Thinkers and Doers – Different Work Styles

It is so weird how things come up in themes for me.  Recently, several meetings I’ve attended had speakers who have said everything happens twice; once in your mind, and then once in practice.  When the first person said “everything happens twice” my first thought was he was going to talk about how to get things right the first time so you don’t have to screw it up once.  So imagine my surprise when it wasn’t a criticism, but a positive!

In my second encounter, the person who said it then followed up with a description of a program he put together. It was amazing to me because what he was saying was he THOUGHT about each step of the project but what I and another woman in the group heard was DO.  Two different styles that are so ingrained we couldn’t even hear it described differently.

This led me to several discussions with people to see if that is true.  I know there are tons of situations I walk into without much of a plan.  I’ll go to a networking event with a goal to meet 3 or 5 people, but not necessarily knowing who I want to meet or much about them.  Or I’ll start a project that has an outline but isn’t fully flushed out because much of what we discover needs to be done can be managed on the fly – definitely more my style.

And then I started a project with someone who is definitely a thinker.  For him, there is no question everything happens at least twice. And it may be more because after the initial think, he takes the first step and then thinks through it again.  My inclination is to yell, “ready fire aim!!!” a couple times but in reality, he just has a different work style and he’s been successful with it.

So what do I do with this information?  Well first, I respect my client and understand he has a different work style.  To help him do his planning, rather than have an open discussion, I’m giving him concrete examples to look at to direct his thinking.  That also gives me actions I can take making me happy.  As I interact with people, I’m definitely putting them on the “thinker/doer” continuum because I don’t believe people are either/or in most cases, but fall on the line somewhere.  It helps with how I work with people on committees and as clients.

So are you more thinker or doer?  How do you deal with the other?  I would love to hear from some thinkers because right now, nothing is happening twice for me!