Kites have the ability to catch the wind and soar, but only if it has an earthly anchor ensuring that the wind is harnessed. It is symbiotic.
All organizations need a kite and a rock. The kite is the person who soars with new ideas, pulls the organization along into new and exciting directions. You can always identify the kites because they seem to have dry/erase pens genetically attached to their hands, they are always talking about what is possible and sketching that possiblity on anything (particularly white boards, but cocktail napkins will do) that they can get their hands on. They are always, inexhaustively tugging the minds of their team into accepting changes in direction. Pulling the organization forward.
However, unanchored, kites can fly, then drift, then fall to the ground without achieving the glory of which they are capable. Rocks are anchors - ensuring that kites get grounded so that the soaring can continue. The rocks in an organization maintain balance. They take those ideas and and make them concrete, credible action plans. The rocks in an organization are easy to spot as well. They are sitting in meetings, with furrowed brows asking question after question - driving for clarity, identifying obstacles and communicating how it can actually get done.
Neither the kite or the rock can be mutually exclusive. They require each other's presence in order to reach their respective potential. No matter what you are, recognize that you have to have someone to balance the scale in order to move forward. And forward you should move - not too fast (like the kite would have it) and not too slow (like the rock would have it) - but Just Right - like Baby Bear would have it.
