Yesterday I found myself at Starbucks having coffee with a Projector friend. She’s just beginning to learn about Human Design and told me that she’s creating bodygraph charts of everyone she knows including her whole family, co-workers, her friends and even her boss.
I smiled and told her how typical it is for a Projector to do that when they begin learning about Design. “Was it that way for you?” she asked. “No, I’m a Generator, I want to learn about myself first!” I replied. She smiled at the contrast in our learning styles.
Projectors in the Workplace
The conversation turned to her work and the difficulties she’s having in her workplace. I invited her to share more about it with me. Her story made me suck in my breath. She’s working side-by-side, 8 hours a day with a Generator. This Generator, it turns out, can produce twice as much as she can in any given day.
“Sounds about right”, I thought.
When she finished I just sat there in silence shaking my head at her story. I could only imaging some similar version of this story taking place all over the world right now.
“What?”, she asked.
“Well, to begin with, your first mistake is to ever set yourself up in a situation like that where you’re having to match the work of a Generator. That’s a losing proposition from the start”, I said. “Generators can be workhorses when it comes to energy output. I should know, I’m a Generator myself”, I added.
“That’s not at all how you are designed to work! Your gift as a Projector comes from the value you are able to bring to your clients and co-workers through recognition and the insights you can offer. And that’s just the start”, I said.
I went on to tell her that we need to understand that Projectors are not meant to work like Generators. They bring a completely different set of skills to the job at hand.
The challenge in our workforce today is that work is based almost entirely upon a Generator mindset of being able to work long hours and produce, produce, produce.
This is a Generator’s measure of success.
Different Measures of Success
A Projector’s value lies NOT in the amount of hours worked and widgets produced but what they can offer other people. It’s a different measure of success. And very needed in our culture!
The conversation turned to specific aspects of her design until I could tell that she was full up.
It was a satisfying conversation for me. There’s a sense of satisfaction I get when I’m able to share someone’s Design with them in a way that makes them feel completely seen for who they are. This is rare in the workplace.
Working through the lens of BG5 has taught me to focus on making this knowledge as practical and accessible as possible.
It is with this thought in mind that I want to offer you a free taste of what this can be like.
Career Camp
We’re going to be offering a free Q&A session called Career Camp.
Career Camp is takes place on the first two Tuesdays (April 7th and 14th) at 18:00 GMT
How does it Work?
Send in your question ahead of time with your chart (or DOB information) to: office@ihdschool.com
We’ll work on a first-come first-serve basis and if your question is similar to someone else’s I may combine them generally and share the nuances as well.
Here are some helpful things to know ahead of time:
- BG5 can’t tell you what career you should be doing. It can tell you what skills to focus on that allow you to enjoy the work you are doing.
- The more specific the question the easier it might be to answer in the short time we have.
- I’ll try to keep the answers short and to the point – but also try to be as helpful to you as much as possible.
By Michael Brown
