What Specifically Do Generalists Do?

Any industry or organization can benefit – indeed, thrive – by adding generalists to the mix.

“Today, most of us live in a shattered world. A world of disconnected bits and pieces, so it is no longer easy to recognize our place. And when we can't see the connections, we fail to recognize causal relationships and therefore feel no responsibility.” -- David Suzuki, The Nature of Things

Information is economic sunshine. Do you capture it and trade it around or do you let it bounce away?

“... the movement of people, the convergence of science, and the leap of computation are giving rise to more intersections than ever [and] the individuals or teams who find these intersections are likely to be the ones who radically change our world.” Exactly the domain of generalists. -- Frans Johansson, The Medici Effect

Generalists are important at observing everything and seeking out a particular something that is most relevant for specialists to pursue. A generalist is a divergent thinker who is in touch with a large realm of possibilities.

Perhaps the most obvious of generalist characteristics is the connect-the-dots serendipity-searching that comes from linking disparate subjects together. Such cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural knitting is core to moving from incremental innovation to transcending ideation.

Experience & Empathize - understanding worldview

in the process of focusing, we lose sight of the context – the rhythms, patterns and cycles – within which that fragment exists and functions. So we fragment the whole into isolated bits and pieces.

Link & Leap - generating ideas

Mix & Match - connecting people

The chief reason why ideation is now so important is that it starts at the beginning; in the truest sense of exploration. The main argument as to why generalists can offer such valuable assistance with this is that they can hunt down and recognize more different possibilities than can specialists. Generalism is not simply a nice-to-have; it’s essen... See more