Thank you for all the lovely comments/emails. So many of you said you wanted to hang it up on the wall I decided to make something a little more wall friendly. You can now get the poem/cartoon as a poster, print, or journal.
On the plane ride home from Evaluation 2015 I got inspired to write a poem. So I did, and I wanted to share it with you. If you like it, I have more in my head, so let me know 🙂
The Pragmatic Dreamer
There you are.
Sitting alone in an office but surrounded by people.
People who don’t really know what you do. Except that it involves numbers, or charts, or something like that.
To them you’re a pessimist.
The one who sits in meetings, squashing the dreams of the more idealistic.
Always watching, always listening, always asking, always a downer.
But we know better.
You’re not a pessimist but a realistic optimist.
A super optimist of sorts.
Unlike the dreamer and the hopeful, you look at those big goals as achievable things.
Things that take preparation and planning and design.
Things that should be defined and should be measurable.
Things that account for context and unexpected consequences.
Things that could fail.
Things that will likely fail.
You know that because you see the numbers. You know that because you watch, you listen, you ask, and you measure.
And when you do fail, you find out why. And you incorporate those lessons into what’s next.
Maybe in your lonely office surrounded by the people who don’t know quite what you do.
Because maybe, just maybe, next time you won’t fail.