Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine ( the theory of clarks,scotts and rogers)
Last night was Saturday, which means Saturday Night Drive, of course.
The first to join us was Progenitor roger. We talked about some issues, mostly job-related and (we) touched on the topic of his blog (the Recession Proof Raga) and finally about my conversation with the Progenitor scott earlier in the day.
Then we were joined by Ms AKH. (lol) The discussion began to totally careen, trying to focus on the challenge of improving the ‘production values’ of the Video Posts (appearing every Friday)…Ms. AKH suggesting, in a surprisingly roundabout, even diplomatic (for a scott, that is) way that maybe at times these Videos get dry, bland dull and boring. (We have heard this criticism before, and do not, in fact, disagree). The Progenitor roger noted that it is not that we get dry and boring as much as the speed and rhythm of speech, with an overly careful enunciation of precariously chosen words that contributes to the dustiness of some portions of the Post…at this point it (once again) that the Wakefield Doctrine was demonstrating it’s validity. Lets look at it:
the criticism from the scottian view was that it was not exciting…and it needed to add energy
the criticism from the rogerian view was that the ‘communication’ was in a form that was too formal, precise, (or to quote the roger) too angular.
This totally is consistent with the Doctrine’s description of the world as experienced by scotts and rogers, respectively.
At that point in the conversation it dawned on me that this was damn good content; so out came the video camera…whereupon both of our participants went into self-conscious mode, ( …’hows this angle?…”is the tape catching that inference?”…’HEY’!!) lol.
Into this ’21st Century-late-evening-July-barbeque-discussion’ steps DS#1! She dials in and, as is characteristic of her type, (she is) totally prepared for a constructive, productive session of furthering the understanding of the Doctrine…unfortunately what she found herself in was a (virtual) game of (verbal) Twister!
A pile of gangly (metaphorical) bodies driven by over-amped minds…everyone intent on pushing the limits while hoping not to end up the one on the bottom. lol. damn!
(As we all recall from our days as teenagers), the behavior of a group like this being described can be cruel, but DS#1 is not a child, so she had her top hat, chair and whip out faster than you can say….clark, scott roger… imagine a game of Spin the Bottle in which everyone is much more attractive than you, but they are all totally under the influence, …you hope to get something out of the game but really do not want to get caught trying too hard…
…or something like that.
July 16th’s Saturday Night Drive ended on a very constructive note; we shared ideas about the use of the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool for people looking for help with self-improvement.
(We also discussed the rogerian expression, “my head swelled up and my face fell”…a perfectly lovely phrase evoking that combination of empathic embarrassment mixed with chagrin and a little regret..perfect! Our little group concluded that, if achieved, this mental emotional state actually forms the basis of a bridge between the (intellectual-solitary) world of a clark and the (emotional-social) world of the roger.
Not bad for a night’s work, no?
Ya shoulda been there…
(you want to know what it’s like? on one of these Saturday Night Drives? seeing you are too scared to dial in…click on the following and see for yourself, ya big baby.) Click here and you will see exactly what this Drive thing is about!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLiuMkGCOC4
About clarkscottroger
Yes, you should have been there and thanks to modern technology Ms. AKH, the Progenitor roger and myself extended the evening’s driving (pun intended) discussion a quarter of an hour AFTER our host left.
It began by Ms. AKH thanking yours truly for introducing her to the Wakefield Doctrine, the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers. She related how, in retrosepct, she is able to identify a former boss as a scott. Aha! Now his behavior makes more sense whereas back then…..What were all the smiles (at inappropriate moments?) about? The outbursts? WTF! Not uncommon with scottian bosses. They often fly by the seat of their emotions. Take it personally? You shouldn’t, but most people do. Cry? No! Never! But some (mostly rogers) people do. If you know that scottian behavior is all about establishing dominance and ranking then you can lose the self consciousness of “is it really me he/she is angry with, etc?”. In truth sometimes it will be but more often than not scottian “outbursts” are for the benefit of all in screaming distance.
Then we moved onto job interviews. Proro (you don’t mind if I call you that today do you?) commented that in most interviews the prospective employee is not really seeing the person they will be working for. Everyone is just playing a part. First day on the job kablam! the real “boss” steps forward. The lament often is “wow, they didn’t seem like a crazy person when I interviewed with them” or “damn, they sure do go on and on and on”.
So how useful is this Doctrine thing? Extremely. Consider arriving for your next job interview and you are able to identify everyone in the office. First, the receptionist – (most likely a roger as they have the most “social, you are welcome here skills”). Let’s jump to the interview proper. The three of us realized what an amazing advantage it would be to be able, after only a few brief minutes, to identify your potentially future boss as either a clark, scott or roger. You’re gonna ace the interview right? Well, yeah, pretty much.
We got a little silly when AKH, harkening back to one of her own experiences, asked what to do when the person interviewing is simply smiling, has a funny look on their face when there wasn’t anything humorous said. What in the world do you do? I suggested you could simply ask “what’s so funny?” or as AKH suggested “what was it I said you find so amusing?”. Gasp! A clark would never in a million years call a scott out in that situation. Proro suggested that a roger would run and hide under a chair, but a scott? Who has the answer? You all know the answer. A scott would ask, not in these exact words but something akin to them, “what the fuck is so funny? want to share with me?”. Would they get the job? More often than not.
This eventually evolved into discussing the advantage of being able to bring forth the other 2 “lesser tendencies” we all have in order to deal with the immediate situation. Using the clark’s analogy it is getting to the point when learning a second language you no longer have to consciously translate in your head but rather you simply speak the other language. Your body “knows” the language and it becomes automatic. As AKH offered, wouldn’t it be great to get to the point where one’s “other sides” are more natural behavior as opposed to trying to “act” like a clark, scott or roger. (for you scotts out there no, there is no Berlitz school for the Wakefield Doctrine)
“IS THERE ANYONE STILL AWAKE OUT THERE?!” Hey, I am clark so you should have expected this.
Unlike the roger who would have written this in armchair easy except he hasn’t… so I will try and conclude with one of his final contributions to our Saturday Drive Time Talks.
He posed the simple question of “how does one learn the Wakefield Doctrine?”. He concluded, that while it is a fairly simple thing to learn, the Doctrine is a practice thing. Small steps taken day after day. Practice if you will, until one day you suddenly realize you have just interacted with a scott as a scott or not acted as a clark when in the presence of rogers.
In conclusion, the 3 of us, a clark, scott and roger, were in consensus that the Wakefield Doctrine is a verifiable, useful and valuable tool that can without doubt make life a whole lot less stressful. It can in fact be used to accomplish, achieve and create.
Yo, Roger! Give us some armchair easy.
Yoo-hoo, little miss runabout! Slow down for one minute and tell everyone (nicely) how valuable this Doctrine thing really is.
Man, I think my brain hurts. I’m gonna go lie down now…..