I recently read a very insightful article by Austin, Texas-based consultant Julie Hunt, entitled “I have a confession to make: I am a Hybrid.” In it, she describes the importance of having people in key positions who are able to understand and manage collaborative efforts because they posses a number of complimentary skill sets.
Julie sums it up quite nicely:
Hybrid roles are intersection points for cross-team expertise, collaboration and communication. People in hybrid roles understand many different perspectives both internal and external to the company. The hybrid professional works to integrate multiple perspectives in work being done with multiple teams. Hybrids have real potential for broadly connecting the dots in new ways, to help company innovation and competitiveness.
The key here, is “to help company innovation and competitiveness.” This can apply to any company in any business. The race to remain competitive is critical, and companies need to grab on to what they can to stay ahead of their competitors.
From a marketing perspective, Scott Brinker refers to this when he talks about the Marketing Technologist, which I refered to in April in my article “Agile Teams Redux – The Marketing Technologist.” Indeed, Julie refers to this same article in her piece, noting that the Marketing Technologist is a great example of a hybrid role as she envisions it.
I’d like to bring in a similar perspective from another Austin-based writer, Chris Bailey, in an article he titled “Open Letter To Fellow Career Zigzaggers.” (Do you get the feeling there are a lot of very smart people in Austin, Texas? That’s because there are!) Chris refers to what Julie calls “hybrids” as “zigzaggers:”
My professional trajectory hasn’t been a straight line…more like a zigzag. This is both good and bad. The good? I possess a wealth of different experiences, skillsets, and knowledge. This diversity allows me to uncover patterns that many “straight line” professionals likely can’t see.
This is not to knock the people who specialize – not at all. There is a need for specialists who can solve specific problems. Those highly educated and skilled people bring very important knowledge to an organization. For example, you certainly don’t want an experienced and capable chef who might also draw well designing an automobile transmission. That’s best left to an engineer with expertise in the area of mechanical systems. Likewise, you don’t want that engineer who happens to know how to cook well taking out your appendix if that should become necessary.
An organization full of specialists is, sometimes, too fractured to see things from multiple perspectives. Someone with broad experience in several areas can bring a fresh perspective to situations and offer unique and eclectic solutions to problems which might otherwise be tossed around from group to group in a shotgun envelope with a note attached reading, “Not Our Department.”
No where is this more visible than at the crossing of Marketing and IT. As “traditional” marketing starts migrating towards online, plugged-in marketing, the hybrid “tech-savvy marketer” or the “marketing-savvy techie” is going to become critical to the organization’s success. Companies need to find those “hybrids” or “zigzaggers” and put them to good use. They will be glad they did.
photo credit: tonrulkens
{ 0 comments… add one now }
{ 2 trackbacks }