I tend to attract clients who are ready, really ready, to change and influence how work gets done. They see how being unhappy in a job is detrimental to themselves and a business. They see how the surplus of chaos and stupidity in organizations has got to change. They are reluctant to participate in ‘business as usual.’

My clients include newly liberated free spirits (laid off people) who would do just about anything to not contribute to business as usual. Or people who are currently employed who have woken up to the reality that ‘business as usual’ is failing and they are proactively interviewing for new jobs or exploring startup options.

These folks are determined to contribute to a more evolved way of working and conducting business, for themselves and society. They are people who typically have the resources to take time to rethink how they’ve been working and are motivated to create better ways not just for themselves but also for generations to come. They are not going back to the way things have been!

Imagine these same folks interviewing for jobs with people who don’t get it, folks who are blindly ’sheep walking’  thinking the dinosaur they work for is still strong. I could focus on these businesses – how to attract top talent, how to survive in a radically changing economy, but I’ll leave that for another post!

Given how these interviews with sheep walkers are going, my enlightened clients are discouraged, wondering how to proceed, and asking ’should I look for a job or start a new business?’

My advice to these folks, initially, is to proceed as if the job or the business startup were one and the same. In both cases you start with the following questions:

• What is the work that will most fully leverage my essential best?
• What am I passionate about creating or contributing to in the world?

By flushing out the first question, you determine how you can best create value for others – eventually matching your gifts with a compelling need that people have.

By considering the second question, you determine the markets, areas of industry, and business you would target, either in a job search or business startup.

I have heard that outplacement firms are advising folks to consider what companies they want to work for. This is a nice idea, a start to considering what you want. But it doesn’t take things far enough for my clients. It leaves these questions hanging:

• How do I make sure that my next job or work is not business as usual?
• How can the next stage of my career contribute to creating more visionary, evolved, effective, dynamic ways of working?

These are practical questions that, when carefully considered, will put you at the leading edge of the job seeking, business creating crowd – moving toward work that will be viable and sustainable in the future. These questions help you bypass or pull yourself out of the dying cycle of ‘finding that job or startup that pays the bills but is in a dying dinosaur business that will just lead to another layoff or struggle in a short amount of time …’

These are not questions that should land you in a dark corner, meditating on your navel, afraid to venture out into a scary world where people are still in a stupor or where uncertainty creates confusion.

Instead, these questions lead to the adventure of  explorative conversations with people about the unknown, or the chaos of our times … from which you can see new needs that uniquely match your gifts, perspective and vision … or from which new opportunities or order emerges.

I recommend a tight cycle of personal reflection/journaling/learning and venturing out to talk with people about what’s needed, what’s possible, what’s inspiring. Back and forth between reflection and action, that eventually leads to finding jobs or creating business that often didn’t exist before.

Some examples, based on personal and client experience:

• coach and consultant with background in technology, business and organizational change leverages new developments in social media and networking to contribute to the evolution in consciousness and business (that’s me!)
• technology marketing specialist participates in a startup business bringing a new, locally sourced bio-fuel to market as an alternative to petroleum diesel
• ICU nurse with MBA creates new job/startup helping doctors evolve their businesses so they can bypass insurance companies
• artist, knowledge management expert, change leader combines radically diverse gifts to move work toward business startup using artistic talents to capture learning and tell stories of successful change efforts, that will be used to inspire and guide new change efforts

From these examples, you can see people uniquely combining their gifts and experiences to meet a current need while also participating in creating a world they want to see emerge. The way forward demands ‘business as un-usual!’ And your strategy could include a job or startup, depending on what you bring, the need you are meeting, and the future you want to create both for yourself and for the world.

So what’s the next step for you?