Last year, I jumped into creating a podcast, This Multidisciplinary Life, off the back of an idea I’ve been mulling over for some time.
There’s a clue as to my thinking in the title: this life is multidisciplinary. And it’s only going to become more so.
I believe that to remain a valuable team member in an organisation—and to be influential in leading teams for the future—you’ll need a strong understanding of multidisciplinary teams (or MDTs for short). How and why they’re valuable. How to work in them. How to build them. How to help them thrive. And many, many other ideas I will continue to explore as the podcast evolves and grows.
Sure, there are, and always will be, exceptions. Life is full of them. But for now, I have a theory that the people who excel within a multidisciplinary team environment will outperform their peers over time. There are simply too many skills, behaviours, and human-specific attributes that make up the nuance and connection of MDTs for this not to be the case.
I’m not the only one who thinks this, either. The Harvard Business Review has published research looking at the comparative performance of multidisciplinary and homogenous teams in various organisations. MDTs come out on top, delivering more value and greater innovation than their counterparts.
As I began to read and think more about this idea, more and more questions popped up. Is there such thing as the best MDT in the world? If there is, why is it the best? What makes it tick? What are the ingredients of a high performing multidisciplinary team, and can we teach leaders how to find and foster these ingredients? Who else is working with MDTs? In what capacities? How? What are their experiences?
Naturally, these sorts of questions lend themselves to interesting conversations. Particularly when you’re chatting with prominent leaders in tech, risk, PR, and law—big-picture thinkers using MDTs to deliver big ideas and innovations around the world.
So, I’m on a bit of an expedition with this podcast. It’s a search. To find more of these people, and more of their teams. To find out whether there’s a multidisciplinary team that outperforms all others. If there is, what industry is it in? What disciplines are involved? And how did they get to where they are?
Season 1 of This Multidisciplinary Life has focused on the legal profession, largely because I’ve been researching this area of the sector since 2020 and I am totally inspired by people who are courageous enough to do things differently. The sector is going through immense change on several fronts, and I keep wondering whether multidisciplinary approaches will improve outcomes for clients and wellbeing for lawyers concurrently.
It’s taken courage to start this podcast, and a bit of a leap of faith. It’s also required me to release my grip on the publish button and trust the process. Ordinarily, I’m a very private person. I prefer to put others on the stage rather than take the limelight myself. My first real career ambition was to build my own record label – not be the performer, be the one behind the performer. But then CDs tanked and life showed me some other opportunities that I ran with.
I‘m a curious person by nature. I love listening to peoples’ stories and experiences – not the headline stuff that makes things go viral on social media. I’m interested in real people with everyday obstacles, opportunities, wins, and celebrations. When I started asking people if they’d share their story—especially the multidisciplinary side of their experience—I was grateful and excited that people said yes.
After the initial leap of faith, there’s a continued spring in my step: an enthusiasm and excitement to speak with more people, share more knowledge, and help build more impactful MDTs for more compelling work. Yes, I’m still a ball of nerves about whether the content is useful. But it’s only by making it will I find out.
I keep thinking of the children’s rhyme, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt…
…We’re goin’ on a bear hunt, we’re going to catch a big one…
Can’t go over it,
Can’t go under it,
Can’t go around it,
Got to go through it. …
Or for something a little more intellectual, Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations that, ‘The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Thank you to the guest speakers who contributed their incredibly valuable time and insight into Season 1. They were generous with their perspective, their stories, and their learning:
As Season 2 progresses, I find myself connecting with more big-thinkers and thought leaders from the legal sector and beyond, and I cannot wait to bring you more insight into high-performing MDTs.
Thanks for listening and watching – your attention means a lot.