I didn’t mean to imply that the qualities are mutually exclusive–only that people who are great starters aren’t necessarily good closer and vice versa.

I completely agree with your notion of a lack of ownership; but I was approaching this from the perspective of many “real world” scenarios where removing some of the top “starter” folks from a project after it’s running is a fairly common practice. I wish that it wasn’t the case; but being that it so often is, I felt it necessary to address that projects don’t just “coast” their way to the finish line (as they are often able to during the “meat and potatoes” days in the middle.

Ultimately, the best environments allow for the same people to be on a project together from start-to-finish and your starters and closers each have their time to shine.

I would say though that the qualities of a starter and a closer aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.

There is also a flaw with having different people start and end a project, and that is the issue with ownership. How much ownership will the starter accept if he knows he won’t have to see it to completion? And how much will the closing team accept when they have to finish what someone else started, especially if they don’t agree with how it was started in the first place?