Understanding the Organized Person

by Ray Colorado

Some persons are, by nature, organized. They logical patterns of arranging everything. If you give them three or more things, they instinctively choose a way to organize them. They have a strong sense of completion. Anything incomplete bothers them. They like to learn how to do things and, once they learn something, they enjoy repeating it. They like rules, obey the rules, and believe rules add meaning to life.

That sounds good
Organized persons are sometimes called "auditory" or "verbal" persons. They easily remember words and sounds. If you explain something to them, they respond by saying, "That sounds good" or "That does not sound good to me." If they hear a name, they tend to remember it. They can listen to instructions on the phone and get it right away.

Something's missing
The organized person quickly notices when something is missing. If he has seven toys, and you take one away without telling him, he will notice the missing toy. If he has one toy with twenty pieces, and you take one piece away, he will notice the missing piece.

He's making a list
Not all who make lists have the organized personality, but an organized person likes making lists. He adds rows and columns to his list, counts them, and is always looking for other lists. He loves history and enjoys examining the details of each event. He lists events, and lists the details of each event.

The analyst
The organized person likes knowing how things work. If you elect him in office, he likes knowing how rules are made. If you give him a machine, he wants to know how it works. If you take him to a forest, he wants to know the names of the plants and trees. And when he goes home, he likes taking souvenirs. If you give him a flag, he wants to know the meaning of each shape and color. Because of these traits, the organized person is sometimes called "techie", or "nerd".

Attention to detail
It's easy to recognize organized persons, even without talking to them. If they wear a tie, they make the smallest knot possible. If they wear leather shoes, they are highly polished. Their shirts are very clean, spotless, and if it is a white dress shirt, well starched and pressed.

They are not very creative
The organized person has many good traits but being creative is not one of them. In fact, being organized is the opposite of being creative. While the creative person likes changing everything, the organized person resists changing anything. To the creative person rules are meant to be broken. To the organized person rules prevent disorder and chaos. To the creative, details are incidental. To the organized, details is everything.

While the creative person can be content with a messy place, the organized person places everything in neat order. One thinks the other has an abnormal personality and therefore difficult to get along. The organized person thinks the creative is a "slob" and "messy". The creative person thinks the organized is "paralized by details" and "obsessed with rules". One is "disorderly" and the other "too rigid".

Natural careers
Organized persons are gifted to do well in careers that require attention to detail. Among such careers are librarian, legislator, technician, troubleshooter, system analyst, lawyer, accountant, researcher, illustrator, drafter, pathologist, anatomist, dentist, collector, and pharmacist.

Political contributions
Organized persons make excellent consultants. They can identify points of failure which, if given attention, could prevent failures and troubles. They can highlight strengths which, if leveraged, could create advantage for the organization. They can pinpoint loopholes which can be used to win a case or create a new opportunity. They are not, however, natural public speakers. If made to present seminars, they tend to present too much facts which overwhelm, or bore, the audience.

How to offend them
They are not easily bothered if you have an opinion and contradict what they are saying, provided you acknowledge and appreciate their point first. They simply take your opinion and file it in their brain for further analysis. It quickly angers them if you say their point is "useless". Don't tell them, "Let's not waste our time with detail" because, to them, "the devil is in the detail" and that "detail is everything." Don't tell them, "Let's focus on the big picture" because they strongly believe the big picture is nothing but detail put together and that, therefore, wrong details create wrong big picture.

If you want to express love and affection to an organized person by rearranging his things, be ready for a big surprise. He will never interpret that as love and affection, only as utter disregard for his treasured arrangement. If he gives you a list, and you look at it without appreciating the amount of effort invested to compile that list, he feels you have ignored him as a person. If he is comparing two things and you don't show any appreciation for what he is saying, either he thinks you don't care for him, or maybe you are not really very smart on the subject.

How to make them happy
Organized persons like collecting things and ideas. If they have a trophy or medal on display, ask how they got it. Be prepared to get plenty of details. If they have a hobby or interest on a subject, give them a related book. Ask what they collect and add a little to their collection. If you find an article related to their hobby, cut and mail it.

If you are the parent of an organized person, give something that secures his/her belongings. If they complain about brothers or relatives "stealing" things, give him/her a cabinet with lock and two keys. He/she keeps one key and you keep the other. Do not let anyone else touch his/her things unless invited to do so. If something breaks and he/she cries over it, listen to their detailed account. Never say "it's unimportant" if they miss something. You don't have to agree with what they're saying if you don't truly agree. Because they are very analytical, they can spot a phony remark right away. Just listen to them and you'll earn their respect.

How they naturally offend others
Because they enjoy collecting facts, they also enjoy sharing them. Others, however, find narration of facts and past events tedious and boring. When someone shares an idea, they habitually add or provide a missing piece of information. When someone makes a mistake on a fact, they tend to jump in with a correction. They do these things thinking they would be appreciated for their "factual integrity" and "respect for truth." They are surprised when told their actions were interpreted as insulting, grandstanding, or disrespectful.

Accelerated learning techniques
Organized persons learn best from materials with plenty of explanations, sounds, and lists. They like charts, tables, and illustrations. They want to know the history of everything. They like plenty of facts and want them presented in logical sequence. Listening to radio or audio presentations is productive for them. When studying, it helps them to have a classical music in the background. They value technical definitions and very detailed illustrations.

About the author: Ray Colorado is the Editor and Webmaster of PinoyDirectory.com. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with wife Lura and sons Dexter, Maxwell and Hexel. To contact him, send e-mail to pinoydir07@yahoo.com.

9-8-2006