Do you embrace a “flux-forward mindset”?

Just reading that question got my acid reflux going, so it’s a dyspeptic no from me.

But that’s the question at the heart of this McKinsey report, which features this handy visual:

And it got me thinking. Not so much about the specifics of these ideas - you’ll grasp those in a nano-second.

I recall, back in my caged existence (an air-conditioned office with free snacks), that the above visual provided the basis for what passed for deep conversation.

Client service-y types would ponder how to go from being an “I” to being a “T”, and I’d think they had already made the journey, picking up a “D”, another “I”, and an “O” on the way.

When discussing the “T”, they’d make a “T” shape with their hands in case you hadn’t met the alphabet yet.

My only regret is that I fled before management thinking added the Pi-shaped and X-shaped skills profiles. Oh, to have seen them contort themselves.

So why are we here? Just for me to mock these imaginary adversaries? (The real subjects weren’t that bad, but they serve a humorous purpose as avatars.)

Not quite.

You see, there is a kernel of truth in these ideas. These shapes aren’t a roadmap, but they do reflect our changing circumstances.

It is true that the boundaries between industries and disciplines are dissolving, and that it is helpful to develop interrelated areas of knowledge.

I have certainly found this since starting out on my own four (!) years ago. As this week’s introduction helpfully shows, I do work in a lot of different capacities each week. Data analysis, strategy, writing, marketing, sales, coding, and so on.

When I started out, I spoke to a freelance writer friend who asked me how I found the transition between writing research reports and writing opinion pieces within the same day. See, I would analyse the data and write the analysis in mornings, then move to more expansive pieces in the afternoon.

I didn’t even really grasp the point of the question. Writing is writing, right? I was tired all the time, but welcome to the 21st century.

And he (much more experienced and wise than I) suggested it might take a mental toll to make that transition all the time. He wasn’t suggesting it was a great hardship, just a minor aspect of the freelance reality that I hadn’t considered.

I have since added many other types of work and I suppose, I’m pretty “X”-y these days.

You’ll have noticed (you noticed, right?) the lack of hi, tech. editions lately. You can blame holidays and a number of unfortunate bouts of sickness on my part, but also blame the “X”.

I’ve been working on a number of large projects that require complex (for me, anyway) statistics and coding work. To shift from that mindset to the picaresque stylings of this newsletter is not quite as easy as flicking a switch. I need to get into character and if I came here with my maths hat on, it’d be a different place altogether. You wouldn’t be laughing, that’s for sure.

You probably learnt all of this many years ago; it has taken me until now to realise that maybe, you can’t do everything every single week.

Anyway, I was at the symphony recently.

I figured that going to see Beethoven’s pastoral symphony the night before going on a stag do in rural Somerset would be the perfect amuse-bouche for the jollity to come.

I was wrong, but it was still an agreeable evening. It was still an agreeable stag do; just in a different, Dionysian sense.

The conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, came out before the kick-off and talked about the upcoming tune for a good half hour or so.

He said that Beethoven worked on two symphonies concurrently: his fifth and sixth.

He would switch between working on these two symphonies, seemingly at will. Both sat on his desk and he would pick up whichever he felt like working on at that moment.

They are two remarkably different pieces of work, but Beethoven saw them as two sides of the same coin. They complemented each other in his mind.

Am I comparing Beethoven’s symphonies to those blog posts I wrote the other week? No, that would be crass - I can’t say that about myself. I’ll leave it up to you. 😏

Using two Beethovens (one dog, one man), I have tried to place myself on what I’m calling the “Sagacity Spectrum”:

I had put myself a little closer to the middle until I read about the Beethoven movie on Wikipedia. I haven’t seen it and assumed the dog just lies around, based on his slovenly appearance. But it turns out he scares off bullies and stuff, which I’d never even consider doing.

If you think I’m being harsh on myself, I’ll put it this way: How long would it have taken you to make that visual? 10 minutes, max? Took me 70. Case closed. 

My point, if I have one, is that it’s fine to suggest everyone should develop these X-shaped skills profiles. It’s great to set up learning opportunities so they can build those skills.

But have we also set up the infrastructure to support a work force that is expected to work through the full range of mental modes on a weekly basis?

Or will we keep filling up calendars, seeing open spaces as land ready to be conquered with more tasks?

After four years, I am still struggling to set up my weeks so that I can effectively work across a number of disciplines. I can’t break up my days into self-contained, hour-long sections between which I switch mechanically from detailed analysis to long-term strategy.

At least I have some options to try and adjust that schedule, but if others are expected to fulfil a similarly wide-ranging set of activities within a company, we need a deeper understanding of what this X-shaped profile means in practice.

It really isn’t as simple as flicking a switch. Even Beethoven (man, not dog) had his mental limitations.