difficult based on faulty assumptions. • Introspective access to higher order cognitive processes is limited

15. Problems in Forecasting the future (Gilbert) • 1. Consciousness only sees a movie about reality • Akin to Gazzaniga’s interpreter module. • In the guessing we are subject to errors • 2. We overestimate our ability to get things done in the future • 3. We underestimate our resourcefulness for dealing with obstacles

16. Now what do we do? • We think we know why we make decisions, but we don’t. Most decision making is not conscious. • Conscious processes are subject to confirmatory and disconfirmatory biases, selective attention, and distortions • Plus, we often push people to make decisions prematurely • So should we just give up trying to help?

17. A Trilateral Model of Adaptive Career Decision-Making • Adaptive Career Decision-Making • A state of affairs in which decision-making is optimized through the mutual input of • Reason, Intuition, and Engagement. Reason System 2, Rational System, Reflective System. Engagement Activities that increase one’s fund of information and experience. Intuition System 1, Experiential System, Reflexive System.

18. The Case for Engagement “… taking part in behaviors that contribute to the career decision-maker’s fund of information and experience.”

19. The Case for Engagement • Engagement = Exploration + Enrichment • Exploration: When in the face of a transition • Enrichment: When no transition is imminent

20. Engagement • In a world where nothing is predictable, and even our own decisional machinations are hidden behind a veil, put your money on getting experience (engagement).

21. Examples of Occupational Engagement 21 Studying abroad Being involved in organizations Talking to anyone at anytime about anything Volunteering Job shadowing Traveling Reading a section of the newspaper you normally don’t

22. Wisdom-driven Decisions • Under normal circumstances, the things that play into our important decisions unconsciously may be more our fears than anything else. • One of the things we need to do rationally, is to tap into our intuition in a healthy positive way, and listen to our fears (our negatively energized non-conscious processes) and bring those into the light so we can make good decisions.

23. Our firmest conclusion: • Be Engaged!!! • Better chance your intuition will be expert • Be prepared! (always be engaged) • Ebberwein’s study of laid off workers

24. Opportunity Costs • The matching model implies more control than you really have, and distracts you from doing that which you should really be doing (engaging).

25. Understanding & Believing in chaos is important • Make your job loss less personal • Make your job search less trusting in a fair system of job hunting

26. Need to accept the limited amount of order in the World of Work • learn to adapt on the fly • capitalize on idiosyncratic events • let go of our demand that the world be completely ordered • and soften our rigid hold on reality

27. Ideal vs. Real • Ideal starting point: Adaptable, Wise, Smart • Real starting point: Real humans, with modular brains, language bound, chaos avoidant • Ideal environment: Savannah • Real environment: Chaos

28. Leads to several dialecticsDialectic #1: Decidedness • Decidedness feels better than undecidedness: so work to get decided but… • Decidedness cannot be forced. If it happens, so be it; if not, you have to leave it alone. And it might never come.

29. Dialectic #2: Planning • Having a good plan is essential but: • It’s always a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

30. Dialectic #3: Flow • Our STORY about work is that it’s a drudgery. but… • The reality is that we are in flow when we are at work more so than in any other role.

31. Dialectic #4: The Zen of Career • Act as though every moment is absolutely critical to your career success but… • Laugh at the idea that career success is important at all.

32. Dialectic #5: Commitment within Relativism • Be out front with a passionate plan but • Wake up every day to the possibility that today might be the day you receive your next calling.

33. Adaptability as the new GOLD Standard • From Match-Making to Meaning-Making. • Development is continually adapting to a changing environment • RATHER THAN an internal impetus to maturation

34. Things to do while you’re waiting for luck • 1. Being a great student and worker is not enough • We need to be adaptive agents • With a healthy relationship to the marketplace. • 2. Avoid choosing until you have developed your expertise • Differentiate Decidedness from Commitment • 3. Don’t always trust what your thoughts are telling you. • Your thoughts are not your friends. • Rational explanations may be driven by other agendas

35. Things to do while you’re waiting for luck • 4. Feed your intuition Engage your 11,000,000 bit processor Instead of your 20 bit processor • 5. Consult with trusted others, especially on your strengths • 6. Don’t spend too much time in self assessment

36. Things to do while you’re waiting for luck • 7. Most of all, ENGAGE • Set yourself up for planned happenstance • 8. Once (re)employed, STAY engaged • 9. Choose Action over Decision (Savickas) • 10. Lead a value-driven life • Instead of a quest for a pain-freelife

37. Check the smoke alarms once a month, rather than once a year (Rich Scott)