Experts are great at developing steady, progressive changes. By building on today, they can massage tomorrow. I would argue however, if we want transformational change, the experts should be the last people we send in.
The dictionary describes an expert as “a person who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area”. At a practical level, we can also think of them as “someone who has studied and/or experienced doing things to a very high level – in the current or previous manner”.
Basically, the experts built our today – and they know it very well.
Should this make them the ‘go to’ people when we want to imagine a completely new way of doing things?
The lived experience and knowledge of the experts can be invaluable for implementing new methodology, but we need the dreamers, the generalists and the passionate to map out the new world.
The dreamers imagine tomorrow and can speculate on what it could look like. This speculation then needs to be defined by practical people who have an open and excited mind. They need to crystalise and test the thinking to create a plan to move forward.
Once we have this plan, send in the experts. They will question, redefine and shape the plan based on their learned knowledge and skill. Let them develop proper specifications and then build the outcome imagined by the dreamers.
The Optimistic Cynic 