Stretch

Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That isthe only thing which the mind can never exhaust, neveralienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, andnever dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing foryou. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.Merlin, in The Once and Future King

—T.H. White

Preface

Stretch: How to Future-Proof Yourself for Tomorrow Workplace, tackles the question: How do we stay relevant in our work lives? Our answer: stretch. Stretch how we learn, stretch to stay open in our thinking, stretch to build diverse networks and experiences, and stretch our motivation.

It's a tall order. While we don't have a silver bullet solution, we do have lots of suggestions that we've learned through trial and error, research and experience. We wrote this book to address a less predictable future workplace, one in which you need to have options to realize your dreams. Barbara Mistick and Karie Willyerd met pursuing their own dreams of a doctorate in a program aimed at working executives and designed to bridge the worlds of scholarship and practice. It's funny to think of a doctorate degree as the last degree you'll earn because it made us realize no one is ever finished learning.

When we met fifteen years ago in Cleveland at Case Western Reserve University, we were surprised to discover that we both lived in the same Pittsburgh neighborhood. At the time, Karie was working for a large multi-national organization and Barbara was sorting out the transition ...