Gestión institucional e interinstitucional de la red hidrometeorológica

Artisans, whatever they are called, all have something in common: they all characterize this type as concrete in communicating messages and util­ itarian in implementing goals. So in beginning our consideration of the habits of action and attitude of the SPs, let’s look at their quadrant in the matrix of character at the right.

Words Abstract Concrete Cooperative Tools Utilitarian NF SJ NT Concrete SP Utilitarians

As indicated, the foundation of the SP character, setting them apart unmis­ takably from the other three personalities, is their unique combination of concrete word usage with utilitarian tool usage, and thus I want to add another name to the list and call them the “Concrete Utilitarians.” Although they share concrete word usage with the SJs and utilitarian tool usage with the NTs, their words are noticeably different from those of the SJs, and their tools are noticeably different from those of the NTs. Notice also that they have nothing important in common with the NFs, who are the very opposite of SPs in their habits of using tools and words.

Concrete Word Usage

The communication of Artisans can be said to be concrete in that they are apt to talk mostly of what is going on at the moment and what is immediately at hand. Most SPs spend little time considering things that cannot be observed or handled. This means that they are likely to take things literally rather than figuratively and, when making comparisons, to use similes more often than metaphors. Their everyday speech is typically filled with details and devoid of planning, and they are more inclined to be specific rather than to generalize. Also they speak less of categories or classes of things and more of actual, individual things themselves, and in general they tend to be more experiential than theoretical in thought and speech. Indeed, the abstract commands little of their attention, content as they are to do without definitions, explanations, fantasies, principles, hy­ potheses, and the like. They usually consider such topics a waste of time, interesting to others perhaps, but not to them.

Many of our greatest poets and orators have been Artisans, from Lord Byron and Dylan Thomas to Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan. Why? Why are not the Idealists in the forefront, instead of only a few, along with but a handful of Rationals? It has to be conceded that the Artisans have captured most of the top spots in this domain because of their sensitivity to harmonic coherence, or what sounds good. The Artisans’ ear for sound is incomparable. Their consciousness is sensuous, highly attuned to audible consonance, and, if they wish, dissonance. It may be said that paragraphs written by Artisans are in effect songs, as when, for example, Churchill stirred his countrymen during the darkest moments of World War II with his eloquent, rhythmical language: “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!”

It might be added that, more than the other types, Artisans are comfortable in their bodies, and they frequently use their hands to help their speech along, almost always accompanying their spoken words with distinctive hand gestures. The most common gesture is a pawing motion, with the palm down and slightly bent, the thumb held loosely next to the fingers. More aggressive gestures include the closed fist used to pound home one’s

The Concrete Utilitarians 37 point, the index finger used to jab one’s point across, and the index finger apposed mid-joint by the thumb, used to peck at an opponent.

But spoken or written, Artisan language is filled with concrete words, indicatives that indicate or that point to things seen and felt. Gully Jimson, an Artisan painter in Joyce Cary’s novel, The Horse’s Mouth, claims he can feel a painting with his eyes:

You feel all the rounds, the smooths, the sharp edges, the flats and hollows, the lights and shades, the cools and warms. The colors and textures. There’s hundreds of little differences all fitting together.

And Ernest Hemingway, much like the Artisan hero in his novel, A Farewell to Arms, wanted to avoid figurative language (the language of inference and interpretation, of metaphor and symbol), trusting only de­ scriptive words to present his perceptions as sensually and realistically as possible.

There were many words you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.

Here Hemingway was artificially flattening his vocabulary and simpli­ fying his sentences in order to catch the tone of war-time disillusionment. Much of everyday Artisan speech is far more lively, more filled with vivid, unorthodox terms, though not much more abstract. SPs like to use colorful phrases and current slang in their speech, and they pick up hip phrases quickly (“I’m outta here,” “no way,” “ya know what I’m saying?”). When they reach for images, they tend to use quick, sensory adjectives (“slick,” “cool,” “sharp”), or they say what things are like, using rather striking similes, “drunk as a skunk,” “like taking candy from a baby,” “goes like a bunny.”

Utilitarian Tool Usage

In implementing their goals, or as they say, “going for it,” Artisans are primarily interested in what works, what fits, and only secondarily in what meets with social approval. As I’ve said, the root of the word ‘art’ means “to fit together,” and SP artists even call their productions “works of art,” all of which suggests that a thing must be useful to interest an Artisan, immediately useful, concretely useful, otherwise who needs it? If some action doesn’t fit your intention and advance you toward your goal, then why do it? NTs share this utilitarian, whatever-works mindset with SPs,

but functional utility in the concrete differs from functional utility in the abstract. SPs do not map out the relationship between means and ends as do NTs. Artisans simply and without hesitation give the chosen operation a try, put it to the test, give it a whirl or a shakedown cruise. If it works it is used, if it doesn’t it is set aside without a second thought.

Because of their utilitarian character, Artisans will strike off down roads that others might consider impossible, tackling problems, making deals, clearing hurdles, knocking down barriers—doing whatever it takes (authorized or unauthorized) to bull their way through to a successful outcome. One prominent State Department negotiator has exhibited all of these SP traits in his roller-coaster career:

He has yelled at Foreign Ministers and cursed at a President. He has negotiated agreements of immense consequence on the fly, making them up as he goes along...betting on himself and the deal in hand at two o’clock in the morning. He has politely negotiated with killers and, by his own account, at least one psychopath....He has shamelessly and ef­ fectively exploited the media...in order to promote American policy aims and to intimidate those who stood in his way.

No high-flown speculation for the Artisan, no deep meaning or intro­ spection. Leave to others the protocol, the scientific inquiry, the inward search. SPs focus on what actually happens in the real world, on what works, on what pays off, and not on whose toes get stepped on, what principles are involved, or why things happen.