Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Opening New Frontiers – Exploring Chaos in Life/Work
Clarence De Schiffart & Laurie Edwards
CANNEXUSJanuary 27, 2013
"May my mind come alive today to the invisible
geography that invites me to new frontiers.”
John O'Donahue
Chaos Theory
Click icon to add picture
Does anyone know about the Butterfly Effect?
Faces of Career Development
YouTube Videohttp://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRW_YbEPIL0
Small group activity: The Potential Impact of Chaos in Your Life
• Write an unexpected life event on one side of the paper
• On the other side, write how that event contributed to your life/work situation
Chaos in Life/Work
Share a your “chaos story” and
the impact it had on your life in
a small group…
o What was it like for you at
the time? Looking back now?
o What did you experience
(thoughts, emotions)?
o What got you through it?
(c) Clarence De Schiffart 2012
In small groups discuss…
As a Career Practitioner, what is it like to work with people who…
Appear to have lost their way?
Seem confused about life options?
Do not seem to have a direction in their life/work?
(c) Clarence De Schiffart 2012
Chaos Theory Helps Deals With Complexity in the World
• Our Human Complexity? our minds, bodies, social networks, past history, and other influences
• Our Goal as CDP? Help people understand these complexities
Source:http://careersintheory.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/applied-chaos
Our careers are:
• Subject to chance events
• Subject to non-linear changeo sometimes small steps have profound outcomes
o sometimes changing everything changes nothing
• Unpredictableo most people express a degree of surprise/delight or
disappointment at where they ended up.
“Factors” within Chaos Theory
In small groups respond to:
What is the impact of knowing these “factors” (chaos theory) on a person’s capacity to intentionally navigate their career decision making?
e.g. predictability of the future• The NHL lockout• Great fruit season in Annapolis Valley NS, very poor one in
southern ON• Winning the lottery• The loss of a father/mothers job
Our careers are:
• Subject to continual change.
o Sometimes we experience slow shift that results in us drifting
off course without realizing it,
o Sometimes our careers have dramatic (fast shift) changes which
completely turn our world upside down.
“We take shape and exhibit self-similar patterns, trajectories,
traits, narratives, preoccupations over time & we are too
complex to be easily captured and put into simple boxes,
interest or personality codes”.
Additional “Factors” within Chaos Theory
Source: http://careersintheory.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/applied-chaos
Non-linear Career Events
• Example: A person is not sick for 5 years and
then misses one day. An important and urgent
meeting takes place and s/he is not chosen for a
team taking the lead on a new project.
• Example: Person goes to a conference and has a
chance meeting with a famous keynote speaker.
(c) Clarence De Schiffart 2012
Where Will You Be?
YouTube videohttp://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrpC0pZHUe4
The Ping Pong Balls and Puppiesreference
• Scenario 1: in a room with a ping pong ball ..
Drop it and what can you predict?
• Scenario 2: add an electric fan and a eager ball
chasing puppy is chasing you? What can you
predict?
• Scenario 3: add a pack of eager puppies, a series
of electric fans, an open window with a howling
gale and you are now running on an electric
treadmill that is programmed to randomly change
speed.(c) Clarence De Schiffart 2012
The Ping Pong Balls and Puppies
• Making long term predictions with Scenario 3 is
difficult
• Careers are influenced by parents, social and
environmental context, gender, age, political and
economic climate, interests, abilities, geography,
and many other events
(c) Clarence De Schiffart 2012
Chaos Theory of Careers World Factors
• Speed of technology
• Reshaping of organizations
• Speed and extent of change
• Need of life long learning
• Globalization of both consumer and labour markets
• Increasing contractual nature of work
• Rapidity of technology innovation and its adaptation
(c) Clarence De Schiffart 2012
Implications on Career Development?
Shift Happens YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkt2escJAQI
Life/Work Implications
1. Look at each person’s entirety and then help them
understand the patterns and processes in his/her
life. Orient client expectations.
2. Try not to "narrow down" conversations to only
“career-related” (work) topics. Bring in the holistic
life/work blend discussion.
3. Make use of qualitative approaches by using
narrative, analogy, and metaphor – creating
meaning for the person at their present stage of
being and
understanding .(c) Clarence De Schiffart 2012
Life/Work Implications
4. Help people make sense of their past behavior
and the unpredictable nature of a range of
influences from the past.
5. Help people understand and accept the finite
limits of our human understanding -- accept
that all knowledge is open to doubt and revision
and open to different interpretations from
different perspectives
Resources
• Norm Amundson’s books on Counselling. In particular,
Active Engagement, Metaphor Making and
The Physics of Living
• The Complexity Perception Index
www.brightandassociates.com.au
• Chaos Theory of Careers, Jim Bright
Wrap-up
For additional information or comments
Contact:
Laurie Edwards
Clarence DeSchiffart
(c) Clarence De Schiffart 2012
