By Casey Lartigue Jr.
If you do much reading, attend public speeches or listen to podcasts, then you have come across many speakers categorizing "three kinds of people." There seem to be as many groups of threes as there are people.
There are tourists, travelers and explorers. There are innovators, imitators and idiots. There are task-oriented, goal-oriented and purpose-oriented people. And then there's my favorite: "There are three kinds of people in the world: "Those who know math, and those who don't."
Question: Why is it usually groups of three? As a cub reporter, I was taught the "rule of three" that three examples or anecdotes can build your argument, make you seem informed, and show a trend.
"I came. I saw. I conquered." Going back at least to the days of Julius Caesar, writers, speakers, and conquerors have used the power of three to persuade, inform and rally people. In modern times, the power of three is used often, repeatedly and boldly.
As one writing expert named Henneke noted, the power of three is used in many fields, such as advertising: "And with Apple Pay, you can unlock an entire world of online shopping that's fast, convenient, and secure." "iPad mini 4 runs iOS 9, the most intuitive, advanced and secure mobile operating system in the world."
The power of three is used in books, TV shows and movies: "Three Little Pigs, the Three Blind Mice, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Three Musketeers, the Three Wise Men, and the Three Stooges."
The power of three is used in newspaper headlines: "37 Tips for Writing Emails that Get Opened, Read and Clicked." "How to Run Your First Webinar (with No Skills, No Stress and No Budget)."
I have seen plenty of the good, the bad and the ugly of the power of three in my professional career. I've worked in both for-profits and nonprofits, been on the board of directors of several organizations, and also been a busy-bee volunteer.
In the past five years, I have had almost 800 volunteer tutors, coaches and general volunteers join a nonprofit I co-founded. I have learned the wisdom of my favorite power of three saying: There are some people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and others who ask, "Hey, what happened?"
Every organization needs self-starters to get things moving and to keep things going. People making a difference don't ask about minimum requirements. They get criticized for being obsessive, mocked for sleeping at the office, and ridiculed as being workaholics.
Energetic employees can expect others to accuse them of being "brown-nosers." You hand self-starters a self-help book, they often see themselves being written about, with many complaining, "Damn, I could have written that."
This is not to say that such people are perfect. Self-starters colliding can be like two captains on a ship fighting over the wheel or accomplished singers fighting over one microphone.
There are plenty of people trying to make things happen who fail at their tasks, put a company into chaos, or can even destroy an organization. A former supervisor had called me an "energy center." Unnecessarily, he elaborated, that it was "usually" a good thing.
The followers are in the middle, they watch or get somewhat involved as team members, but they are rarely leaders or difference-makers. Followers first want to know what the minimum requirements are, then they are satisfied with meeting them, and often pull the jackets of the "brown-nosers." They are like students who only pay attention when they hear about questions that will be on an exam.
And then there is the third group asking, "What happened?" They subscribe to an organization's email list, but rarely check the emails. After getting repeated messages, they'll eventually open one, then without reading it will ask, "Am I supposed to do something?" They are the group members who are constantly surprised about the organization's activities.
If you organize events, then you already know this. Early birds pay in advance and show up early. Most pay the week of the event. And there are the people who pay at the door, or those who show up halfway during the event. Event planners expect 20 percent of people to be no-shows at events. Within an organization, some actively invite others to join, some ask what others have done to recruit, and some aren't engaged at all.
Of course, critics often like to apply analysis to someone analyzing. I'm not saying I'm always a self-starter making things happen, there are plenty of times that I observe. No one has enough time to be involved in every cause with all of their heart.
But if you insist on categorizing me, then there are three kinds of people: Those who categorize, those who get categorized and those like me who hate groups of three.
Casey Lartigue Jr. (CJL@alumni.harvard.edu) is co-founder of the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR) in Seoul. He blogs at "Voices from the North."
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There are tourists, travelers and explorers. There are innovators, imitators and idiots. There are task-oriented, goal-oriented and purpose-oriented people. And then there's my favorite: "There are three kinds of people in the world: "Those who know math, and those who don't."
Question: Why is it usually groups of three? As a cub reporter, I was taught the "rule of three" that three examples or anecdotes can build your argument, make you seem informed, and show a trend.
"I came. I saw. I conquered." Going back at least to the days of Julius Caesar, writers, speakers, and conquerors have used the power of three to persuade, inform and rally people. In modern times, the power of three is used often, repeatedly and boldly.
As one writing expert named Henneke noted, the power of three is used in many fields, such as advertising: "And with Apple Pay, you can unlock an entire world of online shopping that's fast, convenient, and secure." "iPad mini 4 runs iOS 9, the most intuitive, advanced and secure mobile operating system in the world."
The power of three is used in books, TV shows and movies: "Three Little Pigs, the Three Blind Mice, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Three Musketeers, the Three Wise Men, and the Three Stooges."
The power of three is used in newspaper headlines: "37 Tips for Writing Emails that Get Opened, Read and Clicked." "How to Run Your First Webinar (with No Skills, No Stress and No Budget)."
I have seen plenty of the good, the bad and the ugly of the power of three in my professional career. I've worked in both for-profits and nonprofits, been on the board of directors of several organizations, and also been a busy-bee volunteer.
In the past five years, I have had almost 800 volunteer tutors, coaches and general volunteers join a nonprofit I co-founded. I have learned the wisdom of my favorite power of three saying: There are some people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and others who ask, "Hey, what happened?"
Every organization needs self-starters to get things moving and to keep things going. People making a difference don't ask about minimum requirements. They get criticized for being obsessive, mocked for sleeping at the office, and ridiculed as being workaholics.
Energetic employees can expect others to accuse them of being "brown-nosers." You hand self-starters a self-help book, they often see themselves being written about, with many complaining, "Damn, I could have written that."
This is not to say that such people are perfect. Self-starters colliding can be like two captains on a ship fighting over the wheel or accomplished singers fighting over one microphone.
There are plenty of people trying to make things happen who fail at their tasks, put a company into chaos, or can even destroy an organization. A former supervisor had called me an "energy center." Unnecessarily, he elaborated, that it was "usually" a good thing.
The followers are in the middle, they watch or get somewhat involved as team members, but they are rarely leaders or difference-makers. Followers first want to know what the minimum requirements are, then they are satisfied with meeting them, and often pull the jackets of the "brown-nosers." They are like students who only pay attention when they hear about questions that will be on an exam.
And then there is the third group asking, "What happened?" They subscribe to an organization's email list, but rarely check the emails. After getting repeated messages, they'll eventually open one, then without reading it will ask, "Am I supposed to do something?" They are the group members who are constantly surprised about the organization's activities.
If you organize events, then you already know this. Early birds pay in advance and show up early. Most pay the week of the event. And there are the people who pay at the door, or those who show up halfway during the event. Event planners expect 20 percent of people to be no-shows at events. Within an organization, some actively invite others to join, some ask what others have done to recruit, and some aren't engaged at all.
Of course, critics often like to apply analysis to someone analyzing. I'm not saying I'm always a self-starter making things happen, there are plenty of times that I observe. No one has enough time to be involved in every cause with all of their heart.
But if you insist on categorizing me, then there are three kinds of people: Those who categorize, those who get categorized and those like me who hate groups of three.
Casey Lartigue Jr. (CJL@alumni.harvard.edu) is co-founder of the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR) in Seoul. He blogs at "Voices from the North."
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