[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.It was clear to him that he wasspending more time outside the business school than inside.Hewas spending more time on nonprofit work than on academic re-search or consulting to for-profit organizations.And within thenonprofit realm, he was spending most of his time on the projectwith Tim.The aphorism  I know who I am when I see what I do(a twist on Alice in Wonderland s famous words to the Red Queen2)proved true for Ben.Natural experiments get the ball rolling.They give us a peek atpossible directions.But they only take us so far.After a certainpoint, a hypothesis starts to materialize, and another kind of test is091-112 Ibarra CH5 3rd 9/24/02 11:26 AM Page 97crafting experiments97required.Exploratory experiments are designed to answer fairlyopen-ended questions: Would I enjoy doing X? Could I be good atdoing Y? Would I be able to make a living doing Z? Once a possi-ble self begins to take form, we need to take more active steps totest the possibility more rigorously.Otherwise, we stay in the realmof daydreams.As his hunches about enjoying hands-on and nonprofit workstrengthened, Ben sought more opportunities to do those thingswithin the scope of his job as a professor.In fact, he began to see theadvantages of pursuing his new interests from inside, rather thanoutside, the university.Realizing that his job was indeed a great plat-form, he explored a variety of business school roles and possibilities:He worked more closely with a new group created to study socialenterprise, taught in a course for nonprofits, wrote a case study aboutnew models for nonprofits, and attended conferences.As a result,his contacts in this new realm grew, and he saw, with increasing clar-ity, how well his expertise in organizational design applied to changeleadership in the nonprofit realm.He created a new niche for himself.Now he had to figure out how to best exploit that niche and whetherto do it as an impartial observer, as an academic, or as a player.Compare and ContrastIn the exploratory phase of any investigation, looking into notone but a broad range of options is essential.Variety allows com-parison and, therefore, discrimination:  This resonates and thatdoesn t ;  I like X better than Y ;  Even in the best of possibleworlds, I really don t want to do Z. Thanks to the comparativemethod, Ben was able to refine his hypotheses about what wasmore and less appealing to him.For example, he realized that hepreferred the short time frames and immediate feedback of hisconsulting work to the long horizons of a research career.He alsolearned something new: Impact really mattered to him.Neitheracademic work nor for-profit consulting made a direct differencein the world in the same way his nonprofit work did.091-112 Ibarra CH5 3rd 9/24/02 11:26 AM Page 98oooworkingidentity98Since Ben had several experiments going (a good design prin-ciple, as we will see), he was able to continue comparing andcontrasting experiences as he moved from exploration to confir-mation.The comparative method allowed him to rigorously testalternative hypotheses about what he wanted.One test was theroad-not-taken test.Ben had always kept the possibility of mov-ing into a corporate managerial position (a common turn for busi-ness faculty who want a more hands-on role) on the back burner.When the Manworks position opened up, he was forced to re-spond to a possibility he himself had created.At that point, it be-came clear to him that he did not want it.Ben s reaction to the Manworks opportunity helped him nar-row his quest, and it also led him to reframe the questions guidinghis search.Until then, his focus had been on the substance of thework: Which tasks do I enjoy most, and which do I enjoy least?What kind of work am I best at? What kind of work stresses meout? The road-not-taken test gave him insight into a set of drivershe had only been vaguely aware of.Since Manworks was not par-ticularly well run, (that was why they needed him), he would becoming in as the expert, coaching them and exploiting a knowl-edge and experience base he already had rather than stretchinghimself.At Connector, it was the other way around.He was theprotégé, at least at the start, and this assignment would allow himto grow.The mentoring he was getting from Tim made all the dif-ference.In not pursuing Manworks, Ben realized he was not look-ing for a different job but rather looking for role models peoplehe admired, whom he wanted to learn from and work with.The ability to compare and contrast also came in handy whenBen had to choose between doing the nonprofit work from his po-sition as a business school professor and doing it as the new di-rector of Connector.This was tough because, at least in theory,the substance was the same (namely, working with nonprofits).Asis typical, some of his friends told him he was nuts to considerquitting such a good job.His coworkers told him they neededhim, that in a couple of years he would get tenure; then, they ar-gued, he could do anything he wanted.It made sense except for091-112 Ibarra CH5 3rd 9/24/02 11:26 AM Page 99crafting experiments99two things [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]