From Tactician to Visionary

FROM TACTICIAN TO VISIONARY

Many (many!) years ago, I was part of a small team that ran a statewide association dedicated to the Wisconsin newspaper industry. Our executive director was hip to the nuances of human resources, and he scheduled an all-day team-building retreat that centered around Meyers-Briggs Personality Types. It was great fun, and we had a ball getting to know each other by our designated letter combinations.

Surprisingly enough, there were four of us who had the exact same letter combo – ISTJ – which is pretty remarkable given that there are 16 different letter types, 16 possible combinations, and only eight of us at the workshop.

For those of you not familiar, ISTJ means the four of us were “Introvert/Sensing/Thinking/Judging.” In other words, we read magazines from front to back, took the exact same route home at the end of the day, would tunnel through 10 feet of snow to get to work so someone would turn on the lights, took an unnatural pleasure in organizing a closet, tired easily when in a crowd, always needed time to think before reacting, and cocked our heads like confused dogs when someone started a sentence with “I feel…” instead of “I think…”

Tacticians we were; visionaries we were not.

But, that was OK. We were happy and successful scuttling around behind the scenes, taking pride in the challenge of pulling together the details of anything the visionaries could throw at us.

But, as a twisted experiment, the day’s leader split us into two groups and assigned us the task of hammering out an imaginary promotional plan to get the word out to our members about all the fabulous things we were planning for them. But, instead of mixing-and-matching letters into alphabet soup, she put us ISTJs in one group, and everyone else in another.

The exercise started with an uncomfortable silence. We simply weren’t used to coming up with “the plan” … we were used to implementing “the plan.” But, true to form, an overdeveloped sense of dependability kicked in and we started brainstorming. We decided it would be cool to get a big-shot celebrity to ride around in an oversized campaign bus meeting members and handing out expensive giveaways, free memberships, and VIP treatment at our annual convention.

But, none of us knew any celebrities, we weren’t sure where to find a big tour bus, we knew we didn’t have the budget for expensive giveaways, and nobody really knew what would constitute VIP treatment at our small convention anyway. By the time we had to reconvene and present our plan, it was reduced to our executive director motoring around in the 10-year-old company car handing out one copy of last year’s AP style guide to each newspaper.

Nevermind that it was an imaginary promotional plan, our minds couldn’t stray from what we knew – focusing much more on the “how” instead of the “what.” But, I’m OK with that. It’s been proven time and time again that the business world needs both. We are the yin to the visionary yang.

Over the years, as I’ve built and grown a successful business of my own, I’ve learned to compensate and step outside my natural ISTJ habitat. I’m a little better at thinking about the “what” without worrying about the “how” and allowing myself to think about big (and scary) ideas without letting my inner, overworked tactician get in the way. But, at the end of the day, I’m thankful for my natural tendency to slide into a role that I know will help me (and those we work with) pull off big ideas thoughtfully and with the details covered.

And remember the other team? They decided to get Brett Favre to ride around in a logo-laden tour bus, handing out gold-plated membership plaques to every newspaper in the state.

Sigh.