For the most part, we interact with others in our environment from one of two personal operating systems, or what I call personas.
The first of these I term the KNOWER/JUDGER.
KNOWER/JUDGERS (K/Js) can do most of the things they do in life on “autopilot”. Sometimes it’s skilled things like driving, or playing a sport. And sometimes it’s interpersonal such as automatically helping people arrive at the right answer, or being a good listener. When we observe a “K/J”, we are looking at someone “the way they are”. They’ve become “who they are” through their history. These observable behaviors can and often are represented by the individual’s “natural” DISC profile, Myers-Briggs profiles, etc. Operating this way is incredibly valuable to us in many ways. It helps us do things without having to think about it. If we clearly had to think through everything we do, we’d run out of time and energy. So operating in the “K/J” mode helps us do that. “K/Js” are extremely valuable in our world. They are the people with rich life experiences who “know” the answer to problems. They’re the one’s who’ve “been there and done that.” When pressed for time, we frequently turn to a “K/J” for efficient solutions to our challenges. They are the “Voice of Judgment.”
- Knower/Judgers store history.
- From this they are the keeper of the “rules”.
- They are the Voice of Judgment, sometimes accurate, sometimes inaccurate depending on the correctness of the history stored.
- The actions of Knower/Judgers can be perfectly functional or quite dysfunctional based on the rules they use.
- Sometimes these actions serve their user well and other times they do not.
- There is a natural tendency to resist learning because they continuously compare the new data presented against what they already “know”.
- Black and White……no Gray.
37 thoughts on “Knower-Judger”