Not the Assessment you expected, but…
Peter de Jager is a provocative Speaker, Writer and Consultant. His primary focus in on how we manage change, technology and the future.
In addition to speaking at conferences worldwide, he's also written monthly columns for Municipal World and Computing Canada.
His goal is always to question what we think is so, and in so doing perhaps open up new opportunities.
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pdejager@technobility.com
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The labels we attach to people are sometimes too negative. Consider your humble author for a moment: My desk a monument to chaos and confusion, I have about one square foot of ‘free’ space to the left of the keyboard. Scattered around my office, bedroom, bathroom and stuffed into several travel bags are three dozen or so books I’m currently actively ‘reading’, everything from the original ‘penny dreadful’ (Google it), to science fiction, from Hofstader’s latest treat, “I am a Strange Loop” to Dawkin’s controversial “The God Delusion”. When I’m ‘watching’ TV, I’m reading a book or a newspaper while simultaneously listening to an iPod. My attention span is measured in nano-seconds.
By any definition I’m seriously ADD, if I was of school age they’d medicate me for my own good. Thing is, the way I think, the way I work, isn’t, and has never been a weakness, it’s always been my strength.
The juxtaposition of my ‘haphazzardly organized’ life and how those with ADD are treated has generated a deep suspicion about how we label each other. Especially labels which supposedly describe a negative personality trait. Consider the following:
The Lazy: I’ve always considered this a trait as a tendency to exert the least amount of effort to achieve a maximum output, but ever since Pope Gregory the Great (6th Century) formalized the list of seven deadly sins, we’ve wrongly judged and reviled laziness or ‘sloth’.
Here’s the truth about sloth; all progress is due to the lazy. Laziness is what compels us to seek out the easiest way to do something. If not for laziness, we wouldn’t have the lever, the plough or the bulldozer. The underlying philosophy of laziness is that there is always an easier way to do something. That to expend more energy than necessary is a criminal waste of resources. Laziness is the root cause of progress, and the doting parent of efficiency.
Here are some other personality traits, not from any personality test I’m aware of, but they’re commonly, if secretly used, when we think of our peers, superiors and yes, even our employees: those fickle, opinionated, uncertain, pessimistic, simple minded, clock watching
individuals!
Before you go searching for these folks with the intent of firing them, keep in mind they sometimes the keystones of your organization. Remove them, and you remove the glue holding your organization together. These are the useful people upon which every organization knowingly or unknowingly depends. Treat them well; they’re the unsung heroes of your success.
The Fickle: A politician can commit no greater crime today than to change their mind. When they do, we label them as “wishy-washy”. That’s a perverse label for someone with the integrity to contradict a past belief when they find evidence to the contrary. Far from being wishy-washy, those who publicly retract past beliefs are champions of integrity. Their only other option is to hold to past beliefs, even when they have proof they were wrong.
The Opinionated: People with opinions are people who choose to think. When they then voice those opinions, they serve as the checks and balances of our organizations. In a society structured as hierarchy, opinionated people are necessary if we desire all levels to get involved in the decision making process. Without opinionated people, all thought, regardless of quality, would trickle down from above, unchallenged by those who work directly with our customers.
The Uncertain: Certainty is highly overrated; it erects fortifications against prudence. The Captain of the Titanic was certain the ship was unsinkable; the senior officers of Enron were certain they’d get away with unethical behaviour; and teenagers are certain they’re invulnerable. True certainty is a rare, almost nonexistent commodity. More valuable is a healthy dose of uncertainty spiked with the harsh tang of skepticism. Uncertainty focuses us on the task, certainty breeds complacency.
The Pessimistic: This outlook is second cousin to uncertainty, it takes the view that not only might things go wrong, they will go wrong sooner or later and we must accordingly plan for disaster. If we always see the glass as half-empty then we’re focused on improving the situation, usually by ordering another pint. The half-full glass is more likely to elicit nothing more than a burp of contentment. We can make most things better, but only if we’re unsatisfied with our lot. Discontent is the disenfranchised mother of invention; necessity is only a pretender to the throne.
The Simple Minded: Life isn’t complex. We eat (and we do the opposite of eating – this is after all - a family article), we sleep and do things to make eating, and safe places to sleep, possible. The rest of the time we seek happiness. We can avoid most ‘people’ problems by following the Golden Rule. Most of our remaining problems are avoided by paying attention to the task at hand and avoiding shortcuts. And the few problems outstanding are solved with creativity, determination and patience… which for some are forms of happiness. Bottom line? Life is good, not complex.
The Clock Watcher: Time moves faster than we think. Dates on the calendar are closer than they appear. Doing it now, is nearly always better than waiting until tomorrow. Those who pay attention to the swift passage of time are those who keep us on time. Their efforts are seldom appreciated. Everyone hates to be nagged, especially those who need nagging, who would be late if not nagged, who would never complete a task if not nagged. Nags keep the world turning, without them we’d all be snoring.
We seek diversity in many things; colour, religion, race and origin - we also need diversity in personality styles. Big picture folks need obsessive compulsive partners, the creative types need those who own and can read a watch, and workaholics need someone to show them there’s an easier way to get the job done.
© 2008, Peter de Jager – Peter is all of the above and more besides. He’s a worry wart and overly critical (of his own work) you can read more of his work in his daily blog at:
http://blog.technobility.com
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