Inland, Dreaming of Waves

Eyes to the sky and other cutesy shit

I feel the need to talk more about my crew leader training last weekend. I do eco-restoration projects on summer weekends for a local nonprofit. They asked me to be a crew leader, so I took the training.

I have to talk about one exercise we did, which I liked because we got candy. It was an exercise to help us assess the "motivational characteristics" of our crew members and basically, figure out how to motivate them to work their asses off and come back another weekend and do it again. Isn't that sweet?

So there are 3 motivational types: achiever, power, and affiliator. To test which of us was which, the trainers put a bag of Hershey's kisses on one side of the room, a bag of Jolly Ranchers on another, and a bag of caramels on a third. Then they read sets of 3 statements to us. If we agreed with A, we got a Hershey's kiss, B, a Jolly Rancher, and C, a caramel.

Of course everyone wanted the kisses. Who wouldn't?

Here's an example of the statements:

A. After starting a task, I am not comfortable until it is complete.
B. I enjoy a good argument.
C. I go out of my way to make friends with new people.

It reminds me of those quizzes in Glamour magazine that I used to read with rapt attention when I was a teenager.

A. What if I'm in a screw-this kind of mood? Then I might just let somebody else complete my task.

B. What if I'm too tired to think? Then I might not want to argue, But usually, I do.

C. What if I've just gotten out of Krav Maga class and I'm covered in sweat? Then if I go to the video store to quickly drop off some videos, I may not want to chat with the interesting people near the entrance, especially when they all start sniffing when I walk by.

You see? I'm just too literal. Tests like these drive me crazy. I could analyze the answers all day, so I just picked the Hershey's kisses enough times to get a handful.

Let's face it, nobody is ever one type. I'd say I was mostly an achiever, which means, among other things, that I'm restless and innovative on the positive side and that I may sacrifice people to achieve goals on the negative side.

"Hey John, I've got to throw you over this cliff now because you're making people laugh with your jokes and they're not getting enough done!"

That's me, Miss Sacrifice.

And on the Power side, I do need lots of personal freedom and respect. But on the Affiliator side, I most definitely do not usually enjoy long chats. We've all met people who take twice as long to say something as any normal person needs to. Get to the point already and then shut up!

I feel better now. We quiet people have to stand up for ourselves sometimes, especially since people have been commenting on how quiet we are since about 6th grade.

Oh, and "eyes to the sky" means point your butt at the ground when you lift something heavy.

posted by Price of Silence @ 8:32 PM