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cathywWork has decided that employees above a certain pay grade should receive interpersonal skills training based on the iOpt model, which identifies two forms of input (structured and unstructured), two forms of output (thought and action), and uses a quiz to determine your dominant information processing model:
Unstructured input + Action output = Reactive Stimulator, more concerned with taking *quick* action than getting bogged down in details, if we're wrong we can fix it in post.
Structured input + Action output = Logical Processor, is bogged down in the details that the Reactive Stimulator doesn't want, more concerned with being *right* than being fast, risk is to be avoided.
Unstructured input + Thought output = Relational Innovator, the person you want in your brainstorming session b/c they are "idea squirrels", okay with risk if the reward is commensurate.
Structured input + Thought output = Hypothetical Analyzer, the person you don't want in your brainstorming session b/c they want to take as long as necessary to understand a system and don't like taking action based on incomplete understanding, risk is to be understood and managed but doesn't have to be avoided
(if I were describing them as writer stereotypes, the RS is a classic pantser who knows where they're starting and where they're going and getting there is half the fun, the LP is a plotter with a meticulous outline done in four colors, the RI generates infinite plot bunnies they never write and the ones they do may bear no resemblance to the original bunny by the time it's done, and the HA has set up a wiki for the worldbuilding of an epic they never write because they're still doing the worldbuilding)
We did, of course, have a presentation that went into these four profiles, and as we're talking about the Hypothetical Analyzer, I'm like, "yes, it's me? I will go off into the spreadsheet zone looking for good data and relationships between parts of the system and not come up for air for hours? I did not like writing 'first draft' assignments in class because WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME TO TURN IT IN BEFORE IT'S DONE? I have made people in the workplace think I'm stonewalling them because I responded to their request for information by asking 'why do you need this?(*) When I made crappy bread my first question was 'well, okay, then, how does bread work?''" I was really surprised that was my second lowest score?.
It turns out I am Divergent. Logical Processor and Relational Innovator are diametric opposites and yet I had almost-equal scores in the two of them (leaning slightly towards RI???)., and so I end up skewed towards HA because they cancel each other out. (The facilitator noted that this kind of thing means your information processing tends to be really flexible but you can confuse people if you switch modes on them mid-conversation...)
This confuses me and makes me wonder if either the whole thing is bunk (although other people in the session who were identified as strongly one of the four types really related to their type) or if I was not feeling especially self-aware when I did the quiz. I do not feel very described by the characteristics of a Relational Innovator? (OTOH I agree with the quiz that I am not a Reactive Stimulator, spontaneity is not me.)
...but also it doesn't matter a whole lot because even though they gave me a fancy sign to display on my desk, I'm not, like, accountable to it at all? I do not need to wear the properly colored hat of the Relational Innovator and get demerits if I act like a Reactive Stimulator in a particular cicrumstance. Ultimately this is kind of another 'Astrology for Business Majors' thing and if nothing else the class was useful in pointing out that different people's relationship to time and the fakeness thereof can cause friction in the workplace, and kind of interesting.
(*) when I look at it like that I see where they might get 'stonewalling' but no, I wanted to know why they needed it so that I could make sure that what they were asking me for was actually what they wanted. On advice of management I have stopped doing that and just send people what they ask for and if it turns out they were asking the wrong question we can sort it out later even though I HATE THAT and I think that manager was a Reactive Stimulator. :P
Unstructured input + Action output = Reactive Stimulator, more concerned with taking *quick* action than getting bogged down in details, if we're wrong we can fix it in post.
Structured input + Action output = Logical Processor, is bogged down in the details that the Reactive Stimulator doesn't want, more concerned with being *right* than being fast, risk is to be avoided.
Unstructured input + Thought output = Relational Innovator, the person you want in your brainstorming session b/c they are "idea squirrels", okay with risk if the reward is commensurate.
Structured input + Thought output = Hypothetical Analyzer, the person you don't want in your brainstorming session b/c they want to take as long as necessary to understand a system and don't like taking action based on incomplete understanding, risk is to be understood and managed but doesn't have to be avoided
(if I were describing them as writer stereotypes, the RS is a classic pantser who knows where they're starting and where they're going and getting there is half the fun, the LP is a plotter with a meticulous outline done in four colors, the RI generates infinite plot bunnies they never write and the ones they do may bear no resemblance to the original bunny by the time it's done, and the HA has set up a wiki for the worldbuilding of an epic they never write because they're still doing the worldbuilding)
We did, of course, have a presentation that went into these four profiles, and as we're talking about the Hypothetical Analyzer, I'm like, "yes, it's me? I will go off into the spreadsheet zone looking for good data and relationships between parts of the system and not come up for air for hours? I did not like writing 'first draft' assignments in class because WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME TO TURN IT IN BEFORE IT'S DONE? I have made people in the workplace think I'm stonewalling them because I responded to their request for information by asking 'why do you need this?(*) When I made crappy bread my first question was 'well, okay, then, how does bread work?''" I was really surprised that was my second lowest score?.
It turns out I am Divergent. Logical Processor and Relational Innovator are diametric opposites and yet I had almost-equal scores in the two of them (leaning slightly towards RI???)., and so I end up skewed towards HA because they cancel each other out. (The facilitator noted that this kind of thing means your information processing tends to be really flexible but you can confuse people if you switch modes on them mid-conversation...)
This confuses me and makes me wonder if either the whole thing is bunk (although other people in the session who were identified as strongly one of the four types really related to their type) or if I was not feeling especially self-aware when I did the quiz. I do not feel very described by the characteristics of a Relational Innovator? (OTOH I agree with the quiz that I am not a Reactive Stimulator, spontaneity is not me.)
...but also it doesn't matter a whole lot because even though they gave me a fancy sign to display on my desk, I'm not, like, accountable to it at all? I do not need to wear the properly colored hat of the Relational Innovator and get demerits if I act like a Reactive Stimulator in a particular cicrumstance. Ultimately this is kind of another 'Astrology for Business Majors' thing and if nothing else the class was useful in pointing out that different people's relationship to time and the fakeness thereof can cause friction in the workplace, and kind of interesting.
(*) when I look at it like that I see where they might get 'stonewalling' but no, I wanted to know why they needed it so that I could make sure that what they were asking me for was actually what they wanted. On advice of management I have stopped doing that and just send people what they ask for and if it turns out they were asking the wrong question we can sort it out later even though I HATE THAT and I think that manager was a Reactive Stimulator. :P
no subject
Date: 2023-01-21 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-23 08:50 pm (UTC)Which is to say: your conflicting results aren't surprising. That happens a lot with this stuff. I would suggest keeping the resultant advice that seems useful and toss out the rest.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-24 03:43 pm (UTC)they also mentioned that the system only works for the mentally well and whomst among us is mentally well these days? certainly not me. (and I also wondered as I was doing the quiz if it was secretly an assessment for autism.)