Generalist versus expert solution to site publishing problem | Managing Leadership

We’re back!

The recent publishing software upgrade for this site has had its challenges, and it is a disappointment to me that some of them have prevented visits here over the past three days.

Given our discussion of the advantages of and relative overall value brought to an enterprise by generalists, as opposed to specialists (or, at least, those who are over specialized), I am intrigued that this particular problem’s essential characteristics were completely overlooked by the technical experts.

Despite the indisputable fact that they worked hard - and even, within the constraints of their worldview, imaginatively - to identify and solve it, they were simply off the mark. Everything about it was missed: its nature, its possible source, its current location - never mind its solution.

A generalist in the field, however, was the one who was able to maintain - even, really, to force himself to create - a sufficiently broad perspective to enable him to detect clues to those questions, to track down the answers, and then to see among them the solution. He worked consciously to enable himself to be able to experience a leap of the imagination, and that is what happened.

It was so quick and sudden - and then seemingly so easy - that it surprised both of us. And now the site is back and visible to you again. There are still some problems to be worked out, but they are deeper in the workings of things and shouldn’t affect us again before they are, thanks to this agent’s perseverance in combination with the technical engineers’ expertise, fully resolved.

I want to thank him, of course, and I will. But I also want to thank you for your grace and patience while enduring these glitches we have undergone.

Part of this one was a failure of two posts that were set to automatically publish, on Thursday and Friday while I was traveling, to do so. I will be republishing them (manually!) starting tomorrow.

I do hope to see you then!

—

Today’s tip: We’ve discussed here before the obligations and relations of corporations with respect to various “stakeholder” communities and interest groups. Please see this piece from The Economist for an insightful overview of the topic as it is playing out in the run up to this year’s Summer Olympics.

—

Thanks for stopping by, today. If you enjoyed your visit, please take a moment to subscribe, so you can visit again in the future from the convenience of your email client or RSS reader.