The Personality Translator
I have it on my list to invent a “personality translator”. This is a digital device like a PDA (or it could be incorporated into a phone) that helps the user understand what the heck the other person in a conversation is really saying.
One of my seminar topics that I enjoy expounding on is the differences between individual personality, or temperament to be more specific. For thousands of years philosophers have found it useful to segment the population into 4 or more groups based on similar behavior patterns. The most widely known system of categorization relates to the zodiac, or birth signs.
Here in
It would work like this: “Honey, does this dress make me look fat?” would translate to “I’m feeling insecure about my physical appearance. Please reassure me that you love me no matter what.” The typical response of “No, it looks fine” could be translated as “Of course I still love you even though I never tell you and yes that dress makes you look fat but I don’t really care and my mind is on something else at the moment anyway.”
Workplace communication could be enhanced also: “Johnson, where is that report?” could be translated as “You lazy bum, I am really tired of having to cover your tail by doing all the work I’ve assigned to you by myself.” Johnson’s reply of “Sorry, boss, I’ll get right on it” would end up being displayed on the personality translator as “Got ya again, sucker. I am so out of this place. Go…..” Well, maybe the translator would have to have some filters on it.
And I’ll bet you think I’m kidding about this device. How much would you pay for it?
Hey Kent - Thanks for finding my blog. This stuff has always been interesting to me. I remember getting certified for DISC a long time ago, and thinking it was a great way to honor people’s strengths, while at the same time, recognizing people’s weaknesses and organizationally building a team that balances it all out. There are always the ones who forge ahead (without thinking), balanced by the ones who want to analyze things before acting (with the possibility of getting paralyzed in the process). The push-pull hopefully creates good results. I am not so sure about these personality assessments now. There are people who operate outside of the norm, who get sidelined, ignored or passed over. HR people use these assessments to make sure that everything is kept at a simmer, but sometimes, we need a boiler to get us out of our boxes. These assessments can support the status quo and engender mediocrity.
There’s my $92.
However, I remember teaching personality styles to Barney’s department store sales people, with a focus on how to recognize different types of shoppers, and how to interpret what they say, and respond accordingly. So, your translator idea is a really good one. I don’t think I’d pay anything for it, meself. But I’m way outside corporate America these days.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:22 am