Who hasn’t heard someone try to make a point by beginning with the phrase, “There are two types of people in this world…” and then go on to make an observation about duality and their biased experience of being human. (By the way, ALL of our experience is biased. That’s part of being human).
Some of my favorite “two types of people” statements are these:
“There are two types of people in the world…
…those who follow the rules, and those who make them.”
…those who do the work, and those who think they do.” The first group is less crowded.
…those who walk into a room and say ‘there you are’ and those who say ‘here I am’.”
…the who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.”
…those who can extrapolate from incomplete information, and .”
And I like these variations:
There are three types of people in the world; those who understand math, and those who don’t.”
There are ten types of people in the world; those who understand binary, and those who don’t”
Finally, here’s my wife’s favorite:
“There are two types of people in the world; those who agree with me, and those who haven’t yet.”
Actually, I have a useful insight to share about duality today, and it’s this:
“There are two types of people in this world, and they’re inside every one of us.”
Yes, that’s right. We are creatures of duality. We are good AND bad; open AND closed; independent AND controlled; loving AND selfish. We can be courageous AND humble, collaborative AND competitive, etc., etc.
I am an extravert AND an introvert with a preference for extraversion, gaining my energy from interactions and relationships. I am a thinker AND a “feeler,” blending logical decision making with concern for how decisions affect others.
I am increasingly becoming convinced that all of us are “systems of duality”–neither completely one way OR another at any moment, and very often one way AND another at different moments.
And it’s all to the good. Like most paradoxes, our dual natures make us stronger. It’s easier to survive and thrive in a chaotic and ever-changing world by avoiding a single way of being. As an example, there’s little to be gained by being completely open to new experience, and never anchoring yourself to a certain predictable lifestyle. Likewise it’s mostly foolish to attempt to seal yourself off from all change and external influence by clinging to tradition at all costs. Integrating the “AND” between learning and application is the smarter, more resilient, and more difficult thing to do.
Likewise, our institutions must embrace this notion of duality if they are to survive and thrive. I have worked in three companies that provide me with a grounding in this truth from actual experience.
The first company I worked for managed to combine the competing values of creativity AND control; collaboration AND competitiveness. It was a great place to work. It innovated AND delivered.
Unfortunately, the second company I worked for was all about creativity and competitiveness, with little respect for control and collaboration. It always aggressively pursued new initiatives, but could never satisfy customers by getting quality right. It is now a much smaller subsidiary of a huge conglomerate.
The third company I worked for overvalued control and competitiveness at the expense of creativity and collaboration. As a result, they were good at delivering their profit targets but routinely missed top-line revenue goals by sealing themselves off from opportunities to pursue new things.
Here’s another paradox: We at BUILT TO LEAD are dedicated to the mission of transforming individuals, teams, and leaders into ONE…one that is BUILT TO LEAD. How can we reconcile the notion of “ONE” with the truth of our dual natures, and our need for institutions that embrace competing values?
The answer lies not in abandoning these competing values but in INTEGRATING them into a whole system. Diversity + Unity = A Crazy Good Team. Individuals, and individual components, encouraged to bring the best of themselves to such a system designed to harness their competing energies towards a unifying purpose creates true Synergy–the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.
Okay? So, finally…
“There are two types of people in this world; those who say there are two types of people, and those who don’t.”
Count me in the latter group.
BUILT TO LEAD 