There are two parts to Colin Powell’s lesson 3 from the Colin Powell Leadership Series, and the second part is loaded and might get me into trouble if I’m too honest, so I’m going to focus on the first part and blog about the second part later (maybe).
Lesson 3
Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgement.
General Colin Powell
If there’s anyone who can say this with 100% certainty, it’s General Colin Powell, a guy who was convinced by experts that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, who then took the ‘expert data’ and presented it to the world forum as fact, only to be disproven years later, basically taking a huge and very public hit on his reputation. So he’s in the right place to be able to say something about this. That got me thinking about all the times I’ve gotten into trouble by listening to experts, and there have been plenty. Most of the time, I’ve let myself get sucked into believing the Organizational Dynamics expert was an enlightened being. But I’ve also tried to ‘projectize’ projects that didn’t really need it, trying to be a PM expert, when in fact, I should have just let things be.
Ok, now these guys...these guys are EXPERT at contingency planning.
Lets talk about Experts
Organizational Dynamics Experts
First there’s the Organizational Dynamics expert. This person understands all of the politics and emotional drama happening between groups of people in a corporate culture. They know who said what when, and what everybody’s motivations are, who to watch out for, and where the pitfalls lie. I’ve talked about this person before. This is Gladys in Accounting. She sits back and watches everything and can provide you information about who hates who and what’s not going to work and what will work. The point about Gladys is not to necessarily follow her. It’s to absorb her information and combine it with other information. What she provides is colored by her experience, and your experience, even with the same people, is going to be different.
I would say, listen to the Organizational Dynamics experts, write down what they say, put it in your stakeholder analysis. But do it with a grain of salt. This is not somebody who has it right all the time, but they can give you a superficial understanding of the history of what’s been happening to that point.
Certified Opinionators
Your second type of experts are what I call the Opinionator. There’s a lot of them, I’m one of them. They are the PMI Experts, the Agile Experts, Network Experts, CMMI Experts, ITIL Experts. And then there’s the super certified person “Ms. Super Certified, PMP, ITIL v3, Six Sigma Black Belt, MBA, CPA“. And there are plenty of bloggers. We all have opinions and ways that you are supposed to do things but not necessarily all of us are experts. Especially in the blog world. Someone called me an expert the other day, but I’m not. I don’t want to be called an expert until I’ve written a book an PM based on the study of empirical, quantitative data. What we bloggers do is provide our opinion about what’s worked for us and point you in the direction of the real experts (see below). Again, you don’t have to follow us, you just have to synthesize it in your brain. It can be useful info for you, but it’s not something that should be followed to the letter.
True Experts
True experts have never been the person who stands up and says ‘hey i’m an expert’. They’ve rather been someone who’s taken an academic, almost patrician view of thier desired subject. A very non-emotional, objective analysis perspective where they are looking at something, analyzing it and trying to figure out. They don’t have an agenda other than to simply study what they are studying. Another way to recognize an expert, they break it down for you; they speak in your language and don’t try to run you over with fancy terms. I love reading Harold Kertzner for example, he is just so clear and easy to understand. Barry Boehm is another expert, the guy who formulated the iterative development model and was even willing to explore his own thought process in his book Balancing Agility and Discipline, which ProjectShrink has reviewed. The final way to recognize a true expert is that they actively search for nay-sayers. They want people to challenge their ideas. Follow these people. They will give you good information but even they will tell you despite their best efforts to capture the truth, the truth always shifts.
You as Expert
I also think General Powell is implying an underlying age old truth “follow your intuition”. Don’t listen to, be buffaloed by, be run over by the experts. Instead, listen to your intuition. Your intuition isn’t always going to be right, either. However its like a venn diagram; you’re pulling in information from all different areas. You’re talking to the organizational dynamics experts, you’re reading the opinionators, you’re listening to your intuition and somewhere in the center of this venn diagram is the right thing to do.
The Right Thing to Do
conclusion
The reality on the ground is what it is. You know it the best, so allow yourself to hear all us experts out, but synthesize it with what you know, and we don’t.
(but hey..you don’t have to listen to me, I’m just given you my opinion 
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