MULTIPOTENTIALITES
A "MULTIPOTENTIALITE" is like a Polymath or like a "Renaissance person".
In that period it was considered to be an ideal to be well versed in "multiple disciplines".
Whereas nowadays people are more expected to find "the calling of their life" and become a "specialist" and stick to it.
But what if you're not wired like that? ...
MULTIPOTENTIALITES have 3 SUPER POWERS.
1st SUPER POWER:
IDEA SYNTHESIS
Idea synthesis is combining two fields and creating something new at the intersection.
Innovation happens at the intersection of skills and experiences.
Where the Eclectic mix of skills and experiences meet… a new creation is born.
And "multipotentialites" with all there backgrounds are able to acces a lot of these points of intersection.
2nd SUPER POWER:
RAPID LEARNING
Our advantage…
When we become interested in something… we go hard, we absorb everything we can get our hands on.
We're also used to being beginners, because we have been beginners so many times in the past and this means we are less afraid of trying new things and stepping out of our comfort zones.
What's more many skills are transferable across disciplines and we bring everything we've learned to every new area we persue, so we're rarely starting from scratch.
3rd SUPER POWER:
ADAPTABILITY
That is the ability to morf in to whatever you need to be in a given situation. (being a bit of a cameleon)
It makes us valuable because we can take on various roles, depending on our clients needs.
Fast Company Magazine identified "Adaptability" as the single most important skill to develop in order to thrive in the 21st century.
It are the individuals and organisations that can pivot in order to meet the needs of the market, that are really going to thrive.
Three skills that Multipotentialites are very adept at, and
three skills that they might lose if pressured to narrow their focus.
We should incourage Multipotentialites to be themselves, we have a lot of complex multidimentional problems in the world right now and we need creative "out of the box thinkers" to tackle them.
If you are a specialist, you are o.k. to :D in fact some of the best teams are comprised of;
a specialist and a Multipotentialite paired together.
The specialist can dive in deep and implement ideas, while the Multipotentialites bring their breath of knowledge to the project. It is a beautiful partnership.
We should all be designing lives and careers that are alined with how we are wired but sadly Multipotentialites are largely encouraged to be more like their specialist peers.
This is a short transcript from a TED-Talk by Emilie Wapnick
EMBRACE YOUR INNER WIRING, whatever that may be.
If you're a SPECIALIST at heart, then by all means "specialise!", that is where you'll all do your best work.
But to the Multipotentialites I say: embrace your many passions, follow your curiosity down those rabitholes, explore your intersections!
EMBRACING OUR INNER WIRING
leads to a happier more authentic life.
MULTIPOTENTIALITES ... THE WORLD NEEDS YOU !!!
