The Success Equation! What Job Seekers, Workforce Development Professionals, and Vacationers all have in Common!

What do job seekers, workforce development professionals, and vacationers have in common? It’s the success equation! Every day people approach projects such as finding a job, running a workforce development organization, or even taking a vacation using the below equation.

VISION + STRATEGIC PLANNING ⁵ (ACTION)

 + COMMUNICATION ¹⁰ (ACTION) = SUCCESS

Let’s take a look at this equation more in-depth. 

• Vision is the how it is going to look like, the imagination of the experience. It is the reason that humans have evolved from cavemen. It is our ideas and creativity all tidied up and organized. 

• Strategic Planning is a process. It is deciding on action steps. It’s deciphering all those pesky little details like how big our shampoo bottles should be to get on an airplane and figuring out those bumps in the road like what to do if I post my résumé online and I do not get any interest from employers. Strategic Planning has a map for the good, the bad, and the ugly. That is why it is to the fifth power! Good planners plan for it all.

• Action is part of the equation. It multiplies everything. It is the catalyst that makes things happen. You can have vision and a strategic plan, but without action, it goes nowhere fast- including job seekers, a workforce development organization or professional or a vacationer. As we all know, saying is one thing, doing is another! Action is in all parts of the equation.  

• Communication is the final part. If you are a job seeker, you need to communicate to find a job and ultimately keep a job. If you are a workforce development organization, you need to communicate your vision and strategic plan to your workforce. If you are a workforce development professional, you need to communicate with other professionals and stakeholders that can help you achieve your goal.

Let’s look at some examples:

1. Job Seeker (Success= achieving job and/or career goal)

Vision: The job seeker needs to imagine his job and/or career goal.

Strategic Planning: The job seeker needs to determine what steps are necessary to achieve that goal. Examples include- doing labor market research, writing or revising a résumé, networking, exploring educational and training opportunities, planning for resolving personal barriers to employment such as transportation, interviewing strategies, social media strategy, etc.

Action: The job seeker needs to act upon the plans he has made.

Communication: The job seeker need to communicate his vision and plan to key stakeholders in his life. This includes family, friends, former and current coworkers, and networking connections.

2. Workforce Development Organization, including all the professionals that encompass it!  (Success= job seekers get jobs, organization achieves performance benchmarks)

Vision: The workforce development organization is place where job seekers visit and seek services from, so that the organization (and the individual professionals) can meet their performance benchmarks.

Strategic Planning: The organization and the individual professional needs to determine what funding, new initiatives, resources, and human capital will be necessary to create this vision. What are the plans for the good, the bad, and the ugly? Without this an organization and an individual is just building plane as it is flown.

Action:  What actions will be taken and who specifically will take them? Do the actions need to be carried out in certain steps or are they interchangeable? Have the resources been allocated?

Communication: The organization needs to communicate the goal to the  key partners in achieving this goal. The partners need to communicate back to the organization barriers and challenges that arise. The organization and its key partners need to learn how to communicate with each other.

3. Vacationers (Success= 10 days at desired location, rest, relaxation, and fun!)

Vision:  Where do I want to visit?

Strategic Planning:  The vacationer needs to determine transportation options to and from the location, and while at location. Lodging options need to be explored. What financial resources are available to fund this trip? The vacationer needs to determine what activities he would like participate in while on vacation. The vacationer needs to make plans for taking care of any necessary responsibilities while he is away- example pets, garbage cans, mail.

Action: Make travel arrangements, research for travel deals and packages!

Communication: The vacationer needs to communicate with travel companions including family and friends. Employers and/or schools need to be informed and or consulted due to scheduling. Travel Agents that can assist with actions and planning should be consulted!

So what happens if one part of the equation is missing? Without vision, the job seeker is grasping at any job and is not able to focus his job search efforts. Without communication, a workforce development organization and the sum of its parts is not able to achieve its goals and benchmarks. Without strategic planning, the vacationer could be left without accommodations or transportation. If the vacationer was taking a cruise, the boat could leave without him! All parts are needed for success.

On another note, there are parts of the equation that are amplified, such as strategic planning and communication. If communication is only done once and not amplified to the tenth power, then communication could be lacking it is not a two way street. The equation does not equal success. The same is true to strategic planning. Assuming that everything will go perfect is not good planning. It leaves a hole for all the “what ifs” and pesky little details to become the issue. The success is only as good as the sum of the equations parts!

Questions, comments and ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading! ~ Karen Cirincione kcirincione@gmail.com