Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

“…so! are you ready for the big storm?”

…friendly and caring, inviting and (somehow) enthusiastic words floated across the office yesterday morning. It was our newest rogerian agent, on the phone to a client. I was at my desk, in the corner (windows on 2 sides, but the corner nevertheless), and this simple phrase totally commanded my attention. ‘That is so rogerian!’ was my first thought. Following thoughts were:

• god! what a loud voice
• his voice is not conveying alarm or fear, there is an un-mistakable  promise of excitement or maybe, even better…. shared excitement
• … coming from a scott, it would have been heard more like,   ‘hey, have you been working out?’ (scottian female) or, ‘what’s that perfume you’re wearing?’ (male scott)

So what does the Doctrine tell us about this little snippet of a part of a telephone conversation? Two things:

1. as a clark I’m hearing only the words (but, because I’m fluent in the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine, I could not help but to be drawn to the tone of the words being spoken by the roger)
2. to a roger there is something going on that, as a clark, I would not understand, although, as a clark, I might be enticed/charmed/convinced by the message that I was over hearing
3. I need to remember that even though we (me, the rogerian agent, the putative listener on his phone) live in a common world, the everyday world of weather reports and telephones and approaching rainstorms, the Doctrine charges us to remember that our experience of these events, (how they ‘manifest’ to us as clarks and scotts and rogers), can be as different as cats and dogs, ghosts and bridges

From this 7 second, overheard half-a-phonecall, we can infer: rogers ‘enjoy’ preparing for challenges, the more ‘common’ the experience, i.e. a hurricane or a blizzard or an upcoming exam or a national holiday,  the more enjoyment there is to be had; the ‘enthusiasm’ in the voice of our roger, (in today’s example), conveys both a challenge, an invitation and an attempt at seduction… “hey, that rain is really coming down,  …come here often?”

So we have an insight into the worldview of the Herd, an artifact* to add to our collection:  the virtue of preparing and preparedness.

As we know, in the personal reality of the roger, there is a Right way and there are a bunch of other ways. For the most part, rogers seek to learn/discover/find/practice the Right way, if for no other reason than, that (the Right way) exists in the same form for everyone, therefore it represents the highest form (of an act or action).
rogers, if they do nothing else, strive for perfection. The virtue in preparation is found in the element of ‘common practice’…. the over-crowded supermarket the day before the Blizzard of the Century… I’ve always wondered why there is such an element of ….celebration in the air.  It’s because the grocery store is full of rogers engaging in practice of preparation… buying bread and milk is only the outward activity,  the source of the energy and excitement is that the Herd is engaged in a common effort.

(Hey!  new Readers? I often warn people about, how once you get to the point where you can see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your life, you will be unable to not see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your life. Lets add another level to this advisory. Today’s Post is an example of how much there is going on around us that is so interesting… become fluent in the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine and you’ll never have to watch reality TV again!)

* an ‘artifact’ is a word or phrase that provides an insight into a worldview, these are rare and incredibly valuable. Examples:  ‘referential authority’  and  ‘the security of expectations’ ( thanks, Kristi)