The corporate ladder: a new approach to moving up.

People who simply stay busy, without adding any real value, are building their careers on fantasy.

Recently, I received a symposium announcement for mid-career communication professionals on "Moving Up the Ladder." Priced at U.S. $2,500, the three-day course was sponsored by a respected PR and journalism school.

Rather than take three days out of your busy schedule, you can take the 15-minute short course that follows. First, the Executive Summary - Someone stole the ladder.

Organizations are struggling to survive in today's fiercely competitive global environment. They're restructuring, outsourcing, re-engineering, downsizing, subcontracting and forming alliances with friends and foes alike.

The plugged-in, turned-on, Internet-driven marketplace has put increased stress on every organization to make dramatic, sometimes drastic, changes. Today, firms need to be lean, agile and quick to respond.

The result has been a leveling of the corporate structure. Middle-management layoffs don't even make the news any more. The thousands who find themselves suddenly without jobs wonder what the ?? happened.

Companies Struggle to Survive

What happened was, we changed the way we do business, and firms are adapting to survive. Companies everywhere are eliminating excess baggage - abandoning bureaucratic practices - dramatically reducing the amount of time it takes to get things done. Organizations that don't or won't change will disappear...and many already have.

The same is true for communication and PR people who work in this Information Age. Forget about moving up the corporate ladder. Focus on making you your career. The truth is, no one owes or guarantees you pay increases, promotions, a job or even a career path to the future.

In 1995, one in five employees had been with their employer less than a year. Two out of three, less than five years. Gone are the nine-to-five jobs, lifetime jobs, predictable hierarchical relationships, corporate security blankets and even the conventional work place.

Since 1980, the temporary, self-employed, part-time and consultant segment of the work force has grown more than 65 percent. By the year 2000, less than 50 percent of the industrial world's work force will hold conventional full-time jobs.

A Quick Look Back

To understand the reasons for the changing work place you have to examine the past, but do it quickly, or you'll be run over by the future.

In the '60s, half of the workers in the industrial world made or helped make something. By the year 2000, only one-sixth to one-eighth of the work force in developed countries will be making and moving goods.

Statistics on the current U.S. working population show that two-thirds are already in the service sector and that knowledge is our most important product.

Today's businesses are in a constant state of flux. Rather than being bogged down with chain-of-command decision-making, project teams are made up of suppliers, customers, contractors and even competitors. There's a constant stream of new coworkers, new bosses and new challenges. A person's ability to become a quick-change artist - and be comfortable in dealing with uncertainty - enhances his or her reputation and career.

You Control Your Career

In this new environment, people have to take 100 percent control of their own lives - their own careers - their own futures. People have to come to grips with the hard fact that there are limits on how loyal an employer can be. Firms can no longer throw money and people at problems. They have to find better solutions faster...with less.

People who struggle to maintain the past or status quo, who cling to old assumptions such as the corporate ladder and job security, and who resist the inevitability of change are, unfortunately, left behind. Those who catch on and invest in finding and seizing change's opportunities earn the rewards.

The Japanese call it kaizen - the relentless quest for a better way, for higher-quality craftsmanship - the daily pursuit of perfection. The passionate pursuit of kaizen improves your competence level and your worth to yourself and others. It also protects your career, even if your company or job disappears tomorrow.

While perfection is important, so is a strong sense of urgency. You can't be bogged down in endless preparation, fact-finding and planning before you make your move. You can't wait for a firm directive. High quality is important, but it must be done expeditiously. It means having the ability to fail fast, fix it and move on.

Dramatic breakthroughs in science and technology don't come in quantum leaps - they're the result of hard-won incremental improvements.

Empower Yourself

In today's flattened organizations and reduced hierarchies, management can't wait for someone to "empower" you. You have to empower yourself.

If you empower yourself, you don't wait for someone to call the shots, to supervise you and be accountable for the problems and results of your efforts. That's your job.

To be successful, you can't afford the luxury of a three-day symposium focusing on how to move up the ladder. You have to think of yourself as self-employed - in business for yourself.

Whether you're inside or outside the organization, focus on bottom-line results and profits for the company. Don't waste time, energy and resources on activities that don't provide a strong payoff for your employer or client.

Dilbertism

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert cartoon, says he told his PacTel bosses (and by his account, there was a constant stream of them) that when he cost the company more than he contributed, he expected to be fired. Confident in himself, and perhaps bolstered by an increasingly lucrative creative career, he realized his job security was based more on providing added value to PacTel than his tenure, company loyalty or activity level.

People who simply stay busy, without adding any real value, are building their careers on fantasy. The better you serve, the more you take control of projects and their outcome, the more you add value - the better you perform - the more you enhance your career.

It doesn't guarantee job security, raises or promotions. However, practicing kaizen in today's boundary-less organization - even when there are a few loose ends or ragged edges to your decisions and actions - helps high-velocity organizations stay ahead.

Attractive Candidate

It gives you more energy, more self-confidence and more job satisfaction. It also makes you a more attractive job candidate inside and outside your present firm.

Your three-day symposium is complete. Let's split the cost of the original course...just send me a check for $1,250 and we can both move on to the tasks at hand.

G. A. "Andy" Marken is president of Marken Communications, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif.