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General Specialist or Special Generalist

August 29, 2007 @ Frank Patrick's Focused Performance Blog from Frank

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General Specialist or Special Generalist -- Steve Hardy stole something from my "to-blog in-box" with Specialists and Generalists in 3D, his comments on a provocative image from Dave Gray of XPLANE which has achieved wider distribution via David Armano.

Steve hits the nail on the head about the roles of specialists and generalists.
1. Generalists and specialists need each other...
3. Projects grow exactly because of the combination of generalists and specialists...
4. Many people are generalists and specialists at the same time...
No problem is an island. (It's a peninsula.) Every problem lies within the domain of a larger system. While specialists are needed to solve the detailed technical aspects of a problem, generalists are necessary for keeping the big picture in mind, and watching over the possible systemic implications of the specialists' solutions, or at least knowing which other specialists to check with.

Generalists are the keepers and askers of the necessary "informed dumb questions" that can be too easily overlooked and unasked when buried in the guts of a problem.

This article is syndicated from Frank Patrick's Focused Performance Blog . The original article is available here. Read more in Focused Performance Blog, Project Management News .

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