"To accomplish great things we must dream as well as act."
Anatole France
Early 20th century poet, author, journalist
I like this because it points to the need for "soft" thinking (the need to dream) along with the "hard" analysis driven business discipline (act) that is necessary to run a company.
From what I've read, back in the garage days when they were inventing the first Apple computer, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was more the "dream" guy to Jobs "action" persona.
Do you have enough of both in your company?
Early 20th century poet, author, journalist
I like this because it points to the need for "soft" thinking (the need to dream) along with the "hard" analysis driven business discipline (act) that is necessary to run a company.
From what I've read, back in the garage days when they were inventing the first Apple computer, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was more the "dream" guy to Jobs "action" persona.
Do you have enough of both in your company?
We don't have enough of both (one, not the other). We are financial/engineering oriented and neither of those disciplines does much in the way of dreaming. It's just not in their makeup.
ReplyDeleteBecause dreaming is viewed as involutary, many companies think there is nothing they can do to make it happen in their business. They are wrong.
ReplyDeleteSubstitute "what if" for dreaming and include it as part of the planning process. Do so willingly and with purpose and you will get results.
i think the key here is balance. you don't want a bunch of dreamers on your staff just like you don't want a bunch of number-crunching, robots. balance out your team with people that bring different skill sets to the table and you'll usually end up with a high-performaing team.
ReplyDeletei do recall reading once though that bill gates has an annual 'think week' where he goes off by himself to a remote location somewhere to do nothing but read and think.