The elevator pitch is an efficient message form whose time has passed. Think of the elevator itself as metaphor: a tiny moving room, with time enough only to alert another captive individual to the particulars of one’s self-presentation.

A reframing or re-description of the pitch, more congruent with our times is the visual presentation of a “tag cloud” found in blog website design. The tag cloud conveys the immediacy of a digital image caught in the lens of a cell-phone: it is fuzzy rather than studied, and open to the other’s interpretive sense-making rather than the producer’s sense-imposing.

The shift in sensibility is similar to the difference between who I am and what I do. Only, here, the idea is the portrayal of the broadest scope of what I do rather than emphasis on a singular skill. It mirrors what anthropologist Clifford Geertz termed “thick description”: it conveys information that both invites and requires the listener’s unpacking.

An example: an accountant says to me, “oh you’re a psychologist…. What do I need with one of you guys.”  He chuckles, “I’m crazy anyway and everyone knows it.”  Sounds like a brush-off. The translation is, “hey, keep away, man, I do not need a shrink.” Only I say, also chuckling, “well, one part is clear, but you might very well be interested in how I look at asset management from a slightly different angle than your own.”  Suddenly, he’s interested and the talk continues. I’ve redefined myself for him in the context of our relationship. I have reframed my skills as a function of his interests rather than his preconception of my training. I have also affirmed that my engagement with him is about business and not therapy.

Increasingly, we are  told by career counselors and recruiters, that our utility to others will be evaluated not simply by fellow-riders on the elevator, but the friends of the friends of the friends of our fellow riders.  That is the beauty of networking. My accountant colleague used to say, “I’m an accountant”. But his pitch has evolved. First, it is more discursive, fuzzier. He begins with his interest in business consultation and teaching managers how to think both broadly and in detail about the numbers and rules that eventuate in the bottom line. “Sure,” he’ll say, “I’m a CPA with a CFA, but so is everyone else. It’s how my craft knowledge fits with your organization that counts.”

So, as a practical matter, with only 3 minutes, my accountant has shifted from a straight-forward pitch to a tag cloud. He’s presented a picture, compounded of multiple strands, for interpretive shaping by his elevator listener. And conveyed too, his ability to listen and to respond, which is at the heart of a networked world.

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