Under the rules of the new employment game, learners will be clear winners. The engineer who was redeployed clearly is a learner. It helps that his work creates continuous opportunities for him to acquire and practice new skills. As a quality-control expert with state-of-the-art knowledge, he's developed competencies that his employer knows would be tough to duplicate.
Your job may not have that kind of challenge built into its daily routine. Rather than lament your fate, try seeking out formal training or volunteering for company projects that will allow you to enhance your skill set.
For a 45-year-old plant manager with a suburban Chicago food manufacturer, this meant taking the time and initiative to enroll in an evening MBA program. It wasn't always fun. He hadn't set foot in a classroom for 25 years, and there were plenty of nights when he didn't feel like studying or sitting in class after a hard day at work. Other days, he truly enjoyed the learning environment. It got his creative juices flowing again, which hadn't happened at the plant for a long, long time.
The manager had begun his master's work because he knew he couldn't afford to let his skills become obsolete. As it turns out, his advance planning paid off. Three years into the program, his company went through (yet another) reorganization. Offered an early-retirement package, the plant manager took the money and ran.
He used part of his severance package for tuition and completed his degree within a year. Then he decided to embark on a new career in marketing. Some people think he should've stayed with his old job, since it was never directly threatened. But he has no regrets. "The package was a sure thing," he says. "My future there wasn't, considering the way the company is headed. I feel better for taking the initiative instead of waiting for the next round of cuts. It's the best thing I ever did. Now I can get on with my life."
Management guru Tom Peters would undoubtedly applaud this man's strategy. Peters argues that we now live in a brain-based economy where "education is economics and economics is education." The key to winning, he says, is to get and stay one step smarter than the next person-to make a commitment to "school for life." He echoes the sentiments of H.G. Wells, who once said, "The story of human survival is a race between education and catastrophe."
Formal schooling isn't the only way to expand your knowledge and expertise, however. Experience is also a great teacher.
Organizations in flux offer endless opportunities for on-the-job learning. Too many people who work at such firms waste valuable time nursing their wounds and griping about their employers. It's far wiser to contribute your talents wherever the company needs them. That way, you earn a reputation as a team player and gain valuable skills.
A personnel coordinator who aspired to human resource management saw her career track fizzle following a downsizing. After 14 years with a suburban L.A.-based food manufacturer, she was forced to accept a demotion. Her new role as an inventory control clerk taxed her patience more than her brainpower.
Determined to make the most of a less-than-perfect situation, she set about trying to improve her qualifications and her standing with the company. To do so, she volunteered to produce a newsletter for the company's total-quality-management initiative. This activity kept her from getting bored and increased her visibility in the company.
She also improved her status with her boss by positioning herself to assume his supervisory responsibilities when he couldn't be in the office. Taken together, these two steps kept her involved and growing for almost a year. But, as often happens in the real world, her diligence wasn't rewarded with either a promotion or a raise. Still, she had the comfort of knowing that she'd developed a more marketable set of skills and could easily move elsewhere.
