Are You Normal?* — Survival Mechanisms for #linkybrain people

“You use that word a lot” said Alex Dunsdon

“Which word?” I enquired.

“Normal. You talk about Normals. What do you mean?”

I had to think. Alex had just picked up the email thread after people said I should talk to him and doug_scott. The Linkybrain thing was just kicking off. It was about two weeks ago but feels like last year.

So I thought and spoke. “A normal is someone who deals with. – and manages – Business As Usual. Someone who focuses on value exploitation, not creation.”

Truth is, until then, the idea of normal had been there in the background but undefined. It took Alex’s Linkybrain provocation for me to actually frame and verabalise what I meant. The concept of normal was a bit like Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography – you can’t define it but you know it when you see it. And working in telcos and other scale businesses I’d seen it coming towards me time and time again.

This isn’t a criticism. Normals are good people and finsher / closers are an essential component of getting things done. The problem is, the industrial organisations which we created in the 20th Century strongly value their skills and mindset to the exclusion of others.

To get the job they will have conformed to a spec. They will have the requisite qualifications and experience and possess the temperament to sit at a desk for at least 215 days a year. They have mentally signed the psychological contract with their employer.

It’s the industrial mindset in action. Jobs have been standardised and formularised because the spreadsheet demanded it. A standardised spec and rate means the person can be bought. It also means commoditisation and easy replacement of the function being hired. I heard one senior manager refer to mid-level roles as “lightbulbs – we can screw ‘em out and screw a new one in.”

When you put a Linkybrain in that environment they struggle. They may conform to the spec, but they haven’t signed the psychological contract. The logical, step-driven environment of business as usual doesn’t suit their lateral mindset. And that leads to disruptive behaviour, awkward questioning or internal conflict (often manifesting itself outwardly in self-medication).

Linkybrains see things differently. They are not suited to BAU value exploitation environments such as programme or business development, where the product or process is fixed. They are better suited to value creation environments where their lateral brains can put unrelated concepts, technologies and needs together. And make something out of nothing. It’s a mindset better suited to the post-industrial world we are entering.

The good news is that more of these opportunities are emerging as innovation becomes valued inside as well as outside corporate structures, and the barriers to starting and scaling something which didn’t exist before are getting lower each year.

Unfortunately it’s going to take some time before the world catches up with what’s going on. Some 18 years into the 21st Century we’re going to go through the charade of job specs, CV and conformity culture for some years. Creating roles around mindsets, rather than skill sets will take longer.

Now that Linkybrains are blowing their cover in hundreds every day, I’m more comfortable sharing what I mean. I’ve been working for 30 years this year and met a lot of normals and a few Linkybrains, most of whom I’m still connected to.

It took the Linkybrain Underboss to provoke this point of view. Now it’s out, I hope this provokes others to share, comment and hopefully violently disagree.

*”Are You Normal” was the title of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s 1992 album. A classic “difficult second album “ syndrome work from already one of the worst bands of the 90s.