HD Clarity

From Volume 10, Issue 9:Reach for that bagel. Tell myself I’m unlucky. Follow a strict tooth-brushing routine. Judge others by their:

o Intellect
o Weight
o Attractiveness
o Skin color
o Political philosophy

Make the toilet paper come off the roll:

o From over the top
o From underneath

These repeated patterns we exhibit, I believe, are simply manifestations of our Knower/Judger—that “keeper of the rules” we carry around with us that makes getting through the day easier. After all, we don’t have to stop and think about things we already have an answer to, right?

From Volume 10, Issue 8:For the past 10 years or so, I’ve referred readers to a web page to get a brief description of the Knower/Judger (K/J) and Learner/Researcher (L/R) personas.

I thought I’d drop back a bit and give you my take on these “states of mind” that define the boundary between doing what we’ve always done (adhering to our DISC or Myers-Briggs or Kolbe profiles) and making a choice to do something else.

From Volume 10, Issue 7:We’re human. We judge. It’s what we do. Good, bad. Right, wrong. Pretty, ugly. Useful, useless. Fast, slow. True, false. (I refer to this tendency in each of us as our Knower/Judger, or K/J.)

How do we make those judgments? We compare what’s happening right now with history lessons from our past. Our K/J has set up a database that can be quickly accessed to help us make snap decisions (not really decisions at all, but actually programmed responses) that help us get through life with a minimum of work. We are, as a species, pretty lazy sometimes. And as long as these responses generally work for us, we probably don’t see any reason to look for new ways to respond.

In recent weeks the theme of work–life balance has popped up in my conversations a little more than normal. Perhaps it’s an indication that people are being asked to do more with less (e.g., add hours to their work week to save the company from employing more people). Perhaps someone is being promoted to a […]

From Volume 10, Issue 6:What do I do when “indulge”?

Indulging myself conjures up images of giving in, sinning, or breaking a rule—doing something I’d not ordinarily do.

From Volume 10, Issue 6:Some positive thinking gurus disdain the concept of “wanting” things. They claim it only leaves a hole in one’s life that will never be filled. And Yoda said, “There is no try.”
I challenge both of those premises. First, nothing is ever accomplished or obtained if you don’t try to do so. So, following that logic, “do or do not” can’t even happen without someone first trying. Furthermore, I simply believe no aspiration is ever accomplished unless a significant amount of want is invested.

From Volume 10, Issue 5:My world has been filled lately by people, pets, and possessions evacuating from my space.

Poof! They’re gone. Friends, acquaintances, friend’s pets, a friendly o’possum that frequented my back yard in the evenings, one of my 10mm open-end wrenches, and my PowerPoint clicker. I wake up and my world is altered by the vacuum of something missing.

From Volume 10, Issue 5:“New beginnings” sounds like a positive marketing spin on starting over or trying again. It’s upbeat phraseology to help me get over a loss or failure. Sometimes new beginnings are formulated and executed by me, and sometimes they are thrust upon me.

From Volume 10, Issue 4:I’ve come to believe that each us of has developed in our Knower/Judger life scripts a certain level of risk tolerance. That is, we take in the available data for an action we’re about to take or a decision we’re about to make, we measure it against a probability of success or failure, and we pull the trigger (or we don’t).

From Volume 10, Issue 4:In this monthly missive, you’ve read about two states we present to our world. One state—the Knower/Judger (K/J)—is purely learned, reactionary, and emotional. It pretty well defines how we present ourselves to the world. It is observable for many of us through various behavioral assessments, such as DISC and Myers/Briggs. They help us and those around us understand how we will act in various circumstances. Aggressive-Passive, Compliant-Rebellious, People- or Task-Oriented, etc. These assessments are wonderful for improving communications on teams.