This Focused Performance Weblog started life as a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective, but is in the process of evolving towards primary content on interactive and mobile marketing. Think of it as about Focusing marketing messages for enhanced Performance. If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
"...there are conditions under which it actually helps to have some generalists, especially for fairly small groups, some individuals that you might think of as Jacks- or Jills-of-all-trades or multitaskers,' said Waite. 'You might actually have to pay them more and they might often do the wrong task, but if you don't have them, this whole notion of specialisation leading to greater economic productivity might actually be wrong."
Want to get into MIT? -- in 1869? Check out the entrance exams.
Does MIT require an entrance exam today?
The English exam, in particular, intrigues me. Assuming it's updated to include a bit more in the way of American and World literature and writers rather than the English emphasis of 1869, something tells me that today's emphasis on specialization rather than the breadth of a good "liberal education" along with the technical would lead to a bunch of today's MIT applicants scratching their heads.
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.
View Frank Patrick's profile
