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Adaptability, problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration – these buzzwords are everywhere, plastered across job postings and touted as the keys to success in the 21st century. In fact, if you asked a search engine for the top skills for the future, a wordcloud pebbledash from WEF, OECD and other suitably important acronymed associations would provide us this list, give or take. But how do we cultivate these so-called ‘coveted skills’ in a world that seems increasingly siloed?
For centuries, our education systems have neatly compartmentalised knowledge, dividing subjects like history, science, and literature into distinct boxes. This traditional approach might have made organisation and timetabling easier, but it doesn't reflect the interconnected nature of the real world, nor does it equip us with the well-rounded skillset employers desperately seek. And it’s not just education either.
I spoke with Richard Few from Sales Geek (shout out to the Geeks) who said that the most important thing that salespeople and marketing executives could do would be to talk to those from their opposite counterparts, even shadowing them to think holistically rather than just around their own job function. We have role descriptions and areas of responsibility, and probably blame other departments for what went wrong on our project, rather than considering how a workplace that values multi-modal abilities or broader inter-role connections might actually benefit everyone. In the weekly ‘stand-up’, how much attention do we really pay to those whose jobs we don’t care about?
Enter the revolutionary concept of interdisciplinarity. Here, the artificial barriers between subjects, or job roles, crumble, encouraging us to find connections, see the bigger picture, and tackle real-world problems from multiple perspectives.
Image Source: Midjourney: leonardo da vinci and elon musk chatting in a pub --ar 16:9
I am massively inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci, a man who defied categorisation. His insatiable curiosity spanned anatomy, engineering, and nature, all of which fueled his artistic genius. Today, innovators like Elon Musk draw on fields as diverse as engineering, design, and economics to tackle seemingly insurmountable challenges like space travel and clean energy. Their success stories are testaments to the power of breaking down disciplinary walls and fostering creative connections.
But the benefits of interdisciplinarity extend far beyond the halls of academia or the boardrooms of tech giants. It's a philosophy that equips us all with the tools to navigate an increasingly complex world.
According to Vikram Mansharamani, a lecturer at Harvard University, the key skill for future success is not a specific expertise, but rather a "type of thinking" - the ability to be a versatile generalist who can connect the dots across different domains.
Mansharamani argues that in the past, the conventional wisdom was that developing deep expertise in a particular field would lead to career advancement and higher earnings. However, he believes this approach is becoming less relevant in today's rapidly changing world. Instead, the ability to adapt, see interconnections, and apply a wide range of perspectives is becoming increasingly valuable.
Mansharamani cites the example of large tech companies like Google, which prioritise hiring smart generalists who can move between different teams and roles, over those with narrow, role-specific expertise. He advises young professionals to focus on gaining diverse experiences and developing strong analytical skills, rather than specialising too early in their careers.
The key, according to Mansharamani, is to broaden one's perspective by reading outside of one's industry, considering how unrelated developments may impact each other, and cultivating a versatile skillset. This type of thinking - being a generalist who can navigate ambiguity - is what will be most valuable in the uncertain future.
There is a great article from OC Tanner called, Rise of the Generalist, that starts with this paragraph:
"Most organisations need employees with knowledge, skills, and capabilities that span multiple disciplines. These people—widely known as generalists—bring to their work a broad range of experience, training, and thinking that make them well-suited to tackle the challenges of rapidly evolving workplaces. Yet despite the demand for generalists, these employees often feel unsupported in their development, unrecognised for their contributions, and disconnected from their workplace community. Organisations can help generalists by giving them chances to apply their strengths, opportunities to expand their skills, and integrated recognition that deepens their connection to purpose, accomplishment, and one another."
It shows even more why we need to consider going beyond just specialisms.
Interdisciplinarity then isn't just an academic concept - it's a mindset that can transform the way we approach problem-solving in all facets of life. If we take climate change, for instance, tackling this complex issue requires knowledge from climatologists, sure, but also insights from economists, policymakers, engineers, behavioural scientists, and even artists to inspire shifts in cultural narratives. By bridging these disparate fields, we can develop holistic solutions that address the multitude of factors at play.
Healthcare is another field where interdisciplinarity is quite literally a matter of life and death. An oncologist can prescribe chemotherapy, but collaborating with nutritionists, psychologists, and rehabilitation specialists ensures comprehensive care for cancer patients' physical and mental wellbeing. This synergistic approach leads to better outcomes and an enhanced quality of life. (In fact, another good friend of mine, Dan Theobalds, who is going through cancer treatment himself, is doing exactly that with his new organisation, The Cancer Bank.)
Even in our personal lives, interdisciplinary thinking can enrich our problem-solving abilities. If I am facing a challenge at work, drawing lessons from historical conflicts, psychological principles, and creative brainstorming techniques could spark innovative solutions. If I am planning a home renovation, combining architectural know-how (or a friend’s, anyway!) with principles of interior design and an understanding of what my family will do in the space can generate results in our spaces that are both beautiful and functional.
The possibilities are literally exponential when we open our minds to learning across disciplines. And fortunately, the 21st century has ushered in unprecedented access to knowledge from diverse domains. With a few taps on our devices, we can explore topics ranging from astrophysics to Zulu poetry, so we can traverse our own uniquely integrative paths to understanding.
One of my absolute favourite things to do is to record the Edufuturists podcast. As many of you know, I have been talking to people from all over the world for the last eight years about the future of education. One upcoming episode (sneak preview here!) is with Professor Carl Gombrich from London Interdisciplinary School. I say it on the pod but I so wish that this type of university existed when I was looking at options! There are a few things I want to pick out that Carl mentions about interdisciplinarity:
“There is some research actually, that people's mindsets get set quite early on at university if they just do one thing, because it's easier, cognitively easier to to think in that way. But they're missing out on all that kind of learning of adaptive, adaptability, resilience, being able to pivot, knowing yourself and how you learn best, and so on. So that's something that comes along with interdisciplinary learning as a really valuable life skill.”
It’s about mindset.
Not only that, he went on to say:
“We insist that the students take multiple disciplinary perspectives on those problems. So, if you're doing ‘inequality’, you might think, “Oh, this is an economics problem”. Actually, there's a lot of literature around the neuroscience of inequality, how deprivation leads to developmental retardation, sometimes if it's severe, then that becomes intergenerational.”
This is more important than just a set of hippies philosophising about the interconnectedness of all things. This has immense implications for human development.
Admittedly, interdisciplinarity requires stepping out of a comfort zone or six. It demands that we humble ourselves, acknowledge gaps in our expertise and remain curious enough to fill them. It's an iterative process of learning, unlearning, and relearning – an endless expedition fuelled by an intrepid intellectual spirit.
"The illiterate of the future are not those who can't read or write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler
But the rewards are immense. By cultivating this interdisciplinary mindset, we develop a powerful cognitive toolkit for innovative problem-solving. We learn to identify patterns across contexts, to extrapolate creative solutions from disparate fields of knowledge. We become translators of sorts, bridging different vocabularies and frameworks to uncover novel insights.
Moreover, interdisciplinary experiences foster empathy and collaboration – vital ingredients for addressing the complex, multifaceted challenges of our time. When we immerse ourselves in different perspectives, we cultivate a deeper appreciation for the nuances and interrelationships that shape our world. This expanded worldview equips us to work harmoniously across cultures, disciplines, and sectors towards common goals.
In many ways, interdisciplinarity is the antidote to the chronic societal siloisation plaguing us today. While social media algorithms and political polarisation often reinforce narrow echo chambers, interdisciplinary learning cracks these insular bubbles wide open. It is a disruptive force that dares us to transcend artificial boundaries and engage with the full scope of human knowledge and experience.
Of course, completely demolishing long standing disciplinary structures isn't realistic or even desirable. There's immense value in deep subject-matter expertise. I want my brain surgeon to have neurobiology nailed; I don’t want anyone with a vague medical background on that operation. But complementing that specialised insight with broadly integrative thinking is what unlocks exponential innovative potential. It's the difference between being the world's best hammer... and being an entire well-stocked toolbox ready to build bold new possibilities.
Image Source: Midjourney: cross pollination in the style of kandinsky--ar 16:9
My takeaway thoughts from conversations with brilliant minds on this very topic pretty much daily for the last 12 months would look something like this:
1. Curate diverse teams: When tackling complex challenges, intentionally build teams that bring together varied expertise, backgrounds, and ways of thinking to inject interdisciplinarity from the start. That doesn’t mean no specialisms; it means ensuring it’s not just a team of brilliant individuals.
2. Incentivise cross-pollination: Establish initiatives, events or platforms that actively encourage the sharing of ideas and insights across roles, departments or industries to spark innovative cross-connections. We are better together
3. Embrace beginner's mind: Cultivate a mindset of humility and curiosity by regularly exposing yourself to new fields, methodologies or worldviews outside your comfort zone. There is so much to learn when we get out of our own sandboxes.
4. Become a translator: Make it a practice to distil and translate complex concepts from one realm into terms/analogies that those in other domains can grasp, bridging gaps. This is huge - more on this to come, I think
5. Prototype Renaissance teams: Experiment with forming small, diverse squads with a shared mission but very different skills/knowledge bases that synthesise their perspectives.
The key is reframing interdisciplinary thinking not just as an educational approach, but as an essential way of working and living that unlocks innovation in any sphere.
As the world grows increasingly volatile and complex, the need for interdisciplinary problem-solvers has never been more pressing. Looming challenges like climate catastrophe, socioeconomic inequities, existential AI risks - these issues defy simplistic solutions constrained within a single framework. Tackling them demands a radical rethinking of how we synthesise knowledge and collaborate across domains.
I am inspired by polymaths like Da Vinci and Musk, daring to be interdisciplinary avant la lettre. They foster insatiable curiosity about the world around us, voraciously consuming knowledge and seeking connections where others see boundaries. I want to do the same. In doing so, we equip ourselves - and the next generation - with the cognitive elasticity to shape an uncertain future.
The path forward will not be easy - unlearning engrained ways of thinking and demolishing longstanding subject silos requires commitment and courage. However, the potential rewards are invaluable. By embracing interdisciplinarity as both a mindset and a way of working, we unlock exponential creativity and groundbreaking solutions to the most complex challenges we face. This is an urgent call to action for individuals, teams, organisations, and institutions alike: to transcend boundaries, integrate diverse perspectives, and catalyse the cross-pollination of ideas that will propel humanity towards an innovative, collaborative, and sustainable future. For in the end, the most ambitious innovations and lasting solutions transcend arbitrary divides. They emerge from the fertile intersections between art and science, philosophy and technology, tradition and radical reinvention. The walls between disciplines may have stood for centuries, but the 21st century belongs to those daring enough to tear them down.
Tear down the walls.
Further Reading
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