Being the only hybrid professional in a room full of experts. True story.
This is a true story.
A peculiar thing happened to me last week. I found myself as the lone hybrid professional in a room full of experts, and boy did it make me realize the power of hybrid professionals and why they must be included on teams.
I was asked to facilitate a retreat for a bunch of scientists, and I agreed happily. This was me in my Creative Disruptor identity, ready to challenge their assumptions and get them focused for the upcoming academic year. I wasn't there to teach them about hybrid professionals in the workforce, or so I thought.
By day two, things got heated.
We were sorting and sifting through strategic needs. There were issues surfacing around the branding and marketing of their department. Everyone complained about needing more funding. They lamented about not knowing the real problems their stakeholders cared about. They yearned for more time to focus on passion research. They surprised each other about work streams certain colleagues were unaware of. And, they wanted to become the leaders of a new field of research but couldn't agree on its definition.
We had our work cut out for us.
The moment my hat as a researcher of hybrid professional identity got ignited was when I heard someone say:
"We need to rebrand ourself and do a better job with marketing, but I don't know a darn thing about marketing. That's not my area. That's not what we're here to do."
The group nodded in unison and the complaints continued.
We were stuck.
Without someone who had marketing expertise in that moment, we were going to continue the unproductive cycle of woe is us.
That's when it hit me.
This is where a hybrid professional plays a critical role.
It's not enough to bring two different types of experts to a table and ask them to work things out. That's cross-disciplinarity at its finest. Each side only sees each other.
You actually need someone who has experience in both identities to truly understand and make sense of what's going on. That's a hybrid.
For instance, if a marketing and branding expert was sitting in that room with the scientists, they would have started a discussion and analyzed all the ways branding and marketing of the department could be improved.
Whereas, a hybrid professional who was one part scientist (with the same research background as their peers) and one part marketing and branding specialist would actually be able to get to the heart of the matter faster, more effectively, and more acutely.
The hybrid scientist/researcher/marketer would be able to do four important things:
Understand both sides of the issue more deeply than either alone. The hybrid has empathy for what a scientist experiences and for what a marketer experiences. From that compassion, they can feel why each side would be frustrated or confused. The hybrid quickly translates between the two worlds.
Ask questions differently from the marketing specialist or the scientist POV. A marketer would start with a certain set of inquiry questions to whittle down what's going on. The scientist doesn't even know what marketing things they're struggling with. They can't put it into words. However, the scientist/researcher/marketer can drill down fast and efficiently. They intimately sense the needs of both side, and as a result pinpoint more accurately where the messaging and branding are really falling short and why.
Break siloed thinking: Hybrids almost immediately hear flaws in thinking or assumptions being made and can shed light on it. Hybrids help experts break free from old beliefs and change trains of thought.
See missed opportunities and make relevant connections: A hybrid professional senses gaps of disciplinary knowledge between experts and what's being lost in translation. A hybrid can call attention to underlying issues the experts aren't perceiving or aren't able to perceive, and they can make it clearer to both sides.
I provide this list because this is exactly what I noticed I was doing.
I played a pivotal role in helping them remove blocks in their thinking and move their strategy forward because of my hybridity.
While I don't consider myself a scientist, my researcher identity is strong and my marketing identity (while not one of my primary identities, it is one of my secondary professional identities) is robust enough that I was able to ask poignant, relevant questions and give examples that made them question what was truly wrong with their branding and marketing. Ultimately, I recommended they work with their marketing team further, after I armed them with a list of what they really needed to discuss with their fellow marketers.
Concluding Thoughts
If this room had only been a room full of experts, my gut tells me they would not have been as productive. Experts of the same background are prone to perpetuating the same ways of doing things.
Hybrid professionals are necessary for playing between the lines and bringing fresh thinking across groups.
I'm convinced of that now more than ever.