{"product_id":"the-blind-men-and-the-elephant-isbn-9781576752531","title":"The Blind Men and the Elephant","description":"If you work, you probably manage projects every day-even if \"project manager\" isn't in your official title-and you know how frustrating the experience can be. Using the familiar story of six blind men failing to describe an elephant to each other as a metaphor, David Schmaltz brilliantly identifies the true root cause of the difficulties in project work: \"incoherence\" (the inability of a group of people to make common meaning from their common experience).\u003cbr\u003e Schmaltz exposes such oft-cited difficulties as poor planning, weak leadership, and fickle customers as poor excuses for project failure, providing a set of simple, project coherence-building techniques that anyone can use to achieve success. He explains how \"wickedness\" develops when a team over-relies on their leader for guidance rather than tapping their true source of power and authority-the individual.\u003cbr\u003e The Blind Men and the Elephant explores just how much influence is completely within each individual's control. Using real-world stories, Schmaltz undermines the excuses that may be keeping you trapped in meaningless work, offering practical guidance for overcoming the inevitable difficulties of project work.PREFACE: NAIVE BEGINNINGS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 1: THE BLIND MEN\u003cbr\u003e “The Blind Men and the Elephant”   1 Challenging Our Certainty   \u003cbr\u003e Confusing Ourselves   \u003cbr\u003e Choosing More Appropriate Frames of Reference   \u003cbr\u003e A Different Set of Possibilities   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 2: THE ELEPHANT   \u003cbr\u003e An Elephant We Cannot See   \u003cbr\u003e Masters and Slaves   \u003cbr\u003e Fragmenting along Predictable Lines   \u003cbr\u003e Disclosing Our Delusion   \u003cbr\u003e Liberating Ourselves\u003cbr\u003e “That Each by Observation Might Satisfy His Mind”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 3: THE WALL   \u003cbr\u003e Festina Lente—Hasten Slowly   \u003cbr\u003e Meeting My Wall (Again)   \u003cbr\u003e Discovering What I Want   \u003cbr\u003e Juiciness   \u003cbr\u003e “God Bless Me! but the Elephant Is Very Like a Wall!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 4: THE SPEAR\u003cbr\u003e The Tale of a Very Bad Soldier   \u003cbr\u003e Monitoring My Metaphors   \u003cbr\u003e “To Me ’Tis Mighty Clear, This Wonder of an\u003cbr\u003e Elephant Is Very Like a Spear!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 5: THE SNAKE   \u003cbr\u003e Who’s Here With You?   \u003cbr\u003e Trusting Snakes   \u003cbr\u003e Sorry Sort of Safety\u003cbr\u003e Snake Hunting\u003cbr\u003e Tit for Tat   \u003cbr\u003e How Badly Do You Want Them to Win?   \u003cbr\u003e “I See,” Quoth He, “the Elephant Is Very Like a Snake!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 6: THE TREE   \u003cbr\u003e “101 Reasons Why I Can’t Plan Yet”   \u003cbr\u003e “I Think That I Will Never See ...”   \u003cbr\u003e There’s No Such Thing As a Project   \u003cbr\u003e Unavoidable Blind Spots   \u003cbr\u003e Imposing Disorganization   \u003cbr\u003e How Work Really Gets Done   \u003cbr\u003e Central Organizing Principle   \u003cbr\u003e “’Tis Clear Enough the Elephant Is Very Like a Tree!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 7: THE FAN\u003cbr\u003e No One Is Apathetic Except in Pursuit of Someone Else’s Goal\u003cbr\u003e Fanning the Flame or Stirring the Breeze?   \u003cbr\u003e Three-Part Conversation   \u003cbr\u003e Creating a Village Idiot   \u003cbr\u003e “Deny the Fact Who Can, This Marvel of an Elephant Is\u003cbr\u003e Very Like a Fan!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 8: THE ROPE\u003cbr\u003e Will Rogers Was an Artist with a Rope   \u003cbr\u003e Sitting Comfortably   \u003cbr\u003e Just Like the Real World   \u003cbr\u003e Coherence Emerges   \u003cbr\u003e Encouraging Coherence   \u003cbr\u003e “I See,” Quoth He, “the Elephant Is Very Like a Rope!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 9: THEOLOGIC WARS   \u003cbr\u003e A Heretic’s Homecoming   \u003cbr\u003e “And Prate about an Elephant Not One of Them Has Seen!”\u003cbr\u003e BIBLIOGRAPHY   \u003cbr\u003e INDEX   \u003cbr\u003e ABOUT THE AUTHORDAVID A. SCHMALTZ had no idea what he was getting into when he volunteered to help clean up the mess following a bungled computer system conversion back in the ’70s. He found that his back- ground as a freelance singer-songwriter and a pot washer prepared him well for the realities of project work. While helping to clean up the conversion mess, he started looking for but couldn’t find much practical information about what makes projects work. He found instead endless recipes that seemed certain to cause messes like the one he was cleaning up. Between the fantasy that people should be able to accurately estimate novel efforts, the notion of “planning the work and working the plan,” and the vacuous idea that on- time, on-budget, on-spec could meaningfully measure success, he concluded that project management theory offered a nearly total lack of real-world utility. “The most popular placebo in business today,” he calls it. Nearly a quarter-century of experience hasn’t changed David’s opinion.THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e It was six men of Indostan \u003cbr\u003e To learning much inclined, \u003cbr\u003e Who went to see the Elephant \u003cbr\u003e (Though all of them were blind), \u003cbr\u003e That each by observation \u003cbr\u003e Might satisfy his mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The First approached the Elephant, \u003cbr\u003e And happening to fall \u003cbr\u003e Against his broad and sturdy side,\u003cbr\u003e At once began to bawl:\u003cbr\u003e “God bless me! but the Elephant \u003cbr\u003e Is very like a wall!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Second, feeling of the tusk, \u003cbr\u003e Cried, “Ho! what have we here, \u003cbr\u003e So very round and smooth and sharp?\u003cbr\u003e To me ’tis mighty clear \u003cbr\u003e This wonder of an Elephant \u003cbr\u003e Is very like a spear!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Third approached the animal, \u003cbr\u003e And happening to take \u003cbr\u003e The squirming trunk within his hands, \u003cbr\u003e Thus boldly up he spake:\u003cbr\u003e “I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant \u003cbr\u003e Is very like a snake!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Fourth reached out an eager hand, \u003cbr\u003e And felt about the knee:\u003cbr\u003e “What most this wondrous beast is like \u003cbr\u003e Is mighty plain,” quoth he; \u003cbr\u003e “’Tis clear enough the Elephant \u003cbr\u003e Is very like a tree!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, \u003cbr\u003e Said: “E’en the blindest man \u003cbr\u003e Can tell what this resembles most; \u003cbr\u003e Deny the fact who can, \u003cbr\u003e This marvel of an Elephant \u003cbr\u003e Is very like a fan!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Sixth no sooner had begun \u003cbr\u003e About the beast to grope, \u003cbr\u003e Than, seizing on the swinging tail \u003cbr\u003e That fell within his scope, \u003cbr\u003e “I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant \u003cbr\u003e Is very like a rope!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And so these men of Indostan \u003cbr\u003e Disputed loud and long, \u003cbr\u003e Each in his own opinion \u003cbr\u003e Exceeding stiff and strong, \u003cbr\u003e Though each was partly in the right, \u003cbr\u003e And all were in the wrong!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Moral:\u003cbr\u003e So oft in theologic wars, \u003cbr\u003e The disputants, I ween,\u003cbr\u003e Rail on in utter ignorance \u003cbr\u003e Of what each other mean, \u003cbr\u003e And prate about an Elephant \u003cbr\u003e Not one of them has seen!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e —John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)","brand":"Berrett-Koehler Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300742746341,"sku":"NP9781576752531","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781576752531.jpg?v=1767738413","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-blind-men-and-the-elephant-isbn-9781576752531","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}