The Blind Leading the Blind

by Hal on December 19, 2003

in PM practice, books, leadership

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David SchmaltzThought you'd enjoy a taste of David Schmaltz's writing. David will be the first author we interview via a teleconference in January. Here David is writing in Winston Brill's Innovative Leader, The Blind Leading the Blind.

David uses John Godfrey Saxe's famous fable "The Blind Men and the Elephant," as metaphor to explore the nature of projects and what we can do to produce success on our teams.

(B)lindness is a continuing feature of work life today. Consider your last project. Didn't it require the enthusiastic contribution of several different specialists, each unavoidably blind to all but his own perspective?

If your project succeeded, did the plan predict the path you ended up following? Chances are you succeeded by figuring out how to blindly lead each other to success, not by following some omniscient leader or predictive plan, but by somehow integrating the disparate perspectives of all of the "blind men."

David offers six steps for dealing with the always-present blindness on project teams.

What You Can Do to See the Elephant

  1. Be clear about your own purpose for engaging.
  2. Understand your intentions.
  3. Extend your trust.
  4. Let go of how it's supposed to be.
  5. Stop trying to motivate others.
  6. Sit in the mess before tidying it up.

Visit his article to read how.

We look forward to kicking off the New Year by having a conversation with David. You're all invited! Get ready by adding The Blind Men and the Elephant, Mastering Project Work to your wish list this holiday season. Better yet, buy two copies from Amazon. You'll get free shipping. You'll have one to give away and one to keep for yourself!

Now, have a look at the announcement, http://leader.halmacomber.com/project_authors.html and follow the instructions you find there to stay informed.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Hal December 22, 2003 at 3:56 pm

Thanks Joe. I fixed the problem. But I’m surprised you didn’t get an email from me. The records show a good email address for you.

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