A few weeks ago, I was part of a lively team meeting. We were discussing mission and purpose and trying to put words around our place in the world. Nearly everyone had an opinion, and they shared it. It was the wonderful kind of spirited conversation that happens when intelligence, passion, and snark collide on the other side of an open-ended question.
During the conversation, I saw patterns emerge. Some people prefer tactile work — they want to put their hands on the controls and understand a systems’ inner workings. They want to solve concrete problems and produce tangible results. I will call these people builders. Systems need builders who push envelopes, use technologies in new ways, and make connections that others don’t see.
Then, there are connectors. Connectors understand technology, but at a different level. They know all the essential bits, and they know how to fit them together. They focus, however, on a different level. They orchestrate people, politics, and all the intangible nuances required to gain funding, craft a story, or build a high-level executable plan. Big projects don’t happen without connectors. They are indispensable.
These categories are not all-inclusive, nor are they absolute. They provide a framework for my observations. All the participants in that spirited conversation can be placed on the continuum from builder to connector.
As we talked, I heard similar themes from individuals at both ends of the builder-to-connector spectrum. A builder would say, “The real work is…” and describe solving a technical problem that required deep expertise. A connector then said, “The real work is…” and talked about the connections between individuals and organizations and what was needed to complete a proposal.
Each individual perceived the “real work” as that for which they were most gifted. Each implied the other work was secondary, less meaningful, less necessary, less critical. It’s an easy trap to fall into.
Everyone fortunate enough to work in a high-performing organization wants to make an impact with their efforts. To do this, we frame our work as having supreme importance and, in so doing, minimize the contributions of our peers, other teams, or other parts of our organization.
I left our meeting excited about the varied abilities, ideas, and talents expressed by my team. I also noticed a subtle shift in my thinking. On any given day, I consider myself a builder. On another, I’m a connector. I, too, have made arguments about what constitutes “real work.” I’ve come to see that it’s all real work. Nearly any task worth doing requires a wide array of gifts and abilities. We none excel at them all.
So, the next time I see this false dichotomy in action, I will acknowledge it, first in my thinking, then collectively. There’s too much work to do and too many problems to solve to do otherwise.
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