Career Zen Chapter Eight

C a r e e r   Z e n
by Larry Daly, 'The JOB DOC'

Chapter 8.   Your Personal Career Support Team

I have been mentioning the Career Support Team since the beginning of this book without much explanation of what I mean. Thank you for your patience. Now is the time to concentrate upon them and what they can do for you. After seeing how much there is to do, you may now fully realize the value of having your own personal S-Team. To develop one, simply find several other career - oriented people, and work together on your common goals. My clients will do nicely. (212.876.5483)
[Note: Some of this text was originally written for use in educational contexts, both youth and adult, and for my books, Future Education and The Corporate Option Plan (COP). I am leaving some of it as it was, for your understanding and application from that aspect: you as teacher and guide and leader in your own S-Team, and in managing future on - the - job project and work teams, also.]
Alone, individually, you can do only so much to advance your career. You need the help of others. Some of these will be family and friends and others, and even strangers you meet and make into acquaintances. If you can turn a few of them into dedicated partners in your cause, to become your Career Support Team, you will have a great advantage. Since you have so much to learn, they will help you enormously, and make the difference between your success and failure. I'll show you how.
Much of the work of your team in helping you, and themselves, will be dealing in research and knowledge one moment, and in contacts and other support activities the next, more or less equally, giving everyone variety and flexibility, wide experience, and much more.
Your personal Career Support Team* will consist of 3 to 5 members. No more; no less. The more people the greater the possible division, internal conflict, distraction from the purpose and work, decision ties, personality conflicts, work duplication, oversights, errors, and other problems and slower and more shallow results, so five is maximum. (If you have six or more friends who want to participate, divide them into two teams, each team working separately.) All else being equal, the smaller the team, the faster it can move, but you need enough to do the required work, so the minimum is three. (*Company work or project teams may be different in number, but similar factors do apply.)
Each of your team members should have career goals similar to yours, or the same kinds of career goals, and be conscious of learning and practicing teamwork and personal interaction, and want to improve his social and work flexibility and ability to get along with many kinds of people in close and often intense cooperation.
Your S-Team should have a person in each of three generations, such as one in the twenties, one in the thirties, one in the forties. One of the members must be of the other sex (one male and two females or two males and one female as minimum). You benefit from balance of both sexes and at least three decades of experience and knowledge, imagination, curiosity, and much more. (Note that curiosity is an essential characteristic - once a person loses it and becomes bored, jaded, blasé, he has lost much that makes him useful, and is probably better avoided.)
Duties are rotated in approximately equal measures. For instance, each person must help others in their work as much as they help him, each takes turns being jury of others' work, or playing the Martian (see below), and so forth.
Your team will be your personal cabinet of advisors, critics, and share with you the contacts and other help they may be able to offer you, just as you will be in their cabinets, advise each of them, help and share your contacts with them, etc. You can not get, without giving.
They, of course, will also learn from the assignments they help you with and from association with your material, which they are getting free, through you, just as you learn about their subjects for free by helping them with their work.
Just how you handle all this, and the many other problems inherent in the teamwork association, is up to you. From time to time you should record how it is working out, what problems you are having, how you are handling or avoiding them, what you are learning from it, so you can learn from reviewing this later. Write down your intentions, the motivation of each member, how you are using that to direct and align them, etc. Later, when things go wrong and you want to say "What could I have been thinking?" you can look back in your notes and will see it in black and white and learn your limitations, learn from your mistakes, and do better in the future.
The team is a result of organization, participation, voluntary contribution to the good of all, and specialization. Each member has a certain responsibility, a time to accomplish it, a time to wait and work on his own project, to help others, and so on.
Using my corporate Space Age Super Studies (SASS) Facilities Study Teams (S-Teams) as example: In your career S-Team there are essentially five tasks to perform:
1. Defining and understanding the problem
2. Doing the research required to obtain the information to solve the problem
3. Obtain material and help as required
4. Completing or solving the problem itself
5. Writing out the results or report required to document the work, and submitting or publishing this material.
If one person had to do all of this alone, it would take him at least five times as long as a team of five in which the tasks are accomplished concurrently. Working together, organized, each contributing to the goal of all, your Career Support Team of five can achieve much more than any five separate students each working alone. Fortunately, you won't have all the hard work I assign, just helping each other with your career problems, so alter the above tasks to fit your objectives.
But how can five people learn more, even working as a team, than five students in a class which is taught by a teacher who knows all about the subject? Since the same teacher can teach to fifty or a hundred, or, for that matter, over a closed circuit TV, five thousand or five million, isn't the teacher - student method better and faster and more efficient? Yes, if the material is stock and standardized and static, but no, not at all, if the information is needed for your own specific personal needs, or the information keeps changing, or the process requires the teacher to first learn new material and then teach it to the students - they may save time by eliminating the middleman (teacher's learning stage) and learning it themselves directly from the source the teacher got it from, or other better, faster, wider, deeper sources.
In fact, since the traditional teacher has many more duties than simply studying and immediately teaching what she learned as fast as she learned it, the teacher is actually a bottleneck. (Consider that she is also a private person, with her own life outside of the schoolroom, and has her own other interests and priorities and agenda.) Many students in every school every day can and do bring to class some interesting and educational material the teacher did not know - from a news story that broke that very morning, to specialized information from a restricted - audience publication that the teacher may never have even heard of. And again no, if there is need to learn something that the teacher does not know, or can not know. As in most other fields, most teachers are specialists, so a teacher of science specializes in that subject, and knows less or nothing about politics, say, or business or economics, or history, or international law, or merchandising, or criminal psychiatry, or social success abilities in business contexts, or stock market trends, or whatever else is happening in the whole wide world that the student wants to know about but that the teacher does not, and often can not, know.
So, in pursuing your own specific career knowledge and experience, teachers and courses are not as fast or best for your purposes.
For example, if you want to choose specific companies to work for, out of so many in your area, and need current and detailed data on fifty to select the best five for you to approach, there is no teacher or course that gives you that exact information. It was different last year, and will be different next year, but you want the best information available right now, like what are the names and phone numbers of the managers of certain departments. So you will have to do your own real - time research. This is where your Career S-Team comes in so handy.
To become successful at any career, you will have to learn more than any one school or course or teacher, or ten or a hundred teachers, can know or 'teach' you. More, you must learn things that no teacher knows, or can teach, that may not be able to be taught, but can be learned, like those department manager names, and who they are this week, today, so you can call them to make an interview appointment.
You will have to become an independent learner, a super student.
The 'secret' of the success and speed and depth of your Career Support Team is, in one word, research.
Five people can access at least five times as much information from five different sources, in the same time as one.
S-Teams are research teams, seeking out the particular information they need to complete their assignment.
In the traditional education process, the teacher must spoon - feed watered - down and very generalized pap to a passive class at the speed of the slowest person who can absorb and comprehend it. Instead, your fast aggressive Study Team goes directly to original sources and obtains raw data as fast as they can grasp and use it. If the data they need is not where first thought, they have not all wasted their time duplicating the error; you have assigned a different source to each, knowing that in one if not several it can be found. They will also find data that can corroborate and expand on that found by each other.
More, they can access different levels of sources, one doing background, another about the people involved, another the financial aspect, and yet another the latest technology advances, while back at home base the fifth team member can be already writing out the report from what he already knows about the subject, and what is in his own encyclopedia (on disk or hardbound) so the material that the others bring in can be interweaved as they bring it in, with most efficient time use.
In fact, the very concept of my SASS Study Team Program is already used, and has been in use for generations, in the way that reporters do a news story or feature. The editor assigns one to begin writing it, another to dig into the biographies of the persons involved, another to research the technical aspects of it, others to interview experts, and yet others to get photos and do the political or other angles on the subject. Within a day, or even a few hours, a re - write team has blended and polished the work of all the different reporters, the type is set and blanket laid and the presses are rolling. In electronic and TV coverage this process is even faster, but still the result of reporters, interviewers, writers, technical people, and the station or channel teams. A news team is a research team. Your Study Team is a research team.
If you look around for the greatest concentration of brightest people, you will find them in the ranks of publishing and broadcasting. While geniuses in other fields may know their specialty better than anyone else, many do not know other fields, and certainly do not have as wide a variety of knowledge and people and places, nor with the depth and range of those who bring it to us through the press and media every day. Today's journalist is the best informed and most knowledgeable person you can find, and has the most perspective on the widest range of topics.
It makes sense for you to cultivate all the contacts you can in the press and media. They are pure gold.
And it makes great sense for you to emulate that system for your own career purposes.
In making yourself into an expert on your career subject, for career advancement through publication, you can plan your Career Support Team on the media team model, and do your research and writing just as they do, and not only learn all about it, but produce a report on it that will impress the hell out of the people there who see it.
Your success at work is almost guaranteed. Almost. There's more.
Your team begins as a research and journalism team, then can go beyond that, through the 'think tank' type of concentrated brain-storming, and then to the most useful stage of all, becoming capable of making things happen, effecting change, affecting history, directly or indirectly.
This may take a few years, but you have __ (how many? Write it in again here) work years ahead, and can begin now working toward future job goals, so it will work out.
Once practiced at the ability to research and thus inform itself about any subject in the world, faster and better than any classroom teacher can find and teach it, the S-Team then concentrates upon understanding and comprehending and relating information to other information and to purposes and results, and finally upon the ability to use information, not just store, recall, and display it. This is far above quiz game show level.
Career success lies in the best use of information and knowledge. Results come only by taking action. The best information and the right action for that specific situation. Best and right, for you, depend upon you, your career, and other factors in your life, so you must open this door on your own. Or participate in my individualized personal career coaching. (212.876.5483)
The tools your career - oriented S-Team may use in this process range from simple to extended depth research (even visiting a site and using medical, legal, morphological, engineering, and other investigating methods), discussion / debate, role playing, interviewing, polling, tape recording or video taping, writing, imagineering (using the tools learned in my assignment on this subject, or in any book on it, such as LeBoeuf's), projecting into future (or on people or situations or all three), drawing / modeling (3-D computerizing, imaging, dimensioning, rotating, digitizing . . . ), questioning, deductive and inductive reasoning, causing and resulting, creating a course or lesson in, what - if - ing, think - tanking how to make x do y to z, verbalizing the non-verbal and embodying the verbal, reducing to basic facts or skeleton and then padding - inflating - bullshitting to maximize, lying or creating a scam or deception about it, recreating it as if it did not yet exist and telling how and why it could be made or brought into being, as is or better, planning from prototyping to mass production of it, how to advertise and promote it, etc., as you see necessary in your particular career situation, and toward your goals. These, and many other real - life tools and exercises, are available to the personal S-Team, but which an individual or formally taught class can not use to full advantage, or as quickly, if at all. (In my Career Coaching full Program, we study and practice all of these, and much more: 212.876.5483.)
Your S-Team does not 'learn' information in the sense of memorizing it for useless tests or game shows or some vague future use which may never occur. How often do most people really use algebra in their daily lives and work? You are seeking out and exploring and discovering and experiencing something applicable to a specific and immediate real - life purpose, a problem to be solved, in your life and career, motivated by what you are personally interested in, your personal career and personal goals and success.
The information itself is not the purpose or benefit of your research. Information has no real value until it is used. That use defines that value. If it is a trivial or classroom use that value is minimal, and the learning result accordingly trivial. But if it is for a critical and major purpose, that information has high real life value. To the usual classroom student and teacher, learning (memorizing information) has a low and vague value, merely a potential value, no matter the classroom problem assigned, because both teacher and students know it is 'just' a classroom exercise, and may seldom or never actually be used in real life. For learning to become valued and vital, it must be taken out of the limiting context of the classroom example and test, and brought out into the real world and applied to real - life real - time problems directly affecting that student or others, perhaps large numbers of people, or involving quantities of real money or other real benefit. While most students have been taught (intimidated, bribed, conditioned, propagandized, brain - washed) to obey and defer to 'teachers' and professors, and accept paced and pre - digested morsels of information, even many of them, let alone those who can and want to learn more, and learn it faster and deeper, can not see algebra, grammar (Why do English teachers talk so funny?), tests, books, as pertinent to making money, earning a living, getting a job, getting ahead, gaining recognition and position, respect, buying things, having all the good things, a good time, clothes, friends, relaxing, going places, sex, marrying and family, a home, a good job, a car, security, winning at sports, avoiding problems and danger -- they see and "want like on tv", good times, glamour and guns and power, not boring stuff like grammar and algebra and books! Kids see clothes and manners and toughness and dominance and how the executive on TV orders others around, nothing about passing tests to get the entry - level job and years of paying the dues and slowly climbing the corporate ladder to that position of responsibility. They want it all, and they want it now. They have been watching TV so much, where every story is neatly closed in an hour or less with some decisive action (usually physical), not by using books and tests and other classroom stuff. How can the teacher or traditional school possibly counteract such potent over - simplifications? Can't! The S-Team is the only way to do it, using real - life situations, through the LAPs type of exercises, and instant direct access to raw hot real - life information.
In your case, the information has two main purposes: first, to learn about the target company, their HR process, the personalities and mind - sets of specific executives, or other pertinent subject, and second, to help you do something about that target, or to it, or make it do something, like make that company hire you or give you a raise or promotion.
Today's research is done faster than the old way of going to the library and reading a dusty old book or blotchy microfilm. That was fun and is still done for a few things, but for most career purposes we want to find the latest and most pertinent information, so we must resort to the immense databases stored in computerized instant - access electronic government, business, education, and private facilities. You can turn on your personal computer, activate your modem, dial up and directly access virtually any database in the world, and probably complete your search, all in the few minutes before the local bus or train can arrive to take you downtown to the library.
But finding numbers and cold hard facts is only part of any research job. People generate that data, and it is important to other people, who use it in many ways and for many purposes, often for other people. More vital than any facts are the uses to which they are put, and the people who use them.
Everything we do is in the context of other people.
Thus: 'Peopling' is the most important subject for the S-Team to study.
You practice the arts of interviewing and polling and observing people. Where did any data come FROM? What is it FOR? How recent, accurate, pertinent is it? Are people using it correctly? (Correctly as in effectively, getting specific results, toward a specific defined purpose.) Numbers mean nothing in themselves, or to any other species, only to man. Man invented numbers, invented his own culture and altered his environment on purpose, for his purposes, in which any numbers and facts have value only to man.
Once you have raw data it must be interpreted, analyzed, understood in the context of the human purpose of your research. In most cases the use or purpose determines how the numbers are evaluated; two politicians may each have the same numbers, but each will select for use those which promote his point of view and political aims, and ignore or downplay those that do not or that support the point of view of his competitor, so the final report submitted to the public by each will widely differ. A polluting company and an anti - pollution activist can never possibly agree, for this reason. They each have a different purpose, a different point of view, a different agenda. It is all very human. Vanity, power, self - preservation, self - propagating, and the other personal goals of those involved determine 'truth' -- and the winner gets to rewrite history, to show how bad the other guy was and to whitewash his side, just as is done in war.
Business is war. Life is war.
Thus, your Career Support Team role - plays being the real people and parties and elections, liberal in one team meeting, conservative in another, corporation and activist on alternating days, pro and con on any and every issue, thus acquainting each member with every possible viewpoint, including that of independent judge, the public, the buyer and seller, in action. This is a learning experience of very high value. It is not possible in any classroom, for a variety of reasons, one of which is the very liberal viewpoint of most teachers -- they are incapable of accepting, or even understanding, some other very rude viewpoints opposed to their own, but which are part of real life outside the classroom, and which the careerist not only can but must face and understand, for his real - life career success. America's traditional standardized educational process, from kindergarten on, does not prepare people very well for career success. In fact, most teachers and administrators being anti - business, that permeates everything they teach, and hurts the students' future life at work.
In seeking out truth and accuracy and facts and reality and meaning, we must always remember that these and much more about life are situational in nature -- what is fair and right and true and fact in one situation is not necessarily so in another, or on the other side in an adversarial situation, or to another point of view. You can do things I can not, and what worked for me may not for you. A truth to one person is a lie to another. A giant is not too tall, people are too short. What is true on Tuesday may be proven false on Wednesday. The earth was flat, until proven round. Today's most obvious truths or best - proven facts may not last past tomorrow morning. This is why there is so much conflict in life, both for you to avoid, and to use to your advantage.

Directions For Your Study Team
Your Support Team is composed of three to five people working together to achieve their similar or mutual career goals. Less than three can't do much work, have much effect, and more than five generate conflicts and disputes and break into sub-groups, etc. That's a generalization. Your particular case may differ.
The first step is for one member to describe his career problem to the others, and have a free - for - all discussion so that all understand it, why it is a problem, what is to be done, what is wanted, his needs and goals, and so forth. All suggestions for a solution are to be written anonymously in five to ten words on a separate piece of paper and placed in the common idea pool on the table. The next member does the same, until everyone has had his turn. Every problem and solution suggestion is discussed, no matter how wild or ridiculous it may at first appear, and none is discarded until after it has been carefully discussed, examined against the individual and team's objective. This is brainstorming.
Every real life career problem has catches, contradictions, confusion, obstacles, and vague or skipped parts or ambivalences in it. There are also assumptions, most of which we vaguely realize, but some of which may not be apparent without actually mentioning them out loud. We must assume, in a civilized and law - abiding society, that if your boss gives you a hard time, you do not bring a gun to work the next day and shoot him, an obviously counter - productive action, as well as illegal, immoral, etc., but in discussing such situations, the group must discuss every alternative, if only to dismiss it. Some of these also lighten the atmosphere, which is beneficial: use a toy water gun on him.
So every possibility is discussed until these are all found and understood and resolved in some manner or other to the satisfaction of the team, or a majority of the members. In the case of dispute or draw between members the team casts lots or arrives at some other means of excluding a member for that vote or otherwise acting so that a decision can come quickly.
Set limits, such as two minutes for presentation, two for discussion, two for evaluation and closing. There is too much to be done, so time can't be wasted if each member is to have a fair amount of attention, and the most problems studied and solved. This fairness and pressure are much of what makes it a very direct and immediate and personal process, thus very effective.
Discussion and debate are vital functions of the team. On adversarial issues one person will take the pro side, another the opposite viewpoint, and the third (and others) remain silent as a judge (or panel), counting points, only speaking up to remind the contestants of a point ignored, a practical need, a human consideration, etc. Then they change places, and the person who was judge debates from the pro side with the one who has the pro before but who must now take the con, while previous con becomes judge, then con argues with the pro, and the former pro becomes judge between them, or vice versa or otherwise, as the issue or team's preferred method requires. No issue or subject can remain long difficult when this tool is used, for each in turn sees both sides as well as an impartial 'third' side.
These debates should be video - taped and studied by the whole team and each member, so that dialogue and debating and other communication faults are corrected and technique improved. Learning to judge impartially is especially difficult, so special effort should be spent on this skill. The rules of civil discourse must be studied, rudeness and personal attacks avoided, each person have an even and equal time limit such as two minutes for speaking, then two minutes remaining politely and attentively silent while the other presents his side, no shouting or interrupting. However, all must also know when and how to break those rules successfully and be rude and unreasonable and shout and get away with it (as is done in real life). You will learn when another is producing a real solution, or struggling for an answer, or seeking concurrence, or just venting emotions, and so on. Since research is necessary for successful debate, again the student is bringing in and presenting and using what he or she researches (learns), purposefully and constructively.
Video - taping also builds the ability to concentrate, to study other people impersonally, objectively, deeply and critically, and to listen accurately, by comparing remembered words with the tapes, and to run the tapes over several times to see clues that are not at first obvious. This also helps to find meanings that one sent but which may not have been received immediately, or accurately, or at all, by others.
Note that, in addition to being practical career problems and issues, these are also mutual self - improvement exercises. The team mates must help each other develop better writing, speech, presentation, debating abilities in preparation for influencing other people in real life, and other valuable career - enhancing skills and abilities.
Debating sessions between several Study Teams, if you can arrange it, as I do in my private career coaching practice (212.876.5483), also helps to relieve the tensions and emotions that are certain to build up between the members of any team in these exercises; they must work together on a common 'mission', against a common 'enemy', forget their own differences, if they are to score, so any pent up power is directed outwardly rather than inwardly against each other.
The work demand is obviously high, and often will be too much to be done in the time limit. Each team will be different, so each must decide in advance how to complete as much as can be done, with value judgements made about what is to get most priority and what least.
The stages or phases or steps in the workload are decided upon by the team and formalized in some sort of schedule. They must divide up between them the work to be done according to the preference of each, or by lot, or logic, or combination of these and any other method they find appropriate. The team decides by vote or other form of agreement in each case, so that they meet the schedule and the required parts are present when needed. The team must study itself and submit to itself reports on all these internal decisions and methods, and what they learned from them, how they improved, etc. The whole is to be kept very result - oriented, not at all academic.
In your self - assembled real world Career Support Team, you and each member brings his career and work problems as self - assignments to the team. Use the following academic example as method model, altering it as appropriate for your career situations and purposes.
In my full program, we assign the team one project per person. We give three assignments to a three - person team. Let's call them Member A, Member B, and Member C.
Each person does the writing on his assignment and presentation. Member A does the writing on his project. Member B helps him by checking and correcting the content of it, while Member C checks and corrects the style, language, grammar, etc. This is teamwork. All three do research, interviews, and contribute in other necessary ways, to complete the assignment. When all three are satisfied with their finished work, or have reached a workable compromise, and have submitted the final printout of the article or report, they have completed that project.
While they are working on the project or presentation of Member A, they also work on those of Member B and Member C.
In this concurrent assignment system, Member A is helping by researching and checking and correcting the writing of Member B for style and language. Member C is also helping Member B by research and checking and correcting content.
Member A is also checking and correcting Member C's writing for content and fact and logic and so forth, while Member B is checking and correcting its style and language.
Thus, in all work, all three team members help each other. You do not get pages of fluff and puffery, empty of content no matter how well written, nor pages of truly meaningful content so poorly written it can not be understood. By doing so much writing, and helping each other so much, learning from each other, and researching and studying writing together, the end product is good writing which will help every member in his lifelong career. This method is also much faster, deeper, immediate, and more career - pertinent, than any teacher - class or teach - and - test method.
One person may be better at math or mechanics while another is better at people or other intangibles and variables, but the real world is made up of both math and people. We must all live the rest of our lives among both, and work with both, so every career student must get to learn, know, and use both, by role - playing, dealing closely with each other, and so on, in this teamwork context.
A major side effect of such teamwork is that those who can do something better share their knowledge and skills to help those who can't. All learn and practice doing what they couldn't before. Peer sharing. The Learning Team. Each person is a member of each other's Support Team.
In all of this work they must arrange and allot time and effort fairly and equitably among all so that none feels wronged or shorted, and so that none gets so much help that he experiences none of the difficulty and decision making and is shorted in the learning - by - doing and mistake - making parts of the whole process.
This is one of my most important rules: To deprive a person of making and suffering for and learning from his full quota of mistakes is to seriously deprive him. This is why the team must make its own decisions. Even when I see that they are making a mistake, I usually let them do so, so that they can learn from it, only stepping in if it will seriously harm anyone - a little pain is good for learning a lesson well -- gives it that personal touch.
In a three - hour work session for a team of three members, the first half hour can be review of work done to date and yet to be done, then fifteen minutes for all three to work on the career problems of Member A, second fifteen minutes on B's problems, the third fifteen minute segment for Member C, then a break of five or ten minutes and discussion of common work or problems encountered, then more combined or one alone and two others work on each problem or part, in short periods, changing around frequently, according to any plan they work out and agree upon, until a final period when the next stage is planned in detail, or other common work and arranging the next meeting time and place and other details. In my full program, each student is also in other Learning Teams. As each student brings to one S-Team the methods of the other S-Teams he has worked with, and learns new methods in that team to take to his next, everybody gains, in every team. Cross - pollination.
The members then break up for the day and each individual or sub - team goes home or out to do what they have to do (write*, research, correct the work of another for next meeting, etc.). (* Again and again I will remind you how important writing is in business, for sensible reports, analyses, presentations, planning, correspondence, records, and so much more, and thus why every successful employer is always seeking literate employees, because our traditional schools fail to produce them. And because, like math and chess, writing teaches logic and perespective, clear thinking, and much more. I believe that, because it demands so much, writing is the best learning tool there is.)
Note that in the Electronic Age, the team members do not have to meet in a central location. They do not need to meet physically. Using telephone, picture - phone, voice - fax - modems, and other means of electronic correspondence, each can be at home or in any other location, at a computer, perhaps doing simultaneous research, while holding a team meeting. Using cell phones and satellite relay, team members may be on different continents, yet still be a capably functioning unit.

The Jury System
In the American legal system we use juries of peers to decide the guilt or innocence of the accused. It may be faulted, but is still better than any other system, so far. When they have heard the evidence as presented in the trial, the jury goes into seclusion and discusses it.   Occasionally anger and emotions and other problems do obstruct the process, but in most cases our juries form a study team and consider the evidence. Each person is heard and respected by the others. The jurors show themselves to be adult and serious, and usually come to reasonable decisions. This is efficient enough that the system is considered fair enough by most concerned and does not need major change.
In my SASS Study Teams and your Career Support Team, a similar principle is in effect. My clients and your team mates are, for the most part, adult and intelligent (with an average IQ usually much higher than that found in the legal jury system as drawn by lot from the general public) and interested in working together to solve their common problems and achieve their individual personal and common career goals. They all and each willingly and consciously contribute, and give up a certain amount of independence, for the sake of the help they expect from each other in the team. This is the opposite of a star system. Thus aligned and motivated, they can do more together than each can do individually, and benefit each more than he can benefit himself individually.
In my Career Coaching, in addition to the analysis of the work of each team and team member by themselves, each team is to analyze work done by other Study Teams, and meet with those teams for mutual benefit, taking turns being each other's juries. Every Study Team member is to sit on several juries per year, passing judgment on, and learning from, the work submitted by other S-Teams. We use a random number process to code names of students whose work is being judged, so we avoid bias and personalities. This is as fair as can be, and the results enlightening. Apply similar methods, as needed, in your own Career Support and Study Teams.

Competition, The American Way
In my full career coaching program and my SASS Discipline we assign each S-Team problems in which it competes against other S-Teams. Each team may not personally know or ever meet another team in person, since they may be next door or across town, in another city, or even halfway around the world in another nation when on-line, but the sense of competition helps to align and motivate the team, just as it does in sports and business teams. The 'points' gained may or may not be specified and may be of intangible as well as tangible nature, as decided by the situation, may be something such as a free dinner or other prize being awarded the winners, and the losers paying for it. Either way, the team members are united 'against' a common outside 'enemy' and thus in common agreement in goal, etc. The purpose here is to make them understand that when the team wins or loses, they each win or lose, also, just as in their careers. It costs them each, personally, for that dinner. And when they win, they all gain that dinner together.

Civilized Team Behavior
We select among the applying candidates so that the members of every team are adults in behavior because of their high IQ and serious personal career motivations (even if they are young in years or experience) and so that we may accord them full personal and group responsibility for their own actions. Manners, consideration for each other and the feelings of others, tolerance for the inabilities of others in certain areas to compensate for the tolerance others may show for their own inabilities in certain areas, and civility, are necessary. Reading, writing, and other communication skills, goals, ambition, desire to participate, and willingness to share and work hard, are all vital. Any team in which these are absent will not last long. Members of weak or broken - up teams are assigned to other teams being formed, and the offending persons dismissed without recourse. This is not a commercial endeavor in which the customer is right or necessary to economic survival, but a private and autonomous resource for your own personal benefit, which any person may leave at any time for any reason.

Mix and Match
Your own personal Career Support Team will be unique, being dedicated to your specific career and personal goals, and not exactly like mine, so I mention all of these things in order for you to select from them, to use or discard, mix and match, as best fits your own specific personal needs.

End of Chapter Eight
Click HERE to go to Chapter 9

Click HERE to go to the Introduction
Click HERE to go to Table of Contents
Click HERE to go to Chapter 1    Your Career, your Life Work
Click HERE to go to Chapter 2    People Study
Click HERE to go to Chapter 3    Your Career in Context
Click HERE to go to Chapter 4    Setting Your Career and Life Goals
Click HERE to go to Chapter 5    Long Term Career Development
Click HERE to go to Chapter 6    Career Strategies and Tactics
Click HERE to go to Chapter 7    Realistic Expectations
Click HERE to go to Chapter 8    Your Personal Career Support Team
Click HERE to go to Chapter 9    Team Management; Research and Writing
Click HERE to go to Chapter 10   How to become an Expert
Click HERE to go to Chapter 11   Miscellaneous, and Executive Summary
Click HERE to go to Chapter 12   Your Personal Career Research Resources
Click HERE to go to Chapter 13   Those Awful People At Work Problems
Click HERE to go to Chapter 14   Assumptions and Expectations
Click HERE to go to Appendices
Click HERE to go to Bibliography
Click HERE to go to Index
Click HERE to go to Personal Career Coaching FAQ
Click HERE to return to my HomePage, to access COP and other documents

Careerists, please contact me directly to obtain your own personal printed copy of Career Zen, more complete and up to date, especially with the latest on Internet career information sources and research.   Note that Career Zen is privately published, is only for my clients, and is not available in any bookstore or from any other source.

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