Whitespace: Hyperspecialisation - when everyone's an expert

Issue 76: August 2011

In Outliers: The Story of Success author Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes 10,000 hours of practice in one particular activity to become an expert capable of producing an exceptional leadership legacy, iconic product or industry-leading new process.

But is it possible to become an expert when multitasking and generalised skill sets are characteristics of so many job roles? A recent Harvard Business Review article entitled 'The Age of Hyperspecialisation' argues the answer is yes.

Authors Thomas Malone, Robert Laubacher and Tammy Johns claim we are moving towards a new commercial reality in which knowledge workers will increasingly focus on one hyperspecialist area in a bid to bolster the quality, speed and return on investment of their efforts.

The new division of labour

Hyperspecialisation describes the process of breaking information technology and communication related work performed by one person into highly specialised pieces that are completed by several people; an intensified division of labour that's relevant to both high and low value tasks.

To appreciate the benefits of hyperspecialisation, think about your working life for a moment. Did you spend too much time finessing a PowerPoint presentation last week? Chew up a morning researching an upcoming speech? Or did you even complete some form of basic data entry?

All of these jobs may be important but are ultimately low value specialist tasks that could be completed faster and perhaps better by someone else. Delegating these micro-tasks to either an external or eternal worker means you can concentrate on your own high value work.

Breaking it down

A diverse array of freelance services is emerging to support the trend. Mechanical Turk connects organisations to an eclectic range of specialists including experts who choose the best among photographs of a shop front, write product descriptions or identify performers on music CDs.

With a line-up of 3.7million specialists, the Australian based Freelancer site offers gun-for-hire creatives, engineering, researchers and software programmers. Another popular micro-task service is CastingWords, which turns audio files into text documents within 24 hours.

And while innovation should be part of every organisation's DNA, a little help from the wisdom of many can make the process more creative and efficient. InnoCentive, a firm that hosts online research and innovation competitions, offers an example of hyperspecialisation in this space.

Specialists, inside and out

Hyperspecialisation isn't just about outsourcing, it's also about delegating and specialising within an organisation with employees focusing on areas of expertise. This already happens in IT with specialists in design, coding and testing all working separately on the same software project.

It's claimed micro-tasking translates to all knowledge work areas from engineering to marketing, admin to sales. The idea is that workers build up as much knowledge as possible in one area and in turn innovate as only someone with an intense understanding of a problem or process can.

Workplace benefits that may result from the hyperspecialist trend include the ability for workers to complete job tasks when they want and from a location of their choosing – conditions that should prove enticing to older employees or working parents.

A new type of management

Hyperspecialisation is a seismic shift that requires new management approaches. For the process to work managers must oversee the deconstruction of knowledge work, establish checks to evaluate quality and make sure the pieces are integrated correctly.

There are, of course, many pitfalls to consider. Organisations need to ensure workers, especially those in the developing world, aren't exploited. Confidential information must be carefully tracked. And fostering a sense of community amongst a diverse workforce may not be an easy task.

Clearly hyperspecialisation is new paradigm with inherent issues. But as an antidote to the constant distraction of low value tasks and the dangers of knowledge workers spreading themselves too thinly across a range of areas, it's a model that's worth investigating.

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