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

ok, lets wrap this week’s Doctrine posts up. We have some fiction to find for the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

We started here. Moved then to a more focused discussion on this Tuesday’s post. Today we tell the story that should make the lesson (of the week’s topic, i.e. communication among the three predominant worldviews) a little more accessible.

So our thesis is this: the challenge (and the opportunity) offered by the Wakefield Doctrine is: 1) recognition that what we know we hear the other person saying is not necessarily that which they are actually saying, b) with the simple willingness to imagine* additional realities, we can can insight into the message as intended by the speaker.

The Parable of the rogerian Real Estate agent and the Hurricane

It was mid-September. As is the climate in southern New England, the threat of hurricanes is present from June(ish) to mid-October. On the day of our story, the weather alerts had one topic: a hurricane making its way up the Atlantic coast. The weather readers went from advisory to warning without stopping at alert. Typical September day for natives to the area.

We were walking through an open office and passed a rogerian real estate agent on the phone, just as he said to his client, “So, are you ready for the Big Storm?”

Being a clark our reaction, while silent and otherwise non-verbal, manifested as an italicized sneer. Another victim of the meterorlogical-commercial complex! Better head down to the supermarket and stock up on milk and bread. stat! But then my years of study paid off and I stopped walking and really listened (at least to one half of the phone call).

While our initial reaction was valid (‘Run bovine, run!!’) I realized the tone of voice was not one of dire warning. Well, mostly not. What demanded our attention was the sense of… celebration! There was undoubtly a positive, shared emotion in his words (and assumedly in the unheard half of the cell phone call.)

I stopped mid-step and thought, “Damn! What a thing this Wakefield Doctrine is!”

By hearing the expression of an emotion not normally (for a clark) associated with a pending disaster, the elements of the relationship with the world of the Herd Member opened before me. This was a celebration. One inspired by a threat posed to the Herd, i.e. the approaching storm.

Questions?

* New Readers: a healthy imagination (and an embracing of this admittedly chaotic but fun quality) is necessary for a Reader to follow along. Let’s make that point stronger: the only people who, upon stumbling across this blog, stay and derive any benefit are those who find the exercise of their imagination enjoyable. You know, “There are three relationships people establish with the world around them and they are:

• that of the Outsider (clarks)
• the Predator (scotts)
• the Herd Member (rogers)