Transformation in companies is rarely just a question of new technologies or tools. Above all, it is a question of collaboration: between departments, different work logics - and increasingly also between organisations and external creative professionals. It is precisely at these interfaces that people with hybrid job profiles emerge.
Innovation processes in companies are not a purely technical task, but an organisational one. Transformations rarely fail due to a lack of tools, but rather due to translation problems between specialist areas, cultural friction between departments and the conflicting logics of agile projects and day-to-day operations. This is where creative professionals come into play - and many of them have hybrid job profiles. This is precisely what makes them valuable in transformation processes, even if their way of working does not always fit seamlessly into corporate logics.
I call these people multi-hyphenates or slashers: people with several professional identities that they connect with a hyphen ("author-urbanist") or a slash ("author/urbanist"). In the creative industry, such CVs are the rule rather than the exception. Some develop in several directions out of curiosity and a desire to create, others out of economic necessity or because they come up against the limits of existing structures. What they all have in common is that they move naturally between disciplines, roles and contexts. This ability to change perspective and translate context is exactly what is needed in transformation processes.
People who switch between professional identities are used to working without clearly defined paths. They make decisions under unclear conditions and act even when information or objectives are incomplete. This gives them the skills that are central to transformation processes: They can translate between technical languages, think systemically, are role-flexible and can withstand ambiguity. They work at interfaces - between disciplines, between organisation and environment, between idea and implementation. Particularly in transition phases, they help to reduce friction, recognise misunderstandings early on and bring different perspectives together.
It is no coincidence that such profiles are on the rise. For years, various career models have been describing a working reality in which linear advancement within a company is no longer the norm. For companies that work with external creatives in innovation processes, these models are interesting as an explanation of ways of thinking and working that become noticeable in projects.
When such working realities increase, one question arises above all for companies: how do you design collaboration with people who do not come from traditional organisational logics? Different work cultures come together in cross-innovation projects: the process-orientated, often risk-avoiding logic of companies and the experimental, project-based logic of the creative industries. This is precisely where friction arises, but this is also where the potential lies.
External creatives with hybrid profiles bring a productive distance with them. They are not fully integrated into internal routines, hierarchies and ways of thinking. As a result, they see contradictions more quickly, ask different questions and can visualise issues that are difficult to address internally. Their role is less that of a provider of ideas and more that of a translator and facilitator between different systems.
Transformation processes in which external creatives and organizations work together require a different form of leadership. Less control, more facilitation. This means that leadership shapes the framework, not the solution. It provides clarity about goals, roles, and decision-making scope, while at the same time maintaining the openness that allows results to emerge. Such processes are not about reducing complexity, but about making it navigable together. Different perspectives, friction, and uncertainty are not disruptive factors, but rather the material from which something new emerges.
This is where multi-hyphenates really come into their own. They are used to translating between different logics, tolerating ambiguity, and remaining capable of acting in uncertain situations. In facilitated innovation processes, they often take on a dual role: as creative catalysts and as process actors who help to establish understanding between very different work cultures. When organizations learn to consciously design such spaces, collaboration with hybrid creatives becomes not an exception, but a strategic competence. Transformation is then no longer a project, but a collective practice.
Rosa Thoneick is a screenwriter and consultant for digital innovation and urbanism. In her work, she combines technological developments with questions of urban design, social transformation and sustainable future models. She has been part of the Cross Innovation Hub's pool of creatives since 2024.
