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98 Cha pte r S i x

The twin sister to intuition is imagination, which you will find is incredibly
important in problem solving, as is intuition itself.
2. The second aspect in Jung’s personality model is the “Evaluating Scale.” This
evaluation gives meaning to the observations obtained. It has two extremes.
One is “thinking” and the other is called “feeling”—although empathy may be
a better English word. Pure thinkers make evaluations based on logic and cold
hard data. While those with a strong “feeling” function will make decisions
based on what we call human values, such as community, human-worth, and
quality-of-life to name a few. As you might expect, most businesses are filled
with “Thinking-Sensate” personality types. If we plotted them on the scales in
Fig. 6-1, the thinking-sensates would be in the upper left-hand quadrant.

The dynamics of personality development are such that at a very early age people
start to use a certain type of observation technique and evaluation format. Then, when
they find one that works for them, they work to refine it so life is better for them. This
process of personality development is almost entirely unconscious, but it is still easily
characterized, even at a very early age. It is a dynamic of personality development, that
as one end of the observing pole tends to work, for you, then the other end of the scale
becomes subordinated. Hence, people tend to become sensates at the expense of the
skill of intuition, and one type of information gathering dominates your personality.
Sensing becomes the conscious way to accept information, and intuition is driven into
the unconscious. It will remain there until something occurs to cause it to surface. Most
people will develop a dominant way to accept information and to evaluate. This then
becomes their personality type. For example, one could be a “thinking-sensate” or a
“feeling-sensate,” to name just two. Most people do not develop—at least until they are
older—more than two of these dimensions.
Now here is the rub. Once a person develops a personality style, they use it and
refine it. In fact, they can become very rigid and structured. In some aspects of life, this
rigidity of personality will serve them well, but in
time the very nature of life will expose us to different
“At 20 years of age the challenges, and this rigidity will harm their ability
to resolve some of life’s issues. For example, early
will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40
the judgment… ” in life a young man can be a very rigid “thinking-
Benjamin Franklin sensate.” Then this fellow gets married and finds
that this cold, hard, rational thinking does not work
so well with his wife and kids and he needs to adjust.
This dynamic is one reason why there are few really good problem solvers in our busi-
ness who are also young. More on that later.
So how does this fit with problem solving? Unlike many aspects of work, while solv-
ing problems a person must have both strong sensing skills to make objective observa-
tions, but they also must have intuitive skills (maybe a better term would be “imagination
skills”) to foresee what could possibly happen, even if it is not currently happening. This
is a crucial aspect of the observing process that must occur in problem solving. If a per-
son lacks this intuitive skill (imagining), he can only envision what is occurring at that
moment in time, and so if the problem just happens to manifest itself in the present con-
text, he will see it—otherwise, he will be hampered by some level of blindness. At the
level of quality demanded by most companies, it is very rare that we actually see the
problem when it occurs, hence those who do not have this intuitive skill are hampered