Jung Typology Test

I have been using the book Write Like This by Kelly Gallagher to work on improving my own writing even though it was written to improve the writing of students.  One exercise suggested is to take the "Jung Typology Test" found at
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp and then use a T-chart noting with what you agree and with you disagree. 

Not only was this a great exercise for writing but I feel it would be great if all our Esperanza staff took this free test and shared the results with everyone else.  It would be a great reminder of each other's assets as well as a reminder that we aren't all using the same "awareness wheel." 

"The Country of the Blind"

The movie we watched the other day--The Music Never Stopped--is based on a story called "The Last Hippie." While doing a "google search" to find out more information about the character in the movie (and story) I discovered that the story was in a book called An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks. I checked the book out of the library and started to read it. In the book the author tells seven paradoxical tales of neurological disorder and creativity. Fascinating!

In the first tale there is a footnote where Sacks mentions a short story by H.G. Wells "The Country of the Blind." In this story for fourteen generations the people in this country have been blind and cut off completely from the seeing world. They have made for themselves new sensibilities and imagination. By a freak accident a "seeing" man--Nunez--finds them. He is determined to teach them about sight and what they have been missing. Yet, the people feel that it is he who is inferior for he doesn't have the sensibilities they have.

This story by H.G. Wells is a reminder that we should not look upon others who may not have what we consider assets as having deficits. The very things we may consider deficits may have allowed them to develop assets we don't have. As we recognize and celebrate those assets we can all be enriched.

Branding Oneself

According to Jack Griffin, author of How to Say It: Be Indispensable at Work it is important to treat your boss like a customer. The boss holds the purse strings and expects to get excellent work and high productivity (results) from those who receive a paycheck from the organization.

Therefore, each Esperanza staff member will want to brand himself or herself as a workhorse, a problem solver, a producer, an innovator, an expert in some area, a lifelong learner, and/or anything else that will make him or her valuable to the organization.

Branding oneself means an investment in oneself in order to have assets (skills, services, experiences) that are unique and command respect and that make a person irreplaceable. A branded person is one's own unique product that no one can take away. In other words, even if one works for an organization, including Esperanza, it is important to be an entrepreneur.