Future of Work

Play-Based Learning

Kristy Volesky is an author and educational advocate. Kristy recently published her first book, Transformational Work-Based Learning, and together, we chat about how the innovative spirit is activated through internships and creative activities within a startup community.

With this leader’s experience inside the Iowa Department of Education and now a fresh connection with Jeff Reed at Momentum Studios, you know this caffeinated conversation is loaded with value for linchpins and design thinkers who understand the future of work is all about play.

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By Ben McDougal, ago

Professor X

Andre Wright is a genuine father, designer, visionary, activist, and community builder. He was inducted into the Junior Achievement Hall of Fame in 2021, with work featured at New York Fashion Week, and collaborations with Politico, NPR, Target, Atlantic Records, Warner Music Group, and Facebook.

Whether it’s Wright House, Humanize My Hoodie, or having dinner with Banksy, Andre has dedicated his life to the underrepresented. Listen as we jam on the hope for our youth, telling the story of a project to expand trust, and uniting a movement.

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By Ben McDougal, ago

Visualizing Variety

For people who play 80 hours instead of working 40, a diversified career portfolio often emerges.

A variety of activities and the contemporary energy of popcorning between them, helps vanguards stay ahead of the innovation curve. Diversification of work can also provide stability when the volume of different activities are strategically adjusted over time.

As we diversify career portfolios, balance, transparency, being realistic, patience, perpetual learning, and avoiding The Headline Trap is critical. These real skills fuel focused progress on multiple fronts and help reduce the risk of diluting yourself to mediocrity. If you’re stretched too thin, the value of diversification can devolve into fragmentation.

Extra Shot

It’s easy to discount our potential, but life is too short not to love what you do.

When change is constant, visualized assessment helps track how time is spent. Below is the evolution of my own career portfolio. People who see this often want to implement this method introduced in the Side Hustles chapter of YDNTB, so let’s jam on how to visualize your diversified career portfolio.

First, organize the things you spend time building. Assign a percentage of time spent on each activity, then plot the data into a pie chart. I use Apple Keynote to manage the pie chart and Adobe Photoshop for added flare, but any spreadsheet or slide deck software can visualize data in a similar way. Once created, save the pie chart as an image. You now have a conversation piece that showcases how you spend time. Update it as your career portfolio evolves or use this method as an annual exercise to stay balanced with your own personal bandwidth.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Popcorning

There’s an energy that comes from jumping between different initiates in a diversified career portfolio.

An ability to popcorn between progress is what makes a diversified career portfolio work. Over time, the mental and physical exhilaration strengthens an elastic-type of energy that builds focus, even when it’s applied on multiple fronts and in tiny time windows.

This ambitious movement fuels action within different slices of a diversified career portfolio and should be celebrated. For example, the impactful days where we hammer on one thing, ship progress; pop to the next thing, ship different progress; and then pop one or three more times to fuel momentum on even more! This type of work is exhausting, but the flow makes us feel tenacious. With practice, this multi-modal focus is refined, increasing the leverage to explore exponential activities.

Extra Shot

I have a fun new phygital item for sale.
Video – https://youtu.be/6toglC21dwI

They’ll say you gotta focus. Only chase one rabbit. Maybe. If financial stability relies on a single income or paid employees depend on you to lead, less diversification will help support stability.

That said, who knows a leader who only does one thing? Leaders are everywhere, doing everything! We are efficient humans with super computers all around us. Even when different ventures don’t seemingly relate, there is a shared thread that sews efficiency into the work. YOU!

For anyone with more to build, there’s no permission required to add creative slivers to the pie chart of how you spend time. Does it take an extra gear? Yes. Might it require practice to stay balanced? Yes. Will you have to play 80 hours in order to avoid working 40? Yes. It is absolutely possible for anyone in our connected era? Yes!

Cheers to this elastic-type of energy that comes from popcorning between various initiates within a balanced diversified career portfolio.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Playforce Principles

People within a startup community and organizations throughout an entrepreneurial ecosystem often discuss the “future of work” together. As leaders transition today’s workforce into tomorrow’s playforce, the CIRKA equation helps us talk less and do more.

Curiosity is what drives us to appreciate what goes into the answers. It keeps us asking how and why. Curiosity has always driven ingenuity, but as knowledge and solutions become so easy to find, it will be the curious who avoid mediocrity by exploring the edges.

Initiative is a signal that shows you care. It’s showing up, raising our hand, keeping a promise, and sticking with it. The earlier initiative is shown, the faster trust builds. This allows initiative to stack, which increases impact over time.

Real Skills help us all connect, communicate, and collaborate. First curated by Seth Godin, this evolving encyclopedia is an expansive list of modern credentials that go beyond our natural talents. Real skills shine through self control, productivity, wisdom, perception, and influence.

Knowledge is foundational, specific proficiency required to do the work. For example, DJs need to know what knobs to turn, while doctors must understand human anatomy. Vocational knowledge may require formal education, but autodidacticism (being self-taught) is also an assessable path to transform anyone’s personal interests into know-how.

Adaptability is knowing how to learn. It keeps us nimble, even when systems try to force rigidity. When change is constant, adaptability is what helps leaders remain versatile and relevant while also avoiding the pull toward mediocre.

EXTRA SHOT

Life is too short not to enjoy our time.

Unquantifiable depth in each of these variables power the simplicity of the CIRKA equation. Energy guided by these playforce principles move us beyond loops that limit progress and ignite action on the timeline of now.

By Ben McDougal, ago