Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart! (Confucius)

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Let men be wise by instinct if they can, but when this fails be wise by good advice. - - Sophocles, Antigone

What Friedman had to say was this:  Specialists generally have deep skills and narrow scope, giving them expertise that is recognized by their peers but seldom valued outside their immediate domain.  Generalists have shallow skills and broad scope and in today's world that allows them to collaborate effectively across organizational (and/or global) boundaries, but they are unlikely to be recognized with confidence by their peers or customers.

I agree.  Having begun my career in the early 1980's as a specialist in Information Technology; I grew into a versatilist as I took on roles with larger cross-functional areas of responsibility without giving up the depth of my abilities.  I believe the key to my ultimate success as an executive leader in a global enterprise eventually came through my ability to operate as a true versatilist by the late 1990's.  By then, I applied my depth of skill to the growing demands of corporate mergers-acquisitions ( i.e. a progressively widening scope of situations); gaining experience, expanding my core competency skills, garnering multi-level organizational relationships, and taking on new roles such as business liaison.

By the way, these things don't happen over night and they don't happen in a vacuum.  My career success was nurtured and supported by exceptional leaders in a mature organization that invested great resources (money and time) to developing its management and leadership teams.  It was a company "ahead of its time" in developing its workforce and I believe they are poised to thrive during the upcoming workforce challenges (boomers retiring, etc.).

Creating teams of versatilists will benefit individuals and companies.  Becoming a versatilist will increase your value as an individual contributor in the global economy.  Developing versatilists will help companies whose organizations are flat, have tightening budgets and fewer people get the most out of their limited resources in a sustainable approach benefiting everyone.

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Last modified: 08/18/08