(2003-08-11) Schmaltz Interview

Hal Macomber provides an SD-Newsletter interview with David Schmaltz. Creating coherence can't be the sole responsibility of any manager. One of the most popular ways to undermine the possibility for coherence - and project success - is for the team to expect the manager to somehow create it... Disagreements can be resolved in a variety of ways. One of the best is to engage in a conversation where each of the participants expect to be changed by what they hear... As the Blind Men demonstrate, you create rifts for yourself when you insist that others understand the elephant as you understand it... The most successful project managers focus upon creating the community that comes from embracing their own inevitable blindness, from helping people find their project within their project assignment and from making generous interpretations of other's curious perspectives. Blind men, all.