Good Work and “Unlearning” in Times of Transition

by Danny Mucinskas

Drawing on two decades of research, The Good Project aims to help people of all ages, from young students to veteran professionals, in their efforts to do “good work.” Such work is conceptualized as excellent (high quality), ethical (socially responsible), and engaging (personally meaningful). These “3 Es of good work” are the pillars that support a productive and virtuous relationship to work. 

Similarly, the Learning Innovations Laboratory (LILA) at Project Zero is a long-standing initiative that brings together researchers and practitioners to ideate together regarding organizational change and learning. For the past twenty-one years, the group has developed insights into the nature of human learning and change on the individual and systemic levels, including in workplaces.

Over the course of a lifetime, the work that an individual does will change many times. According to the American Bureau of Labor Statistics, individuals today may have held 12 to 15 different jobs by the time they reach retirement. Most of us therefore expect to go through many points of transition that require the reinvention of our career identities, as well as “unlearning” of habits, mindsets, and systemic knowledge from previous roles.

While the process of transitioning to a new role can be daunting in itself, it becomes even more difficult when previous modes of thinking and doing are no longer useful and in fact may get in the way. By paying attention to areas that might require adjustment and new approaches, “good work” can continue to be achieved.

These topics were explored in a new course, titled “Navigating Transitions: Unlearning and Good Work,” which I have developed in partnership with Marga Biller of LILA. The course was recently presented as a pilot to a group of learners in Singapore in collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Management, with a focus on helping participants navigate career transitions by becoming familiar with practices of “unlearning.”

As facilitators, Marga and I began with an introduction to the idea that transitions are part of everyday life and can be times of both excitement and anxiety. We then explored existing conceptions of “good work” that participants hold related to their current jobs and probed their relationship to the 3 Es framework. Next, we delved into the various dimensions of “unlearning” that require attention in order to successfully move from one role to another, specifically:

• Mindsets we bring to our work based on our past experiences, including values, identities, and expertise (for example, an understanding of our skill sets and how skills might need to shift in new roles);

• Habits we rely on in doing our work (which are shaped by cues, routines, and rewards, and which can be changed by paying attention to cycles of habit formation), 

• Systems we are embedded within (including organizations and teams with members who may or may not share the same goals related to work and the learning ecologies around us that support life-long learning). 

Participants were invited to reflect on these themes in exercises that included The Good Project’s value sort activity, an identity map, and the design of a learning ecology based on resources in and outside of the workplace. We also used a dilemma narrative about an employee starting a new position who made a mistake by relying excessively on past knowledge rather than meeting the requirements of her new job, analyzing what she could have done differently to succeed.

Reactions to the course from the initial audience were positive. Interviews and surveys revealed overall appreciation for the unique blend of content that combined research insights with practical models that would aid people in successfully handling career transition. Based on the feedback we received, in future offerings of the unit, participants will spend extended time exploring the concepts as well as implementation intentions in between sessions. We seek to provide more explicit suggestions about how employees can readily and appropriately apply the ideas we introduced on the job and with co-workers.

Our ultimate goal in offering this course is to help people deal with workplace change, equipping them with the tools and strategies they will need to do their best good work across the span of their careers. As a result, we are considering ways to expand further iterations of this course for adult audiences in Singapore and perhaps elsewhere.

I invite our readers to ask themselves some of the following questions that were explored in the course.

• What are some ways that unlearning preexisting mindsets, habits, and systemic knowledge could help you to better do good work in your own life?

• What values, identities, and expertise do you bring to your work? How have these changed from previous positions you may have held?

• What habits do you rely on in doing your work? Have you ever had a habit that was no longer serving you that you needed to change? How did you do so?

• How does the way you view your work overlap with or differ from your coworkers’ views? How can you open conversations that might spark dialogue about areas of difference?

• What is the relationship your work has to the broader communities you are a part of, such as your town, city, or society? How does your work affect people near and far from you?

• What responsibilities do you feel you have in your work to others?

Good Citizenship: A Series - Part 4

Good Citizenship Through Good Work: A personal reflection

by Shelby Clark

On average, the American worker spent 38.6 hours at work in 2019-- that is almost 2 hours above the OECD average of 37 hours per week (link). Some scholars estimate that Americans spend 90,000 hours of our lives at work (link). Given how much time we spend “on the job,” it is perhaps not a surprise that our employment often ends up serving more of a role in our lives than solely as a way of earning wages. For many, it’s a way of finding purpose and meaning (link). For others, it is a way to perfect a craft (link) or hone one’s skills. Still yet, for others, a job is a way for an individual to contribute to society and do good (link); that is, it is a way to contribute as a citizen. It is this last contention that I most wish to consider. What is the relationship between one’s work and citizenship? Below, I reflect upon my own struggle with the question of the relationship between good work and good citizenship.

When I went to college at Johns Hopkins University, I thought I was going to become a musicologist--someone who studies the history and structure of music. The summer after my sophomore year, I trekked to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, to track down a Bach score for a faculty member who was abroad. I then spent the spring of my junior year abroad in Vienna, where I completed a musicology internship with a Gustav Mahler expert. As a sample task, I translated one of Mahler’s letters from old German into English; I spent weeks listening to Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 on repeat for an assignment. The summer before my senior year I applied for and received a grant to conduct research at the Cleveland Orchestra that would serve as the basis for my senior thesis. I sat alone in the archives--week after week after week--looking at how the Orchestra’s repertoire changed in response to WWII. In the fall of senior year, I navigated from my Arts and Sciences campus across Baltimore to the Peabody Conservatory so that I could take history of music classes not offered on my campus; musicology was not really a major offered on either campus and was instead something I had somehow convinced two advisors to allow me to pursue under their guidance. Later that year, I signed up for the GREs as I thought about applying to PhD programs for musicology. Yet, by spring of my senior year, I had applied and was accepted into several Masters programs for counseling. What happened? 

Being a good citizen--one who is actively civically engaged--does not mean that you necessarily show up to vote every four years, nor does it mean that you have to be the best volunteer in your community. Being civically engaged, or a good citizen, can occur in all sorts of ways. Indeed it can be all encompassing; it is something you can be doing, or thinking about, learning about, or working towards, at any time of your day, in any location.

Besides immersing myself in classical music in college, I had also worked all four years of college in the college career center. I began by answering phones and then slowly worked my way up to being the main assistant to the internship director. I spent 12 hours of my week thinking about how college contributed to students’ career success. I pondered how students could find a job that they valued--one that would both give them a sense of purpose, one in which they would find meaning.

As I reached the middle of my senior year of college, I began to apply these questions to myself: Would I find meaning in life as an academic? Would my research as a musicologist be of value to society? In which ways? In all, would I be a good citizen if I became a musicologist?

 The purpose of this blog is not to demean the profession of musicology; my musicology advisor was one of the best mentors I have ever had, and I still have the utmost respect and love for classical music and its history. My purpose is to question how we think about the connection between our work and our citizenship. For me, working in the career center, I was very aware that Americans spend a large proportion of their waking hours on their work. Having just witnessed the 2008 financial crash and the societal pathologies which had led to it, I was inspired to make sure that my work would meaningfully contribute to my wider communities and societies. At the time, I wasn’t sure if publishing in academic journals for musicologists or other historians would fit the bill. I knew that I always wanted music and history to be part of my life; but I just wasn’t sure if a life as a musicologist was going to be right for me.

How often do individuals similarly aspire to make a difference in society through their careers? In a recent survey of alumni from mission-based international schools, two thirds of respondents noted that the way they felt they were making the most impact in the world was through their job or career. Of the eleven options shown for how to make a difference, the second highest chosen was making a difference through one’s family or friends, at just under a half.[1] For example, one individual in the study made note of her attempts to make a difference through her career:

Interviewee: Yes. Well, I'm really trying as much as I can within the curriculum that I have to be that person at the school.... I really try to just be a way to broaden their horizons a little bit, and be a person in which they can see someone else than they're used to, even though I'm also from the same municipality. I grew up here and all of that, but just having experienced the things that I have, and met the people that I have and just being the person that I am being...coming back here to a place where, it's still very, like we don't really talk about it, it's still very to taboo in many ways...I try to push small change within my classes.

            I'm very specific about not pushing any gender norms in my classes that I teach...they ask me a bunch of questions. Like, are you a boy or a girl? Like, does that even matter? Trying to have those kinds of things….I feel like it's my one way of creating change right now. Just trying to have these kids be slightly more open-minded than they would have if I weren't there.

            And so in the music that they listen to ... or the way they think about English, maybe I can even get one person to become a little more fond of English, a little bit fond of learning languages. That would be something for me that I would have felt like I would have succeeded. So, I feel like right now my job is where I can create the most change. And I feel like I can, I feel like that's actually feasible, which is very fun, but that's also a huge responsibility.

            The fact that I can change these kids' minds when they're so malleable. I feel like that's where the biggest arena [is] for that right now. And I'm obviously trying to make that a good thing and trying to use it for good.

This person is a teacher, generally a career considered to be a service to the community, but, in addition, through this career the individual is trying to change norms regarding gender and other issues. As they see it, their career enables them to be a good citizen .

By the end of my time at college, I turned to counseling as a way that I thought I could meaningfully impact society. Rather than sitting in an archive creating research, I decided that I needed to work directly with people in order to try to bring about tangible change in their lives. Within two years I had received my Master’s in counseling, with a focus on school counseling. Thereafter, I went to work as a high school school counselor in St. Paul, Minnesota. Working with refugee students as well as students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, I did feel that my work was meaningful and created some tangible impacts for some students.

Yet, by the end of two years, I knew it was time to return to my original love: research.

Let me apply some of our concepts to my own biography. At The Good Project, we define “good work” in terms of three attributes (the three Es): Ethical work seeks to have positive impacts on clients and on the broader society; Excellent work is high in quality; and Engaging work is meaningful and purposeful for the worker. Upon graduating from college I was so determined to contribute to society--obsessing about the ethical impacts of my work-- that I forgot about the importance of finding meaning and purpose in one’s work. This is not to say that I disliked being a school counselor, but rather that it never seemed to fit quite right. I missed research, I missed books, and I missed having a constant “purpose” when I went home at night. In terms of the three Es, I believe that I did ethical work; I hope that it was excellent in quality; but I did not feel sufficiently engaged.

I am fortunate--I was able to take a circuitous path back to my enduring love of research. By doing so, I believe that I am able to fulfill all of the 3Es of good work. Even more so, I was also able to find a way to merge good work with my initial hope of contributing to society more broadly; as such, I fulfill some of my own citizenship goals through my work.

I ultimately spent four and a half years at Boston University pursuing a Ph.D. in Applied Human Development.  I learned how to use psychological principles and apply them directly to everyday educational issues (in my case, I focused on curiosity and issues of character and social justice education). After graduating, I was able to move into my current position at The Good Project. On the project, I apply psychological concepts and methods to understand educational settings better – an ultimate goal is to create curriculum and assessment materials that hold promise for improving educational practices and outcomes. I feel hopeful that the work we do can make a difference in the lives of students, teachers, educators, and, in some way, over time, influence the larger education system.

As noted above, citizenship has a tendency to become an all encompassing idea. It can mean being politically engaged (e.g. voting), or it can mean social activism (e.g. protesting climate change). For me, it means in some small way trying to contribute to creating a better and more equitable education system for all. Thus, a broad variety of choices exist for how one might go about being a citizen and contributing to the greater good. Yet, given the large role that work plays in the lives of American citizens, and in the lives of citizens of many other nations, it is worth reflecting on not only whether you are being a good worker (ethical, excellent, and engaged) but also whether or not your work allows you to be a good citizen.

But that’s just my story. I ask you, the reader: How do you understand good work and good citizenship? Do you see these concepts as related, or as distinct roles within your life? Has your understanding of good work and good citizenship changed over the course of your life or as you’ve held different jobs?

---

[1] This is a yet unpublished finding from a study conducted by my colleagues and me at Harvard Project Zero.

Good Citizenship: A Series - Part 3

5 Ds, 3 Es and One Good Citizen

by The Good Project Team

Given recent events in the United States—increasing political division, yawning inequality between the country’s richest and poorest inhabitants, and well-documented violence directed towards people of color—the need for “good citizens'' is compelling. And that’s just within our borders. We need to attend as well to worldwide issues such as climate change and the current COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone is now a global citizen as well.

Our overarching goal at The Good Project is to help foster moral and ethical reflection in students and adults. One promising means of doing so is to practice reflecting on real-life dilemmas as they are encountered. In our conception, such reflection optimally draws on “Five Ds”:

• Defining the dilemma one is faced with;

• Discussing the dilemma with others;

• Debating the pros and cons of various courses of action;

• Deciding on an action (or deciding not to act); and

• Debriefing the dilemma by reflecting on what went right, wrong, or what might be done better next time one encounters a similar situation.

Let us take each of these in turn.

Defining the Dilemma

In our work on dilemmas, we speak about times when people are not sure about the “right course of action” or feel torn between conflicting responsibilities. To date, we’ve compiled fifty dilemmas in our online dilemmas database; these can be drawn on in discussions on all sorts of topics, across the range of ages, demographies, and fields of endeavor.

As just one example, let’s use our dilemma “Divided Loyalties.”

 Sara is the executive director of a national nonprofit that represents the concerns of America’s independent workforce, including freelancers, consultants, part-timers, and the self-employed. Sara’s grandfather was vice president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, and although she never met her grandfather, she has been very much influenced by his work as a union organizer.

Soon after being recognized as one of a group of outstanding social entrepreneurs, Sara was invited to the World Economic Forum (WEF), a meeting of leaders of governments and corporations from around the world. Because the WEF gathers so many powerful individuals together, there are often protests of one form or another, and Sara would have been forced to cross a picket line in order to attend the WEF. In this case, she felt torn between a loyalty to her roots in the labor movement and a responsibility to her role as a noted social entrepreneur.

Clearly Sara feels a dilemma. One way to clarify that dilemma is to say that she is torn between her sense of neighborlly morality and the ethics of her role. Neighborly morality refers the ways in which individual treats those in their immediate social circles; it includes behaviors such as honesty, kindness, caring, attentiveness, and other prosocial behaviors. In contrast, ethics of roles refers to the standards, norms, and regulations expected of those acting in a professional capacity (including students); one might think of the Hippocratic Oath for those in the medical field or the ethics expected of a journalist, a lawyer, a teacher, an auditor..

 In Sara’s case, she is being asked to adhere to the ethics of her role as a social entrepreneur—to advance the causes that she espouses in a responsible way. On the other hand, feelings of neighborly morality might call for her to show respect to those on the picket line—especially given her strong feelings of familial loyalty.

Discussing and Debating the Dilemma

 How should Sara decide what to do? What would it mean for her to act as a good citizen in this situation? In turning to discussing and debating the dilemma, we often suggest that individuals turn to respected others—mentors—in order to ask for their advice. Importantly, a mentor might not always be a single person to whom one looks up; rather, that mentoring role might be assumed by a fictional character, or individuals might pull different lessons from several individuals, a process we’ve referred to as “frag-mentoring.” At The Good Project, we also speak of the importance of “anti-mentors”—looking to examples of who we don’t want to be in a situation. Thus, in this situation, Sara might ask mentors in her life what they would do in a similar situation in order to be respectful to both family and work responsibilities, or, instead, what they did if they ever encountered a similar experience. (And if the mentors were not available, she might try in her imagination to recreate the advice that they might have given.)

In debating the possible courses of action, Sara should also refer to the Rings of Responsibility—whom will each course of action serve? To whom will she be acting responsibly if she crosses the picket line? What about if she elects to skip the WEF meeting altogether? Which action allows her to better serve her communities in an ethical, engaged, and excellent manner? For example, Sara might consider that:

• By attending, she might help her national nonprofit; she also could be furthering the needs of the communities that her nonprofit serves; she would be upholding her ethics of as a social entrepreneur; and she would be fulfilling a responsibility to wider society by serving an underrepresented workforce.

• By not attending, she might serve her image of herself as a supporter of workers as she honors the picket line; she could be serving her family by upholding her grandfather’s union legacy; or she might be serving her community (and the broader society) if she is publicly displays her support of others in the labor movement.

In wrestling with this dilemma, Sara would also need to consider her own values and how they might affect her decision regarding this dilemma. Perhaps she is already aware of her own values; or perhaps she might conduct an inventory, by taking a survey such as The Good Project’s Value Sort. Which course of action would be more aligned with Sara’s own values? We often speak about alignment as something that occurs when various groups or parties want the same thing or are working towards a common goal; but this desired balance can also occur within an individual when someone’s thoughts, actions, and values align with one another.

 Deciding on a Course of Action

Which course of action should Sara take? As we’ve described it, a “good citizen” is someone who acts in accordance with all three “Es” —specifically taking into account the community or communities to which that person belongs. Again, she might consider:

• Ethics: Sara has acted ethically if she makes a decision in light of her responsibilities to her several communities (to her organization, to the unions, to the ideals represented by the freedom to demonstrate), and if she acts in a manner that she believes will ultimately do the most good.  

• Excellence: Sara knows the norms and rules of her various communities well and in fact, her desire to adhere to the norms of one of those communities (i.e., not to cross a picket line) was what brought about her quandary. She recognizes that if she does an excellent job at the event, the potential impact she might have will expand her connections within the political community.

• Engagement: Sara has been deeply engaged in her work. Because this event brought together multiple communities of which she considered herself a part, the issues were especially relevant. She also is engaged with her family and does not take that affiliation lightly.

 Debriefing

When posing such a dilemma to students, we typically do not reveal an answer—it’s the process of applying the 5 Ds that is crucial.

However, here we can reveal that Sara elected to cross the picket line. She concluded that the harm her action might cause would ultimately be outweighed by the good she might be able to achieve by attending the event, making contacts, speaking on behalf of her beliefs about labor, and ultimately, furthering her cause. She acted in accordance with what she felt might, eventually, do the most good. In some ways, she chose long term over short term gain. Upon reflection, Sara was not fully at peace with her decision (she said she could never feel fully at ease crossing a picket line), but she felt that she made the best choice she could have at the time.

As mentioned above, there may at times be overlap between “good work” and “good citizenship.” In this particular case, Sara understands herself to be responsible to multiple communities and does her best to take these communities into account in her decision-making. The good work of a nonprofit director requires Sara to be a good citizen.

 Debriefing also involves a consideration of longer term consequences. Did Sara’s decision cause any family estrangement? What did she accomplish at the event, and were these accomplishments worth crossing the picket line? Would she make a different decision in the future, and why? These are the types of questions to consider in our efforts to foster good work and good citizenship.

Good Citizenship: A Series - Part 1

An Introduction: What is “Good Citizenship”?

By The Good Project Team

 The problems facing the world today are ample and, in a globalized and interconnected planet, are more likely to affect all nations and all persons. The international community recently witnessed the degree to which a previously unknown pathogen, COVID-19, could within weeks disrupt daily life for billions of people. Climate change poses an urgent threat for the survival of human beings as well as the numerous species with which we share the earth. Social disparities along racial and ethnic lines persist and are in some cases widening.

It is imperative for people (especially those with the time and resources to do so) to address these issues and to do so collaboratively. When we consider people coming together in pursuit of a goal that will benefit the common good, the terms “civic” and “citizenship” often come to mind.

How do those of us on The Good Project define “good citizenship”? What are the ways of thinking that will encourage citizens to contribute to a better world?

Launched in the middle 1990s, The Good Project initially investigated how individuals were carrying out their work under conditions of rapid technological change and strong market forces, which have only accelerated in the succeeding quarter century. Our research team conducted in-depth interviews about work with individuals drawn from a a range of domains—including law, medicine, journalism, and education. We asked our informants to consider their formative influences, beliefs, values, supports, obstacles, responsibilities, ethical standards, and allied issues. As a result of this extensive research, our “good work” framework emerged. As we now conceptualize it, good work is characterized by“3 Es”: it is high quality (Excellent), concerned with consequences (Ethical), and meaningful (Engaging).

The bulk of our research has focused on people’s professional lives. But the role of worker is obviously not the only role that individuals occupy in their multifaceted lives—nor is work the only sphere in which we interact with and influence others. One may, for example, think of oneself as a “mom,” a “daughter,” and a “friend,” and act differently depending on which role is dominant in a particular moment.

“Citizen” is yet another lens through which we might view ourselves. And so we have recently pondered: Can we conceptualize “citizenship” in ways that will encourage people to do “good” for the benefit of all?

What is a “good citizen”?

First and foremost, when referring to citizenship, we do not simply mean legal citizenship in a particular nation or country. Instead, in our formulation, a citizen is an inhabitant of a place or community, whether or not that comes with legal recognition. Although it is undoubtedly more difficult without legal citizenship, we believe everyone has a right and a responsibility to participate in civic life.

Accordingly, at The Good Project, we extend our conception of the 3Es of ethics, excellence, and engagement to describe and evaluate the meaning of “good citizenship.” With that schema in mind, good citizens are individuals who strive to do the right thing, not principally for their own self interest but for their broader communities and for society (ethics); know the rules, regulations, and norms of their particular communities and contexts, as well as conditions when it is proper or even necessary to defy them (excellence); and take an interest and find meaning in working for the betterment of community and society (engagement). As examples familiar to readers, we think of Cesar Chavez, Dr. Martin Luther King, or Malala Yousafzai; and while most of us cannot presume to accomplish what these heroic figures have accomplished, these exemplary citizens nonetheless serve as inspiration.

This way the 3 Es of good citizenship manifest themselves and resonate with one another will differ depending on one’s values, environmental circumstances, and upbringing. For some individuals, voting regularly may be sufficient political action to qualify as “doing the right thing.” For others, weekly protests calling for large-scale social change might be necessary in order to feel one has done enough. The issues that are salient to particular individuals will also vary.

At The Good Project we have gathered evidence in support of our claim that “good citizens” are ethical, engaged, and excellent. In our analysis, they are also able to critically consider the rings of responsibility; in so doing, their ultimate actions should be beneficial not only to themselves, but also to those in their various communities. It follows, then, that individuals would be acting in accordance with the principles of “good citizenship” if:

• When encountering dilemmas, individuals took the time to critically think about how they define the various communities and tried to act, or not act, in accordance with what they felt would do the most good for their communities rather primarily than for themselves (ethics).

• Individuals took the time to know the norms, rules, and/or laws of their various communities (excellence).

• Individuals displayed an interest in events and issues relevant to their various communities (engagement).

In the accompanying set of blogs, we explore good citizenship and good work through a variety of approaches and perspectives. Featured are:

• A discussion of the distinctions between a good person, a good worker and a good citizen

• The application of the Good Work “5 Ds” framework to unpack a dilemma

• A discussion of how good citizenship can be achieved through good work

• A consideration of the meaning and the achievement of global citizenship.

Teaching “Good Work” in the Law

A guest post, by John Bliss , Assistant Professor at Sturm College of Law

Imagine you have just graduated from college and that you are deeply concerned about racial justice, pandemics, climate change, global inequality, or other major public policy challenges. Given these concerns, how do you shape an impactful career of meaningful work?

For many, the answer is: Attend law school. As a law professor, I am perhaps a little biased when I say that this is a pretty good answer. Law schools produce a wide range of graduates at the front lines of social justice and other important causes, including the day-to-day work of proficiently helping clients understand and navigate the law. But legal education also has enormous room for improvement, which has been the focus of my empirical research over the past twelve years.

Using a variety of methods and comparing over time and across national contexts, I have been studying how initially idealistic law students tend to drift away from the public-interest values and career aspirations that drew them to law school. This drift appears to be influenced by a range of factors—among them, financial considerations, law school peer culture, traditional legal pedagogy, the law-firm recruiting process, and the limited availability of jobs in full-time public interest legal practice. Law schools cannot easily control all of these factors, but I do believe that we can develop curriculum to help reduce this drift effect.

Working with The Good Project and law faculty colleagues, I have recently been developing such curriculum in the hope that our students will sustain public-interest values, whether those values lead to careers in the non-profit or private sector. I began these efforts in 2017 while a resident fellow at the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession. During my fellowship, I became acquainted with Professor Howard Gardner and was introduced to the Good Project team that he leads. With support and collaboration from the Good Project, I piloted workshops at Harvard Law School with first-year students focusing on professional identity and public-interest commitments. In my current position at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, I have been expanding this curriculum in collaboration with Professor Alexi Freeman. Professor Freeman is experienced in activist lawyering, writes extensively about how law curriculum can better address social justice causes, and runs the public interest and externship programs at Denver Law. In the past academic year, we recruited 32 public-interest-oriented students into what we call the “1L Public Good Program.” In addition to community building and professional identity workshops, we required our students to engage in 20 hours of pro bono fieldwork in public service settings.

In our workshops, we introduced The Good Project’s “Good Work” perspective and toolkit as we discussed identity, values, theories of justice and social change, and pathways into public-regarding legal careers. We devoted one session entirely to the “triple helix” or “three Es” of Good Work, which is Excellent, Engaged, and Ethical. Because this session was offered remotely via Zoom in the spring 2020 pandemic context, we developed some interactive online tools, including having students collaborate on a Google spreadsheet to list and categorize the traits of Good Work. Students were quick to recognize interrelationships among the three Es. For example, the Excellence category covered technical proficiency but also passion, dedication, inclusiveness, and responsibility to broader communities. We also had students create a “Mentimeter” word map to describe what Good Work would look like for a lawyer. Some of the largest (most frequently cited) terms in the word map were “moral,” “empathetic,” “altruistic,” and “activist.” This exercise revealed students shared values and aspirations for impactful practice. Students also included the term “innovative,” which sparked a discussion of the need to think proactively and outside the box when seeking to address systemic causes of injustice. Finally, we discussed the long-term challenge of seeking “flow” and the integration of personal and professional identities within legal practice. We reminded students that, as Gardner, Csikszentmihalyi, and Damon put it in Good Work: When Excellent and Ethics Meet, “rich lives include continuing internal conversations about who we are, what we want to achieve, where we are successful, and where we are falling short. … It takes a lifetime to achieve such an integration.”

Student feedback about our pilot run of the 1L Public Good Program has been overwhelmingly positive. They appreciated the community of like-minded peers and faculty, and the opportunity to start mentorship relationships with Professor Freeman and myself rooted in conversations about public service, social change, and Good Work. The students emphasized that this programming helped them stay focused on public interest goals and values during a stressful first year of law school.

We are in the early stages of developing assessment tools that we will use in the coming years to empirically examine how the Program is impacting students. At this point, I am confident in saying that the Program and the application of Good Work in legal education show great promise. Law is a field with enormous potential to promote Good Work, as it draws students who seek careers of intrinsic motivation (Engagement), professional skill (Excellence), and public service impact (Ethics). As a legal educator, I believe it is my job to foster these commitments and help students reflect on what kind of lawyers they want to be and what kind of impacts they want to have. I would be more than happy to be contacted by anyone in professional schools or higher education more generally who is seeking to integrate The Good Project materials into their teaching and curriculum.