Embracing the Job Search with Joyful Trepidation

I shouldn’t be writing this right now, the first morning of Rosh Hashanah (I should be getting ready for temple, albeit a virtual one), but how could I not? On the Jewish New Year we eat apples dipped in honey and wish each other a sweet new year. During this global pandemic, can there be any greater radical act of imagination than to collectively force ourselves to see outside the pain and dislocation of the past six months by envisioning our path together towards a better future? (I am currently reading Bernie De Koven’s The Infinite Playground: A Player’s Guide to the Imagination, and more on that shortly). 

And this is a new beginning for me in more ways that one: this week, after four months of warnings, Girl Scouts experienced a pandemic-driven workforce reduction, in which my job was eliminated. I get it. Not a business designed for a pandemic - 800,000 adult volunteers delivering in-person programming to 1.5M girls who drive (also in person) a $1B cookie business. Cuts had to be made. 

So as I enter the new year, I am thankful for the people who led me to the Girl Scouts, the remarkable people I got to work with there over the past two years (in what we call “the Movement”), and the people (the “members” - the girls, their caregivers and their Troop Leaders) whose my work touched during that time. But when I chose to transition from the American Museum of Natural History to join the Girl Scouts I was making a decision, to pursue some things in my life and to neglect others. 

PURSUED:

I doubled down on my expertise since 1995 producing web sites/news media/digital media/emerging media - bringing to market two mobile products as part of a direct-to-girl mobile initiative and, most recently, producing a successful pandemic-pivot with Girl Scouts at Home, a web-site that closed the gap created when all Troops nationwide had to cancel in-person meetings. 

I flipped from background to foreground my work in user-centered design, becoming Girl Scouts first VP of Digital Experience, honing my customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX) skills, not only filling the org with journey maps, conversion funnels, personas and more but, more importantly, supporting others to learn to value and make their own, ensuring the voice of the customer could inform business decisions. 

I continued to work at a mission-driven organization that was dedicated to learning, and leadership, and empowering girls around the world, extending my time in education that began in 2000 with my time at Global Kids. 

NEGLECTED:

I felt fortunate to find one position that brought all that I pursued under one umbrella. But I had to neglect other areas. 

Game design for learning rarely if every made it into my line of work. Even the gamification of digital badge systems - which teased me now and again - never came into full focus, to my disappointment. I did my own personal game design, as a result, and kept connected (and presenting at) the Games For Change Festival, but I have missed the daily work of being part of that amazing community. 

Working at Girl Scouts took me further from the site of impact - the learners themselves. At the Museum, every walk from my office to another was a reminder of the visitors I was serving; and the after school youth programming was right on site. And of course at Global Kids I worked daily in NYC school classrooms (where I directly reached over 1,000 students). But Girl Scout Troops don’t meet at the national headquarters. To understand the full cycle - of National to Council to Troop Leader to Girl - I had to start and run my own Troop, with my daughter, which I’ve loved doing over the past two years. But it’s not the same. 

My resume from 1995-2018 is packed with over 100 innovations in emerging media applied to learning and/or social impact. I love nothing more than discovering a new digital opportunity and then pulling it apart and re-deploying it so we can all better understand its pro-social applications. (A colleague from the late nineties reminded me just yesterday of his amazement watching me play with a Tomogachi to explore the emotions it generated). I had ideas for applications of augmented and virtual reality within Girl Scouts, and pursued a few, but they were all outside my mandate. Two years is not THAT long, but the opportunities in that space - especially since the pandemic - are tremendous. 

Finally, after creating my Mooshme persona 8 years ago to explore issues related to digital media and museum-based learning - on Twitter and through my blog Mooshme.org - I put it into hibernation once I went to Girl Scouts. I just could not write about my work, as much as I felt doing so would benefit others. And that pained me. It took me out of conversation with my professional peers, and meant only finished products - as fascinating as they were - could see the light of day. I aim to change that moving forward and I sense part of this effort of mine to look back is to correct for that, to re-enter a dialogue with you, so we can inform and inspire one another. 

So as I enter this next phase of “between work” I want to draw inspiration from Bernie (see first paragraph above). Yes, looking for work, especially during a pandemic, might be filled with pain, and disappointment, and anger, and frustration and panic. I won’t deny those feelings when they come. But I also want to draw from Bernie as I explore new opportunities and make new decisions about my next steps. How can I approach it in a playful way (if not in person, then remotely, like through writing words like this, for you, with you)? How can I find the joy in the exploration, be open to the liberation that comes in the liminal moments between what was and what can be, to bring the search into “the infinite playground”? 

I sense that one way is to write, as I am now, in a public forum (LinkedIn, Facebook, Mooshme.org). Another is to share the things that inspire me, as I look towards the future while revisiting my past. I used to interview people whose work I drew from for my blog. I also wrote about the innovative projects I was fortunate to be involved with. I’d like to revisit them now, with new eyes. Many of you will be seeing these posts for the first time; others I hope will revisit this glimpse into the recent past with fresh perspective, gleaning new lessons. And I want to start with Bernie. 

Bernie De Koven’s The Infinite Playground was recently published, posthumously. As Jane McGonigal wrote in her blurb, “This book is magical, sacred, beautiful, and inspired. It will reintroduce you to the mysterious joys of play you may have long forgotten. It will reveal to you surprising powers of gaming that will help you make a better future.” I had many opportunities to interview Bernie, and I want to start this series revisiting my times with him, both to draw from his spirit, but to also recognize, as I start this during the High Holidays, that he would appreciate the timing. For Bernie, as son of an itinerant rabbi, games became his Torah, the world became his congregation, and the magic circle of play became his synagogue, which he lead as Chief Rabbi of Play.

So in my next post I will invite you to travel with me back to 2014. Until then, here is a clip from our interview (teaching me to play the Out Blessing game):