Thinking about Thought some more...
If "Thought" is actually more about Time Required for Decision-Making, are there any scores that are more about... well, Thought.
What about Activity? Following the naming scheme, we know that this must mean that High-end Need scores indicate a Need for Activity. What about the Low-end Need scores? Low end scores indicate a Need for Reflection, which is a (quite literally) Thought-full activity. I like what the Coaching Guide says; it frames this Component as Mental Activity vs Physical Activity. Funnily enough though, when it distills this into Needs, it comes down on "personal control over scheduling" (low end) versus "a busy schedule" (high end). While I agree that these needs are symptomatic of low and high scores, I can't help feeling there is something going on at an even more fundamental level than this.
I wonder if this score is actually indicative of how we "stay on top", how we "process the stuff that happens", even perhaps the process by which we can assign meaning to what happens to us. High Activity Need people seem to "discover what it all means" in the context of having lots going on. The only metaphor - and it is a poor one - that springs to mind is of a Salmon leaping up waterfalls. Put a salmon in the pond in your back yard, I am not sure you will ever see the salmon leap (but you might see it swimming around in meaningless and ever decreasing circles trying to find some flow). But with the stream or river in full flow, it all makes sense to the salmon, and up she/he leaps. Poor metaphor because it would be too easy to start talking about adversity and swimming against the flow, and that isn't what this is about. I am suggesting that
High Activity Need folks can best think about themselves and what is happening and what it is all about, when they are in an activity-rich environment. Perhaps there is also something about sense or meaning being contextual rather than intrinsic.
Low Activity Need? These are people who can't "process stuff" very easily when even more stuff is whizzing past them. Think (and I agree, this is a really bad day for metaphors) of the Amsterdam gem-cutter. He knows his diamonds, but the last place that knowledge could be employed is scrabbling about in the gravel deposits with all the other diamond-hunters, under pressure to find the gem before someone else does. He might no longer even be able to recognise what is a diamond and what isn't, under that kind of pressure. Allow him to sit back down at his bench, and study a stone in peace and quiet, and in no time he can tell you whether it is flint or the Cullinan Diamond II - and then he will go on to reflect until he has its intrinsic (i.e. not contextual) meaning mapped out in the form of a cutting scheme.
So as the gem-cutter of Time takes a lazy bite out of the salmon of Fate, we can all see that this needs some thinking about.
Or not...
But in the mean time, I definitely think there is more about Thought in Activity than in Thought, if you see what I mean. But is that an end to our question?
What about Activity? Following the naming scheme, we know that this must mean that High-end Need scores indicate a Need for Activity. What about the Low-end Need scores? Low end scores indicate a Need for Reflection, which is a (quite literally) Thought-full activity. I like what the Coaching Guide says; it frames this Component as Mental Activity vs Physical Activity. Funnily enough though, when it distills this into Needs, it comes down on "personal control over scheduling" (low end) versus "a busy schedule" (high end). While I agree that these needs are symptomatic of low and high scores, I can't help feeling there is something going on at an even more fundamental level than this.
I wonder if this score is actually indicative of how we "stay on top", how we "process the stuff that happens", even perhaps the process by which we can assign meaning to what happens to us. High Activity Need people seem to "discover what it all means" in the context of having lots going on. The only metaphor - and it is a poor one - that springs to mind is of a Salmon leaping up waterfalls. Put a salmon in the pond in your back yard, I am not sure you will ever see the salmon leap (but you might see it swimming around in meaningless and ever decreasing circles trying to find some flow). But with the stream or river in full flow, it all makes sense to the salmon, and up she/he leaps. Poor metaphor because it would be too easy to start talking about adversity and swimming against the flow, and that isn't what this is about. I am suggesting that
High Activity Need folks can best think about themselves and what is happening and what it is all about, when they are in an activity-rich environment. Perhaps there is also something about sense or meaning being contextual rather than intrinsic.
Low Activity Need? These are people who can't "process stuff" very easily when even more stuff is whizzing past them. Think (and I agree, this is a really bad day for metaphors) of the Amsterdam gem-cutter. He knows his diamonds, but the last place that knowledge could be employed is scrabbling about in the gravel deposits with all the other diamond-hunters, under pressure to find the gem before someone else does. He might no longer even be able to recognise what is a diamond and what isn't, under that kind of pressure. Allow him to sit back down at his bench, and study a stone in peace and quiet, and in no time he can tell you whether it is flint or the Cullinan Diamond II - and then he will go on to reflect until he has its intrinsic (i.e. not contextual) meaning mapped out in the form of a cutting scheme.
So as the gem-cutter of Time takes a lazy bite out of the salmon of Fate, we can all see that this needs some thinking about.
Or not...
But in the mean time, I definitely think there is more about Thought in Activity than in Thought, if you see what I mean. But is that an end to our question?
posted by jon at
15:39
1 Comments
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1 Comments:
Jon - Thanks - you've got me thinking. When offering feedback to my clients, Metaphor Mike likes to build a mental image of a water pipe coming in from the upper walls of the office or cube. The participant has his/her hand on the valve next to their desk. High activity folks like that valve wide open hold the rush of activity back without the aid of the valve because the immediacy seems to fuel creativity and energy. Low activity folks seem to like to have their hand on the valve allowing in only what can be readily processed, item by item - spending time thinking about the best course of action.