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

As I persist in my efforts to learn to write good, two bits of advice pop into my Monday head, like the orphan sock in a drawer full of equally dark pairs. (No, that wasn’t one of them. Although, I’ll be the first to admit the attraction metaphor holds for me is like oxygen to a… That being said, there is a Doctrine lesson right there. Remind me to return to it as soon as I write myself out of this section.)

One of the most common suggestions from every writing teacher is: practice. Do a lot of it. Make up words at every opportunity. (One of the stories you hear about Jimi Hendrix, something that everyone who claim the authority to describe him, is that ‘he was always playing guitar’. On stage, off stage, days off, always.)

The second advice is ‘write what you know’ (aka ‘write what you love’). One of the first things that comes to mind is the Wakefield Doctrine. I have yet to become bored with or tired of thinking/talking/writing about everyone’s favorite personality theory. So let’s have at it.

It’s Monday morning. Is there any more pervasive a morning-back-at-work conversation topic than, ‘How was your weekend/What did you do this weekend’?

Yeah, I know.

I’m thinking ’bout the weekend. And what elbows itself to the front of the conversational line is a comment from Dyanne She said… (hey! It just dawned on me! this ‘let’s talk about what someone said over the weekend’?… I do it more frequently than I’d realized! But it’s usually Friend of the Doctrine, Cynthia.)

Anyway, in this week’s TToT, I listed Una and Phyllis at Number(s) 1 and 2. In that order. Dyanne’s comment was, and I quote:

So is Phyllis cool with taking a backseat to Una?

When I mentioned the comment to Phyllis, one of us said, ‘Well that’s interesting. How ranking and status manifests in the world of a scott is clearly different than how it manifests in the personal reality of a roger or a clark.”  Well, we were on a Sunday walk with Una. Who wouldn’t have immediately fallen into a thoughtful conversation about the Doctrine. More specifically, a conversation centering on ‘the Everything Rule’.

(Quick Note for New Readers: The Doctrine says that, when it comes to personality types, there are only three: clarks(Outsider), scotts(Predator) and rogers(Herd Member). It, (the Wakefield Doctrine), maintains that we grow up and develop in one of three (personal) realities consistent with these three types. They, (the three worldviews), are distinctive and consistent within themselves. Everyone has the potential for all three, but end up in only one. That said, we retain the potential to experience the world as do the ‘other two’. Finally, the ‘Everything Rule’ reminds us that, even though we live in different realities, the world is still common to all. To use this weekend’s conversation as an example: Phyllis and Dyanne and I were ‘connected’ in our conversation, yet it, (the topic of our conversation, i.e. Dyanne’s comment), manifested differently for all three of us. I’m a clark, Phyllis is a roger and Dyanne is a scott.)

Dyanne’s comment ‘meant’ something different to each of us.

How so?

Consider the core idea: by putting Una ahead of Phyllis in my post, was I designating one as having more status than the other. Sure, in the basic sense that most people would say, “Hey! You got a list and Number One is always…well, it’s always Number 1 the best, the highest ranking.”

Ah ha! (Who else said ‘Ah ha! out there!? Lizzi, Denise? Cynthia? Mimi?* Good work.)

Status and ranking, at least in a social context, totally go hand-in-hand. The trick to understanding the people in our lives through the use of the Wakefield Doctrine is to determine their predominant worldview and then remind ourselfs that a thing may manifest in their reality differently than it would in our world. In this case, the concept of ‘ranking’

• scotts, as Predators, their groups are organized as a ‘pack’. (Yes, it’s quite alright to picture a pack of wolves. No, Dyanne won’t be offended. If anything, she’ll laugh.) As we all know, ranking in a pack is fundamental and…. linear.
• rogers, as Herd Members group together well, as a Herd. And, as a Herd, there is a relative center, but it is prone to constant shifting. Very not linear
• clarks, as Outsiders, … lol

So that’s our Monday morning, break room discussion, following our weekend.

* yeah, those of you thinking ‘they’re all clarks, what the hell!’

Music (sort of)

for those of you living in a cave (or driving a car without a radio tuned to your local Dinosaur Rock stations), here is the song Joe is explaining. Like you don’t already have it playing in your head.