Thinkers and Doers need Implementers

Thinkers and Doers need Implementers

Thinkers are the ones open to new concepts and ideas. Thinkers are the thought leaders, constantly trying to improve or change the way things are done. They are creative instigators who are always experimenting, taking risks and change. They strive to invent new processes and products. The weakness of some Thinkers is that they often don't understand all the nuts and bolts of what it takes to implement processes or bringing new concepts to market.

“Doers” are the folks that “Get it done”. A Doer recognizes an efficient and standardized process. They are the people with the functional knowledge, and they often do not appreciate a Thinker tinkering with a process and introducing change. Doers can do without change finding change disruptive to the existing processes, particularly if a process concept has not been tested and proven. With a Doer, something is either black or white with no shades of grey.

These two personality types appear to be in conflict with one another and, although conflict, change and improvement can be good. To make these two personalities work, a third personality is the Implementer. He/she works with the thinkers to shape, refine, prototype and design and a process. The implementer then works with the Doer, the one that will perform the work, to resource and implement the process. The Implementer on a perfect Project Team is the Project Manager. Together, Thinker’s, Implementers and Doers work together to bring a project to a successful outcome.