“Productive mediocrity requires discipline of an ordinary kind.”
Quote from W.A. Pannapacker’s article How To Procrastinate Like Leonardo da Vinci. (UPDATE: subscription now required to get to this article.)
Evidently Leonardo never saw a project he couldn’t avoid finishing. But maybe procrastination is the wrong word for his tendency to ‘solve and move on.’
Do you have any of these frustrating creative folks on your staff? Been working them over with GTD (Getting Things Done) seminars and yearly reviews that express frustration at implementation but awe over concept? Did the brilliant strategic thinker get so caught up in seemingly unimportant details that all work stopped?
Stop trying to change your dreamers. Create an environment that lets them kick start solutions and then move on – leaving talented managers to wrap up the details. Use your staff in ways that builds on their strength…and avoids their blind spots.
It may be your department can’t afford a full time dreamer. You need a swoop in dreamer – arrive, shake things up, fly off and repeat. No problem. Figure out ways to spread the wealth with other departments and companies you work with. Maybe even turn dreaming into a profit center!