Generalists vs. Experts

I am really proud of this little piece I wrote for our 40,000 fan mailing list yesterday. It covers so many areas in the consulting work we do over at AT&T in one little concise blurb. And simplicity is beautiful.

Perhaps its because yesterday was my 3rd birthday of writing every single day. It's worth noting, I've put in about 1,000 hours so far. If you are reading this in hopes of becoming an expert, the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours thing doesn't matter. It's all about deliberate practice, actually.

Or perhaps its because I scribbled this in 15 minutes during our morning team meeting. Or perhaps because of the heavy edits by our brilliant CEO, Jason Korman.

But I hope you like it. Share it. Email me.

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Generalists vs. Experts

An expert is a fanatical person who spends their life toiling away at a single thing.

Quite frankly, this is something that most of us simply do not want to do.

Especially in running a business, when more and more we are being asked to be generalists.

As generalists, we must be curious. Curiosity is what makes things come together in that unique way, where “innovation” happens.

But when it comes to that one hairy unsolvable problem, even the best of us need a consult. It sure as heck beats spending the rest of our lives just living and breathing that one thing.

Let’s leave it to the consultants to be the “single thing” experts. That area where you just don't have the experience or time to figure it out.

Jessica Higgins is Chief Operating Officer of Gapingvoid Culture Design Group, a team of inspired individuals based in Miami, Florida, with clients worldwide, including Microsoft, Zappos, Roche, L'Oreal and many others. The team deliberately designs corporate cultures that help people connect emotionally to their organization's most important outcomes.