Defining the breadth of skills of T-shaped people

As Tim Brown's describes it, "T-shaped people have two kinds of characteristics, hence the use of the letter “T” to describe them. 


The vertical stroke of the “T” is a depth of skill that allows them to contribute to the creative process. That can be from any number of different fields: an industrial designer, an architect, a social scientist, a business specialist or a mechanical engineer. 


The horizontal stroke of the “T” is the disposition for collaboration across disciplines. It is composed of two things. First, empathy. It’s important because it allows people to imagine the problem from another perspective- to stand in somebody else’s shoes. Second, they tend to get very enthusiastic about other people’s disciplines, to the point that they may actually start to practice them. T-shaped people have both depth and breadth in their skills."

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) and the University of Phoenix Research Institute have teamed up to define what will these skills be in 2020. The report called "Future Work Skills 2020" is very concise and beautifully streamlines the drivers of change that will impact the workplace and the ten skills necessary for the future workforce to thrive:

• Sense-making
• Social intelligence
• Novel and adaptive thinking
• Cross-cultural competency
• Computational thinking
• New-media literacy
• Transdisciplinarity
• Design mindset
• Cognitive load management
• Virtual collaboration

All in all, a fantastic work demonstrating great foresight and sense-making.



See also: "The 10 knowledge areas problem solvers need to be knowledgeable about"

Photo credit: David Garcia Studio, Circular Walking Bookshelf