I vs. E

A couple of weekends ago, Kristin and I attended a pre-marital workshop.  Naturally, the theme of the weekend was communication and taking responsible for your own actions.  For one of the exercises, we had to fill out a personality profile similar to the Meyers-Briggs. 

The purpose was to understand the way that your spouse views his/her surroundings and how he/she responds.  It was not much of a surpised that I graded out higher on the introvert scale than extrovert.  Its no secret that Im rather introspective.However, as we went through the results together, I was surprised to find that the I and E labels have less to do with the way in which we interact and more to do with the manner in which we process information. 

One of the biggest frustrations that I experience in my daily and business life is when a person says or indicates that they are going to do something or be somewhere and then they doesn't follow through.  Over the course of our discussion, I had a revelation that perhaps I'm just as much to blame as the person that I feel has not kept his/her promise. 

What I learned was that people who process information like I do, tend to deal in facts and absolutes.  When someone throws out a statement that seems to be an intention, I tend to take it literally and plan accordingly.  I usually end up disappointed and frustrated if it doesn't work out as I had planned.  Well, apparently not everyone processes information that way. 

Others (most E's) may suggest an idea or make a statement and think nothing of it.  This disconnect can often lead to unnecessary frustration and break down in communication.  In other words, if you think someone said that they were going to do something, its best to get a firm confirmation before making assumptions. 

I plan to make a concerted effort to put this into practice; to be more patient and to try to understand the way that others process information as opposed to making quick judgments and assumptions.