planned contingency

The planned contingency theory is a way of thinking about careerism proposed by Professor John D. cranbolts of Stanford University and others. 80% of an individual’s career is determined by unexpected accidental events. The idea is to design that (by) chance systematically and make your career a good one. --- Theory of planned contingency - Wikipedia - planned contingency

Advocate’s Statement.

• While traditional career counseling attempts to eliminate uncertainty from career planning, in this day and age, unplanned events should be considered inevitable and desirable.
• So career counselors need to guide their clients to engage in exploratory activities to increase the probability of finding unexpected career opportunities

Career counselors help clients develop the following five skills

1. Curiosity Curiosity Explore new learning opportunities

• 2.durability Persistence Striving despite setbacks

3. flexibility Flexibility Changing attitudes or circumstances

• 4.optimality Optimism Thinking that new opportunities are possible
• 5.sense of adventure Risk Taking Taking action in the face of uncertain outcomes

Career consulting based on the theory of planned contingency

• Step 1: While asking about the client’s past history, ask about coincidences and encourage the client to think that taking advantage of coincidences is normal.
  1. how has the unplanned event affected your career?
  2. how did each of these events affect you?
  3. how do you feel about unplanned events in the future?
• Step 2: Help clients turn curiosity into opportunities for learning and exploration
  1. how is your curiosity aroused?
  2. how do coincidences increase your curiosity?
  3. how did you act to increase your curiosity?
  4. how can you apply your curiosity to your work?
• Step 3: Guide the client to create the desired coincidence
  1. please tell us about a coincidence that you would like to see happen to you.
  2. what actions can you take now to increase that likelihood? What is your preferred event?
  3. how would your life change if you took action?
  4. how would your life change if you did nothing?
• Step 4: Instruct the client to overcome whatever is blocking the action.
  1. how have you been prevented from doing what you want to do?
  2. how can I find out how permanent the block is?
  3. how have others overcome such blocks?
  4. how do you begin to overcome that block?

https://www.earthship-c.com/career/planned-happenstance-theory-by-krumboltz/

• Kranboltz theorized Social Learning Theory in Career Decision Making. Deceased.
  • social learning theory (e.g. Rousseau’s)
  • This is “self-efficacy” Albert Bandura.
    • There are two ways to learn
    • Learning by direct experience
      • observed learning (learning by modeling)
      • The point that there is this study was new.
      • Learning through social observation → social learning.

Mitchell, K. E., Al Levin, S., & Krumboltz, J. D. (1999). Planned happenstance: Constructing unexpected career opportunities. Journal of counseling & Development, 77(2), 115-124.

Chance plays an important role in everyone’s career, but career counseling is still perceived as a process designed to eliminate chance from career decision making. Traditional career counseling interventions are no longer sufficient to prepare clients to respond to career uncertainties. Work world shifts challenge career counselors to adopt a counseling intervention that views unplanned events as both inevitable and desirable. Counselors need to teach clients to engage in exploratory activities to increase the probability that the clients will discover unexpected career opportunities. Unplanned events can become opportunities for learning.

• Traditional career counseling attempts to eliminate chance, but unplanned events should be considered inevitable and desirable, and counselors need to guide clients to engage in exploratory activities to increase the probability of finding unexpected career opportunities

relevance

• Drucker, “The best careers are not the ones you plan for.”
  • Unexpected learning
  • Unexpected Success
  • Trade-offs between use and exploration
• planned contingency

---

This page is auto-translated from /nishio/計画された偶発性 using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.