June 2, 1989
Dear Everyone:
Where to begin?
“Jeannie” arrived safely last Thursday, navigating her way through the public transportation system (luckily, she’s been here before). She found the new video store in the shopping center next door, much the way a pin finds a magnet. Between the two of us, we watched Running on Empty, Masquerade, Salem’s Lot, Little Shop of Horrors, Afterward and The Name of the Rose, plus a late night re-run of Columbo (ditzy Shakespearean actors inadvertently murder their producer and try to cover it up with Columbo bumbling through it all in his usual fashion. Needless to say, the production was of that bad luck play, Macbeth.)
This is not to say that we spent the entire weekend shut up watching TV. WWe also went to the real movies and took in Earth Girls Are Easy and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. We also went to the Plant Lady on Treat Blvd where “Jeannie” ordered a 4 foot mimosa tree with Manzanita branches which I will take up to Ashland next august along with “Jeannie’s” jade plant (if it’s still alive).
Speaking of Ashland, “Alice” and “Kelly”, have you given any thought as to your travel plans yet? I will be off work beginning Saturday, 7/29/89, through the following week. You can ride up with me (and “Jeannie’s” tree) or come down with Mother and “Jeannie” (in which case you get to ride with the tree back to Canby). It’s your choice, either way, but please let us know before August 2.
The reason that my Letter is so late this week is because this is the FIRST day that I’ve had a lunch break free to write it! Monday was a holiday (three cheers for holidays!) and Tuesday and Wednesday “Rowena” and I were in a class where they catered lunch. They have learned that if they let people out at lunch time, often there are those who go back to their offices and discover terribly important messages that prevent them from returning to class in the afternoon. So the cafeteria provided breads, lunchmeats and salad to keep us happy. Nevertheless, there was always a line of people at the phones during each break, trying to keep in touch with their offices. (I personally left a message on my phone that I would not be back in the office until Thursday and left it at that. Naturally, there were no messages when I got back. If you don’t return their calls, they don’t leave messages.)
The class was called Producing Results with Others (PRO, cute, huh?). At first I thought it was going to be one of those head trips where the Company attitude is: I’m OK, you’re a mess. But it turned out quite differently. Instead, it’s about how you perceive, and are perceived by, others.
They break it down into 4 basic groups, based on how “assertive” you are and how much you appear to “emote”. We spent the first day learning about the Social Style Model which shows how you determine which group a person belongs in. For instance, if you are more “assertive”, tell people things rather than asking, and control your outward “emotions” a lot, you’re probably a “Driver”. These are the people who want to get things done RIGHT NOW! They can see the goal and they head straight for it. Once you’ve identified a person as a Driver, you know better than to stand in their way, unless you like having tread-marks on your forehead.
The “opposite” of a Driver is an amiable. Amiables are “less assertive”, more “emotional” and spend much of their time stroking people and spreading warm fuzzies. They can be very useful in some work groups, dampening the high explosives.
After the Amiables come the Expressives. These are “assertive, emotional” people. Like Drivers, they tend to go charging ahead, often without any idea where they’re going, but having a great time getting there. They need someone to hold them in check. That’s where the Analyticals come in. These are the cool-headed people who ask questions rather than telling a lot, and keep their emotions under wraps. They’re the planners and organizers, the ones who reserve judgement until they have all the facts. The walking debate team / encyclopedias.
Guess who landed in the Analyticals.
A couple of weeks before the class we each sent out five sealed envelopes to co-workers and friends. Each envelope contained a computer input sheet with 150 adjectives to be marked “Yes” (this applies to the person who sent the form to you) or “No” (this doesn’t apply). From these the computer spits out a Profile and a sort of generic description of the type of person you are: Drive, amiable, Expressive or Analytical. On the second day of the class we got to see our Profiles and determine if we thought they were correct. They were. The description in my printout fit me like a glove. A size 7½ glove.
At one point we separated in to groups: all the Drivers in one part of the room, all the Expressives in another and so on. We Analyticals immediately moved to a different room (Analyticals like to have quiet so we can think. It is, after all, one of the things we do best, right after making lists.) Suddenly, it was like being in a meeting of Neat Freaks Anonymous. “How many of you have a completely cleared desk at the end of the day?” Up went all the hands. “How many times per day do you shuffle the papers into neat stacks?” “Don’t you mean how many times per hour?”
It was so enlightening to discover the different ways that these people all think and approach their work. The plan here was, after all, to teach us how to Produce Results with Others. When you understand where a person is coming from, you can better deal with them. Or as an Expressive put it:
Expressive: Look at this great new car I just dreamed up!
Analytical: That’s nice. Where did you decide to put the engine?
Expressive: Engine?
The facilitator told me never to go rational on an Expressive. They can’t handle it. Wait until they’ve had a chance to cool down first. This is important advice since my supervisor is a manic Expressive (as the facilitator well knows from previous encounters).
Anyway, the class was a lot of fun and “Rowena” and I are now going around pinning labels on everyone and making bets on whether “Murray” is a Driver and “Melanie” is an Expressive – they take the class next week and then we’ll know for sure.
Yesterday I had to go to a luncheon for all of us that worked on the Savings Bond Drive. I hate going to these things because they’re such a monumental waste of time.
As you will have guessed from the envelopes, I still haven’t found anyone here in the City who can let me use a memory typewriter to print out address labels. I have a line on a person, but I haven’t had time to approach her and, frankly, she hasn’t had time to see me; so I’ll continue to scrawl names and addresses and hope the Post Office can read them.
Love, as always,
Pete
PS. I ran this Letter off a different printer to see if it gives a more readable copy. It does at least number the pages for me. Feedback would be appreciated. Feedback is very important in Producing Results with Others. P.
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