Lynda Gratton, a researcher of organization theory, advocated the concept of “serial mastery” in his book “Work Shift”. (*18)
People who do not have expertise are disadvantageous in that they can not appeal when changing jobs. In the era when the long-term employment system fluctuates (*18-2), you need to improve your expertise in preparation for future career change. On the other hand, it is difficult to predict what kind of expertise will have value in the future in times of intense change. So, it is highly risky to focus on one specialty field. How can we mediate these two requests that are not compatible at first glance?
To this question Lynda Gratton proposed a serial mastery strategy. It is a strategy of acquiring expertise in a certain field, taking advantage of its expertise to enter different fields, and acquiring new expertise there.
We will build a standpoint of excellence by the first expertise, obtain harvest from that position, and invest it in acquiring the second expertise. In other words, it can be said that it is a blend of an expansion reproduction strategy and a strategy aiming for excellence.
This is not a special strategy. For example, it can be said that those who “have graduated from the master’s degree but do not continue their research on master’s thesis but are woking as an engineer in a company” are already adopting this strategy. By acquiring the first expertise through research at the university, we have got a master’s degree, and finding employment by taking advantage of it, we are now fostering a second expertise by working as an engineer.
How much expertise should you gain and advance to the next field? This depends on the environment in which you are located, so I can not say it unconditionally. Let’s recall what kind of situations the “knowledge of two peaks” is useful. In the case where both field X and field Y knowledge is required, a person who has both sides is required rather than one with a high level of expertise.
*18: An entrepreneur who starts a business, grows it to a certain extent, and then leaves and starts again is called a “serial entrepreneur. The term “serial” is also used with a similar nuance.
*18-2: It was first written for Japanese readers. I think additional information is needed for non-Japanese readers. Long-term employment, such as employees belong only one company in their life, was common in Japan after 1920s. This system gradually changing in these days.