Developing as a T-shaped person
Developing as a T-Shaped person.
Wikipedia defines the concept of a T-shaped person as “a metaphor used in job recruitment to describe the abilities of persons in the workforce. The vertical bar on the T represents the depth of related skills and expertise in a single field, whereas the horizontal bar is the ability to collaborate across disciplines with experts in other areas and to apply knowledge in areas of expertise other than one’s own.” Wikipedia’s description of the T-shaped person sounds rather desirable, one person with many different abilities and the ability to go deep in one area. T-Shaped people are versatile and are valuable individuals, being flexible to meet the needs of the organization and subsequently wearing multiple hats through out their work day.
I have to admit that the work day of the T-shaped person sounds rather attractive.
As it has been presented, the role of the T-shaped person is someone with complete versatility and value. For those of us who bore easily, it seems only natural to want to become a T-shaped person. The challenge though, is where to dig deep… where to grow the vertical length of your T.
BDW, the 12 month accelerated graduate program I am currently attending, focuses on developing T-shaped creative professionals. We are presented with different opportunities to learn about creative technology, design and design strategy, with the assumption that each student will find their way into becoming a T-shaped person. We are exposed to many different facets of creative business and then subsequently each student gravitates toward their preferred area of interest.
As an older student, I am currently 34 years old, it can be challenging to be in the T-shaped learning environment. I regularly find myself overwhelmed with the course work at BDW and often times can’t put in the full effort that I have previously come to expect of myself. We are exposed to so many things that is challenging to decide where I should really dig deep.
With less than four months left in school, it is becoming apparent that we really do have to pick and choose our battles in the 12 month program. We have to decide what is important to our own personal goals and growth, focus on those goals and then, in turn, be ok without delivering 100% on everything else. It’s proven to be rather difficult for me as I’ve wanted to get the most out of this experience. I’m beginning to see that the end goal of being a T-shaped person, however desirable they be, is more difficult than first anticipated. Difficult not because of the requirement to be flexible and diverse, but difficult because there is a sense of falling short on a day to day basis. I was ready to pushed over this 12 month period, but I wasn’t ready to see that I couldn’t be the best at everything that was presented. Becoming a valuable T-shaped person is turning out to be more challenging than I first anticipated, not because of the need to dig deep in one area, but because of the realization that no matter how hard you try, you really can’t be the best at everything.
