Initially, what my clients buy is my service of highly customized development. First and foremost, execs are after feedback from their significant colleagues--and I learned years ago how to get that. From that I can build a picture of the strengths they bring to the party--usually a bit of delicious surprise in that for most execs--they didn't realize what in their toolkit and character was most appreciated. Then we work at strategic developmental issues--they almost always know what those are.
As time goes on (I work with a client for at least a year), the conversations move in unanticipated directions. "What do you think about. . . ?" I'll never forget my amusement at the CFO of a Fortune 100 company who asked me what I thought about the firm's marketing strategy. I told him I had no training in marketing and didn't know beans about it. "Nonsense," he replied, "tell me what you think."
All of this is a roundabout way of saying that although my clients and I have an assumed delivery contract about my services--and I do intend to meet those objectives--the real contract is far broader and more diverse. Most clients want to know a lot about things that have little to do with my contracted service. It was a surprise to learn that they wanted to know what I thought about such diverse topics as politics, religion, sex, economics, prostate cancer and culture. By the time they've become an exec, most professionals are sponges, soaking up info anywhere they can get it. Of course, that makes me a happy camper, because I have diverse interests--and the learning is a two way street.
So on weekends I intend to take my clients' example and write briefly about a topic that only obliquely relates to career development. I hope it will nudge my readers to perhaps think differently about something of personal, national or even cultural importance.
Although most of my clients read Businessweek, Fortune and the Economist, a few read the New Yorker and the Atlantic. The latest issue of the Atlantic (March 2009) has an article by Richard Florida, the urban studies theorist who has made a name for himself writing about geography and the creative class. Here, Florida weighs in on "How the crash will reshape America" with relevant insights.
What's especially useful about the article is his discussion of how global crises transform the landscape. The crash of 1873 and the Depression upended the geopolitical order, hastening the fall of old powers and the rise of new. Similarly, he suggests that the subprime debacle has probably ended suburbanization--and its sprawling growth. Home ownership rates will probably go down--and that's an important good, because it means that the population becomes more nimble. A mobile economy requires a nimble population. Not exactly conventional wisdom, eh? So government policies should encourage renting, not buying.
A second notion--that the coming decades will see even more clustering of output, jobs and innovation in a "smaller number of bigger cities and city-regions"--has been touched before. Florida concludes, however, that we (government and business) need to encourage growth in the regions and cities that are talent-attracting: pleaces like Silicon Valley, Boulder, Austin and the North Carolina Research Triangle. Interesting argument!
Pragmatically, how useful is this info? For Gen-Y? It sure as hell makes a difference whether you decide to work in St. Louis or in Austin. And I'm not talking about climate. It's very important as you make post-college moves to think about where you can best develop your training and talent, where the opportunities for the future lie, and what the culture can provide for your progeny. Gen-Yers will probably have three to five vocations and work for 15 or more companies in their lifetime. So a bit of strategic thinking about geography and career are useful. If you're smart you'll not make returning to the same neighborhood where you grew up an important priority. We didn't--we grew up in the Detroit area in its heyday--but we moved on, checking out a number of places. Our daughters didn't end up where we settled (Minneapolis), either. Smart move. After all, the phone is cheap and an airline ticket doesn't set you back that much. The March Atlantic should be at the newstands this weekend.