Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Not much time.
Fortunately the subject is the Wakefield Doctrine so…don’t need a lot.
(…damn! tried the ‘easier, shorter path’… nothin’. Guess we gotta go old school)
The Wakefield Doctrine is a way of looking at the world around us and the people who make it up. As an alternate perspective on people and our interactions with them, it is more a language than a schedule/chart of traits and behaviors.
There are three relationships, (holds the Doctrine), we might experience. It is the character of those relationship styles that determine what we do and say and respond when interacting with the world.
In one sense, the Wakefield Doctrine is a translator. By providing a glossary of experiences unique to the three individually, the determined person can not only better see the world as the other is experiencing it, they will know more about the other person than they know about themselves.
These three relationships? That of:
- the Outsider (clarks) grew up apart from, at a certain (before the age of knowing the rules) became convinced they missed a class: “Being a Member of the family/tribe/society). Assuming the worst, the clark see the world as a treasure hunt that everyone else has one more clue than they. Being different unfortunately has a default setting of ‘un-deserving’ but the Outsider has good survival instincts and keeps it to themselves/maintains a low(ish) profile.
- the Predator (scotts) life? You mean today? What else is there? If it’s smaller and moves: chase it. If it’s fricken’ huge and moves: run away. Sleep when tired, When awake listen to the inner shout! Live. Now.
- the Herd Member (rogers) The world is a puzzle. Not of information. Not of standards of behavior. It is a puzzle that, while you know what you are doing is the Right Thing, the rest of Life remains insufficiently resolved. You seek the Right Way. And you rely on the attractiveness you maintain among the people around you to guide you along that Path. While you’re doing that, the increase in the number of others looking towards you is your North Star.
There ya go!
Get out there into the world today and when the other person (in an interaction) says something totally non-sensical / outrageous / mean whip out your little Doctrine translator/glossary/Michelin Guide/Berlitz cheatsheet and you will be in a position to respond on the basis of what the other actually meant as opposed to seemingly intended.