I don’t like people holding a pistol on my head and forcing a decision. This is especially true for meetings of all kinds. Meetings were invented as a platform for egomaniacal people to display themselves as the greatest and to throw their brain farts as an act of verbal incontinence (sometimes sold as brainstorming). Of course they expect immediate feedback and validation for their output. If you cannot answer, you are out.
Haste makes waste, and that’s why I like thorough decision-making. While my dad was at the army, they told him to sleep over important decisions at least for a night. At the army! This is potentially in an environment where you get shot if you think too much or for too long. Also Rome (and probably other cities) weren’t build in a day, and Rome is nevertheless a really nice city.
While people in the meeting already talk about project 5, my head still spins around the details of project 1 and the lack of organisation in project 2. I have to admit, I am slow sometimes. But you could also say that ideas and thoughts are processed more deeply. My brain pushes them from left to right, rejects, reconsiders, compares and assesses. This has to incubate, and that has to be put aside for a while. Alternative facts want to be included and compared to previous experiences and new treasures have to be collected, sorted and archived in the right storage. Frankly speaking, this takes a while and evokes impatience in my surroundings.
But how can I live up to my introverted nature, which is only satisfied if things were taken thoroughly to the heart? How is it possible to respond to unconscious signals and observations if I do not give them a night or enough space to resonate and get in touch with my innermost self? An overhasty decision might come along with long-lasting consequences. It could even happen that problems solve themselves if you let them alone for some time. This happens a lot. Proof: just go on vacation and check how important the email requests from two weeks ago will still be after your return. 99% solved, I guess.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with spontaneity and quick-wittedness. You get faster what you desire and also what you do not desire, because you did not think about it enough in the first place. There need to be people who perform well at fast decision-making, e.g. doctors and firefighters. But, believe me, we also need the contrary. Conscious decision-makers, who do not get things into a mess in the first place. Those should not be treated as slow, stupid or dull but as a valuable addition. Don’t be afraid, we do not make pro and con lists if we should go to the bathroom or not. We just need a little more time to maintain our thought system. To make a good contribution to matters we deeply care about and to find a consensus. Please take the pistol from our head and chill! Only this will allow us to follow our motto: At first, we don’t do anything, and then we wait. And the rest will come.
She in STEM 