Water has many properties that make it essential in survival situations. For this reason, it's often the first item scavenged by groups of desperate survivors. By drinking water, they limit their risk of dehydration and exposure. Water also can clean wounds and cook whatever food is available.

What water is to the wilderness survivor, career blending is to the contemporary employee. It can ensure that employment won't dry up, lead to quicker healing when a job is disrupted or curtailed and generate creativity when careers overlap.

By necessity in today's work world, a new category of employees — career blenders — has evolved. Blenders engage in multiple careers simultaneously, using talents learned in one field to benefit the other area. The hidden benefit of this personal versatility is more creativity. By being exposed to different environments, career blenders' frames of reference are constantly colliding. The resulting chaos leads to more creativity.

Unfortunately, many companies discourage moonlighting and see parallel careers as an act of disloyalty, leading to diminished involvement in the primary job. William Bridges, author of "Job Shift" (1995, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.) would disagree. The "successful flexible worker" has three key traits: employability, vendor-mindedness and resiliency, says Mr. Bridges.

He defines employability as "being and staying an attractive prospect to organizations with work." Embedded within this concept of employability is personal versatility. Since no one can predict which organizations will offer work or what type of work they'll have, employees must continually build and update their skill sets.

Small businesses have always needed employees who can assume divergent roles and responsibilities, since they usually have too much work to accomplish and too few people. As chairman of Herman Miller Inc., a Zeeland, Mich., business-furniture manufacturer, Max DePree allowed talented employees to switch to different functions or departments in the company. This led to what Mr. DePree called the "beneficial surprise." These employees made significant contributions to other departments, which made the overall company more successful.

Private law firm partner and entrepreneur Donna Chaiet is a classic career blender. Ms. Chaiet and her sister operate PREPARE Inc., a self-defense training firm in New York. Occasionally, her legal and self-defense expertise overlap, resulting in greater success in one or the other field. For instance, Ms. Chaiet once represented a battered woman who had murdered her abusive husband. Having dual expertise helped her to a satisfying outcome in court.

"I was able to [use] my extensive knowledge of domestic violence and a lot of my self-defense colleagues were experts in that case, so my careers overlapped nicely," she says. "We had a very good judge. He found my client guilty of criminally negligent homicide, the equivalent of drunk driving. She received no jail term, but served five years of probation."

Howard Gardner, author of "Extraordinary Minds" (1997, Basic Books), says three features are linked to extraordinary accomplishment: reflecting, leveraging and framing. Reflecting involves consciously considering events in your daily life and how they affect your long-term aspirations. It also involves seeking feedback from mentors and knowledgeable experts.

Leveraging is the process of identifying your unusualness, ignoring your weaknesses and capitalizing on your strengths. Identifying strengths yields an additional dividend. Breakthroughs may occur if you can conceive of familiar problems or challenges in new ways.

Framing is the capacity to construe experiences in a positive way, draw appropriate lessons and emerge re-energized and ready to proceed with your plans. Framing is to persons what debriefing is to events. It implies a subtle but continuous process of self-improvement.

"The more that an individual can make use of his unique strengths in attacking a problem, the more likely that he'll arrive at an approach that holds special, hitherto unanticipated promise for illuminating that problem," says Mr. Gardner.

Career blenders often put talents used in one setting to work in another setting. Consider Mike Fink, a middle-school art teacher and a real-estate agent in Williston Park, N.Y. From teaching art, Mr. Fink has a highly developed spatial intelligence which he leverages in his real-estate career. When he meets with clients, he asks them to describe their dream home. As they chat, he constructs a mental sketch in his head and then combs his files for houses to match this mental picture. Mr. Fink calls this "selling through aesthetic intuition."

Career blending helps employees and organizations. Employees benefit because their overall marketability and employability expand as their skills and abilities multiply. Organizations benefit because of the hidden creativity which career blenders bring from one context to another.

Take the quiz at the end of this article to determine your versatility. If you wish to improve your score and become more versatile, use the following five tips.

1. Spend time with people who are 25 years younger or older than you. This will encourage you to view the world from a distinctly different perspective.
2. Travel to or study other cultures. Travel is one of the best ways to expand your world view and increase your knowledge.
3. Change your patterns and be open to spontaneity. If you normally work indoors, spend a day outdoors. Take a different route home from work or eat in a different restaurant.
4. Alternate your reading materials. If you normally read fiction, choose nonfiction. Read a different daily newspaper for a week or two and buy magazines you've never read.
5. Assess your strengths and take a class to develop a new skill. An accounting manager might take an acting class, while a human resources professional might study finance.

— Dr. Lawley is president of Camelot Consulting Group, a Fairfield, N.J., management consulting and staffing firm, and an adjunct counselor with Lee Hecht Harrison Inc., a career management firm. She is co-founder of Lasting Connections, a nonprofit organization which helps families stay in touch during medical crises.

What's Your Versatility Quotient?
To assess your versatility, take the following quiz. Consider how comfortable you are working in each of the following skill categories. Be as honest as you can. Assign a point score to each area using this rating.

Add up the point value of all your answers. If your score is:

Between 25 and 50, you're a specialist. You have limited knowledge of several areas and specialize in one or two. You prefer to have a job which is carefully structured and designed to remain well within your established comfort zone. You choose to focus your energy in precise areas so as to serve your organization well.

Between 51 and 75, you're an expert. You believe that depth of experience is more important than breadth. You like to concentrate your energy and interest in a few key areas which are important to your company. You are willing to spend considerable time, money and energy to build skill and knowledge in specific targeted areas.

Between 76 and 99, you're a generalist. You can converse easily on almost any topic. You have an impressive working knowledge of a wide range of subjects. You enjoy the big picture and frequently have little patience for details.

Between 100 and 125, you're very versatile. You love variety and have many interests. You have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a high curiosity level and you believe in life-long learning. You believe that your many skills and abilities enhance your value to your employer.