As a long-time people watcher, I've come up with a way to definitively distinguish between people types. I've been down the Myers-Briggs road, the horoscope road, the gender divide, cultural differences, and more. While each system has it own merits, I find my division makes the most sense to me.
No matter when you're born, what culture you grow up in, what gender you are, it seems that deep within each of us is a kernel of reactivity. We're either proactive in our response patterns or reactive. And it's this difference that determines if people get along.
Have you ever been in a group, say at work, where the leader wants all these contingency plans laid out to the nth degree? Or have you experienced a disaster (computer crash, tornado, vehicle accident on the way to pick up your kids) and had to deal with a rapidly changing scenario?
In either case, the group immediately stratifies into folks who are slow to react and people who want to get ahead of the curve. There's a basic sociological principle that "Like seeks like" so we are naturally drawn to folks who think like us.
I've been caught short before and didn't like it. Matter of fact, the thought of a pop quiz or playing my guitar in front of people without sheet music is paralyzing. To perform at a consistently high level, I need to know what is coming next.
Therefore I like to plan - I fit into the proactive group.
I plan with daily to-do lists, with word count goals and logs, with a weekly chores list, and so on. If I know I'm going out of town, I get stories banked for my newspaper job.
This is fine until I'm in a group of reactive folks. They look at my proactive planning as unnecessary and a waste of time. The important stuff always gets done, somehow. And they seem to think there's no need to go looking for trouble. They are content with the status quo and when something happens, they go with the flow.
Do you agree with this division?
Which are you? Proactive? Reactive?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Maggie Toussaint
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