On March 26, 2026, we made a submission to the Australian Senate’s Select Committee on Productivity in Australia. The committee was set up to investigate questions related to the question of productivity. Our submission centred on the question of labour markets, more specifically, how labour markets are poorly functional for generalist skills – and how the introduction of the ‘shapeshifter’ as a mental model could improve the situation.
The full text of our submission is below - the full brief is accessible at this address
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Productivity_in_Australia/ProductivityinAustralia
From: Shapeshifters Group Inc.
Contact: [email protected]
Date: 19 February, 2026
Shapeshifters Group is a newly formed association bringing together people who work in what we describe as “in-between” roles across organisations, sectors, and disciplines. This submission draws on early conversations, interviews, and pattern-mapping with people we call shapeshifters, as well as engagement with managers, recruiters, and organisational designers who work with them.
Our aim is modest and exploratory: to raise awareness of a category of work that appears to be important for organisational effectiveness and labour market dynamism, but which is poorly named, poorly recognised, and therefore poorly matched by current labour market systems.
In our early inquiries, we have repeatedly encountered people whose work does not map cleanly onto standard occupational categories. These individuals often:
Many of these people describe difficulty finding roles that match their skills and experience, despite being consistently relied upon once inside organisations.
From the organisational side, we hear a complementary concern: managers and recruiters often struggle to identify, advertise for, or evaluate these “in-between” capabilities, even when they recognise their value in practice. They also struggle to manage the development of people with that profile, or articulate KPIs and other performance measures.
In short, there appears to be a gap between the value of generalist, integrative work within organisations, and the labour market’s ability to identify and match for it.