Now What Do You Call It?
On Monday, we explored what happens when people don’t understand your work.
On Wednesday, we looked at what happens when people think they understand your work.
Today, I’d like to explore something different.
Sometimes people understand your work perfectly.
Sometimes they put it in exactly the category you’ve given them.
But your work is evolving.
And the category no longer fits.
When the Old Answer Stops Working
Someone asks:
“So, what do you do?”
You launch into the story:
“Well, I used to do this, but now I’m evolving and becoming this. You know, we’re in a new era, and this is that, and what’s needed now is this, which is something that no one else has really done before, so it’s…not that. It’s this.”
What you do hasn’t necessarily changed.
But the thing you’re building has.
The Label That Worked Before Doesn’t Stick
A consultant becomes a platform.
A book becomes a movement.
A podcast becomes a laboratory.
A business becomes a mission.
A framework becomes a category.
The original label wasn’t inaccurate.
It just described an earlier version of the story.
The trouble begins when everyone keeps using yesterday’s label to describe tomorrow’s reality.
Including you.
The Real Question
Most people respond by trying harder.
A better explanation.
A better elevator pitch.
A sharper website.
A cleaner message.
Sometimes that’s exactly what’s needed.
But sometimes you’re solving the wrong problem.
Because the real question isn’t:
“How do I explain this?”
The real question is:
“What is this?”
That’s a much more interesting question.
And a much more uncomfortable one.
Emergence
I call this Emergence. It’s the last of the three reasons people aren’t responding to your work the way you’d like.
Not because something has been fully formed.
Because something is forming.
You can feel it.
The old language doesn’t quite work.
The old category doesn’t quite fit.
The old description leaves something important out.
You’re no longer trying to improve the label.
You’re trying to discover what wants to be labeled.
Three Different Problems
Interpretive Friction asks:
“Why don’t they understand?”
Interpretive Compression asks:
“Why do they keep putting me in that box?”
Emergence asks:
“What if the box is no longer big enough?”
One Question
What are you building that no longer fits comfortably inside the box people use to describe it?