Master of the Inbetween

Recently, in trying to describe what I really do well, I’ve started playing with the term ‘inbetweenist.’ I have varied interestests and a wide skill set in facilitation and communication. I started coming to the idea of inbetweenist because no matter how I tried to pinpoint where I fit professionally, it’s always in between.

Over the past decade I’ve come to discover that rather than ‘not fitting’ into any particular slot, I am the in between. Like antimatter (?) Maybe? I’m not sure. That’s why I’m still working on how best to describe the idea.

If you think of a board with pegs, I tend to be the spaces in between that help the pegs make whatever shape or design they represent.

I’m a facilitator. I help others (in whatever form they happen to take) work better together. In between the fuzzy, undefined ideas and the known, visible, malleable ideas.

An amplifier. I listen well and tell the story back to help the source-hearer have a clearer understanding.

Synthesizer. Conductor. I love the beginnings of things. The ideas. The big picture strategy. Defining and refining the problem, catalytic questions, potential solutions, and plans.

The production and implementation, I am happy to let others organize and implement. I monitor progress. I check in. I encourage. But I prefer to get out of the way early on and let ‘professional doers’ take over the details.

I prefer to travel between the ‘silos’ rather than manage one of them.