Using your Strategic Thinking to Create the Life You Want? That's exactly what I do, which is nice to get it validated!
So to give you a little bit of context around this article in the Harvard Business Review. It's about using your Strategic Thinking skills that you'd use in an organisation to design your life. This is exactly what Design Your Life on Purpose seeks to achieve, where we craft a wholistic Strategic Life Map to answer the question - now what?
Strategic Thinking in Design Your Life on Purpose (DYLOP)
I agree with the HBR article in that everyone is unique, so you can decide what success looks like in your life.
I think focusing on you is infinitely more important than some of the stuff that we do in work. I know work creates a very real sense of well-being and contribution to society but we really need to put that same amount of attention to your life. One of favourite pieces of feedback that I've had from my program is that 'You can't decide your career direction until you've decided your life direction'.
Very true! - stuff I agree with
Another point of overlap that DYLOP has to the article is we've got a very similar approach the steps involved - even the name is uncannily similar! They call it ‘Strategise Your Life’, I say that you end up with a Strategic Life Map. They also agree that often it's triggered by a life event. The kids could go to uni, or you could have been made redundant. It can sometimes just be that never ending march of time where you start thinking ‘I really think I need to do something different than what I'm doing now’.
Umm! - Stuff I disagree with
Now with what I disagree with. In the beginning of the article it talks about taking just a few hours. I find that a little bit doubtful for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, if this is the first time you've done this then your brain's going to take a moment to get into this new frame of thinking. This is hard work and so it's going to take you a little moment to get there. I feel that there's some assumed pre-work happening here. Doing a yearly review of past activity or past results is needed to get foundations in place to make informed decisions.
Secondly, I disagree with the setting of Objectives and Key Results (OKR's). I understand the reasons why organisations put them in, I often find that they can feel a bit burdensome, especially when you're exploring different things that you want to do with your life. It can feel a bit too much like work and cause you to feel like you've got no separation between the two. From a neuroscience perspective having the OKR's can feel like we're constantly failing until we fulfil the success criteria, which can cause a downward spiral of our self-esteem and thinking patterns. My method still generates actions it's just in a very different way.
DYLOP - Constantly improving
What I really liked was there was some really nice builds mentioned in the article. Getting more explicit about having the end in mind, it's there in the DYLOP program but it's probably a little bit more subtle. I've come to the same conclusion myself to sort of ‘amp’ that up more recently.
I really like the models of measurement that they've got there as well the PERMA-V from Martin Seligman's work on Flourish, the SLA or the Strategic Life Areas - it's a whole lot like the life wheel with a lot more detail to it.
Most importantly -
this is what I am proud of!
I'm proud that I managed to come to the same conclusion as arguably some of the best consultant companies in the world (BCG - Boston Consulting Group). So yay brain!
I did this without a research team behind me, it's just me that worked all of this out.
It also took me around about 10 years, and it took BCG around about the same time. They ultimately reached the same premise that I had that - if you work strategically with corporates it's extremely translatable to mapping out those same practices to your personal life.
Yours Collaboratively,
Christina
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