As managers, we have to get the best from both types of people, regardless of which is our own style. Professional personal organizers may have an effect on the margins of apparently chaotic office or home environments, but most adults (perhaps even children) have their style set. As an organized person, I have to fight the impulse to “improve” other people’s performance by getting them to organize their desks and minds. Evidence has shown me that both styles are highly effective, although not always in the same assignments. Allocating work and projects is the manager’s responsibility. Understanding the effectiveness of individuals is the key to every person contributing to their maximum capability.
Overly organized people are pedantic and can ruin a project by stifling creativity. Their talents may lie in keeping project management statistics, records, regular communications, and status reports. All of these are an anathema to highly creative people whose minds are on yet another way of innovating. Innovators are best on the forefront of projects when “thinking outside the box” is most needed. The fortunate people who balance a degree of organization with good creativity are or can be trained to be stellar project managers.
Hah! As another organized person (or, perhaps, one of those lucky enough to be a little bit creative and just organized enough), I have also struggled with that impulse to organize a seemingly distracted employee. Matching work to worker is the right idea, for sure... Maybe easier done in large organizations than in small? Or maybe the boss just has to get more creative & organized and be ready both to divide the work into non-standard chunks and then to monitor progress carefully.
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