Shamanism in the work place.

In one of my most recent guest appearances I screwed up. I had a plan and immediately that plan was destroyed. I tried to hold to it, but the host would just not play along.

I got nothing against the guy, he gave some good advice and operated at a much faster pace and he asked good questions, and I was definitely not what he was expecting as I’m rather an internet enigma.

Back to those questions, I could not answer them, at least not to the level I expect of myself. So I spent the rest of the day stewing over the questions and what I could have done better (I of course had the answers six or more hours after the event). During this time I realized something I was not entirely to blame for my failure.

Let me explain, my host figured out that I work similarly to art of manliness, although I tend toward more business or philosophical topics (how we dress and behave factor into the equation but are not my major focus) and he asked me flat out what I would do to help him improve.

He gave me his rough overall image and then pretty much told me to read him, right then.

There is the problem. I had too little data to read him, I tried but my method requires more than I was given.

Here’s what I had to work with. His Skype picture (with him partially in the frame), his voice, and his general image fro his own perspective. That’s it.

I need to see how people move, how they hold themselves, what they do with their hands, the clothes they’re wearing. I need to gauge them on how an outside opinion assess them not how they assess themselves. I can factor it in and it does help, and it also helps me to see what environment they choose to put themselves in, what that space is like.

In the shortest format my host had just asked the impossible of me, the equivalent of a shaman waving a magic stick and POOF! tada! I know exactly what to do to fix your problems.

A lot of his stuff I get what he was saying and I plan on implementing it. There’s a “but” coming you can feel it, I can feel it. BUT I’m an artisan, an ideological knife fighter, a weaver of reality (with a  bit of white hat con for character). I take a calm, controlled approach to my subject. There is a place for guerrilla tactics but the subject that was at hand was not the place or time for them.

As I put more of thoughts down I realize I came to perform an artist blade dance, trying to tell a story. What I got was a jackhammer and an order to recreate from scratch all of Michelangelo’s statue concepts in an hour. (Just if you’re wondering I looked up how many statues Michelangelo made and it’s determined to be roughly 42, meaning I had would have to make each in roughly 1 1/2 minutes to complete them in one hour’s time)

Avoid shamanistic requests, it won’t make you look foolish and it’ll help your confidence.

Sincerely,

The Irreverent Gentleman