Two weeks ago, we discussed how being an expert can limit your creativity. We learned that we need to become a “T-Shaped Person” who combines deep specialized domain knowledge with broad general knowledge. When we need to come up with creative solutions for our business challenges, we can then “connect the dots” like Apple’s Steve Jobs and combine unrelated fields to a novel solution. Today, let’s look at four concrete action strategies to upgrade you from being an expert to a creative T-Shaped Businessperson.

Tip 1. Find more dots by doing a T-Shape Audit

Get yourself a large blank piece of paper (at least A4-size). Print the letter T into the middle of the page, and write onto the vertical line “Special Expertise” and on the horizontal upper line “General Knowledge, Skills & Experience Repertoire.” Now first list next to the vertical line all the knowledge, skills, degrees, professional roles, etc. that you have in your area of special expertise — the more, the better. These are your “core” assets that have made you a successful professional, but they will turn into a liability for your creativity when you only focus on them.

Therefore, take a lot of time to list on top of the vertical line all your “assets” outside your field of specialization: general knowledge that you have gained or studied before; general skills that you acquired before; hobbies that you’ve practiced before; countries you have visited or lived in; and any other special human experiences or moments that stand out in your memory.

For example, I am an academic expert and business practitioner in Business Creativity and Innovation (my specialized knowledge domain). And I am also a former corporate banker, army lieutenant, Ph.D. student, school pupil, semi-pro runner and DJ. I am multi-skilled in various languages, sports, and crafts, have lived and worked in 5 countries and traveled to nearly 50 countries, and had a number of unique experiences and moments in my life (all of which constitute my General Knowledge, Skills and Experience Repertoire).

Tip 2. Analyze the dots in your T-Shape Profile

Spend some time to look at the results of your personal “T-Shape Audit.” Probably, you will notice two things:

1. You have acquired a lot of knowledge, skills and experiences in your life, but you have completely forgotten about these “dots” because of your exclusive focus on your expert domain.

2. On the vertical line of the T, there are some “white spots” of things that you have always wanted to do or learn about, but have never managed to find time to realize these “dreams.” And you are likely to also have listed some things here that you have always enjoyed doing but totally neglected in recent years.

The first insight is very valuable — it means that you already have many dots that you can connect to generate ideas and solutions for your business challenges (I tell you how in Tip 3). The second insight is a call for action (we’ll address this in Tip 4).

Tip 3. Connect the dots to spark off solutions

When you work on a tough business problem or pursue an innovation challenge (in your area of specialization), you can use your General Knowledge, Skills and Experience Reservoir as inspiration to stimulate novel, original ideas and solutions. In Steve Jobs’ words, you connect some dots between your specialized and general knowledge base and combine the dots into a meaningful idea for your challenge. Alternatively, you may adopt or adapt a general principle to create a unique solution for a problem in your area of specialization.

While developing my unique Business Creativity methodology and courses, I regularly resolved some tough conceptual problems with ideas that resulted from connecting my domain expertise Business Creativity with some principles from my rich general knowledge repertoire. For example, our unique THINKERGY Idea Circuit combines Ideation Expertise (Special Knowledge) with physiological principles of circuit training (from my former experiences and skills as a semi-pro track runner). Moreover, in our THINKERGY workshops, we play different types of music to stimulate certain types of thinking and to infuse or take out energy, which is based on insights and experiences that I gained during my years as a DJ.

Tip 4. Take actions to acquire more dots to connect

Boost the upper line of your T by answering — and acting on — the following questions:

• What new area of knowledge do you want to explore that you have neglected so far? What interesting book outside your expert domain could you read in the coming months?

• What new skill can you learn? What new courses or seminars outside your area of specialization are you interested in?

• What new organization outside your expert domain could you join to widen your skills and contact base?

• What country or place that you have never visited do you want to travel to next year?

• What human experience do you want to live through that has been on your mind for some time?

• What persons would you be interested in meeting to benefit from their wisdom and experience?

Conclusion: “In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists,” noted Eric Hoffer. Become a lifelong learner. But make sure that you also collect dots outside the “expert tunnel” by adhering to Mahatma Gandhi’s advice: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2009. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the same title on 22 October 2009.