What do I do?

A common enough question, but one I struggle to answer. When asked recently for a job title or description I flipantly wrote “google me”. Strangely I now have no title.

I believe that I’m not alone in this loose definition of self, in terms of work. I aspire to fluidity and therefore would rather not define myself, either in work or otherwise. Fluidity and no definition means that I can adopt role and function as and where necessary. To define oneself is to limit growth and change. So what do I do?

I identify where I can be of most value and act accordingly. I see what needs to be done and do it, or find someone else to do it.

What I do vs what I can do is an important distinction, I can do a lot, I could still do more, but if I needed to learn how to do it, I’m confident I could.

More recently I have found myself adopting the following roles:

Clarifier – I listen to long conversations and dialogues and then relay exactly what everybody is trying to say. I distill information into a pure and understandable form and translate between parties. I take the time to understand the geeks, geniuses and those so intelligent that others struggle to understand them.

Enabler – I identify what needs to happen for someone to achieve what they are setting out to do and either take action or assign action and make sure it happens. I unblock obstacles to flow to help get stuff done and maintain energy and passion.

Moderator – Ensuring that everybody gets to make their point (or someone else gets to make it for them)

Connector – Linking ideas, thoughts, people and projects

Designer for Humans – I work with whatever technology is best suited to solve a particular challenge. I do it from a Human perspective – ie. our social as well as physical selves, humans are far more than ergonomic factors. Separate blog post to follow.

Muse – A challenging role, people have to adopt ideas they feel passionately about, and they have to take ownership of it. You can’t give people ideas, they have to take them, want them, desire them, if they are not in love with it then it not succeed. They may love it for different reasons.

Social hacker – I hack social situations, change physical spaces, change behaviors, create permission to behave differently

Catalyst – I like to boost people, accelerate their advancement and those of their ideas, the faster people become self reliant and confident, the quicker you are not needed which leads me to the final role.

Redundancy designer – I aim to make my self unnecessary, I aim to reduce work, not increase it, so we can all spend more time playing. I can do the same for you.

So what’s my job title? Water? Fire? Earth? Air? Human?

Today I’m Jay, and tomorrow i’ll be Jay, but Jay will never be the same.

These roles are merely behaviors I adopt when necessary, behaviors are transferable, if you want to adopt some let me know.

Thanks to @villum for prompting this brain dump.