Today I read an "inspirational" facebook post. It was something along the lines of: A positive life is not possible with a negative mind, or some other happy sounding BS. So I'm going to lay out the reason that negative people are the not only necessary, but the reason positive people can be positive.
The negative primitive man was the one who cooked his meat, even though it was rare anyone got sick from eating raw meat. This led to basic food preparation, which led to surplus, which led to not having to follow the herds of animals. This led to the rise of society. (Obviously there are more steps)
Positive people will contentedly tell you not to make a big deal out of little problems. After all, gas lights were mostly safe. Rain will eventually fall. You can just get fresh food from the field. Except that when gas lights fail, people die. The rain sometimes waits until you die of thirst to fall. Sometimes it snows, and there is no fresh food.
Negative people see themselves, and the world, beset by problems. They invent light bulbs, desalinization methods, and canning, curing, and smoking, to preserve food. Does this make them less pleasant to be around? Absolutely, if you're a positive person. Do we make fun of positive people for failing to recognize the problems biting them in the face? Constantly.
In short, a positive outlook will keep you from recognizing a problem, and therefore keep the problem from being solved. A negative outlook sees the problem. And while not all negative people will solve problems, they see them. If you don't acknowledge a problem, you can't solve a problem.
So call us jerks, killjoys, buzzkills, whatever. But research some inventors, innovators, and visionaries. (da Vinci, Edison, Tesla, Ford, Jobs) Their contemporaries called them all manner of synonyms for "Negative". They may have envisioned a brighter future, but it was because they clearly saw the problems of their day.
If you only see the positive, you are happy with how things are. If you are happy with how things are, you aren't working to change them. Negativity innovates; Positivity stagnates. The negative thinkers may not be happy, but if "ignorance is bliss" then bliss (positivity) is ignorance. That would be the symmetric property. (http://www.mathwords.com/s/symmetric_property.htm) See how a negative person sees a problem before it manifests (like someone disagreeing) and acts to solve it?
So make room for the negative people. The world would be very worse off without us.
Showing posts with label negative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label negative. Show all posts
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Monday, October 21, 2013
6 types of people to ban from your meetings.
I once swore I would never do this. Blog about another blog. But this is sort-of a request.
First, read this from LinkedIn. (http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131020181102-6200057-6-types-of-thinkers-to-seek-for-your-team?fb_action_ids=10152188806967345&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210152188806967345%22%3A485331731564335%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210152188806967345%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D)
Then ask yourself if the first example of each type you could think of, is worth having at a meeting. While the article referenced above places a positive spin on these personality types, for each one there is a negative counterpart. Let's disassemble this, shall we?
1. The Dreamer. This person cannot bring their lofty ideas back down into the real world, and will derail any attempt to do what is feasible, because it is not what they envision. They will not listen to reason, even when it comes from every other team member. Often they are mired in the overly fond, and usually incorrect, memories of how good things used to be. They can drag down the team by stopping realistic goals from being met.
2. The Debater. This is the person who will contradict everything anyone else says, simply because they didn't say it. Often they will argue against a point they have already made, if someone else restates it. Many of them are convinced they are contributing by "keeping you down-to-earth", or "keeping it real." They can sap energy from the team by wasting time (the single most precious resource you have) with needless debate of trivial, or misguided, points.
3. The Disruptor. The diverse, worldly, divergent viewpoint is not always helpful. No one cares what the current fashions are in Zimbabwe, when you are selling in Tallahassee. This person can destroy productivity with the constant derailing of the right ideas. Sometimes an idea out of left-field is just that, and nothing more. This is the most insidious of the negatives, as the difference between this being helpful, or time-wasting, is completely dependent on circumstance.
4. The (backseat) Driver. This is the person in the room who feels they should be in charge, and will take action against the actual leader. Whether they are right, or not, is completely academic, of course; because they are not in charge. Sometimes confrontive, sometimes back-stabbing, they will always work to undermine the authority of the actual leader.
5. The Detailer. This is the person who will ask for every single minute detail of any plan, example, story, anecdote, etc. Their constant request for needless, unhelpful, and monotonous detail will keep everyone else in the room from contributing; just because they don't want to answer foolish questions.
6. The Doer. Who could speak ill of the person who get things done? Someone who has worked with someone who does things before they are ready. (Several firearms related idioms ahead) The ones who "go off half-cocked", jump the gun, or shoot first and ask questions later. These are the people who can ruin the timing of a project, or worse, telegraph it to the competition.
The way to address all of these are the same. Ask them to leave and not come back. When that doesn't work, tell them. Usually the group will follow your lead, and tell them they are wrong, even when you aren't there to hear it. Most importantly, learn to recognize when you are flipping from the positive side of one of these, to the negative. No one is wholly the negative aspect, or the positive. They oscillate. Make yourself valuable by learning how to be quiet when you drift into this territory. And above all, listen when someone tell you you've gone off track.
First, read this from LinkedIn. (http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131020181102-6200057-6-types-of-thinkers-to-seek-for-your-team?fb_action_ids=10152188806967345&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210152188806967345%22%3A485331731564335%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210152188806967345%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D)
Then ask yourself if the first example of each type you could think of, is worth having at a meeting. While the article referenced above places a positive spin on these personality types, for each one there is a negative counterpart. Let's disassemble this, shall we?
1. The Dreamer. This person cannot bring their lofty ideas back down into the real world, and will derail any attempt to do what is feasible, because it is not what they envision. They will not listen to reason, even when it comes from every other team member. Often they are mired in the overly fond, and usually incorrect, memories of how good things used to be. They can drag down the team by stopping realistic goals from being met.
2. The Debater. This is the person who will contradict everything anyone else says, simply because they didn't say it. Often they will argue against a point they have already made, if someone else restates it. Many of them are convinced they are contributing by "keeping you down-to-earth", or "keeping it real." They can sap energy from the team by wasting time (the single most precious resource you have) with needless debate of trivial, or misguided, points.
3. The Disruptor. The diverse, worldly, divergent viewpoint is not always helpful. No one cares what the current fashions are in Zimbabwe, when you are selling in Tallahassee. This person can destroy productivity with the constant derailing of the right ideas. Sometimes an idea out of left-field is just that, and nothing more. This is the most insidious of the negatives, as the difference between this being helpful, or time-wasting, is completely dependent on circumstance.
4. The (backseat) Driver. This is the person in the room who feels they should be in charge, and will take action against the actual leader. Whether they are right, or not, is completely academic, of course; because they are not in charge. Sometimes confrontive, sometimes back-stabbing, they will always work to undermine the authority of the actual leader.
5. The Detailer. This is the person who will ask for every single minute detail of any plan, example, story, anecdote, etc. Their constant request for needless, unhelpful, and monotonous detail will keep everyone else in the room from contributing; just because they don't want to answer foolish questions.
6. The Doer. Who could speak ill of the person who get things done? Someone who has worked with someone who does things before they are ready. (Several firearms related idioms ahead) The ones who "go off half-cocked", jump the gun, or shoot first and ask questions later. These are the people who can ruin the timing of a project, or worse, telegraph it to the competition.
The way to address all of these are the same. Ask them to leave and not come back. When that doesn't work, tell them. Usually the group will follow your lead, and tell them they are wrong, even when you aren't there to hear it. Most importantly, learn to recognize when you are flipping from the positive side of one of these, to the negative. No one is wholly the negative aspect, or the positive. They oscillate. Make yourself valuable by learning how to be quiet when you drift into this territory. And above all, listen when someone tell you you've gone off track.
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