Thanks so much for this comment. It was this book which I read in high school which encouraged me to pursue Philosophy in college. I got confused at first because my English teacher recommended it and started down the English path. By sophomore year I’d figured out the difference.

I definitely see us analysts needed to where both hats. A bit of the dreamer, but a strong dose of analyst too. Without the analysis we have lots of pipe dreams and don’t get around to the actual solutions. Without the dreamer, we worry too much about how to solve the problem and don’t let our ideas range far enough. Phaedrus used some pretty significant analytical tools in pursuit of his definition of Quality but as I remember it he had a few watershed moments where some big notions took hold of, and eventually formed his thinking. Many business problems aren’t too different, I’d say.

As to this comment:

“we…sort of hold up the mirror of Quality in collaborative conversation and bring unity to different mindsets and agendas”

Consider what skills you are relying in when you discover “different”. Seeing differences, gaps, disconnects are all the result of highly analytical thinking brought to bear on some great ideas, even if those ideas are the result of the artsy dreamers and there romantic notions.

Laura

Anyway, Laura, I love this article. It gets at what for me is the heart and soul of what we analysts do, which is work with people and their curious ‘notions’. I almost think the term ‘analyst’ has a little too much of the classic rationality in it. When you combine in with ‘business’, it sounds even more rational. Seems like the way we sell our profession, just using our handle “business analyst” as an example, is very classic rational. Of course, we’re not the opposite of a business analyst. What would that be exactly, an “artsy dreamer”? Actually though, there are times I’ve led alignment and stakeholder gatherings when it felt like what I was doing was more akin to art than business, and more like dreaming than analyzing; in short, more romantic.

What I love about this profession is that we do get to live in the moment, and at our best, sort of hold up the mirror of Quality in collaborative conversation and bring unity to different mindsets and agendas. So are we “analysts” really, when you get right down to it?