A night at the opera
In fact it was the theatre, but I couldn’t resist the Marx Brothers reference.
We were gathered, four of us, for a meal before an evening at the theatre. Very nice. And probably quite expensive. This was London after all.
Nice meal, good conversation, time passing.
Time really passing, as far as I was concerned.
Thoughts starting to form like “Where is the waiter when you want to pay your bill and get to the theatre by 730?”.
Then panic starting to form. In my head. “We are going to be late. We will miss the whole of the first Act. The evening will be ruined. Think of the price of the tickets”.
Fear not dear reader. We made it to our seats with two minutes to spare.
“Perfect” said the other three. “Just right”. “Couldn’t have timed it better”.
And me?
I can’t remember anything about the evening, about the play we went to see, other than the story I have just told you.
I sat in my seat and for twenty minutes tried to recover from the anxiety of the past half hour.
Because, you see, we are not all the same.
The well-known MBTI personality assessment tool (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) would rapidly conclude from the above story that I am more of a J type, and the others are more P type.
I have a greater need for things to be under control. To plan. To get to my theatre seat in time to settle in. To get to the station 15 minutes before the train departs and maybe read the paper.
Those who are more P type are much more comfortable with being just-in-time. If we get there in time, what’s the problem? We’re here, now watch the play. Enjoy the train ride.
I wish I had more of that, and I work on it every day, but it’s a journey.
Why does this matter? Because, give or take, 50% of us are like me, and 50% are like my companions.
And if we don’t know and recognise this about each other, we will cause each other a lot of frustration.
We talk about embracing diversity. OK then. Let’s start with something as simple as this.
Let’s find ways of managing the difference between those who are relaxed about time and those who aren’t. Sounds simple enough.
Enjoy the play!