Our failure to do this in the past can be directly linked to what has become a litany of discouraging statistics about the American workplace. It's difficult to read the business press without hearing, for example, that nearly half the work force expends only the minimum effort needed to get by, according to the National Commission on Productivity, or that fewer than half of American workers think their bosses properly motivate them, as a survey by Wyatt Co. found out in 1987. Even worse news came from a national survey released in 1989 that found that fully 43 percent of American workers believe that "lying, putting on a false face, and doing whatever it takes to make a buck" are part of our basic human nature. And it isn't just the rank and file that is at issue here. A survey of four hundred managers' attitudes about trust and loyalty conducted by Carnegie Mellon found that fully one third of them distrust their own direct bosses and over half don't believe top management.

Is it any wonder that stress-related problems are costing American companies $150 billion a year in reduced productivity and increased absenteeism?

We aren't about to suggest that Typewatching will eliminate all of these problems, but we can assure you that it can go a long way toward helping you find solutions to your organization's present and future challenges. By dramatically improving communication and understanding, Typewatching will allow you to draw on your own organizational and individual strengths. It's truly amazing: With relatively little effort Typewatching permits intractable people problems to get resolved, longtime squabbles between departments to get ironed out, work-flow logjams to unclog, and chronically missed deadlines to get met. We've seen it happen time after time with our clients, which include Fortune 500 companies such as HSBC, AT&T, IBM, Ford Motor Company, and Bell Atlantic; government agencies, including all four branches of the U.S. armed forces; and many smaller entrepreneurial firms.

What Typewatching Can Do

In some ways we're in the business of teaching people the obvious, of helping them to experience at a new level what they already know. As you'll see in the chapters that follow, there is practically no limit to the applications of Typewatching at work, from individual problem solving to restructuring entire companies. Here are just a few of the types of problems for which we've found it useful:

There are some individuals who, by virtue of their personality preferences, are natural at engaging people and making them feel at ease and affirmed. But others of a different type, especially those of the opposite sex, can interpret that behavior as a sexual come-on. The result can be a flurry of miscommunication that can lead to anything from bruised feelings to mistrust to charges of sexual harassment. Similarly other individuals' natural behavior to be cool and aloof can be misinterpreted as anything from simple disinterest to outright sexual or racial discrimination. By understanding others' behavior in typological terms, we can often avoid misreading their behavior by recognizing that, though different than ours, theirs is a natural way of relating.

Some individuals are natural at responding to constantly changing situations. Their energy for completing tasks can come in last-minute surges. (These are the midnight-oil burners.) Unfortunately these individuals tend to start more projects than they finish, and it's not uncommon for them, if they make a list, to have more items on it by the end of the day than they started with. The result can be perceived by others (the list and PERT chart makers) as missed and stretched deadlines, lack of follow-through, and a general sense of chaos. Typewatching helps us to understand that this type's productivity is maximized when they're allowed to work in their own style. To try to "shape them up" will almost always create a no-win situation.

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Copyright © 2002 by Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen and Hile Rutledge.

Tags: Success, Career & Money, Psychology & Psychiatry, Personality