The Blockbuster Video School of Life
I was in high school when I developed my Blockbuster Video model of decision-making.
A store full of videotapes available for rental. I saw some people who would walk into the store and start browsing, find a movie they were interested in watching, immediately rent it, and go home happy. They had a movie they were excited to see, so there was nothing else to think about.
Me, on the other hand, when I came across a movie I was interested in watching, I'd make a note but take no action. Yes, I wanted to see that movie, but there was still most of a store's worth of videos I hadn't even considered yet--maybe there was something among them I'd want to see even more than the one I'd already noted. I couldn't be sure until I'd considered all my options. So I'd have to browse every shelf, cataloging a list of potential titles to rent as I went, and only pick one after I'd seen everything.
That general principle applies to decision-making across the board. Some people see a good option and take it; some people need to consider all the options before taking one. Watch a person navigate a Blockbuster Video store and you'll gain a good insight into their basic approach to making all decisions.
The big hazard, for people like me, is not getting trapped in paralysis by indecision. There does come a point where further contemplation is simply stalling. There's no need to be rash, but a decision does ultimately need to be made before the night is wasted at the store.
The big complication came when people of different decision-making styles were trying to select a movie together. It was a difficult issue to negotiate, and didn't always result in everyone happy. Someone would end up bored and impatient or flustered and rushed, depending on how the power struggle resolved. Feelings needed tending and compromise needed accepting. Sometimes the movie was enjoyed by all, sometimes not. Thus is group dynamics.
At the Blockbuster Video school of life.
Some people might think you create needless complexity during discussions and may want you to make decisions faster than you do. Consider tailoring your approach; sometimes it’s better to keep it simple and go more in depth later.
You are best described by the serious care you take in making decisions or choices.
Because you take time to think carefully before making a decision, people might perceive you as forgetful, slow or afraid to act. Be prepared to explain that you are none of those things and that you are just considering all of the potential next steps.
Your objective and fact-based approach to decision-making may seem skeptical or critical. Keep in mind that others will have emotional, subjective and personal opinions — and that their input is just as valuable as yours is.
Always have at least three options in mind so you can adapt if circumstances change.
What is the biggest communication challenge you’ve faced in the workplace? How did you handle it and what did you learn about yourself?
I’m instinctively much more inclined to parallel play than group work, and find I’m more comfortable doing independent work that contributes to a team effort than true collaboration. I like to be given clear expectations for a goal, then given space to reach that goal in my own way—and I automatically assume others will operate in the same way, which means I’ve had to learn to pay better attention when others have different needs, whether more space or a more structured, closely engaged process.
I’ve also learned I am a very low-context communicator and have to avoid feeling frustrated with those who are high-context. I come from a Midwest nice, Mennonite background that was emotionally restrained and conflict-avoidant as a general rule, taught by osmosis to repress disagreement and negative feelings, to let things simmer and resentments build. While I retain much of that influence (one person I played games with called me “Captain Polite” and another nicknamed me “The Canadian), I’ve worked hard to be much more direct in my communication and to be comfortable with disagreement and dissent. Sometimes those I’m communicating with have differing needs. (Over the past week I’ve binged the first season of the TV show The Bear, and have been completely fascinated by their communication style—all cussing, yelling, confrontational—which is so different than anything I’ve known.)
So a bit of naval gazing to start things off today. I've been thinking about myself at work because we're in the midst of a reorganization, and part of that has been the purchase of our full results on the Strengths Finder Assessment tool. That's the source of the right-aligned phrases above.
We completed the assessment last year about this time and were given the report on our Top Five Strengths. I shared those results in Find the Thread of Love and Beauty in It All, beginning with this poem:
Input | Learner | Intellection | Connectedness | Individualization
This mental hum is one of the constants of your life.A craving to know more,gleaning information, inspiration, insights,unraveling the mysteries.The kind of mind that finds so many things interesting;the world is exciting precisely because ofits infinite variety and complexity.You will always be drawn to the process of learning.The process.Journey from ignorance to competence.Alone with your books and your thoughts,you continually seek wisdom,reflect or wonder — about theories, ideas, concepts,fascinated with the intangible and abstract aspects of life.You link ideas, events, people.We are all connected,part of something larger,not isolated from one anotheror from the earth and the life on it.You recognize how people are alike and how they are different,intrigued by the unique qualities of each person,you can draw out the best in each,build productive teams.You are a bridge builder for people of different cultures.
A collection of words and phrases, at least, if not properly a poem. They are not my words, but they are (I like to think) about me.
I'll share a lot of words from the full report lower in this post.
My #4 strength is Connectedness, which means I naturally see the connections between people and nature and things, that I understand everything as a system, and know that change in one part of the system impacts other parts of the system.
The big-headed ants’ coup disrupts a tight symbiosis, in which the trees furnish the native ants with food and shelter in exchange for defense. “We call them bodyguards,” Jacob Goheen, Kamaru’s supervisor at the University of Wyoming, told me. The main threat the native ants waylay is elephants—which, given the chance, will so aggressively chow down on trees that they end up stripped bare, even toppled, struggling to resprout. But the mere presence of native acacia ants is usually enough to keep whistling thorns upright: When elephant trunks snake into the trees’ branches, the insects zoom straight in, nipping at the flesh of their nostrils until the herbivores flee.Big-headed ants offer no such defense, and in regions where they’ve invaded, elephants do five to seven times more damage to whistling thorns than they’d otherwise manage, Kamaru’s team found. And because upwards of 70 percent of trees in this habitat are whistling thorns, their disappearance is enough to effectively convert the savanna into a nearly open grassland.On those newly remodeled plains, skittish zebras may gain a good 50 feet of extra visibility as they scour the horizon for predators, Goheen told me, “enough to mean life versus death.” In regions where acacias and their native ants remain intact, the researchers found, lions have little issue cloaking themselves behind trees to stage an ambush. But in big-headed-ant country, where the skyline is threadbare and lions stick out, zebra survival rates have close to tripled. After chasing a few too many zebras that elude their claws, the big cats have started to seek their fortunes elsewhere.Big-headed ants aren’t yet an extreme threat to big-cat welfare. Lions in big-headed-ant territory are still making some zebra kills; where their diet needs supplementing, they’re filling in the gaps with buffalo. So far, the size of the lion populations in the regions that Kamaru’s team studies has not detectably dropped. But buffalo have always been a second-choice meat for a reason: They’re far larger and more aggressive than zebras, requiring more lions to take them down. They’re also apt to gore their attackers with their formidable horns. “They’re frightening animals, even if you’re a lion,” Kwasi Wrensford, a behavioral ecologist at the University of British Columbia, told me. Wrensford worries about what will happen if the big-headed ants continue their invasive advances—which they appear to be doing at a rate of roughly 160 feet a year, in a kind of slo-mo deforesting—and the region’s zebras become even harder to snatch. There may be a limit to just how much buffalo can supplement a big cat’s diet; eventually, lions might need to find yet another alternative, or starve. . . .The tale of the lions and the big-headed ants reads almost like a macabre children’s book in its walk through a disrupted food web. An unfriendly ant messes with its neighbor, harming a local tree; a hungry elephant gorges itself until it disrupts a bumbling lion’s dinner plans.
Cooperation is self-interest.
One of the interesting things about having access to the full report is getting to see the areas that are not so much strengths for me, my lowest scores.
The bottom two, especially. I want to see positive results, but I don't do that with Positivity, with "upbeat," "contagious enthusiasm." That's not me. The other four are in the "influencing" category. I'm honestly quite surprised to see Communication so low since it's something I value and work on, so I'm guessing it's low because I don't communicate for the express purpose of influencing. Since I see us as all connected through our networks and systems, Competition doesn't make any sense to me. Cooperation is self-interest. And I have absolutely no Woo.
I won't share the whole thing now, with all the research and reasons that back my conclusion, but I have a rant against the idea of trying to woo people into loving the library. Many in my profession like to talk about all those they encounter who are delightfully surprised when they discover just all the things libraries offer, and want to spend a lot of time helping non-users discover just how awesome the library is. I, however, don't believe we should be in the evangelism business, trying to convert people into library-lovers. We have more important things to do with our time, energy, and resources. I made this meme as a quick illustration.
The library profession in general is lower in the "influencing" realm than society as a whole. After all, at the core of our identity is the value of Intellectual Freedom, especially the Freedom to Read Statement. We're in the business of championing the right of people to think what they want, not persuading them to think a particular way. So no Woo for me.
This article isn't really related to anything else in today's post, it's just something that came across my feed that I find intriguing.
Chronic inflammation is relatively rare among people who don’t live Western-style lifestyles, and it is not inevitable with age. . . .The populations he studied grew up in rural, dirty areas where they were frequently exposed to infectious diseases. He hypothesizes that this less-than-sanitary life early on effectively calibrated their immune systems, tuning their inflammatory responses to properly react to threats. These days, children in Western societies often don’t have their immune systems regularly challenged. . . .Regimes of sanitation and hygiene that control lethal pathogens also reduce exposure to the harmless microbes that have been part of the human environment for millennia. . . .“In many ways, chronic low-grade inflammation can be considered another ‘disease of affluence,’ a mismatch between our evolved biology and historically recent societal conditions that extend average life expectancies but also increase burdens of non-communicable diseases,” McDade wrote.McDade’s idea is closely related to the widely evidenced “hygiene hypothesis,” which blames overly sanitized conditions for increasing rates of allergies and other autoimmune disorders in developed countries.Is there a remedy for widespread chronic inflammation? Proper diet and regular exercise can help, as they do for almost any ailment. But if McDade’s hypothesis is correct, a longer-term cure is providing the immune system with reasonable adversity early on. Parents don’t have to let their kids crawl around landfills, but a little more dogs and dirt and a little less hand sanitizer and antibacterials seem reasonable.
Life is meant to be dirty, I guess.
A few more statements from my full report, briefly showing how my top Strengths combine and influence each other.
- As a natural student/teacher, you love the process of learning, and you are always looking for useful resources that can enhance learning. (input + learner)
- Just because your thinking can be deep and philosophical does not mean that it cannot be practical and useful. (input + intellection)
- You are a student of the world in which you live, and you are student of the world of thoughts that lives within you. (learner + intellection)
- You assist those who aspire to spiritual health or personal well-being by sharing tangible and helpful resources. (input + connectedness)
- You gather valuable resources, mindful of their usefulness. You share valuable resources, mindful of their relevance. (input + individualization)
- You are glad there are some things that are beyond your comprehension. You love to study, but you hate to know it all. (learner + connectedness)
- You are comfortable with the variety of life and the diversity of people. You are equally effective learning about things or individuals. (learner + individualization)
- It is important for you to think deeply and personally about the global and spiritual nature of life. (intellection + connectedness)
- Intuitive, you sense the essential nature of others. Self-reflective, you know yourself extremely well. (intellection + individualization)
- You can see the whole forest of global humanity, but you can also identify the unique tree that is an individual person. (connectedness + individualization)
Input | Learner | Intellection | Connectedness | Individualization
This is a really good article, the only content of any real import in today's post.
Whether you’re on the MAGA right or the social-justice left, you define your identity by how you stand against what you perceive to be the dominant structures of society. Groups on each side of the political divide are held together less by common affections than by a common sense of threat, an experience of collective oppression. Today’s communal culture is based on a shared belief that society is broken, systems are rotten, the game is rigged, injustice prevails, the venal elites are out to get us; we find solidarity and meaning in resisting their oppression together. Again, there is a right-wing version (Donald Trump’s “I am your retribution”) and a left-wing version (the intersectional community of oppressed groups), but what they share is an us-versus-them Manichaeism. The culture war gives life shape and meaning.Social scientists have had to come up with new phrases to capture this set of cultural attitudes and practices. In 2015, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff identified “vindictive protectiveness,” which is what happens when an online mob rallies together to punish a perceived threat from an oppressor. Henrique Carvalho and Anastasia Chamberlen developed the concept of “hostile solidarity” to describe the ways that retaliatory action binds people against their foes. This mode of collectivism embeds us in communities—but they’re not friendly communities; they’re angry ones.In this culture, people feel bonded not because they are cooperating with one another but because they are indignant about the same things. . . .In this way, pessimism becomes a membership badge—the ultimate sign that you are on the side of the good. If your analysis is not apocalyptic, you’re naive, lacking in moral urgency, complicit with the status quo. . . .But there is a giant gap between many of these negative perceptions and actual reality. . . .The current culture confers status and belonging to those who see the world as negatively as possible. . . .Liberals think the country is moving right; conservatives are convinced that the country is moving left. Whatever your perspective, everything appears to be going downhill. . . .The culture of collective negativity has had a deleterious effect on levels of trust: In 1964, 45 percent of Americans said that most people can be trusted, according to a survey by American National Election Studies. That survey no longer asks this question, but a University of Chicago survey asked the exact same question to Americans in 2022 and found that number is now 25 percent. Seventy-three percent of adults under 30 believe that, most of the time, people just look out for themselves, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey. Seventy-one percent say that most people “would try to take advantage of you if they got a chance.”Human relationships have come to be viewed through a prism of power and exploitation. Institutions are assumed to be fundamentally illegitimate, rigged. . . .The problem is that if you mess around with negative emotions, negative emotions will mess around with you, eventually taking over your life. Focusing on the negative inflates negativity. As John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister note in their book The Power of Bad, if you interpret the world through the lens of collective trauma, you may become overwhelmed by self-perpetuating waves of fear, anger, and hate. You’re likely to fall into a neurotic spiral, in which you become more likely to perceive events as negative, which makes you feel terrible, which makes you more alert to threats, which makes you perceive even more negative events, and on and on. Moreover, negativity is extremely contagious. When people around us are pessimistic, indignant, and rageful, we’re soon likely to become that way too. This is how today’s culture has produced mass neuroticism. . . .The persistent gaps between how things are and how they are perceived are new, maybe even unprecedented. In case after case, the data show one thing; conventional wisdom perceives another. . . .We have produced a culture that celebrates catastrophizing. This does not lend itself to effective strategies for achieving social change. The prevailing assumption seems to be that the more bitterly people denounce a situation, the more they will be motivated to change it. But history shows the exact opposite to be true. As the Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman demonstrated in The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, social reform tends to happen in moments of growth and prosperity. It happens when people are feeling secure and are inspired to share their good fortune. It happens when leaders can convey a plausible vision of the common good.A recent paper by four economists reinforces the idea that the mood of a culture can directly effect material progress. . . . Doomsaying can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.The thought of a second Trump term appalls and terrifies me. But to the more apocalyptic and Chicken Little–ish of my progressive friends, I’ll say this: You’re only helping him. Donald Trump thrives in an atmosphere of menace. Authoritarianism flourishes amid pessimism, fear, and rage. Trump feeds off zero-sum thinking, the notion that society is war—us-versus-them, dog-eat-dog. The more you contribute to the culture of depressive negativity, the more likely Trump’s reelection becomes.
The culture of collective negativity has had a deleterious effect on levels of trust.
Human relationships have come to be viewed through a prism of power and exploitation. Institutions are assumed to be fundamentally illegitimate, rigged.
Focusing on the negative inflates negativity.
Social reform tends to happen in moments of growth and prosperity. It happens when people are feeling secure and are inspired to share their good fortune. It happens when leaders can convey a plausible vision of the common good.
Cooperation is self-interest.
Finally, much information from my full Strengths report. I realize it's probably only interesting to me, but this is one of the places I collect and archive information, so here it is.
You lead with Strategic Thinking.
- EXECUTING themes help you make things happen.
- INFLUENCING themes help you take charge, speak up and make sure others are heard.
- RELATIONSHIP BUILDING themes help you build strong relationships that hold a team together.
- STRATEGIC THINKING themes help you absorb and analyze information that informs better decisions.
1. Input
People with strong Input talents are inquisitive and always want to know more. They crave information. They might collect ideas, books, memorabilia, quotations or facts. Whatever they collect, they do so because it interests them. They find many things interesting and have a natural curiosity. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. A few minutes spent surfing the internet may turn into hours once their curiosity takes off. They constantly acquire, compile and file things away. Their pursuits keep their minds fresh. They know that one day the information or things they’ve gathered will prove valuable.
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You have a need to collect and archive. You may accumulate information, ideas, artifacts or even relationships.
WHY YOUR INPUT IS UNIQUE
Driven by your talents, you are quite comfortable having time to yourself to enjoy a favorite pastime: reading. Whether you are sitting on a quiet beach or in a crowded airport terminal, you create your own space with a book, magazine, newspaper, document, or correspondence. Gleaning information, inspiration, or insights from these sources can make your relaxation more pleasurable or your delays more tolerable.
Because of your strengths, you occasionally spend hours unraveling the mysteries of complicated procedures, routines, or systems. Perhaps your step-by-step descriptions help individuals understand how something operates.
Chances are good that you are willing to spend time sharing your ideas with intelligent individuals. Of course, you want them to tell you their latest thinking. Conversations that involve a lot of questions and answers stimulate your mind. You know you have spent your time wisely when you have a number of new ideas, theories, or concepts to somehow file away or remember for future use.
By nature, you continually absorb, integrate, or catalog new information with ease. Ever eager to expand your knowledge base, you read avidly. Because you can access your memory bank at any time, you are free to process writers’ or researchers’ ideas immediately or at a later time.
It’s very likely that you acknowledge that you sometimes reduce elaborate procedures, ideas, regulations, or systems to their basic parts. This partially explains why you can tell some individuals how certain things operate.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING INPUT
You seek and store information. Your pursuit of mastery and access to knowledge empowers you to make credible and well-informed decisions.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Keep exploring; always be curious.
• Find out more about areas you want to specialize in. Consider jobs or volunteer opportunities where you can acquire and share information every day, such as teaching, journalism or research work.
• Regularly read books and articles that motivate you. Increase your vocabulary by collecting new words and learning their meaning.
• Devise a system to store and easily locate information you have found so you can access it quickly. Use whatever approach works best for you — a file for articles you have saved, a database or spreadsheet, or a list of your favorite websites.
• Position yourself as an expert. Share your exceptional archive of facts, data and ideas with others when they need help or advice.
• Seek out subject-matter experts who would be interested in knowing what you are learning and who would find it stimulating to hear about the questions and ideas you generate through your exploration.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• Unrestrained input can lead to intellectual or physical clutter. Consider occasionally taking inventory and purging what you don’t need so that your surroundings — and your mind — don’t become overloaded.
• You might have a tendency to give people so much information or so many resources that you can overload and overwhelm them. Before you share your discoveries with others, consider sorting out what is most meaningful so they don’t lose interest.
2. Learner
People with strong Learner talents constantly strive to learn and improve. The process of learning is just as important to them as the knowledge they gain. The steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence energizes Learners. The thrill of learning new facts, beginning a new subject and mastering an important skill excites people with dominant Learner talents. Learning builds these people’s confidence. Having Learner as a dominant theme does not necessarily motivate someone to become a subject-matter expert or strive for the respect that accompanies earning a professional or academic credential. The outcome of learning is less significant than the “getting there.”
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites you.
WHY YOUR LEARNER IS UNIQUE
By nature, you spend considerable time examining exactly why something has gone wrong. Whenever you experience a personal or professional loss, make a mistake, or experience failure, you tend to investigate. You are likely to be restless until you have answers to all your basic questions: What? How? When? Where? Who? Why?
It’s very likely that you treasure books and other publications because they are rich sources of information. You regard the written word as a gateway to a vast world of new ideas. Your quest to interpret events, grasp facts or understand concepts appears limitless. Frequently you read to broaden your perspective on very familiar as well as altogether unfamiliar topics.
Driven by your talents, you have little difficulty giving intense effort to projects, problems, or opportunities that capture and keep your attention.
Because of your strengths, you may prefer to enroll in demanding classes. Perhaps you thrive in situations where you can test your talents or your endurance to discover how much you can accomplish. You may need to “prove yourself to yourself” every now and then.
Chances are good that you routinely gather historical facts or artifacts — that is, pictures, tools, books, artwork, correspondence, or documents. You often wait to determine whether this information is useful. Your interest in history probably has no purpose other than to answer your own questions. You are simply intrigued by the past and its people. The future starts to take shape in your mind as soon as you begin to rummage through your collection of historic truths and objects.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING LEARNER
You love to learn, and you intuitively know how you learn best. Your natural ability to pick up and absorb information quickly and to challenge yourself to continually learn more keeps you on the cutting edge.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Use your passion for learning to add value to your own and others’ lives.
• Become an early adopter of new technology, and keep your coworkers, friends and family informed. You learn quickly, and others will appreciate when you share and explain cutting edge developments to them.
• Respect your desire to learn. Take advantage of educational opportunities in your community or at work. Discipline yourself to sign up for at least one new course or class each year.
• Find opportunities to expand your knowledge. Take on increasingly difficult topics, courses or projects. You love the challenge of a steep learning curve, so beware of learning plateaus.
• Be a catalyst for change. New rules, skills or circumstances might intimidate others. Your willingness to absorb new and different factors can calm their fears.
• Keep track of your learning progress. If a skill or topic has distinct levels or stages of learning, celebrate your progression from one level to the next. If not, create them for yourself. For example, set a goal of reading five books on a new subject.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• You place a high value on learning and studying, and you may tend to impose this value on others. Be sure to respect others’ motivations, and resist pushing them toward learning for learning’s sake.
• You love the process of learning so much that the outcome might not matter to you. Be careful not to let the process of knowledge acquisition get in the way of your results and productivity.
3. Intellection
People with strong Intellection talents like to think. They like mental activity. They like to exercise the “muscles” of their brain, stretching them in multiple directions. This need for mental activity may be focused; for example, they may be trying to solve a problem, develop an idea or understand another person’s feelings. The exact focus will depend on their other strengths. The theme of Intellection does not dictate what these people are thinking about; it simply describes that they like to think. They like to let their thoughts go in many directions. People with strong Intellection talents are introspective. This introspection gives them time to reflect and ponder. Wherever it leads them, their mental hum is a constant in their lives.
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You are characterized by your intellectual activity. You are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.
WHY YOUR INTELLECTION IS UNIQUE
Chances are good that you designate a minimum of five hours a week for solitary thinking. You probably have figured out how to eliminate distractions and interruptions. You accept the fact that you have less free time to spend with family, friends, coworkers, teammates, or classmates.
Because of your strengths, you characteristically read books, periodicals, documents, correspondence, or Internet sites. You are willing to be mentally stimulated by thought provoking ideas, information, data, predictions, insights, characters, or plots.
Driven by your talents, you read to stimulate your mind, to broaden your perspective, and to explore familiar as well as unfamiliar subjects. Reading is a solitary activity, which is one of the reasons why you like it so much. You are quite comfortable being alone with your books and your thoughts.
Instinctively, you continually seek wisdom from people with whom you have intelligent conversations. You not only listen but also share your thoughts. In the process, you are likely to move beyond concrete facts. Your curiosity draws you to speculate — that is, reflect or wonder — about theories, ideas, or concepts. To keep your mind fresh, you frequently quiz individuals who are equally fascinated with the intangible and abstract aspects of life.
By nature, you are the ideal example of a person with an open and agile mind. Thinking consumes a great portion of your time. You like to exchange ideas with individuals who are as well-read as you are. Your passion for the written word fuels your thought processes and lays the groundwork for sophisticated conversations. When you are alone, you probably reflect upon the thoughts of brilliant writers or the findings of notable researchers.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING INTELLECTION
You love to think, muse and reflect. Your powerful mental processing and intellectual activity empower you to clarify and explain, regardless of the topic or situation.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Think deeply. Think often.
• Set aside a few minutes every day to collect your thoughts. This reflection time will energize you, and your thinking will become sharper and more effective.
• Get involved in big projects or initiatives in the early stages, before the action begins. You have the ability to follow a trail to see where it leads, and your insights enable projects to move forward intelligently and without backtracking.
• Take time to write. Writing might be the best way to crystallize and integrate your thoughts. Make a list of your best ideas, and refer to it often. Revisiting your thoughts can give you valuable insights.
• Give people time to think through the thoughts and ideas you present. Remember that they have not spent as much time as you have pondering, so they might not grasp your message right away.
• Deliberately build relationships with people you consider to be “big thinkers.” Their example will inspire you to focus your own thinking.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• Because you are comfortable with silence and solitude, others might view you as isolated, disinterested or disengaged. Be prepared to tell them that solitary thinking is just your natural process and not necessarily a reflection of how much you care.
• Some people might think you create needless complexity during discussions and may want you to make decisions faster than you do. Consider tailoring your approach; sometimes it’s better to keep it simple and go more in depth later.
4. Connectedness
Things happen for a reason. Those with strong Connectedness talents are sure of it. They have a powerful conviction that everyone is connected. While each person is responsible for their own judgments and actions, those with strong Connectedness believe everyone is part of something larger. This belief implies certain responsibilities. Their awareness of these responsibilities creates their value system. They are considerate, caring and accepting. Confident in the unity of humankind, they build bridges for people of different cultures. They give others comfort that there is a purpose beyond everyday existence. Their faith is strong. It sustains them and their close friends in the face of life’s mysteries.
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You have faith in the links among all things. You believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has meaning.
WHY YOUR CONNECTEDNESS IS UNIQUE
Driven by your talents, you routinely isolate facts that link ideas, events, or people. You are especially sensitive to how one person’s optimistic or negative thoughts can affect the entire human family. This prompts you to pay close attention to what individuals and groups think and do.
By nature, you may be able to build bonds that unite different types of people. Sometimes their agendas clash. Perhaps your appreciation of everyone’s uniqueness frees you to help certain individuals direct their attention to what everyone has in common.
Chances are good that you may be guided by the notion that no one can live life without some help from others. Perhaps this idea compels you to consider how what you do and say affects people you know and individuals you will never meet.
It’s very likely that you might come away refreshed after conversing with future-oriented thinkers. Maybe you inspire them with your passion for projects or causes that benefit humanity or the environment. Sometimes you feel restless when your life lacks great and noble purpose.
Because of your strengths, you consider people more important than things. The value you place on humankind guides your decision-making. It also influences what you say and do as well as what you choose not to say and do.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING CONNECTEDNESS
You build bridges between people and groups. You help others find meaning by looking at the bigger picture of the world around them, and you give them a sense of comfort and stability in the face of uncertainty.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Help others see connections and purpose in everyday life.
• Use your sense of connection to build the foundation for strong relationships. When you meet new people, ask them questions to find common ground and shared interests that you can use as a starting point.
• Consider roles in which you listen to and counsel others. You could become an expert at helping people see connections and purpose in everyday occurrences.
• Help those around you cope with unpredictable and unexplainable events. Your perspective will bring them comfort.
• Show your friends and coworkers how they are connected to those around them. Point out specific examples of how their actions directly and indirectly affect others.
• Help your teammates and colleagues better understand how their efforts fit into the bigger picture. When people see that what they are doing is important and part of something larger than themselves, they will be more committed to the goal, and your team will be stronger.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• You may react more calmly and passively to others’ bad news, frustrations or concerns than they would like. Be aware that people sometimes need to vent and will want you to validate their feelings more than they want a philosophical response.
• Some may perceive you as naïve or idealistic because turmoil and upheaval likely trouble you. Remember that not everyone shares your connected view of humanity or believes that every negative event ultimately affects everyone.
5. Individualization
People with strong Individualization talents understand and are intrigued by others’ unique qualities. Impatient with generalizations, they focus on the differences among individuals. They instinctively observe each person’s style and motivation, how each thinks, and how each builds relationships. They keenly observe other people’s strengths and draw out the best in each person. Their Individualization talents help them build productive teams. While some search for the perfect team “structure” or “process,” these employees know instinctively that the secret to great teams is casting by individual strengths — so that everyone can do a lot of what they already do well.
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You are intrigued with the unique qualities of each person. You have a gift for figuring out how different people can work together productively.
WHY YOUR INDIVIDUALIZATION IS UNIQUE
It’s very likely that you help individuals acquire knowledge and gain skills. You are a fine instructor, tutor, and/or trainer.
Instinctively, you repeatedly let people benefit from your sound reasoning and logical assessment of opportunities, problems, regulations, policies, or proposed solutions.
Chances are good that you enjoy being busy, especially when you can assist someone in need. You are likely to be a good partner at home, in the workplace, at school, or in the community. You tend to do more than is expected of you. Why? You probably worry about wasting time. This explains your habits of volunteering for projects and asking for extra duties.
By nature, you occasionally credit yourself with having a gift for seeing the unique talents that make people different from one another. You may have little patience for placing people into broadly-defined categories. Perhaps you describe individuals in specific and vivid detail.
Because of your strengths, you now and then pause to recognize how people are alike and how they are different. Maybe you know a lot about each person’s talents, interests, background, dreams, or limitations.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING INDIVIDUALIZATION
You notice and appreciate each person’s unique characteristics, and you don’t treat everyone the same. Because you can see what makes each individual unique, you know how to bring out their best.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Appreciate the uniqueness in each person you meet.
• Become an expert at describing your own strengths and style. What is the best praise you ever received? What is your best method for building relationships? How do you learn best?
• Ask your coworkers and friends these same questions. Help them create a future based on their strengths and what they do best.
• See the talents in others, and encourage them to follow their dreams. Help individuals understand and maximize the power of their talents.
• Study successful people to discover the uniqueness that made them successful.
• Help your coworkers and friends become more aware of each person’s unique motivations and needs.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• You often know more about others than they know about you, and when people don’t naturally show awareness of your likes, dislikes, motivations and needs, this may disappoint you. Recognize that you will need to share your preferences with people, and don’t assume they will instinctively know.
• Your natural impulse is to put individual needs and goals ahead of what is best for the group. To prevent the appearance of favoritism and bias, acknowledge that sometimes you will need to adjust your style for the greater good.
6. Ideation
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You are fascinated by ideas. You are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING IDEATION
You are fascinated by ideas. Because you enjoy looking at the world from different perspectives and are always searching for connections, you are a powerful and creative brainstorming partner.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Refine your creativity to inspire and energize yourself and others.
• Make small changes in your work or home routines. Experiment. Play mental games with yourself. You likely get bored quickly, so these adjustments can keep you engaged.
• Take time to read, explore and think. Others’ ideas and experiences can energize you and help you form new ideas.
• Understand the fuel for your Ideation talents. When do you get your best ideas? When you’re talking with people? When you’re reading? When you’re simply listening or observing? Identify the circumstances when you get your best ideas so you can recreate them.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• Your limitless thoughts and ideas can sometimes overwhelm and confuse people. Consider refining your ideas and sharing only the best so others won’t reject them simply because they cannot follow your abstract thinking.
• You might struggle to follow through on the ideas you generate. Think about collaborating with someone who can help you turn your best ideas into real results.
7. Deliberative
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You are best described by the serious care you take in making decisions or choices. You anticipate obstacles.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING DELIBERATIVE
You are thorough and conscientious. Through your natural anticipation and careful thought process, you know how to reduce risks and prevent problems from arising.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Stop, listen and assess before taking action.
• Rely on your good judgment, caution and conservative decision-making during times of change. Your ability to identify and reduce risk is a powerful advantage.
• Be sure to set aside time for yourself. Try this: Reserve 20 minutes each day to sort through your projects, plans and ideas. Use this time to gather information on options, assess different situations or solidify choices you need to make. When you have the opportunity and freedom to calculate, you will make better decisions.
• Help others think through what they want to do. Whatever your role is, you can become a valuable sounding board because you identify and assess potential risks that others might not see.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• Because you take time to think carefully before making a decision, people might perceive you as forgetful, slow or afraid to act. Be prepared to explain that you are none of those things and that you are just considering all of the potential next steps.
• Your cautious and serious outlook on life might give the impression that you are a distant, private and unapproachable person who doesn’t give much praise. Keep this in mind, especially when the important people in your life need your approval and validation.
8. Analytical
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You search for reasons and causes. You have the ability to think about all of the factors that might affect a situation.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING ANALYTICAL
Your natural ability to investigate, diagnose and identify patterns results in valuable insights that are logical and well-thought-out. Your critical thinking helps clarify reality and provides objectivity.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Use your logical, objective approach to make important decisions.
• Identify credible sources you can rely on. Find helpful books, websites, experts or other resources that you can use as references.
• Get involved in the planning stages of a new initiative or project so you can evaluate its feasibility and direction before it gets too far along.
• Accept that sometimes you will need to take action before all the facts are in place.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• Your objective and fact-based approach to decision-making may seem skeptical or critical. Keep in mind that others will have emotional, subjective and personal opinions — and that their input is just as valuable as yours is.
• Because you ask many questions, people may think that you always doubt the validity of their ideas, that you do not trust them and that you are tough to work with. Explain your analysis so they will be more likely to trust your process and your motives.
9. Strategic
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, you can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING STRATEGIC
You quickly weigh alternative paths and determine the best one. Your natural ability to anticipate, play out different scenarios and plan ahead makes you an agile decision-maker.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Always have at least three options in mind so you can adapt if circumstances change.
• Strengthen the groups you belong to by using your talent to discover the best path to success. Because you can do this quickly, it may look as if you are “winging it,” so explain yourself along the way to help others understand what you see.
• Schedule time each day to think about your goals and strategies. Time alone might be the best way for you to evaluate all your options and to find the right course of action for each goal.
• Trust your insights. Because you consider options so naturally and easily, you might not realize how you came up with a strategy. But because of your exceptional talents, it will likely be successful.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• When working with others, sometimes they may misinterpret your strong Strategic talents as criticism. Be mindful of what is already working well and what others have accomplished.
• Because you evaluate patterns and pathways so quickly, others might find it difficult to follow or understand your thought process. Be aware that sometimes, you might have to backtrack to explain how you got to where you are.
10. Achiever
HOW YOU CAN THRIVE
You work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. You take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive.
WHY YOU SUCCEED USING ACHIEVER
You love to complete tasks, and your accomplishments fulfill you. You have a strong inner drive — an innate source of intensity, energy and power that motivates you to work hard to get things done.
TAKE ACTION TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
Bring intensity and effort to the most important areas of your life.
• Set challenging goals. Take advantage of your self-motivation with a more ambitious goal every time you finish a project.
• Take time to celebrate each success before moving on to your next item or task, even for just a few minutes.
• Limit your commitments to projects or assignments that align with your highest priorities as much as you can.
WATCH OUT FOR BLIND SPOTS
• You might get frustrated when others don’t work as hard as you do, and they might see you as too demanding. Remember that not everyone has the same high expectations for themselves or is driven to work as hard as you are.
• Your pressing need to get things done might cause you to take on projects or agree to deadlines before you know everything that’s involved. Before you commit to something, make sure you have the time and resources you need to do it right.
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11. Relator
12. Responsibility
13. Self-Assurance
14. Discipline
15. Belief
16. Developer
17. Focus
18. Maximizer
19. Context
20. Empathy
21. Arranger
22. Command
23. Harmony
24. Restorative
25. Significance
26. Includer
27. Consistency
28. Futuristic
29. Adaptability
30. Competition
31. Activator
32. Communication
33. Positivity
34. Woo
Two portraits of me from the same activity by different people at different work meetings.
The directions: you and a partner sit facing each other, each with a drawing implement and paper. You get 60 seconds to draw. You cannot look at your drawing; cannot look away from your subject. You cannot lift your pen or marker.
The idea being: just go with it, without overthinking or critiquing or worrying about perfection. Let go and have fun.
What obscure superpower would you choose to have?
The Synthesist
(Bringing together disparate: 1) ideas, to solve problems and mysteries; 2) materials, to address physical issues (MacGyverish); and 3) people, to overcome conflict.)
posted by Degolar @ 3:47 PM
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