The Age of the Generalist

For our Stories series, we’ve interviewed a lot of talent. For the most part, we’ve asked a lot of questions about their creative and personal journeys, but also about the wider context of working in 2023 and what that entails.

To be frank, it doesn’t sound like the best environment to be in. Many cited some form of brutal rejection at some point in their career, most talked about having to be “resilient” in order to get ahead and in general it all sounded a bit more like what you’d expect from the wartime Somme than peacetime Shoreditch.

It makes sense. Much of the workforce has emerged from crisis after crisis more battered and bruised than the last. To add insult to injury, a prevailing thought that percolated throughout our conversations time and time again was that these days you can’t just be good at one thing, you have to be good at everything.

As one creative duo recently told us: "The days are gone when you could do one thing well, now you have to do several things really well."

It’s a fair assessment, and one which reflects the times we live in. Today you can’t just be a designer you also need to know motion. To copywrite, you need to be able to write long form, short form and social copy (and everything in between). Personal assistants are more often than not also office managers in disguise — or vice versa.

The list goes on, and with the arrival of Artificial Intelligence on the scene, this amalgamation of roles is set to only blur further — and faster. However, this may not be as bad as it sounds. For starters, it has been a long time coming, and fortunately the creative industry is one that is best place to adapt to these changing tides. The key, as always, is the industry’s abundance in creativity.

I remember the World Economic Forum warning as far back as 2015 that creative thinking was the most important skill to be developing and in this year’s report, the WEF still placed it in the top three. In fact, it was only analytical thinking topped creative thinking this year, with expectations placing it back in the top spot by 2027.

It makes sense. Creativity is the ability to solve a puzzle, and in a puzzling world, such a skill or mindset is crucial. Creative minds are also steeped in curiosity, and so inevitably a curious and adaptable person is well placed in a world that is in a state of flux.

That is because in times of uncertainty and transition, adaptability is the name of the game. With technological, economic, and social changes arriving at warp speed, those who thrive will be the professional generalists — possessing competencies across multiple disciplines and who can nimbly shift gears as needed.

Versatility provides you with options. In turbulence, those with specialised skillsets may feel constrained, whereas generalists can pivot on a dime towards the new opportunities opening up. Today's uncertain environment requires being competent at many things, not just one.

That is not to say that to survive today one must be average at everything. Instead, it is about being open to anything. This is about raising the blinkers of siloed thinking and approaching your career with a more open mindset.

The dividends for those who have done this are already occurring. Already, we are seeing people seize the opportunities presented by the current AI disruption. Designers are now bringing their images to life through copy in Midjourney. Content creators with no VFX skills are creating CGI short films from scratch. Synthography — the ability to wrangle stable-diffusion models — is now a job.

Cross-pollination sparks creativity and as history shows that innovation often happens at the intersection of diverse domains. During the Renaissance, polymaths like Leonardo da Vinci brought together art, engineering, anatomy, and optics. When we step outside silos, combining disparate perspectives and approaches, it sparks outside-the-box thinking. This time will be no different.

The Medici Effect, as it’s known, is the idea that innovation and creativity flourish when diverse ideas, disciplines, cultures, and fields intersect. Diversity was and always has been the secret to success, and the same holds true today not only in terms of talent but also in terms of skillsets.

As machine learning enters more arenas, professionals adept in both technical and creative fields will have an edge. Here in the UK there was a push to create a “generation of coders” — a dull vision of the future if I’d ever heard one — now that generative AI is expected to be doing as much as 80% of coding, creatives can bring more a human—centered sensibility into developing AI solutions. As careers blend science and design, logic and emotion, left-brain and right-brain, innovation will result.

As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Tough times force ingenuity, propelling those with diverse skillsets to combine approaches in unexpected ways. Current disruptions will do the same, but the opportunities will accrue to those broad-minded creatives ready to explore uncharted territory.

For candidates, this involves following your interests far and wide. For agencies, this entails preparing your talent for the times ahead. Just as investors mitigate risk through diversification, individuals and businesses should build varied portfolios spanning both vocations and avocations. In the land of the disruption, the generalist is Queen.

And, at the end of the day, this is not an idea plucked out of thin air. Almost every culture across the globe has sayings pertaining to this truth. I watched the Daoist-laden Stalker  (1979) the other day and one quote stood out: “All living things including trees and plants are flexible and fragile while alive; When dead, they become dry, withered and rotten.”

The lesson here is this: don’t be too withered and don’t be too rotten. Be more flexible, be more fluid, be more of a generalist. Now is the time.

If you want to keep your talent up to speed Generative AI get in touch with REDSOFA Strategy today. We offer talks, guides, and workshops to help you stay up to date with the creative opportunities presented by AI.