Friday, October 13, 2017

The Rationals

At the last Curtin Business School Centre for Entrepreneurship Growth program, the question was asked: Which profile dominates business?

The only answer I could offer was: In these programs it is the SJs – the sensing judging folk.

These people are grounded, stable, sensible, they like guidelines, security and they have a logistical intelligence. At their best, of course, because questionnaires such as these do not determine functionality or level of efficiency with the natural skill set. And people can, and do, kid themselves and might fill out a form to suit their view of themselves or how they think others might see them.

So what’s the point of it all?

We’re human and complex and most of us do not have a lifetime to analyse human psychology and resulting behaviour and even if we did, it may not help. Take my friend the psychiatrist, for example, who has spent a lifetime analysing human behaviour. On second thoughts, let’s not.

What this Carl Jung based profiling system can do is help. That’s all. It’s a guide.

Back to where I was.

The most recent group of business folk in the Growth Program was dramatically different to the standard mix. For the first time in 12, or 15, or 10, because I’m not good with numbers, years, that I have been delivering a day during the 12-moule course, the NTs (intuitive thinkers) almost overran the SJs.

There were 8 of them, or 10, but not 12. Possibly 9. They accounted for the second largest group, right behind the SJs and swamping the NFs (Idealists or Catalysts) and SPs (Artisans or Improvisers). In the last group I think there was only one NT and we had to pair him up with an NF, an intuitive feeler. The NF required counselling after the encounter. No, that was a humorous interlude, but the NT did say he thought the NF was a “bit soft”.

What is it about these people? And remember, I’m going to indulge in gross generalisations.

The intuitive thinker, what David Keirsey called Rationals, have strategic intelligence. At Curtin Growth we usually call them Theorists. This doesn’t mean they don’t abseil, or surf, simply that these activities do not drive them, are not high on their list of things to do.

The Rationals like theory, particularly theory in their knowledge areas, unlike the Improvisers or Artisans, whose heads may well explode if you feed them theory.
  • Rationals tend to be pragmatic, sceptical, self-contained, and focused on problem-solving and systems analysis.
  • Rationals pride themselves on being ingenious, independent, and strong willed.
  • Rationals make reasonable mates, individualizing parents, and strategic leaders.
  • Rationals are even-tempered, they trust logic, yearn for achievement, seek knowledge, prize technology, and dream of understanding how the world works.

All this means is that they process information in similar ways. It does not mean they will all agree. It does not mean they will process the same content, or come to the same conclusions.

My son, Roger (not his real name, as he’s a private chap), is an NT and he, like his cohort, was and is, very big on competence. As he grew with us, we often had to talk him out of punishing himself for mistakes.

Once he broke a glass table top and it took us hours to get him out of his room.  I remember doing everything I could in attempts to have him laugh at his error. I think I failed. All I accomplished was to confirm his suspicion that his father was an idiot.

The Theorist mindset is, however, the place I feel most comfortable after my own NF home ground and when I inhabit this place, my partner avoids me because I am hard, almost cruel, a bit arrogant (a lot, she would say) and I have little tolerance for those I perceive as fools. But none will suffer wrath like that I reserves for myself.

A group dominate by this preference set might be fearsome to behold, scathing in their outlook and bulldozer like in their approach.

As luck would have it, on the Curtin Growth day, they were very gentle with the rest of us and, really, quite nice.