We used to go to work to learn to do the job. Now learning IS the job.
Whatever your job or career stage, staying relevant and adaptable is essential to succeeding in a Squiggly Career. It’s never felt more important to learn at work but finding the time, space and motivation to make it happen can mean learning never makes it to the top of our to-do list. We need a new way to learn, that reflects our reality and feels motivating and useful. Enter our unexpected role model for learning at work…the lobster.
Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis first began working on Squiggly Careers in 2013, and a great deal has changed since then. Rather than something to be embarrassed about, people now wear their squiggly career as a badge of pride. It gives individuals permission to explore different directions and to be proactively curious about their career.
Today, they train over 100,000 people a year and work with hundreds of companies internationally. This ongoing work has enabled them to keep learning about what is needed for squiggly careers to thrive, and three key themes have emerged.
Individual skills – Are people aware of their values and their strengths? Have they learned how to manage their confidence gremlins? Have they built a community around their career and are they proactively exploring their possibilities?
Support – Are companies investing in manager capability to support employees with squiggly career conversations?
Structure and culture – Are organisations creating structures where people can squiggle and stay, or are people still getting stuck in silos? Is the language being used, and what leaders are endorsing, genuinely supportive of squiggly careers, or are conversations still centred on promotions and next steps?
When skills, support, structure, and culture are aligned, squiggly careers are better for everyone. Individuals experience more rewarding careers with greater choice and resilience, and organisations retain people for longer while benefiting from increased adaptability and advocacy across their workforce.
In Learn Like a Lobster, Sunday Times bestselling authors Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis explore how learning like a lobster will support you to be even better in your job today and increase your career opportunities for the future.
- Lobsters never stop growing – how you can use everyday and easy experiments to learn as you go
- Lobsters grow in hard moments – how you can use challenges at work as a way to uncover new learning
- Lobsters fuel their own growth – how you can lead your own learning by finding small firsts
Learn Like a Lobster shows how to make learning an easy and energising part of every working day. It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to develop in their career in a way that feels meaningful and motivating.
Whether you are someone who is ambitious to grow or you’re not sure about where to start, Learn Like a Lobster offers the practical skills, tools and motivation you need for career progression and fulfilment.
Anyone who pre-orders the book gets access to the Learn Like a Lobster Library where there are three workshops ready for you to start learning like a lobster as well as exclusive learning tools to try out.
By the time your book arrives, you’ll already be well on your way to becoming a lobster-like learner!
Pre-order from wherever you buy your books and email your receipt through to [email protected] and they’ll sort the rest.
Because when we learn, we grow.
