Although I haven't agreed with everything that Rupert Scofield, the author, has said in the book so far I find his advice on being a sort of middle man for a project or organization something that I wish I knew earlier. Scofield identifies being a middle man is trying to control an employee who doesn't follow orders from the boss. He advises for the middle man to 1. listen to all points of view and let each person make their case, 2. "hold back on your own opinions until everyone else has had his or her say." and 3. try to get colleague to listen to each other. These steps aren't easy to follow but I think if people try and follow these steps not just to be a middle man but to be more open to new ideas. Something that I have learned these past 4 years in high school is that you have to hear every side to a story before you make assumptions. Thinking like this has given me new perspective on a lot of things.
Scofield also mentions a person that is commonly found in an organizations. He calls this person "the visionary" because this person has new ideas that could improve the organization. He advises to support this visionary on his ideas and projects because this could help the organization to grow. I agree with this because some people are more creative and have more ideas that need to be represented.
I wonder about this "visionary." How can you distinguish between someone who's visionary and someone who is just full of themselves? In my experience, EVERYONE is creative. Think about little kids. They all enjoy creating new things. Some people suppress this as they grow older, but it's still there. I worry about giving all the creative powers to one person or one set of people.
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