On August 18th, 2023 I redirected - what I say instead of “I retired”. I was 78. I retired once before at 70 and it didn’t stick. Back then I pretty much knew I might want to work again but I wanted to stop doing what I was doing. I took a year off and then I went back to work for seven years as head of research for Visier.
But this time it’s different. I’m done working in any classic sense. Not retired - redirecting.
The past year I’ve spent time with my husband, family, friends, traveling, hiking, gardening, quilting, volunteering, writing for my local newspaper and taking up water coloring. Things people do when they retire. Fun stuff. I’ve also cocooned and in that process, realized still that I love to do research and communicate results. That's my redirection.
So starting this week, I’ll be releasing results of my “redirecting research.” It's not a single report. Rather, it will be a series of LinkedIn posts, blogs and a website - redirecting.work. I will publish the material over the next few months.
What is it? I’m using my passion for research to dive deeply into how people successfully pivot careers and life, based on interviews with dozens of people like you. I did this research for me to learn more on how to redirect. I want to share it because a lot of baby boomers - as many as 4 million are turning 65 - and many are getting ready to retire. Plus a lot of others are considering a major career pivot. I think I've discovered what’s working.
Research Methodology
As I said, I love to do research and communicate results. A research approach I particularly love is to interview people and then synthesize results. So I interviewed over 40 people who in one way or another have made a major life pivot - they redirected. Either from practitioner to vendor, from consultant to practitioner, from employed to retired. The interviewees are all ages from late twenties to over eighty. Equally women and men. For the most part, they are white collar. They represent roles including CEO, CMO, CXO, analysts, solo entrepreneurs, strategists, writers, coaches. One makes whiskey. Another is a cook. One does home redesign and construction projects. One works with animals. They are interesting people living life with purpose.
When I started my research, I thought I only wanted to talk with people who had retired successfully and share what it takes to successfully retire. I needed to know this for myself. But as I talked to people, they said the interview was pulling out such interesting stuff for them that what I would eventually have to say was for anyone wanting to make a pivot. So I extended my research interview to all ages - some retired, most not.
BTW - if you’d like to be interviewed just let me know. Especially if you disagree with my research findings, let's do an interview. This research may be a living document.
What’s Included?
The topics that I’ll cover include cocooning – what I believe is mandatory for a successful pivot. Then it covers Redirecting Foundations:
Start by cleaning to create a vacuum
Financial Considerations
Health
Relationships
Purpose
Learning
Both the overall research results and each section will be covered in summary and then by gender and age cohorts. Women pivoting is different than men redirecting. Redirections vary by age cohorts. There’s differences between those changing roles or careers and those retiring. I’ll call these out.
And, it includes Stories. These cover why each person made a pivot, what’s their new direction, and what’s their advice. You will like these people. You will like seeing what their pivot was about.
I used chatGPT4o to synthesize my interviews and also to write first drafts of the stories and sections. That was an interesting process. It does hallucinate. It's also biased. I'll write about that. All the stories published have been reviewed, sometimes modified, and approved by each interviewee.
What’s Not Included
As head of research at Visier and in my work at SierraCedar when I ran the HR Systems Survey, now known as Sapient Insights, I had stellar marketing and graphic support. Now, it’s me and a web designer. I’m learning what works, so bear with me through this wonderful process of sharing research. It’s serious stuff, but I’m not taking it totally serious and the web site is emerging. (BTW - please feel free to critique and give advice.)
Also - please contact me if you want to know more about redirecting, especially as a friend says, if you're not ready to hang up your lanyard.
What's Up with the Pictures?
On the home page and here, you see a picture of a curve in some stairs or a curve in the road. You'll see others. Redirecting is about taking a pivot, taking a new direction. So I love pictures of curves in roads where you can't see what's around the curve - what's next. That's what makes redirecting exciting!
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