Solution to the "everybody's good at everything" problem

So. When running Role Playing sessions, sometimes you come across odd problems. All of your players have created characters that are superior generalists. They can all bypass an alarm system, hijack a car, are good in Hand to Hand, and can shoot a 2 inch spread from 400 yards. They're just good at everything. Why is this a problem? Well the typical designer believes his players will likely behave like every "super team" show or movie, and each character will hyper specialize in one thing. One guy will be so good with electronics he can hit the side of a fusebox and only knockout the security system... One guy will be able to beat a tank in HtH combat... and of course, stealthy McNinjaboy is so trained in the art of invisibility that he can garrote someone in the middle of a feast and no one notices. So when designing, you plan for these things, you say "the best security system in the world" and you make a specific stealth course, and you have "the Russian" (punisher reference) for the HtH guy. They each have their roles, they each are important, they each get their moment of glory. They know no one else can do it and they get to say "my character is bad ASS".

So when you have generalists, people that create somewhat human characters, it can be hard to make sure they don't feel unneeded. I wrestle with this problem from time to time, usually in the middle of a campaign I didn't think through well enough. But I was watching the new Medal of Honor trailers and something one of the consultants said struck me. "When certain things show up on the table and certain things need to get done, 100% of the guys that you work with can look at that and say 'I am the answer to that problem'". That got me thinking. If everyone is good at everything that means you break things down by mission tasks, not by specific person tasks. It requires a bit more camaraderie and team spirit than the other technique of specifically tailoring events for characters, but seems to solve the problem. You lay out so many tasks that need to get done, and you let the players look at it and say "I can only do one thing, but I can do any of the things, what is my task" and realize that that task is necessary for the mission to be accomplished. It should, once the mission is done, provide a sense of "we did X" rather than "I did x, joe did y, and bill did z" (see? Your parents are right, capitals DO matter).

I kinda can't wait to try this.