3 tips for surfing the sigmoid curve
“My greatest challenge has been judging how long to stay in a particular role,” said one person. “Looking back at my career, sometimes I kept growing - but other times I stayed too long. The danger has been lapsing into cruise control, when really I should have taken the next step in my career.”
How can you decide when to stay or when to move? One approach is to ‘surf the sigmoid curves’. (Originally a mathematical term, Charles Handy popularised the ‘sigmoid curve’ in his book The Age of Paradox. It is now used to chart the life-cycle of a person’s development, an organisation, a product or even a civilisation.) As one curve reaches its zenith, you surf onto the next one, rather than sink into decline. Let’s explore how to make this happen.
How can you decide when to stay or when to move? One approach is to ‘surf the sigmoid curves’. (Originally a mathematical term, Charles Handy popularised the ‘sigmoid curve’ in his book The Age of Paradox. It is now used to chart the life-cycle of a person’s development, an organisation, a product or even a civilisation.) As one curve reaches its zenith, you surf onto the next one, rather than sink into decline. Let’s explore how to make this happen.
* You can recognise where you are on the sigmoid curve.
Imagine you are climbing the curve in your professional life. Where are you now? (You may find it useful to focus on a specific aspect of your professional life.) Perhaps you are halfway up the curve. Feeling hungry, you may believe there is lots of scope for development. On the other hand, you may have hit a ceiling or believe the ‘product’ or service you offer is deteriorating. Looking at your professional life – or a particular aspect of it - chart where you are on the curve. Try completing the following sentence.
The place where I feel I am now on the sigmoid curve is:
*
* You can go to the top of the sigmoid curve – but be aware of the warning signs.
How can you keep developing? How can you stay close to your customers? How can you help them to succeed? How can you keep improving your offering? How can you keep developing your ‘A’ talent? Let’s look at the total picture. Do you feel at the top of the sigmoid curve? Can you see further growth ahead? Or are you beginning to get warning signs? If so, what are the symptoms? Keep going until you feel at the top of the curve. Try completing the following sentence.
The specific things I can do to keep developing and go to the top of the sigmoid curve are:
*
* You can surf onto the next sigmoid curve.
Where is your own energy going? What do find exciting? How can you do more of these things? Looking at your chosen field, what will be happening in the next 5 years? What will be the key challenges your customers will be facing? How can you help them to succeed? How can you stay ahead of the game? How can you surf onto the next sigmoid curve? Perhaps you can even create one. Try completing the following sentence.
The specific things I can do to surf onto the next sigmoid curve are:
*
You can find more ideas on this theme at:
Labels: change, development, strengths, talent
posted by Mike Pegg at
16:20
1 Comments:
This is a great point. There has been a definite paradigm shift in the employer - employee relationship (at least in the US) over the last generation or so. Whereas people used to work for one employer over the course of a lifetime before retiring on a pension, the majority of us will be employed by over 12 different companies over the course of our careers, and are largely responsible for our own retirement plan.
This has been good for enterprise, as it brings fresh ideas and skills into the workforce for a given firm as the talent pool rotates. I would suggest, however, that it has to some extent caused a trend toward specialization within the workforce, creating experts in particular areas rather than well rounded employees with balanced skill sets. Companies now hire employees who are skilled in a particular task, knowing that the relationship will likely last only a few years. The employees gain greater proficiency in that area, and earn higher salaries in their next position as a result.
The side effect is that there is now a shortage of well rounded talent suitable for C level positions. After years of grooming into singularly focused experts, top executives often lack the diverse perspective needed to lead.
This is particularly true in technology; a CIO promoted for technical prowess will always find a waiting supplicant with greater skill in that area (perhaps this is why many think the acronym stands for 'Career Is Over').
This problem is largely addressed by 'surfing the sigmoid curve', as long as the next level of professional development offers additional breadth as well as depth.
Regards,
Brian Flora
Creative Enterprise Solutions
http://www.cesLearning.com
By
Beyond20, At
19 May 2008 at 01:01
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