{"id":54415,"date":"2020-12-14T17:45:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T17:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=54415"},"modified":"2020-12-14T17:45:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T17:45:15","slug":"harvard-lecturer-no-specific-skill-will-get-you-ahead-in-the-future-but-this-way-of-thinking-will-by-vikram-mansharamani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/harvard-lecturer-no-specific-skill-will-get-you-ahead-in-the-future-but-this-way-of-thinking-will-by-vikram-mansharamani\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard lecturer: \u2018No specific skill will get you ahead in the future\u2019\u2014but this \u2018way of thinking\u2019 will-by Vikram Mansharamani"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvard lecturer: \u2018No specific skill will get you ahead in the future\u2019\u2014but this \u2018way of thinking\u2019 will-by Vikram Mansharamani<\/span><\/h1>\n

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Source:<\/span>CNBC<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Many of us have been told that deep expertise will lead to enhanced credibility, rapid job advancement, and escalating incomes. The alternative of being broad-minded is usually dismissed as dabbling without really adding value.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the future may be very different: Breadth of perspective and the ability to connect the proverbial dots (the domain of generalists) is likely to be as important as depth of expertise and the ability to generate dots (the domain of specialists).<\/span><\/p>\n

The rapid advancement of technology, combined with increased uncertainty, is making the most important career logic of the past counterproductive going forward. The world, to put it bluntly, has changed, but our philosophy around skills development has not.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s dynamic complexity demands an ability to thrive in ambiguous and poorly defined situations, a context that generates anxiety for most, because it has always felt safer to generalize.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just think about some of the buzzwords that characterized the business advice over the past 40 to 50 years: Core competence, unique skills, deep expertise. For as far back as many of us can remember, the key to success was developing a specialization that allowed us to climb the professional ladder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t enough to be a doctor, one had to specialize further, perhaps in cardiology. But then it wasn\u2019t enough to be a cardiologist, one had to specialize further, perhaps as a cardiac surgeon. And it wasn\u2019t just medicine, it was in almost all professions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The message was clear: Focus on developing an expertise and you\u2019ll rise through the ranks and earn more money. The approach worked. Many of today\u2019s leaders ascended by specializing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/a>The future belongs to generalists<\/span><\/h2>\n
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But as the typical mutual fund disclaimer so famously states, past performance is no guarantee of future results. It\u2019s time to rethink our love affair with depth. The pendulum between depth and breadth has swung too far in favor of depth.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s an oft-quoted saying that \u201cto a man with a hammer, everything looks like nails.\u201d But what if that man had a hammer, a screwdriver, and a wrench? Might he or she look to see if the flat top had a narrow slit, suggesting the use of a screwdriver? Or perhaps consider the shape of the flat top. Circle? Hexagon? Could a wrench be a more effective tool?\u00a0 And finally, the mere addition of these tools can encourage a better understanding of a problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not to suggest that deep expertise is useless.\u00a0Au contraire<\/em>. Carrying a hammer is not a problem. It\u2019s just that our world is changing so rapidly that those with more tools in their possession will better navigate the uncertainty. To make it in today\u2019s world, it\u2019s important to be agile and flexible.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>What it means to be a generalist<\/span><\/h2>\n
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How does one do this?\u00a0 To begin, it\u2019s important to zoom out and pay more attention to the context in which you\u2019re making decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read the whole paper, not just the section about your industry. Is your primary focus oil and gas? Study the dynamics affecting the retail sector. Are you a finance professional? Why not read a book on marketing? Think bigger and wider than you\u2019ve traditionally done.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another strategy is to think about how seemingly unrelated developments may impact each other, something that systems thinkers do naturally. Study the interconnections across industries and imagine how changes in one domain can disrupt operations in another one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because generalists have a set of tools to draw from, they are able to dynamically adjust their course of action as a situation evolves. Just think of how rapidly the world changed with the development of the Internet and wireless data technologies. Jeff Bezos was not a retail specialist who took on his competitors and won. He was a relative newcomer to retail but was able to adapt rapidly to seize a gigantic opportunity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>Career success for generalists<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Many forward-looking companies look for multi-functional experience when hiring. This is essential for large\u00a0organizations like Google<\/a>, for example, where employees jump from team to team and from role to role.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, Lisa Stern Hayes, one of Google\u2019s top recruiters,\u00a0said in a podcast<\/a>\u00a0that the company\u00a0values problem-solvers<\/a>\u00a0who have a \u201cgeneral cognitive ability\u201d over role-related knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThink about how quickly Google evolves,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you just hire someone to do one specific job, but then our company needs change, we need to be rest assured that the person is going to find something else to do at Google. That comes back to hiring smart generalists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re relatively new to the workforce, my advice is to manage your career around obtaining a diversity of geographic and functional experiences. The analytical capabilities you develop (e.g. basic statistical skills and critical reasoning) in the process will fare well when competing against those who are more focused on domain-specific skill.<\/span><\/p>\n

The one certainty about the future is that it will be uncertain. The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and technological innovation have commoditized information. The skill of generating dots is losing value. The key skill of the future is, well, not quite a skill; it\u2019s an approach, a philosophy, and way of thinking \u2014 and it\u2019s critical you adopt it as soon as you\u2019re able.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vikram Mansharamani<\/em><\/a>, PhD, is a Lecturer at Harvard University and author of the new book\u00a0<\/em>\u201cTHINK FOR YOURSELF: Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence\u201d<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(HBR Press, 2020). Follow him on twitter\u00a0<\/em>@mansharamani<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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