Page 204 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

The Dreamer Mode 195

trying different ideas on for size. Dreamers love to take a fresh per-
spective on things, are open-minded, and often have very short atten-
tion spans, moving on to the next thing even before their creative ideas
have been executed, often leaving that to others.
Leonardo da Vinci often functioned in the dreamer mode, wonder-
ing why water speeds up when flowing around rocks in a river and
how to use that dynamic for mechanical purposes, or pondering the
makeup of sunlight and how to capture and use it. But his short atten-
tion span also led to many partially completed projects, and da Vinci
upset more than one monastery by leaving ambitious but only half-
finished murals in his wake.

A Note of Caution
Making broad generalizations and pigeonholing people has its limita-
tions, particularly when trying to help people grow professionally and
personally. I have serious reservations about typecasting people for
life. If Hollywood had pegged Leslie Nielson only as a bad guy and
never given him the opportunity to show his lighter side, we would not
be the beneficiaries of one of the funnier actors of the big screen in the
past 20 years. If baseball had kept Babe Ruth as the pitcher he started
out to be, and he played in only every fourth or fifth game (as pitchers
traditionally do), “America’s greatest pastime” would have been
cheated out of one of its great batting heroes.
That said, if we are, in fact, trying to develop certain propensities
(or lack thereof, as the case may be) in people, then it definitely does
make sense to identify and better understand the starting point.
It’s also important to note that we are attempting to identify the
dominant and superdominant personality types as they relate to an
individual’s vital role on a particular team. If a person is a highly devel-
oped crafter in one area of his or her life, that does not necessarily
translate to all areas of life.
We have all seen the sharp, task-oriented middle manager (ratio-
nal/crafter) fail miserably when promoted to an upper management
role where dreamer traits are in greater demand.
Other personality traits can sometimes override an individual’s nat-
ural mode in a Mind Farming sense. I’ve had more than one creative or
client service executive work for me who was an absolute star with
regard to ongoing client business, but just couldn’t perform anywhere
near their potential in the pressure cooker of new business. Conversely,
I have had people who perform at their best under intense pressure and