It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that the future of work is about being specialized, masterful, knowledge rich. The days of the generalist are over. Gone is the time when knowing a little about a lot brought any competitive advantage. There are billions of people out there who also know a little about a lot - supported by the ever advancing joined up technology of the world.
From generalist...
I saw this devaluing of generalist so very clearly last week as I watched my youngest son create an essay on Bird Flu. He is 16 preparing for what in the UK we call ‘A level ‘ exams - and this was the topic. I sat next to him as he pulled out bird flu references in Wikipedia - dived into some of the medical journal articles which had taken the argument further - and then took a close look at the UK Government’s white paper on the subject. All the time he was snipping pieces from here and there and downloading data to create maps and charts. Within four hours he had created what looked to me like the sort of essay I would have written in my second year at University. So does he really know about bird flu? In a sense he does - but this is generalist knowledge created from the scraps and scrapings in public sources. What he does not have is any original thoughts on it, any well developed point of view, or any valuable insights that others don’t have. Hey don’t get me wrong - the guy’s only 16 and I would not have expected more.
...to master.
But what he did was what
any bright 16 year old anywhere in the world with access to broadband can do.
Contrast this with mastery - where depth, points of view, valuable insights and
deep skills are crucial. That’s what is going to create competitive advantage
in the future of work. However, thinking about specialism and mastery raises in
my view two big questions:
*
what do you become masterful at?
*
how can you adapt over time?
Love as the basis
of mastery: my simple response to the first question is - go with what you love. If
you are going to be working until you are 70, then you better find something
you love. I remember a couple of weeks ago talking to the writer Daniel Pink
about this. He decided (primarily through parental pressure) to become a
lawyer. It took him over a decade to re-align to what he loved - writing
speeches and books. He was envious of my own decision to go with what I loved -
psychology - because the doctorate I went on to study has been the basis of
much of my thinking. There is always a temptation in tough labour markets like
the one we have right now to try and ‘second guess’ the market. To find skills
and develop competencies you believe will be the most valuable in the future.
In my view it’s impossible to second guess the market - so stick with what you
love. So that gets us onto the second question. Do we stick with one love
forever? Here my suggestion is to go for what I would call ‘ serial mastery’
Serial Mastery: I was knocked out this
week by a group of women at London Business School’s conference on ‘Women in
Business’. They were on a panel
called ‘the road less trodden’ and talked about how they had changed their
careers, or had multiple careers. Here are some of these stories:
Lorella Zanardo -
started working life in Italy with a degree in English Contemporary
Theatre. Joined one of the
big consultancy firms after leaving university and spent much of her career as
a business consultant. Became incensed by the way women in Italy are portrayed
in the media and decided to work with a couple of friends to make a documentary
about it. The documentary Il Corpo della Donna (Women’s Bodies) has became a
huge hit on You Tube and went on to create an enormous groundswell in Italy
about the portrayal of women.
Mireille Guiliano XX-
spent much of her life in French business - ending up as a very senior executive
in LVMH. Noticed that women often lacked self confidence and felt uncomfortable
in their skin. Decided to write a book about how Parisian women create a sense
of savoir faire. The book sold millions of copies around the world and she is
now on her fourth.
Heather McGregor after
an MBA at London Business School joined a banking group as a stock broker,
becoming one of the highest rated brokers in the business. Decided to run her
own business and bought a search consultancy. At the same time developed a
reputation as a writer and now writes the Mrs Moneypenny column in Saturday’s
Financial Times. Is currently preparing for a comedy run at the Edinburgh
Festival.
These are serial
masters. They have a core of highly valuable skills that they love (analytics
or writing or creativity or business acumen) and around these core skills have
rediscovered lost passions (Lorella’s passion for creating); let initial ideas
reform into new mastery (Mireille’s observation about Parisian women) or spun
off into new paths (Heather’s discovery of her talent for comedy).
