Enhancing communication

Today I attended a training session on Communication Enhancement. State Gov provides training courses like this periodically - usually at the Hoover Building, which is kinda ugly - built in the same era as the Wallace Building. Here it is, with a scupture in front of it.

The trainer was a therapist from Kansas City - a nice guy, and good presenter. He wasn't afraid to wing it, and had a lot of good examples. My favorite part of the training was figuring out what type of person I am, and then how to deal with other personality types.

There are many ways to do this, but the one today broke it down into four quadrants -

• Relators are people who react with feelings. They're very empathetic. You can drive them wild with uncaring conflict.
• Socializers - like creative fun and want attention. Boredom and being ignored is their enemy and they attack with sarcasm.
• Thinkers are very deliberate. They into facts and details. They do not like being rushed and not having all the facts.
• Directors want to cut to the chase, without messing around. Wasting time and indecision makes them crazy.

In the excercise we did today, we answered a series of questions that helped us map out a rectangle on a quadrant that showed where we fall in these personality types when representing the State of Iowa. I came out as a mostly Thinker, Director. Which isn't really the whole story - as it mostly depends on what I'm doing. Being flexible is good!

I walked to Jimmy John's in the East Village for lunch. I enjoyed my Big John and reading Nan, my Nook.

 As I walked back to the Hoover Building from the Village, I walked by the Korean War Memorial on the south side of the Capitol Building. I took a couple photos in honor of Dad, who served there.

After work I went to Kohls and at Jason's Deli. I snapped this photo of work going on there in that shopping area - of the new Whole Foods coming soon (right of Best Buy) as Best Buy scootched over and downsized.

Got in a nice walk when I got to Joan's. Enjoying listening to my new tunes. So far Collection Soul is my fave new group. GooGoo Dolls not so much. Need to check out Kings of Leon tomorrow - haven't taken time to listen to them yet.