Humans love to put other humans into boxes (proverbial). It’s black and white, no ambiguity, clean…makes us feel we have a good handle on things. Everything about a person does not fit into nice little square workflow boxes as much as we would want them to.
This is where I feel gauging a person in multiple faucets can help draw out that workflow. The character and intelligence of a person stems from having well-rounded experiences and decisions made. Drawing comparisons from different faucets of life and how a person acts or thinks in those situations is key to me.
Examples:
- Food - Are there any cuisines you truly dislike? Or maybe you only like to eat one type of cuisine? Why is that? If there’s a whole culture that eats it, do you think there’s something wrong with them or you’re just close-minded?
- Life - You don’t like to associate yourself with a particular race of people. Why is that? Maybe your life experiences have led you to compartmentalize all people of that race because it’s easier to deal with daily? Maybe that’s how things are in your neighborhood and you’re just going with the flow?
- Work - Are there people at work you look down upon or because of their title, accent or gender? Maybe they slighted you or there are reasons that can’t be discussed in the open that bring you to put people in an unfavorable box.
The world is nuanced with so many shades of grey so I cannot condemn someone for the same reasons…but I can draw on multiple comparisons.
-CCTM