Whadda Jerk!

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

Carl Jung

Sadly, public discourse today seems to have degenerated into warring parties spitting epithets at one another. With little inclination to see the other's point of view, the parties are reduced to name calling, labeling and the simplification of complex issues. The only commonality is the shared belief that the other guy is a jerk.

Thanks to Jung's pioneering work on personality type, we know that there are at least sixteen discrete ways to view any data set. This means that given any situation, there are sixteen different, though perfectly normal, ways of evaluating it. Not surprisingly, sixteen different points of view might yield very different conclusions.

Too often we tend to ignore or demean points of view that don't match our own. Respecting that there are other, equally valid ways of approaching the same subject, can yield tremendous insight and improve the quality of our own decisions.

The next time you run into a point of view that doesn't match your own, pay attention. Don't dismiss it. By the same token, don't assume that different is better. But it just might be, that the different drummer your hearing isn't another jerk; it could be Gene Krupa.

George Ebert is the President of Trinity River Seminars and Consulting, a firm specializing in the custom design and delivery of team building, personal growth and ethical development programs. Mr. Ebert is a highly sought after speaker, educator and consultant with over thirty years experience in both the public and private sectors. He has presented widely throughout the Unites States. He is the author of the management cult classic, Climbing From the Fifth Station: A guide to building teams that work!

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