Chapter 11: What s Your Operating Strategy?

Overview

We have examined in detail the six types in whose ranks we or those with whom we work may number. And we have explored ourselves using the Transcendence Model. We are now better able to understand our present status and future possibilities. Continuing this trend, it s time to define our individual operating strategies. Doing so will help us move from the fear that causes conflict within and without to a wonderful freedom in our work and in our lives.

As a prelude to defining our operating strategies, let us review how we are programmed to act.

A program in your brain ”we called it meta-level thinking ”creates and projects your sense of self onto your consciousness. It s like a movie projector projecting its picture onto a blank screen. This same program creates meaning in your life. It is also very busy assessing everything that s going on and judging whether it likes what it sees.

This assessment activity is critical for your survival. It allows you to make rapid decisions as your fast-paced, stressful days go whizzing by. If it says, ˜ ˜I don t trust that man, then you act accordingly . It takes the facts as you see them and makes value judgments . The output, the stuff projected onto the screen ”self, meaning, and judgments ”are not part of the object world. They don t depict what is tangible . They point to artificially constructed ghosts. The ghosts are critical for our survival, insofar as the judgments they make help us operate in the world ”but they are ghosts nonetheless.

Your feelings of security are the meta-level s primary motivator. To make its judgments, it assesses whether something will help you feel secure or will make you feel insecure . For example, if you are in a meeting with your boss and she wants to change the method you ve chosen for attacking a certain project and you really want to do it your way, then your thoughts will go to, ˜ ˜I don t like this. They may even go to some generalization like, ˜ ˜my boss always does that, or ˜ ˜she is a control freak, or ˜ ˜she doesn t let me do anything my way.

Your meta-level judgments have a pattern to them. The pattern concerns what you are usually watching for when you see or hear new things.

• The worrier is usually watching for the thing she fears the most.

• The controller is usually watching for whether things are going her way.

• The fake is usually watching for whether his illusion is being sustained.

• The attention-seeker is watching for opportunities to strut his stuff.

• The victim is watching for whether blame is on its way.

• The prisoner is watching for some sign that a past trauma might return or that some beliefs may prove true.

The visual phrase ˜ ˜watching for is not the only possible descriptor. You might say, ˜ ˜listening for or ˜ ˜taste testing or ˜ ˜scanning for or ˜ ˜checking to see if. The idea is that the meta-level is always on guard duty. It checks, judges, and motivates you into specific actions.