The Shape of What's Coming

You’ve probably heard of T-shaped skills. One deep spike of expertise, supported by a broad base of general knowledge. The gold standard for decades.

I’ve never been T-shaped. Not really.

Seventeen years at Accenture taught me something different - mostly because I ignored what they asked me to be. They wanted T-shaped consultants. Pick a lane and go deep. I didn’t. I spiked in ERP, then Java, then pivoted to data and analytics. Then I’d swing to the other side - business strategy, change management - before landing back in enterprise architecture. Each engagement demanded real depth, enough command to be credible in rooms full of specialists. It wasn’t the safe path. It was the one that felt right.

People ask me all the time how I got to where I am. That’s how. Sinatra style - My Way - at great risk… and I built something I didn’t have a name for until recently.

M-shaped. Multiple spikes of genuine depth, connected by the pattern recognition that comes from going deep repeatedly. The valleys between the peaks aren’t empty - they’re where you learn to learn.

I earned every spike the hard way. But I’d be lying if I didn’t name what’s changed.

AI gives you the 80%.

Not the illusion of competence - the actual foundation. And before someone says AI is killing critical thinking: it has never been more essential. AI gives you the raw material. Your 20% - judgment, creativity, persistence - that’s what closes the gap. That’s what builds a new spike.

You don’t need seventeen years at Accenture to be M-shaped anymore. Pick a spike and nail it.

It’s already happening.

Someone in our organization just proved this. Data background. Never done development. He wanted a central hub for an AI literacy initiative - real-time access to materials instead of drowning in email chains. So, he built a website. Used AI to create an automated publishing system - something that would have taken a dev team weeks last year. He built it overnight.

He didn’t become a developer. He became M-shaped. AI gave him the 80%. He brought the 20% - the vision, the persistence, the willingness to push until it worked.

That’s not an anomaly. That’s the shape of what’s here.

Today my M looks different than it did at Accenture. iPhone app developer. AI literacy evangelist. Enterprise program leader. Public speaker. None of those spikes would exist without the ones before them - and none would have developed this fast without AI compressing the distance between curiosity and competence.

Last week I asked why we hold AI to a standard we’ve never held humans to. This week is about what happens when you let that go: you become something you never thought you could be.

The M is available to everyone now. The only question is whether you’ll build your next spike - or keep defending the one you have.