How to Speed Read a Person through the Cubicle in 1 minute
What Your Cubicle reveals about your personality
We, corporate slaves (oops I mean workers), spend more time in our cubicles than in our bedroom or living room. The way we decorate our cubicles is a manifestation of our personality. When you see rows of photos plastered on the walls and potted plants surround the cubicle, you realise that the cubicle is a replica of our home.
Do you know that you can speed read your colleague's personality by looking at the cubicle? What can you tell? The cubicle tells you about the person's communication style, the way he makes decision, solving problem, his management style and work preference.
There are four kinds of people and they are characterised by four types of cubicles. Using the acronym H.O.M.E., there are the homely cubicle, the orderly cubicle, messy cubicle and the empty cubicle.
Homely Cubicle
The homely cubicle is one which you find lots of posters and photos plastered on the wall, trophies in the cabinet and potted plants lining camouflaging the entrance. You fill at home in this type of cubicle as the owner attempts to replicate the warmth of home in her second home.
Orderly Cubicle
Every object on the table has its own place in an orderly cubicle. It must remained why it should be. If you attempt to shift any of the items, the owner will re-arrange it to its originally position. It is a perfectly neat cubicle, fit to be a showroom.
Messy Cubicle
You will find stacks of documents stacked on top of each other and it seems chaotic and messy. But the owner knows where to find that documents hidden beneath somewhere. Don't try to rearrange the mess. The cubicle gives an impression that the owner is overwhelmed with lots of paperwork.
Empty Cubicle
The table is minimal and only the bare essential can be found on the table.
What does these cubicles tell about the owner?
'Homely' Person
The homely person is a communicator. He is people orientated rather than task orientated. He is emotional and loves to talk. Music and spiritual issues are his pet subject. He values feelings. They are usually fun loving people .
'Orderly' Person
He is a neat person and he is an organiser. As a perfectionist and a meticulous person, he strives in the administration, account , quality control and auditing field. As a conservative, he prefers the tried and proven ways rather than exotic new ways of doing things. In decision making, whether to buy a PC or go for a meal, he looks for vendor's reputation. He makes a great planner as he sees things in a systematic way such as sequence, details and organisation. He values form. The packaging is important to him. He is the opposite of the 'messy person'. He preferred the tested and proven way. He probably eat the same kind of food everyday. He is predictable and strive on structure. He dislikes surprise and avoid risk. He makes the rules and is a rule-abiding person.
'Messy' Person
He is a visionary. He is imaginative, artistic and able to think out of the box. He is guided by his intuition. He can see the big picture. He is a good idea person. He values freedom. He hates to be constraint by the rules. Ask him where he wants to go for a meal, he prefer something exotic or new. He is adventurous. He likes to try new things, new food. He is a risk taker and like surprise. He dislike close supervision and is likely to break rules to get things done. He is a maverick.
'Empty' Person
As a logician he measure things in terms of facts and quantity. He probably won't bring his girl friend out on Valentine Day because he reckon that the flowers and the dinners are cheaper on the day after. Compared to the homely person, he is not romantic and not spontaneous in his feelings. As an analytical person, he enjoys problem solving, mathematics and technical stuff. Most engineers and nerds probably fall into this category. He is goal oriented. When it comes to shopping, his criteria is value for money. They are usually serious people.
There you have it! Now you can walk into any cubicle and read their personality in 1 minute. Let me know if it is true.
Sam Choo is an internet marketing coach at http://conversationwithsam.com