April 30, 2021

Fast Company article by m+ team member Jennifer Fondrevay, along with Amy Franko on keeping successful in adversity

I just finished reading Jennifer and Amy’s article in Fast Company: “Stars rise and fall at work, here’s how to keep shining”.  This is so timely, especially today when volatility defines the world and puts many of our assumptions about career and life into question.

View Jennifer and Amy’s article here

Some of us established a recognized and evolving career based on an initial blazing success that then sets up expectations for more.  And for others, our success came from years of hard work and yes, failures, to get where we are today.  We fear tinkering with what we have built from nothing and consider our past experiences and achievements as the definition of our future.

The thing is the context of any success, initial or hard earned, changes over time. As Jennifer and Amy point out, how we continue to stay at the top of our game needs to change as well if we are to survive and thrive in a changing world.

And yes, there are those rare individuals who seem untouchable and breeze thru change like it is nothing but just another creative challenge to be solved, even better and more successfully than ever. But for most of us a good run of success can also be a trap if we are not careful and lose our self awareness and what we need to do in the process to move forward in a context that has nothing to do with our past.

I see many businesses in general including design industry practices applying surface dressing and marketing speak to appear to adapt, while actually not investing in making substantial internal change to core business and operations strategies that those products and services need to actually succeed.

The result is usually mediocre redundant outcomes, expensive talent attrition, and stagnant earnings, all signs that reveal an inability of the underlying strategies and operations to adapt to the needs of a new context and client demands.

Being market aware, willing to truly change, source outside advisement for perspective, and take some risk being a role model for others within your organization, are ways Jennifer and Amy spell out to help evolve new success for your careers and organizations in the face of change. Read the article and be open to what is coming next, as it is coming either way…

And remember, when you see a star shining bright, there is a good change that star no longer exists, and all we are seeing is the brazing light of its past glory as a sign that it once existed in the first place.