Somewhere down the line I suspected I was a Turncoat, a mutineer from the Do-er ship. Several jobs ago, at a Dot Com, when I was a generously compensated Do-er, which makes Doing much more bearable, our company endured several rounds of startling layoffs. I never saw them coming, of course; I was too busy Doing to notice—so you can imagine my surprise.
It was even more surprising when our management brought in a Guru to help build morale. Morale-building, in my book, was very anti-Do. It took away from the time I needed to file, call, follow-up, draft, input, etc.
The Guru asked us to assign ourselves into one of three groups: “Do-ers,” “Be-ers,” or “Visionaries.” My guess was that by doing this we would better understand how our colleagues defined themselves, and we’d get a better sense of how to work with them. And seeing as we now had half the colleagues we used to have, we would have to understand underlying motivation quite clearly, lest we force a Be-er to be a Do-er and incite violence in our now vacuous hallways.
I gravitated over to the “Visionary” side of the room, prompting an immediate response in one of my colleagues,
“What the hell are you doing over here? You’re a Do-er! Go be with them.”
I looked over at the Do-ers. Nice people, really. But I feared being like them. They struck me as a bit like the Victims of the crowd; the ones who got snowed. One of the Do-ers I recognized as always getting re-assigned to jobs that weren’t any better than the last one she’d had, but someone had to do it. I’d assumed they must have thrown more money at her each time, or she just felt flattered every time she was asked and took the position out of a sense of obligation.
I looked at the people in the Be-er group, a very likeable bunch that I had always seen as the Slackers of the crowd. Not the stars in the office per se, but people who had surprising successes in other areas of their lives. One Be-er, despite working 10-hour days at the Start-up, had two small children and was finishing a novel.
Our facilitator said that Be-ers are necessary to a company because they provide the buffers, the glue, so to speak, that a company needs. A Visionary may have some grand plans, and a Do-er may carry them out. But Be-ers can assess the morale of the troops and make the necessary recommendations to management to provide incentives and appreciation. Lots of HR people are Be-ers. That person who asks how you are doing during a rough project and who organizes a Happy Hour after work? Be-er.
Finally I looked at the Visionary Group. Not surprisingly it contained our company founders (save for one that I think didn’t want to seem overly audacious or disrespectful of the Do-ers), and the creatives at our company—better known in the new media world as the Content Providers.
I had mixed feeling about this group. On the one hand I felt sorry for them. The Content Providers, while having the most fun dreaming up Web-sized articles about fake turkey, or top 10 Places to visit with a Chip on Your Shoulder, typically didn’t get the high-profile positions, at least not until they were at a level where they could be heard. But the Top Brass were in this group, even the less creative ones.
I looked up defiantly at the Visionary colleague who told me to go be a Do-er, “This is where I belong.” I said, and took a step closer to him. Surprisingly there were no alarms that went off when I crossed over into the Visionary circle, no jolts of electricity meant to keep me out. No one questioned me about claiming to be a Visionary, though I initially felt dishonest about this self-designation. After a few exercises, however, I began to settle into life as a loftier type.
Some things the Guru told our Do-er and Be-er colleagues to remember about us Visionaries: Our heads get stuck in the clouds sometimes. You need to bring us back to earth and keep us focused on the plan. And we Visionaries need to keep the Do-ers in the loop, lest they Do their way in circles and lose sight of the larger goal.
After the workshop I was forced to return to my desk, home of a typical Do-er: schedules and drafts of plans within arm’s reach, Post-It To-Do lists hanging from my computer monitor. But now I felt different; I had experienced the other side. And it occurred to me, I’ve always been a Visionary but have bought into the notion that I could only be one by Doing. Once I’d reached a respectable level of Doing I could “come out” and be a Visionary.
But the process is much more insidious than it seems. There really is no point at which it becomes OK to be a Visionary. It’s not a merited state; it’s a declaration. The permission to be one lies entirely in your own hands, as I would learn, PAINFULLY.
Next installment: Is your job "Do" or Die? Consider re-branding yourself.
Oh, this is a gem....and you are so right!
Posted by: Joy | November 15, 2004 at 10:12 PM
I'm really enjoying this series -- so well written! One thing I've noticed is that these designations are fairly flexible. In my current job, I've mostly fluctuated between be-er and visionary, usually staying pretty solidly in one for at least a year. I think it's because the visionary stage is exhausting after a while, and you hit too many practical roadblocks, so you wind down by just being for a while.
Posted by: Jeremy | November 16, 2004 at 08:24 AM