hyper-specialization is not always the right thing to do
People and companies tend to hyper-specialize - getting to know more and more about less and less. While this Cartesian-based view of the world may have had it’s benefits in the past, it is full of dangers as we move forward.
First off, hyper-specialization may very well stand in the way of breakthrough innovation. Indeed, most breakthrough innovations happen not at one level of specialization - but they increasingly happen at the confluence of multiple disciplines. People who have the capacity to scan across multiple businesses or vast amounts of information, and who can translate innovations from one field to the next are as likely, if not more, to come up with breakthrough innovations as the specialists.
Which brings up another important negative side effect of hyper-specialization. Hyper specialists know very much about very little - which means that they do not understand what happens in adjacent spaces. What should be valuable information coming from other sources within the company or markets now looks like data - with no meaning, nor the ability to influence the hyper-specialists’ work. Worse, in hyper-specialized environments, you could conceive that the hyper-specialists will not understand the impact of their actions on the broader picture - which can have especially dire consequences when it comes down to environmental impact of innovation.
Even at a more fundamental level, hyper-specialization can have severe drawbacks for companies. For example, saying that you can never bring an inside sales rep outside because he or she needs a totally different skill set to succeed outside may lead to overall company moral issues that far outweigh the benefits of honing someone’s skill sets in one area of expertise only.
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March 7th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Hyper-specialization, from a managing your career point of view, may not always be the best bet either. There is more chance that another innovation (whether it be technology, globalization, etc.) could come along and trump/takeover your hyper-specialization.
March 7th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
Hyper-specialists are great at accomplishing specific tasks over and over and over again. Like the guy whose job it is to measure pickles before they end up in the jar (don’t laugh, there is such a job), or the lady who calibrates the machine press at the urinal cake factory every morning (again, a real job). Hyper-specialization is great when you’re a technician, but terrible if you’re a manager… and absolutely the kiss of death when you’re a business leader. I’ve seen way too many businesses sunk because their President was solely a finance guy or an engineer. It’s sad.
You’re 100% right about the need to be able to translate innovation from one industry to another. True innovation is very rare - but functional innovation is really pretty simple once you understand that the broader the scope of your experiences, the more likely you are to design something great.
Very cool post (and image).
March 8th, 2006 at 8:09 am
Regina and Olivier - that you very much for the comments. I agree that there are other drawbacks to hyper specialization than the ones I mentioned.
In a way, I wonder if ethical problems like the ones we have suffered in the past few years can be partially attributed to hyper-specialization. If everything outside their field of interest is data - instead of knowledge or wisdom - then that could explain their inability to interpret certain things in an ethical context.
Maybe that is going too far…
March 14th, 2006 at 6:46 am
Unfortunately, hyper-specialization doesn’t lead to hyper-innovation
In a post called “Broaden Your Experience,” Olivier Blanchard of the BrandBuilder blog makes the case that innovative companies should be looking to hire highly-skilled generalists, not specialists. In fact, as Francois Gossieaux pointed out recently, …
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:33 pm
More feedback on Hyoerspecialization and innovation
Last week’s post on hyperspcialization drew quite an interesting discussion, which is being summarized here. Olivier Blanchard over at the BrandBuilder blog picks up the conversation and adds a lot of interesting examples of how a broader background ma…
January 27th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
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