The Oddball debt

Following on from my post over on Linkedin today check that out first.

Careers follow a straight line. Mine? It’s been anything but linear.

I’ve spent my professional life in various corners of HR/L&D/EX. What I found was an industry clinging to outdated practices, repackaging old ideas and calling them “innovation.” HR wasn’t just broken; it was a relic of the past. I knew I had to do things differently, to break the mould and drive genuine change. But I wasn’t prepared for how challenging that would make my career journey. The below is a lot of my lived experience but also insight that other folks have shared with me.

We Hire According to Job Descriptions but Expect Innovation

Companies love to shout about “innovation,” but when it comes time to hire, they dust off job descriptions from decades ago. They look for people who fit neatly into predefined roles yet expect these same individuals to think outside the box and drive change. It’s a contradiction that stifles true innovation.

They want something that ticks their bias but acts and thinks like an oddball

I’ve lived this paradox. I am a proud oddball, and I’ve held roles defined by a narrow set of responsibilities, even though my skill set extends far beyond. I have led teams, built and scaled employee experience initiatives, spearheaded new business innovation, and driven new people products—you name it. But because I don’t fit a traditional job title, I’m often overlooked for opportunities where I could make a real difference.

Challenging the Status Quo

When I started questioning the norms—asking why we do things the way we do—I didn’t receive applause. I met resistance. People were uncomfortable when I pushed boundaries. The roles I was assigned felt too small, too restrictive. They couldn’t contain what I brought to the table. They weren’t designed for someone like me.

Over the years, I’ve heard comments like:

- “I didn’t realise how much of the work was yours; your boss hid that.”

- “I could place you in so many different roles here.”

- “How did I not know you could do this?”

- “We only used like 10% of what you can do.”

- “I thought your boss was responsible for that work.”

These remarks might seem flattering, but they highlight how my contributions were often hidden, underestimated, or ignored. It wasn’t just about feeling underappreciated or hidden in a cupboard somewhere; it was about being forced into a box that was far too small for my capabilities because the system was too rigid. This frustration isn’t just felt by me, but by many oddball or multidisciplinary folks out there.

Fearful Leaders

Too many leaders are more interested in protecting their turf than driving real progress. They fear change, worry about being outshone, and sometimes take credit for work that’s not theirs. But it goes deeper. By keeping my contributions in the shadows, they maintain control. They can present my work as their own, manipulate the narrative, and keep power dynamics skewed in their favour. It’s not just frustrating—it’s demoralising.

This isn’t just me; one of my best leaders I have ever said said she had the same experience, where her manager kept her and the work she did as a secret. The issue is many of these great leaders who could break this approach rarely get to reach their full potential and make it to the top to drive the change needed.

These experiences highlight a fundamental problem: leadership that’s more focused on maintaining the status quo than recognising and leveraging the full potential of their teams. It’s also the reason why the Peter Principle is a real thing across nearly all organisations.

Oddballs Don’t Fit a Traditional Role Title—and That’s a Good Thing

I’m not just a “People Product Designer” or a “Strategist.” I connect dots, bridge gaps, and drive change across multiple areas. I move HR functions from the typical traditional approach to an agile people product function. I can take on roles in audience and customer research, employee experience, HR transformation, innovation—you get the idea. But because I don’t fit into a neat job title, organisations struggle to see where I or other oddballs belong.

Networking becomes a grind because we don’t fit neatly into any one box or group. Crafting CVs or a LinkedIn profile feels like a nightmare—do we showcase the full breadth of our experience or narrow it down to fit a specific role? Either way, we end up losing out.

I’ve even created three different CVs, each tailored to a specific area of my expertise: Customer Experience (CX), Employee Experience (EX), and Innovation & Transformation. Each highlights different aspects of my skills and achievements, but even then, I’m forced to segment my abilities into categories that don’t fully capture what I offer. It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I even asked ChatGPT, based on my diverse skill set, to share with me the role I would be a great fit for. Here’s what it suggested:

• Chief Experience Officer (CXO)I understand why GPT suggested this. I excel in designing and implementing employee and customer experiences, scaling teams, and transforming HR. A lot of the work I do involves mapping end-to-end journeys, implementing true experience design, and connecting all this to the vision and mission of the organisation.

• Head of Innovation and StrategyThis would make sense due to my experience and strengths in design thinking, adaptive strategy design, business model development, and audience insight make me a good fit. This, with my background in workshopping and driving innovation capabilities, incubation, experimentation, would make for a great fit.

• HR Transformation ConsultantWith a solid foundation in HR transformation, experience design, and people product development, I can help organisations transition from traditional HR practices to a modern, people product-centric approach.

• Organisational & Team Effectiveness Development ExpertMy experience with team effectiveness, scaling teams, culture crafting, and capability building is valuable for developing and enhancing organisational structures and cultures. With my background in culture and team effectiveness, capability building, leadership design, I get where GPT is coming from, but for me, I would fold this into every role.

• Design Thinking Lead/ConsultantThis was a no-brainer. With expertise in design thinking, experience design, and service design, I can lead initiatives for organisations looking to innovate and solve complex problems. This, plus years of workshopping and multidisciplinary design approaches, came as no shock.

• Employee Experience DirectorMy ability to enhance the end-to-end experience of people, as well as looking at the employee experience in an omnichannel approach, makes for a natural fit. Add in my history of audience insight, research, and implementation of various employee listening strategies makes this role a good fit.

Despite these possibilities, traditional hiring practices often fail to see potential beyond predefined job titles. And that’s a significant missed opportunity.

The Emotional Drain

Here’s where the frustration really sets in. The cost of not fitting in isn’t just professional—it’s deeply personal. It’s the anxiety of constantly trying to adapt to roles that don’t capture the oddball's full capabilities. It’s the frustration of working in environments with narrow thinking that feels suffocating. It’s the exhaustion of having to advocate for ourselves without seeming egotistical.

All of this leads to a deep sense of isolation—feeling like we are always on the outside looking in. The personal cost of being an oddball and not fitting into traditional roles is high. Sure, we can perform the standard duties, but they don’t come close to utilising everything we bring to the table. And that’s not just our loss—it’s a loss for any organisation that fails to recognise it.

Calculating the Personal Cost

The hidden costs of not fitting in are profound: constant anxiety levels hovering at 7 or 8 out of 10, countless hours spent trying to mould ourselves into roles that don’t fit, missed opportunities and promotions because we don't conform to the mould, the emotional toll of having trust betrayed, and the loneliness of not being valued or understood. These costs don’t appear on any balance sheet but are very real and deeply felt for every oddball out there.

The Bigger Picture: Organisations Need to Look Beyond Job Titles

Here’s what I can do:

• Audience and Customer Research: Uncovering insights that drive strategic decisions.

• End-to-End Employee Experience: Designing and implementing experiences aligned with company values and goals.

• HR Transformation: Shifting HR from legacy practices to a people product-thinking approach.

• Scaling Team Effectiveness: Ensuring teams have the plays, tactics, and hacks to change behaviour, collaborate, communicate, and perform.

• Innovation Capability Building: Delivering workshops that equip teams in innovative thinking, product design, design thinking, service and experience design.

• Journey Mapping: Identifying pain points and opportunities for improvement for both customer and employee journeys.

• Workshop Facilitation: Leading sessions that drive innovation and solve complex problems.

• Leadership and Function Management: Leading teams and entire functions.

• Experience Design at All Levels: Crafting impactful, human-centred experiences from the macro to the nano.

• Sense-Making and Incubation: Turning data into actionable insights and nurturing bold ideas.

• Business Model Development: Crafting models that align with organisational goals.

• Value Proposition Refinement: Articulating clear benefits to stakeholders.

• Innovation: Driving projects from ideation to execution.

• Culture Shaping: Building and sustaining a culture that supports growth.

• Experimentation: Advocating for a culture of testing, refining, and improving.

• Strategy Design: Developing plans for long-term success.

Now, ask yourself: Where do these skills fit in, what impact could an oddball with a skill set like the above have on an organisation, how many roles in your org need these skill sets versus how many JDs have you seen that clearly say they need this.

It’s Not Easy Being Unconventional—but It’s Worth It

This is the reality: This is only my lived experience; however, I have spoken with many oddballs, and the feelings mentioned above are often the same. These oddballs have the skills, the experience, and the vision to drive meaningful change, but the system isn’t set up to recognise or reward that.

You need to give oddballs the change-type of role, because these are the people you want in when you need radical change and innovation.

The traditional roles, of course, are still needed; however, those roles are more the BAU type of roles that keep the lights switched on.

What’s interesting is many of the jobs out there mention transformation, but the skill set they are asking for are those of a traditional BAU role.

However, if companies truly want to innovate, they need to rethink how they view talent. It’s not about filling positions; it’s about expanding what’s possible. I don’t just fit into a role—I elevate and expand the potential of any organisation I work with. But first, they need to realise that the box they’re trying to put me or other oddballs in is too small.

It’s time for organisations to look beyond conventional job titles and recognise the value of those who bring a diverse set of skills and perspectives. The future belongs to those organisations that are willing to break the mould and embrace the unconventional.