The 6 Perceptual Styles, What We Value and How We See the World: The Activity Style

The reading level for this article is All Levels

 

Frank’s Perceptual Style is Activity. As the name suggests, Frank is a very active person, he is always on the go. His friends comment that watching him is like watching a pinball machine as he bounces from topic to topic and from person to person. He’s always in motion moving from moment to moment energetically. To Frank the world is a dynamic and exciting place full of experience, connections, and relationships. Because the patterns and connections are constantly changing, Frank knows that he cannot absorb the richness of the experience unless he is engaged and participating in it. He finds observation and analysis dull and lifeless, and there is too much to do, see, and experience to waste his time with them.

 

Franks personal life is multi-faceted as he surrounds himself with people whom he connects and re-connects in shifting networks and groups. He has a gift for connecting quickly with others and he makes friends by rapidly and effortlessly transforming impersonal contact into personal connection. Frank makes his life an open book to his friends and he expects the same in return. He is often surprised by their lack of reciprocity, and is puzzled when others pull back from this intense connection in order to create breathing room.

 

Frank’s world is a complex one in which nothing is static. The pieces are always re-connecting into new patterns and relationships and this shifting complexity and his passionate personal involvement makes discovering and holding onto a central core and consistent perspective a challenge. He has an intense fascination with things that captivate his imagination, but he is just as intensely fascinated by the next thing that comes along and grabs him. Because of this he has been accused of skimming the surface and being unable to commit to one thing. From his perspective he has remained consistently focused on the shifting context around him. Not to shift with it would to be to disconnect from life.

 

Frank finds it hard to communicate bare facts and data as such communication strips the context of his world of its texture and richness. Data without context makes no sense to him because it implies an immobile reality that is quantifiable and static. When asked for disconnected or isolated information he often asks “Why?” in order to build a personal and contextual picture from which to answer. This demand for context may irritate or challenge those for whom it is unnecessary, but without understanding how things fit together he doesn’t know how to present the information in a helpful way. (Note — the Franks of this world might insist on giving you the “back story” regardless if you want it or not.)

 

Frank loves to tell stories and anecdotes, sometimes to make a point, but many times just to share the excitement of his experience with others whom he is sure will gain as much from the story as he did from the experience. However, his anecdotal style can confuse and irritate others because of his need to set the stage and establish a context from which the point of his story can be understood. Because of this he sometimes communicates more than others want, need, or can assimilate.

 

Frank’s ability to see and create connections is not limited to his relationships with people. He draws on knowledge and previous experience from seemingly unrelated sources to create original and distinctive approaches and results. This gift for sensing patterns and relationships is as effective in the world of events, machinery, work designs, ideas, and artistic expression as it is with his friends and family.

 

The networks and groups that Frank is constantly creating, refining, and cross connecting serve as sources of validation for him. He thrives on positive feedback from those around him and actively seeks to be at the center of things where he can perform for an audience. He is sensitive to how people are reacting and responding to his behavior and uses direct and non-verbal feedback as a guide for his actions as well as to check that others see things as he does and that what he is doing correctly fits the current situation.

 

Frank brings energy and vitality to what he does and is often instrumental in getting things started. In social situations he works to make sure that everyone is involved, and he will often be the one to “get things going.” He is always ready to jump into something new but will quickly lose interest in activities that do not deliver attention-grabbing results. His ability to see how things fit together makes him capable of implementing new projects and bringing plans to life.

 

While he is a great task starter, he wants to have fun as well as be productive. When tasks required attention to details and analysis or become repetitive and routine he gets bored. Frank will abandon anything that bores him as quickly as he started the project. When this happens the group will suddenly discover that he has wandered off in search of other groups or activities that are more interesting and energizing.