Luck isn’t Everything:

Creating Your Own

Beneficial Unplanned

Events

Michael Richardson & Robyn Bailey

CDANZ National Symposium

Auckland 17th November 2014

“Chance favors only the

prepared mind”

(Pasteur as cited in Bandura, 1982, p. 750)

This session

• will help participants consider how

happenstance theories can be used in

practice to help clients become more

comfortable with uncertainty and to create

their own beneficial events.

Introductions

• Say hello to the people sitting on either

side of you

• Introduce yourself and tell them where and

what kind of careers work you do

Knowing your career trajectory

• On a piece of paper rate how sure you are

that you know your future career plans

• Use a 1-10 scale where 1 means not sure at

all and 10 means you are absolutely certain

• Share this with one of the people sitting

beside you

• Discuss why you gave your career plan the

rating you did

Who Are these Lucky People?

• Can you think of someone, maybe yourself

or someone you know, who seems to be

lucky? In small groups discuss what

attributes you think lucky people have.

• What about people who never seem to get

a break? What attributes do unlucky

people have?

Are you Lucky?

• Write down something that you felt lucky to have happened to you.

• Get into groups of 2-3 and try to identify anything you may have said or done that may have helped to put you in a position to have this lucky opportunity.

• When not discussing your own instance of luck, your task is to ask questions to help your group member identify how they may have been active in helping to create that opportunity?

Luck is an attitude

• You can learn to be lucky.

Luck is a state of mind.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMWvl

YXiWcc

• 2.26 TO 4.05

• “Rational planning alone would serve its purpose if careers were to follow a simple straightforward,

and logical path”

(Mitchell, Levin, & Krumboltz, 1999, p. 116)

There is a belief entrenched in Western culture that career

planning is a logical and linear activity...

...but it's not.

Chance is already affecting your

career

Consider these:

• Gender

• Socio-economic status of your family of origin

• Personality

• Country of birth

• Labour market

Theories that talk about chance in career

Socio-economic theories (accident)

Social Learning Theory of Career Decision Making

Mitchell and Krumboltz, 1996

Circumscription & Compromise Gottfriedson, 1981

Systems Theory Framework

Patton and McMahon, 1999

Happenstance Theory

Krumboltz, 1996, 2009

Social Cognitive Career Theory

Lent, Brown and Hackett, 1996, 2002

Cognitive Information Processing Peterson, Sampson, Reardon & Lenz, 2002

Chaos Theory of Career Pryor and Bright, 2003

Planned Happenstance: What is it?

• Generating, recognizing, and incorporating unplanned/chance events into your career development

• Seeing unplanned/chance events as inevitable, desirable, and as opportunities for learning

• Being open-minded, curious, and developing an exploratory attitude to increase your chances of being exposed to unexpected/chance events

• Planned Happenstance is both an attitude that you gain and actions you take. It is the view that you can create opportunities by taking action on your curiosity and on chance events.

• Planned Happenstance is not just luck or being in the right place at the right time. It is a conscious, purposeful, and on-going process that will help you to build a more satisfying and fulfilling career.

Chaos Theory

says…

• There is an interplay between unplanned and planned events in careers

• This reminds us of the need to be contingent in career development planning.

• Careers emerge from a continual cycling through periods of planful and periods of unplanned behaviour

Bright and Pryor (n.d.)

Unplanned (contingent

or luck)

Planned (the likely)

5 characteristics to enhance

Planned Happenstance

• explore new learning opportunities

1) Curiosity

• continue trying even when you run into setbacks

2) Persistence

• be open to changing attitudes and situations

3) Flexibility

• see new opportunities as being possible and attainable

4) Optimism

• don’t be afraid to do something even when you’re not sure how or if it will turn out

5) Risk taking

With the people next to you…

Choose 2 from this list. How could you help clients develop these attitudes? What questions could you ask them?

1) Curiosity

2) Persistence

3) Flexibility

4) Optimism

5) Risk taking

Skills in Planned Happenstance

• Interpersonal communication

• Networking

• Social support building

• Constantly learning new things

• Actively looking for chance opportunities in everyday activities

• Initiating constructive action to generate more desirable

chance events

If you enjoy engaging in these chance opportunities it helps

to confirm that you are on a path that is a good fit for you

Anagrams

How do I take steps to become more open

and to produce desirable events?

What is a chance event that you wish would happen to you? (be realistic)

In small groups discuss one of the following sets of questions:

1. How can you act now to increase the likelihood of that desirable event

occurring?

2. How would your life change if you acted?

3. How would your life change if you did nothing?

OR

1. How have you been blocked from doing what you want to do?

2. How could you find out how permanent that block is?

3. How have other people overcome blocks like that?

4. How would you begin overcoming that block?

Making helicopter rides out of

lemonade

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCTqKS

VT7Uk

• 23.46 to 27.15.

Happenstance Activities Become more self-aware, follow up on interests

you haven’t followed up on yet Follow up on your curiosity– if you don’t try new

ideas you’ll never know where they might have led

Become involved in many different activities related to your chosen area (e.g. student groups, professional associations)

Look for opportunities to develop new skills Work or volunteer in positions related to the

career you’ve chosen Talk to someone in the career you’re pursuing

Happenstance Activities (continued)

Talk to people at the organisation you want to work for, maybe even volunteer there or take a different entry position. What could happen from this?

Some students have unrealistic expectations when they graduate and then don’t engage in the very activities that could create planned happenstance opportunities for them

Don’t dismiss apparently off-the-wall jobs. Are they really that crazy? Consider how you might be able to develop them.

Be positive, and don’t dismiss an idea before you have had a chance to think about it

Don’t be held back by stereotypical views of how things should happen – there is often not a right way (or a direct route) into a job

Happenstance Activities (continued)

If things don’t go as planned, look for new opportunities as they crop up

Make good contacts and network as widely as possible

Walk through a career fair

Don’t be afraid to approach people for advice

Talk with employers or employment advisors to learn about what employers, companies, and/or organizations want from job applicants

Tailor your resume for each job application and research the occupation you’ve chosen so that you can describe the work in good detail

Have your resume reviewed by an employment advisor

Discuss job or admission interview preparation with an employment advisor

Case Example for Large Group

Discussion

• Think about a career professional who

might be looking to enhance their

practice, make it more innovative,

popular, well known or gain more

clients, or make it more effective

• What can this person do to create

opportunities?

Happenstance Activity: A cold call

• What could this lead to?

– Finding out more information about the company

– Learning more about what they do and what they may

be looking for

– May hear about job possibilities that are not

advertised yet

– May have developed a contact

– Any others?

A personal example

• What elements were instances of

engaging in planned happenstance?

• What elements were luck?

Career Planning Traditional Planned Happenstance

It is important to make career decisions View indecision as open-mindedness. Indecision is sensible and desirable

Planning is everything

Planning is one element of career development

Everything is in your control

Recognizing that chance events play a role in career planning

Push toward certainty in knowing what you want to do and how to get there, i.e. Not okay to be unsure

Advantages of open-mindedness, i.e. “not be bound by a plan that may be obsolete before it is formulated” (Mitchell, Levin, & Krumboltz, 1999, p. 117)

Asking questions to be able to do something

Asking questions just to know something, i.e. To be curious and to ask “what would happen if...” questions

Knowing your interests, skills, and values guarantees a match with the “right” career and that it will happen

Knowing your interests, skills, and values is an important element in having success in creating your own opportunities in a career path that fits

• Its OK to change plans and make mistakes

• Following a career path is a lifelong learning process that involves you making countless decisions in response to unexpected/chance events

• Anxiety about planning the future is normal, you can overcome this

• Planned Happenstance does not mean that you leave everything to chance

• It can feel risky, but don’t let this stop you

Skills in Planned Happenstance

You do not have to be an extrovert to make this work for

you!

Sometimes we have to overcome personal challenges first,

but there is help for this and it is possible!

Representing yourself well and with energy will increase

your chances

There is always some element of luck, but what’s important

is how you position yourself to be able to connect with it

Concluding thoughts:

advice for clients

Your goal is to facilitate your learning

process by thinking about how your curiosity

is excited, how you can take advantage of

unplanned events, and how you can create

future beneficial unplanned events.

(Mitchell, Levin, & Krumboltz, 1999, p. 121)

Concluding thoughts:

advice for practitioners

Krumboltz says:

• Our job is not to help people make

decisions but

• to help people learn how to make more

satisfying lives for themselves.

The harder you work, the luckier

you get Gary Player