{"id":1759,"date":"2009-02-23T08:11:41","date_gmt":"2009-02-23T15:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=1759"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:32:04","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:32:04","slug":"are-you-a-seeker-or-a-dwarf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=1759","title":{"rendered":"Are You a Seeker or a Dwarf?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dwarf\"When Project Managers and others work on projects, they often consider themselves enlightened seekers. \u00a0People seeking new and better ways to do things. \u00a0They are often frustrated by those not eagerly embracing the changes. \u00a0Let’s call them dwarfs; people who are not on a journey, but who have the knowledge and almost magical power to make a project succeed or fail. \u00a0Dwarfs are often more critical to the success of the project than the seeker or anyone else might expect. \u00a0I contend that to succeed, you have to be both. \u00a0Sometimes you need seekers and sometimes you need dwarfs.<\/p>\n

Now, this is not the terminology of PMI or Lean or Agile or PRINCE2. \u00a0It is older wisdom, articulated by the first Project Management advisers, the Brothers Grimm in 1819. \u00a0In The Water of Life<\/a><\/span>, they articulated how to achieve project success under the most trying of circumstances.<\/p>\n

A Brief Retelling of The Water of Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

The king (CEO) was troubled. \u00a0A great malaise gripped the land and infected him. \u00a0New directions and ideas were needed, but who could help? \u00a0He called his three princes (favorite PMs) together to look for solutions. \u00a0The kingdom’s future depended upon the success of the undertaking. \u00a0The company needed The Water of Life to survive.<\/p>\n

The first prince stepped forward with a plan that could be implemented quickly. \u00a0It would be costly, but he was bringing in the best and brightest to assist on the new strategy. \u00a0He had detailed project schedules, maps to success and visionary PowerPoints. \u00a0The king was hesitant, but blessed the undertaking and sent him forth.<\/p>\n

The prince and his beautifully dressed and highly compensated, expert consultants set out, executing his plan “Seeking The Water of Life”. \u00a0As they set off, they came upon a dwarf who asked what the commotion was all about? \u00a0The prince responded that they were on a mission to save the land, to seek the Water of Life. \u00a0You are either with us or against us. \u00a0The dwarf mumbled something about daily requirements, but the seekers were so enthralled with visions of The Water of Life, that they couldn’t waste their time. \u00a0There were no tasks for taking on the dwarf’s daily dawdle. \u00a0So they hurried off, seeking The Water of Life.<\/p>\n

The dwarf, frustrated at their not understanding the importance of his daily dawdle watched them ride into blind canyon. \u00a0This canyon had enticing valleys, but while the valleys looked promising and the road out of the canyon closed in behind them. \u00a0Trapped, with the canyon walls closing in around them, the seekers couldn’t even get cell phone reception, as the mountains blocked the signals and they were never heard from again.<\/p>\n

The second son had used the time while his older brother was away to plot his own path to the kingship and had put together his plan for saving the kingdom. \u00a0This he presented to the king. \u00a0The prince’s arguments were good and he promised to be agile and communicate constantly to the king.<\/p>\n

He was given a smaller budget and tighter deadlines as he set off to seek The Water of Life. \u00a0Due to his constant communications with his customer’s, who were paying for his endeavor, he barely noticed the dwarf as he rushed past. \u00a0The dwarf called out, but watched him continuously communicate himself into the quicksand. \u00a0Hopelessly trapped and sinking, the prince yelled frantically at the dwarf, but the dwarf, turning back to his daily dawdle, chuckled as the high and mighty sunk beneath him.<\/p>\n

The third son, who hadn’t prepared plans because he was busy with the details of running the kingdom, came forward and said he would seek The Water of Life. \u00a0The king was skeptical. \u00a0There was no vision. There were no schedules. \u00a0There was no map to the water. \u00a0The son reasoned that no one knew where The Water of Life was, so how could they map a path there?<\/p>\n

The third son set out and when he came upon the dwarf, the dwarf asked where he was going. \u00a0The son said he was seeking The Water of Life and would welcome any help the dwarf could give. \u00a0The dwarf, touched that someone recognized and took the time to listen to him, replied that he knew where the water of life flowed. \u00a0The prince asked if he could help him get there? \u00a0Yes, responded the dwarf. \u00a0The journey is long, but as you have taken the time to ask and listen to me, I will help you get the Water of Life. \u00a0And with the dwarf’s help, the son set out on a different path. \u00a0One no one else would have taken, seeking the water of life.<\/p>\n

I urge you to read the\u00a0der Br\u00fcder Grimm<\/a> for the details of how the journey turned out. \u00a0 There are riches, beautiful princesses and all the rewards a seeker could hope for. \u00a0But before you go, please think about when you are a seeker and when you are a dwarf?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Project Managers and others work on projects, they often consider themselves enlightened seekers. \u00a0People seeking new and better ways […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":898,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/898"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14206,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions\/14206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}