Appreciating Differences - Jack Falt - Ottawa area, Ontario, Canada

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The Conference Brochure: An Exercise in S and N

Here is an example of using the four functions to complete a task. See the article on Problem Solving for more information on the theory.

As I think about the process we went through putting together the 1999 OAAPT Conference brochure, I was reminded how useful it is to have all four functions to accomplish complex tasks.

We used our Sensing function to look at the logistical details of running a conference and what we needed to tell people so they could make an informed decision. We used our Intuitive function to come up with some possibilities. We used our Thinking and Feeling functions to look at the consequences of our decisions and then ran them through the zig zag again—S --> N --> T --> F.

After all this was done, I was designated to put the brochure together. With Board members scattered from Ottawa to Kitchener e-mail has been a real help. I put all the material into a document in roughly the order it should appear and e-mailed it off. This triggered everyone’s functions once more as people discovered errors, confusing wording, and misinformation.

I put all this information together and then sat down with the Conference Committee—Lorraine MacIver, Diane McCarthy, and Diane Warriner (by conference phone). We spent another couple of hours going over the material.

Back to my computer, I then put the revised information into a brochure format and sent it once again to the whole Board. This triggered some more Sensing as more errors were found. After another run through, we hope we have it right. (But probably we left a few “mistakes” for the TJs to gloat over.)

For those of you who have gone through the process of creating a brochure, you can identify with our process. For those of you who haven’t produced a brochure, we now have some highly experienced people who can meet your discriminating needs. We have all four functions represented among us.

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