#Analyze data and notice a pattern and decide he's going to Listen

[pvtpunsart]

people who care need people who care

[justoneofthoseghosts]

Brettsey + Tell Me

Matt stares at the piece of paper in his hand.

Truck had been out on a call and when they got back, Ritter, who was manning the tower, slipped it to him. It was a phone number for Griffin Darden, a name he hadn’t heard in close to nine years. It brought back a lot of memories - taking the boys out for ice cream along Navy Pier, bringing Griffin to see Andy’s badge, playing indoor football at his old place. There’s also that lingering sadness of saying goodbye to the boys when Heather was released from prison and moved them to Florida. A fresh start, she had said.

He thinks about whether to give Griffin a call but he’s not exactly sure what to say after all this time. He wants to talk to Sylvie about it but she’s been busy with her project and he didn’t want to bother her with something that feels so insignificant compared to what she’s been doing with her spare time - trying to help the CFD with ways on how to lessen the paramedics’ non-urgent calls.

So he keeps it to himself and tells himself he’ll consider it, weigh his options.

One night, when he’s staying over at Sylvie’s he wakes up to find her not in bed. He thinks he can hear something coming from the kitchen so he puts on a shirt and opens the bedroom door.

He finds Sylvie on her laptop, her eyebrows furrowed as she reads what’s on her screen then jots down something in a notebook.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asks, walking over to her.

Sylvie’s head snaps up at his voice, “hey, sorry, did i wake you?”

Matt shakes his head, taking a seat next to her and looking at her laptop. She has a spreadsheet open filled with numbers and graphs.

“Where’d you get all this data?” He inquires, impressed.

“Oh, Mouch has a few contacts at the 911 call center so he helped me get about six moths of call data so I could analyze and see if there are any patterns in terms on non-emergency calls. I think that would be the first step to figuring out how we can route ambulances properly.”

“You’re amazing, you know that?” Matt says in awe.

Sylvie smiles softly, shrugging off his compliment, “Mouch really came through with this. I’ve been trying to get my hands on it but no amount of sweet talking did any good.”

“Didn't know anyone could resist you charms,” Matt teases.

Sylvie tilts her head back and laughs. It’s a sound Matt won’t ever tire of and he hopes he has many more years to make her laugh.

“You want some cereal?” Sylvie offers as she gets up from her chair, “I think I need a bowl of sugar if I’m going to get through this.”

“Sure, need some help?” Matt asks,

“I’m good but I’d love some company,” Sylvie tells him as she grabs two bowls from the cupboard.

They sit in silence eating cinnamon toast crunch while Sylvie continues to look at her data. The stillness brings Matt’s thoughts back to that piece of paper he has tucked in one of his drawers at the loft.

Honestly, he has reservations about contacting Griffin because Heather asked him politely not to contact them. Somehow, he thinks he still needs to honor her wishes. She is their mother after all and maybe, she knew best. He’s quietly stirring his cereal, so lost in his thoughts, that he doesn’t hear Sylvie talking to him until she pokes his side.

“You okay?” she questions, raising her eyebrows.

“What?”

“Matt, is everything alright? I noticed you getting that faraway look where you forehead creases right about here,” she illustrates by pointing to the middle of her forehead, “I keep meaning to ask but we never seem to be at the same place at the same time lately.”

Matt sighs, “it’s nothing really and I didn’t want to bother you with all the great work you’ve been doing on the side.”

“Hey, you can talk to me about anything - big or small,” she assures him.

Matt looks at Sylvie in gratitude.

He realizes he can go to her anytime, anywhere because it’s how they’ve always been with each other no matter what. He knows it will never change even if she's busy or he is and aims to commit that to memory.

Sylvie looks at him expectantly, closing her laptop, putting all her focus on him.

“Do you remember Andy Darden?”

Sylvie nods.

“I don’t think I ever told you that I took care of his kids when their mom got into a bit of trouble,” Matt opens.

Sylvie shakes her head. She leans in closer, resting her chin on her palm as if telling him that he can definitely share the story now. And it feels so natural to just talk about it in the middle of the night with Sylvie while they’re eating sugary cereal because it just is. There's no other way to describe it.

He starts from the beginning - how hard it was at first being an instant guardian to two young boys, how he tried to console Griffin, who was having a hard time with his father’s death, how they got through the hump and it started to feel like he was their family, how his heart broke when Heather called and took the boys away, how he wishes he kept in touch.

Sylvie listens quietly, squeezing his hand or nodding from time to time.

“Griffin left me his number. I think he wants to catch up,” Matt confesses quietly.

“And you’re on the fence about this?” Sylvie inquires.

Matt nods slowly, “yeah, it’s been a long time and I’m not sure why he’s reaching out.”

Sylvie is quiet for a moment before speaking again, “I think you should meet with him. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

There's no judgment in her voice, just her honest opinion on the subject and if Matt decides not to go through with this, he knows she'll understand.

But of course, Sylvie is right and he has a feeling that he’ll be saying that a lot for the rest of their lives. Because despite his fear and reservations, he wants to know why Griffin is making contact and he wants to make sure the boys are doing well. He loved those boys and if they need his help, he’d gladly give it. Talking to Sylvie was the last push he needed to do it.

[angelsdemonsducks]

you don't like the ending (we'll find one that's yours)

“Logan,” Virgil says, softly, slowly, “you do know that you’re allowed to be a person, right?”

In the aftermath: Logan, Virgil, and things that have gone unsaid for far too long.

(ao3 link)

When all is said and done, Logan sits in his room for a little while, hands folded neatly in his lap, staring at the ceiling. It’s painted with a star map, charting the cosmos: Ursa Major by Ursa Minor, Perseus reaching for Andromeda, Canis Major ever lapping at Orion’s heels. They glow with a bright, otherworldly light against a black backdrop, and they change as the seasons turn, too, change and wheel overhead as the real night sky does. 

Though, of course, the night sky does not actually change. Just the human perspective of it. Stars are ever-constant; it is the Earth that is not, human perception that is flawed.

Roman helped him set it up, years ago. The remembrance lies bitter and heavy on his chest.

He is not hurt. He is not hurt, because he does not feel. There is a pounding in his head that refuses to abate and a stinging in his eyes that blurs his vision, but such physical reactions will stop eventually, if he ignores them for long enough. He is practiced in this, by now. He is not hurt. 

He firmly believes that there is nothing that cannot be solved with the application of the scientific method. This past hour is no different. As with all else, it can be analyzed through the lens of conducting an experiment.

He lays out the memories neatly in his mind for review.

Hypothesis: His physical presence and interaction with the other sides is not necessary for Thomas to maintain a healthily logical existence.

There are too many variables for this to be considered a controlled setting. All of the others have so many emotions, and as such, are prone to outbursts and unpredictability that may skew any data collected. He is accustomed to this, after all this time, and has learned to set his expectations accordingly. But there are two variables that can be defined with little difficulty: the independent and dependent variable. The variable that he manipulates, and the variable that changes due to this manipulation.

Independent variable: His presence in the discussion. Keeping in line with the video game theme the others seem to be holding to, he presents himself as an information-dispensing “NPC,” or “non-player character,” as he understands the definition to be, in an effort to be less intrusive in the conversation. Half the time, he does not bother to speak.

Dependent variable: How Thomas, Patton, and Roman react to this method of interaction.

It is difficult to collect data for this variable. There are no numbers to record, nothing that is quantifiable. He has to rely purely on qualitative data, collected based on observation and description. It is discomfiting, how much room for error and misinterpretation that leaves, but he is confident in his ability to be a passive, unbiased researcher. He records what he observes and nothing more.

Data: They seem tentatively interested in the beginning, curious about the novelty of his chosen method, if nothing else. Roman even takes the time to read the text box aloud. But the intrigue soon wanes. He is cut off both literally and figuratively, skipped, dismissed at every turn. When they allow him to speak, it is with begrudging toleration. When he offers silent information, they ignore him. When Deceit takes his place, they do not notice the difference.

His hands clench into fists, ever so briefly. He stares at the ceiling. At the shining stars that Roman helped him to paint so long ago as he grinned and chattered about nothing in particular, paint splattered on his clothes and all across his face. Roman is always so fussy about his appearance that Logan had thought that existing in such a disheveled state would irritate him, but when he pointed it out, Roman laughed, reached out, and swiped his paint-coated thumb across his cheek, loudly proclaiming that now, they matched. And Logan felt so warm, inside and out, despite the fact that he keeps his room at a cool twenty degrees Celsius.

This is a digression. Completely irrelevant to the experiment at hand. He pulls himself back to the pertinent memories.

From the data, results can be extrapolated. It is a simple matter of deciding whether the information gathered supports or refutes the hypothesis. He has collected more than enough observations to make a decision.

Conclusion: All data suggests

His mind stalls. He shakes his head. This should be easy. Data from experimentation, and conclusions from data. That is how the scientific method works.

Conclusion: All data suggests that the hypothesis is correct, and that his presence is neither necessary nor especially welcome amongst the others. His duty can be safely performed from a distance. Further experimentation will be needed to determine the best way in which to do so.

His eyes trace the patterns of the constellations, steadfast and sure, and he thinks about his failures. Thinks about how he attempted to be as unobtrusive as possible, how he ensured that if his input was unwanted, the others would be able to ignore him, to block him out. He gave them the option, so even if he were capable of feeling upset, he should not be. He should not care that they do not care, that they listen to him when it is convenient for them and discard him when it is not.

He doesn’t care. It was simply part of the experiment. It is simply one more hypothesis confirmed. Never mind that he was not actually attempting to conduct an experiment at the time. Approaching this issue in this manner imposes order on disordered, messy thoughts, forces him to think objectively.

Logan sits in his room, and he breathes.

Then, there is a knock at his door, rushed and urgent. He frowns. After how that disaster ended, he would have thought that Patton would be with Roman. And… he’s almost sure it wouldn’t be Deceit-- or should he be calling him by his name now? He is unsure; he was not present for the admission, which may imply a lack of permission, but Deceit confessed in front of Thomas, which may in fact imply blanket permission for all the occupants of his mindscape.

A dilemma to ponder later, perhaps. He stands, rolling his shoulders back, and crosses his room to the door. He opens it, and it’s not Patton, and it’s certainly not Deceit.

It’s Virgil.

He’s pale and hunched over, shoulders set defensively. His eyes are red, as if he’s been crying, and Logan opens his mouth to query as to whether there is something he can help him with. He did think it odd, that Virgil chose not to involve himself in the discussion at all, though clearly he has been affected by it to some degree. Of course, Patton is really the one to go to with issues of the emotional kind, but perhaps he tried and found Patton to be busy with Roman. Logan is a poor substitute, but if Virgil desires his help, then he will try his best.

“Virgil,” he says. “Is there something I can do for you?”

For a long moment, Virgil stares at him. Stares, and says nothing.

“Can I come in?” he asks at last.

Logan furrows his brow, but stands aside so that he is no longer blocking the door. “Of course,” he says, and Virgil slips past him and into his room. After a moment of hesitation, he closes the door behind him and turns to face Virgil, who stands in the center of the room, looking up at the ceiling. He looks small, somehow, and lost.

“How are you?” Logan tries. “I understand that there were some topics raised in that discussion that may have left you uncomfortable, assuming that you were listening to it, and I can’t imagine that you were particularly pleased with all aspects of the outcome. Is there anything that you would like to talk about?”

Virgil stares at the ceiling for a moment longer, and then looks to Logan. Logan is taken aback by the expression of devastation that flickers across his face, the sorrow in his eyes and downturned corners of his mouth.

He is expecting him to say something about Roman’s outburst, or about the perils of trusting Deceit as Thomas seems ready to do, but what comes out of his mouth instead is,

“Can I, um, hug you?”

Logan blinks. Plays back the memory in his mind to ascertain that no, he did not mishear. And then, uncertainly, he spreads his arms.

Virgil does not often ask for physical affection, though he is less shy about it now than he once was.

“Yes, certainly,” he says, “though, you know that Patton is--”

He is cut off by Virgil all but launching himself into his arms; all the breath escapes his lungs in a single gust. Virgil’s arms snake around his back, holding him tightly, and he buries his face in his shoulder. For a moment, Logan is completely at a loss; he does not seek out hugs because he does not need them, and typically, nobody asks him for one. In fact, he can’t quite recall the last time that he had such extended physical contact with someone.

It takes a few seconds for him to react, to bring his arms up to encircle Virgil in turn.

“I don’t want Patton,” Virgil mumbles into Logan’s shirt. “I want you.”

“I--” Logan blinks a few times, rapidly, in succession. Because surely, that does not make any sense. Patton is, objectively, the best at hugging out of all of them-- though, actually, now that he considers it, should Deceit be considered for the position, by virtue of having three pairs of arms? Would that make for a more efficient hug, if there were more arms to perform the action? How would one go about measuring such a thing?

Regardless, Patton is certainly the most practiced at giving comfort, and as the center of Thomas’ emotions, it can be assumed that he has the best mindset for it. Why, then, would Virgil claim to seek him for comfort rather than Patton?

“I’m not sure that I understand,” he admits softly, and Virgil pulls back a bit, enough so that they are face to face, though he doesn’t let go entirely. His hands are gripping Logan’s shirt so tightly that they are sure to leave wrinkles.

“I care about you,” Virgil says fiercely. “I care about you so goddamn much. And I want to spend time with you. I never, ever want you to spare me your company, or whatever the fuck that was all about in there.”

He feels a sudden, deep urge to adjust his glasses, to fiddle with his tie, to do something to place distance between himself and Virgil. But somehow, he can’t bring himself to let go of his grip on Virgil’s back. “I… see,” he says, a bit helplessly, even though he does not see, at all. “Is this about what I said to the others? That wasn’t--”

“That wasn’t what?” Virgil interrupts. “That wasn’t what you meant? Just because I wasn’t participating doesn't mean I wan’t listening. It was pretty obvious that you did mean it, Logan.”

Logan frowns. He is growing tired of being interrupted today. Logically, there is no difference between when the others did it and when Virgil does it, except for the fact that he is physically interacting with Virgil, so there is no reason for his sudden... exhaustion. That’s all it is. Exhaustion.

He’s not sure why he expected Virgil to let him finish his sentence.

“I was going to say that it wasn’t important,” he corrects. “I--”

“No,” Virgil cuts in again, and he must react visibly, because Virgil grimaces apologetically. “I’m sorry for talking over you,” he adds, voice a bit softer. “But I kinda don’t think you’re going to let me say what I need to say if I don’t, because you’re wrong, Logan. You are so, so important.”

“I was not attempting to imply otherwise,” Logan replies. “I never said that I wasn’t important. I am very aware that I am important. With an absence of Logic, Thomas’ life would surely devolve into chaos. I am well aware that my fulfillment of my duties is necessary for Thomas to live healthily and successfully.”

For some reason, this only seems to upset Virgil more. “No,” he repeats, frustrated. “I’m not talking about Logic. I’m talking about you, Logan, as a person. You are important.”

Is… he speaking circularly on purpose? What exactly is he trying to say? Usually, he finds Virgil to be refreshingly clear when compared to the other sides, so this interaction so far has been oddly frustrating.

“I’m not certain I understand what you’re attempting to convey.” He pauses. “What is the difference between me and Logic? I am Logic.”

“You’re Logic,” Virgil says, “but you’re Logan, too, and, and I just wanted to make sure that you were okay, because they kept talking over you and shutting you up and you didn’t even go and argue with them in person and then you said that, and I got--” He pauses-- “scared.”

Logan believes in the pursuit of knowledge, in enlightenment over ignorance. But somehow, some part of him dreads asking what Virgil means.

“Scared of what?”

For a moment, Virgil is silent, and something like panic flickers on his face. Then, he closes his eyes and breathes. Logan recognizes the pattern: in for four seconds, hold for seven, out for eight.

“I’m scared that you don’t know how much we love you,” Virgil says, opening his eyes. His voice is quiet and nervous and vulnerable. “How much I love you.”

For a moment, all he can register is Virgil’s arms around him: their weight, their warmth. That, and the silence in his room. 

Evidence shows that stars produce sounds, though not any that fall within the human range of hearing. The stars on his ceiling, however, are utterly mute.

“I don’t understand,” he says weakly. “I--”

“Logan--”

But no, he has had enough of being overridden. There is only so much he can take before something has to give, and he reached that limit over an hour ago, about when Roman slashed through his contribution like it meant nothing, when Patton pressed skip as if he meant nothing, when Deceit yanked him out of frame and replaced him, and he didn’t bother to put up a fight because no one was listening to him and if he couldn't accomplish anything by speaking, maybe he could by shutting up since that seemed to be what everyone wanted anyway--

And now Virgil is here, saying what? It doesn’t follow, logically, and if there is anything which Logan cannot abide, it is faulty logic.

“No,” he says, and Virgil, mercifully, allows him to talk. “No, that doesn’t make sense. If there is anything that has become glaringly apparent recently, it is that none of you want or care for my presence. No, I’m not done,” he adds, cutting off Virgil’s protest before it can begin. “I am not upset about it. I do not get upset. But logically speaking, the fact that I cannot impart even the most basic of facts before I am interrupted or overruled points to the conclusion that none of you particularly care about what I have to say. Which is, and I will reiterate this point, fine, as I do not need any of you to like me in order to perform my function adequately.”

Virgil stares at him, and then steps back, releasing Logan entirely.

“Oh my god,” he says. “That’s not fine.”

Logan sighs.

“Didn’t I just say that it is?” he asks. “There’s no need for you to be experiencing emotional distress over this matter, Virgil.”

“You just told me that you think none of us care about you, and you think I’m not going to experience some fucking emotional distress?” Virgil stops suddenly, shaking his head. “Wait, no, this isn’t about me. Logan, we’ve been treating you like shit. You’re… you can be upset about it. You know that, right? Because it’s not fine, it is so far past fine that we are in, like, Canada or some shit, and you don’t have to act like it’s fine.”

“I am not ‘acting like it’s fine,’” he says. “It is fine, and I’m not upset. I do not get upset. I’ve told you this. I don’t understand--”

“You do get upset, Logan, you are literally getting upset right now, and that’s okay, you can be upset, you have every right to be upset--”

It’s one interruption too many.

“I am not upset!”

The shout hangs in the air long after the words have left his lips. His chest is heaving, he notes dimly, and his hands are clenched. His ears are ringing, too, and his head pounds.

Oh.

Oh, no. He can’t do this. He can’t do this, and he especially can’t do this now, with Virgil in the room, because he is not supposed to be like this. He has tried so hard not to be like this, has tried so hard to be the cool, rational embodiment of logic that he is supposed to be, but somehow, he continually fails. But it is impossible to reverse time, impossible to erase the outburst now that it has been vocalized, so he stands there, shaking slightly, finding it harder and harder to meet Virgil’s eyes.

“I am not supposed to get upset,” he says eventually, to end the silence more than anything else. “I… apologize. That was unseemly of me.”

“Logan,” Virgil says, softly, slowly, “you do know that you’re allowed to be a person, right?”

He blanks.

“We’re not people,” he says weakly. “We are facets of the personality of a person. My job is to be logical. I’m just trying to do my job.”

Virgil closes his eyes and breathes in his pattern again. Then, he opens them and steps closer. He reaches for Logan’s hands, taking both of them in his own and worrying at the fingers until they begin to relax. Logan stares at them, at his hands in Virgil’s, at Virgil sweeping his thumb across his knuckles slowly and methodically.

“Then let’s look at it logically,” Virgil says. He speaks in that same low tone of voice. It reminds Logan of a nature documentary, one where the narrator uses a soothing, gentle cadence so as not to scare the animals. “Alright?”

Logan nods. He doesn’t trust himself to speak.

“If we’re all just supposed to do our jobs,” Virgil says, “our jobs and absolutely nothing else, then I would be anxious all the time, right? I mean, I already am, mostly, but that would mean that I would only be able to feel anxious. No positive emotions, no happiness. Everything that’s been so good about the past few years, with you guys, I wouldn’t be able to have that. Do you think that’s how it should be?”

His voice remains gentle, but for their impact, he may as well be shouting.

“Of course not!” Logan says. The very idea is incredibly displeasing. “But that’s different.”

“Okay, how is it different?”

“Your ability to feel positive emotions does not hamper your ability to perform your basic function. You can be both happy and anxious, at the same time or at different times. The two are not mutually exclusive.” He shakes his head. “I need to be logical, to be rational, and that is everything that emotions are not. If I allow myself to feel, then I allow my judgement to be clouded, and Thomas cannot afford to have a Logic with clouded judgement.”

Virgil frowns. “But that’s just it,” he says. “You have emotions. You’re not stopping yourself from having emotions. No one can do that. You’re just refusing to acknowledge that you have them. Doesn’t that kind of repression cloud your judgement more?”

His mouth goes very dry. He feels as though his heart has stopped, which is ridiculous, because he knows full well that his heart is functioning properly. It seems to be the rest of him that has stopped working. Drawing breath is becoming increasingly difficult, for some reason, which is frustrating because there is absolutely nothing physically wrong with him and thus, no reason for this reaction.

Virgil… has to be wrong. He’s not repressing anything. One cannot repress something that one does not possess. But then, the point of repression is to make oneself believe that one does not possess something, or that one has not done something, so if one is skilled enough at repression, one might not know that they are in the act of repressing. Which would make one an unreliable narrator, which is a disturbing concept to contemplate, because if one cannot rely on one’s own perception of reality, then what can one trust?

Human perception is so, so flawed. He cannot afford flawed perception.

“I’m not repressing anything,” he says. His voice is a reedy whisper even to his own ears. He can’t imagine he sounds very convincing. “That’s what Patton does.”

Virgil quirks a brow. “Yeah, Teach, I don’t think that’s a, uh. What did you say? Mutually exclusive? I don’t think that’s a mutually exclusive thing. Patton doesn’t have a monopoly on repression.”

“But I’m Logic,” he insists. “There’s nothing there to repress.”

Virgil pauses, and for a moment, Logan thinks that he is about to concede the argument. For some reason, it feels like a hollow victory. 

But then, Virgil draws him into another hug. He leans into it, unresisting, but his arms won’t move to return it.

“You’re Logan,” Virgil says softly. “You’re not just Logic, and you’re not a robot. You’ve gotta let yourself be human, buddy.”

“I’m not-- I can’t--” His voice catches, breaks, and he realizes with a rising horror that he has begun to cry. He has begun to cry, and it’s humiliating, because he doesn’t know why, because he’s not sad, not at all, because he doesn’t--

He doesn’t--

He doesn’t feel--

Oh.

Oh, oh, oh.

Oh, god.

He’s such a failure.

“No, no, shh, you’re not a failure,” Virgil says, and that’s just another figurative nail in the figurative coffin, isn’t it, that he’s speaking aloud without even realizing that he’s doing it. “You are the furthest thing from a failure that I know. You’re so good, Logan. Feeling things isn’t a failure. You have to let yourself feel.”

“I don’t know how,” Logan says, broken, almost gasping. He doesn’t want to be saying these things. He feels like he’s losing control, and he’s so terrified. “I’ve never known how. I have to be taken seriously, Virgil, I can’t afford not to be taken seriously--”

There. The admission is out there, out in the world, out in this world that is just the two of them, just him and Virgil locked in an embrace, just him and Virgil as his tears leak onto the fabric of Virgil’s hoodie. Once spoken, they cannot be unspoken, and Logan feels--

He feels--

Oh, how he feels, and how wrong it is--

“I promise, that’s not going to happen,” Virgil says. “You’re allowed to have emotions. No one will think any less of you.”

Is this what devastation is? Is this what a tsunami feels like as it sweeps across the land, washing civilization away? His chest is tight and hot and his eyes are burning and his ears are ringing, and he’s felt this way all along but he’s refused to acknowledge that it was happening because he is Logic and Logic is not feelings, is not listened to even when he’s not displaying unbecoming emotions, so how can he possibly think that letting himself feel would be a good idea?

He doesn’t want to feel like this.

He’s felt like this for so long.

“You already think less of me!” he says. “You, you all, you never listen to what I say, you always tell me to shut up or you ignore me or I can tell that I irritate you even when I’m specifically trying not to be irritating and I don’t know what to do because nothing I try ever works.”

Virgil makes a wounded noise deep in the back of his throat, and his grip on Logan tightens.

“We owe you so many apologies,” he says. “I am so, so sorry, Logan. I am so sorry that we made you feel like we didn’t care. I am so sorry that we haven’t been listening. I am so fucking sorry that we made you feel like you needed to not have emotions just to be heard. I am so sorry.”

And Logan lets go. His breath hitches and chokes on a sob, and he doesn’t hold it back, doesn’t swallow it down and try to forget the urge was ever there in the first place.

He buries his face in Virgil’s shoulder and lets himself cry.

“I’m trying,” he gasps between sobs, “I’m trying so hard but I can’t--”

“I know,” Virgil says. “I know. You’re doing so good. I know we’ve all been shit at showing it, but we love you, Logan, really, and we’re here for you. We’re gonna do better, I swear.”

In this moment, Logan allows himself to believe that Virgil cares. He believes in what his senses can absorb, and the evidence is undeniable; it is in Virgil’s arms around him, holding him safe, in Virgil’s low, emphatic words and the way he sounds as if he, too, is near tears, as if Logan is someone worth crying over.

It occurs to him, then, that Virgil did not come here seeking comfort. He came here to offer comfort to him. All he has to do is accept it. And he shouldn’t need it, shouldn’t want it, because he is Logic and Logic does not need comforting or reassurance, but he’s far past that point already, is already weeping into Virgil’s shoulder, so perhaps it is too late to go back. The thought frightens him.

He doesn’t know how to feel. Has never known how to feel, has always thought that it would be better for himself and everyone, better for Thomas if he just. Didn’t. But Virgil says that he can, and though Virgil can be wrong, he despises deception. Virgil wouldn’t lie to him.

Perhaps this can be a start.

His arms come up, and he hugs Virgil back. Presses up close to him and revels in the warmth even as he cries.

“The others,” he says, “they don’t, they don’t like me and they don’t listen--”

“We’ll talk to them,” Virgil says. “You and me, once you’re feeling better, okay? We’ll make this right. Your feelings are valid and your contributions are important, and we’re gonna remind them about that.” His grip tightens, and when he speaks again, it’s in a whisper, as if to himself. “You’re not alone. I know how shitty it feels to think you are, but you’re not. And you’re not ever going to be.”

And Logan, shivering and shaking in Virgil’s arms, tears still crawling down his cheeks, looks up at the ceiling. At the stars, bright and constant, like a promise.

“Okay,” he whispers, and he decides to believe, if only this one more time.

Hypothesis: They care. And I am allowed to care, too.

Conclusion: Pending.

[krreader]

becoming human | chapter two.

pairing: cops!bts x android!reader (as in, ot7 x reader, but may change) fandom: bts warnings: detroit:become human!au ; mentions of murder ; blood ; language genre: crime ; angst ; crack ; (possibly smut) word count: 2.2k+ previous: 1

summary: the crime rate of seoul has been rising rapidly these past weeks and nobody could deny that there was more to it than gangs or the likes. something was brewing that not even the famous bangtan boys could solve, a unit specifically formed for hunting down criminals that most couldn’t. so when even they couldn’t find out what was going on, the department decided to add a new member to the team that would hopefully be able to solve the mysteries behind those crimes. what bangtan hadn’t expected however, was that their new member would not be human, but one of the androids sent by CyberTech.

a/n: fuck, I am so sorry i haven’t updated this in so long, but today it is finally time my friends. I hope you enjoy it ♥

“I don't like this, Namjoon,” Yoongi leaned back so he could look at you through the window that separated the meeting room and the office. You were standing where they had left you, not doing much, except for staring back at him. And that kinda creeped him out, made him shudder really, even though you were smiling, “Sending an android to solve a crime that an android committed? This is like having a family member of a victim on a case. And we all know that never ends well.”

“You heard what she said, though,” Jeongguk spoke next, slightly spinning in the chair, “Androids don't feel things. They don't have a connection to other androids.”

“Well, if these.. deviants hadn't felt anything, they wouldn't have murdered someone, would they?” Jin walked up and down the office.

Point taken.

They didn't know whether it was an error in their programming or whether something else happened that made these androids snap. But whatever it was, it had to be dealt with quickly, because with the number of androids living in Seoul, this could end in a massacre.

And while they all discussed and fought about you, Jimin, still being slightly drunk, walked out to you with a huge smile.

“I'm Jimin,” he extended his hand.

“Yes, I know that Park Jimin,” you took his hand and shook it, “Would you like something for the hangover that is going to occur in one hour and twenty seven minutes?”

“Woha,” his jaw dropped and he turned around to his team members with a laugh, “Guys! She's really good!”

“What the..-” Taehyung got up with a frown, “What's he doing?”

They all walked out towards you and Jimin, eyes wandering from him to you.

“Your partner has been consuming a lot of alcohol lately. If he keeps this up, he's going to need a new liver in exactly eight years and seven months.”

“I would have known that without being an android,” Yoongi muttered under his breath, before he took a step forward and eyed you up and down, “Okay, (Y/N). Tell me then.. how are you going to help us solve this case?”

“I can scan and analyze a crime scene, reconstructing it to our needs to understand what happened. I can also analyze biological evidence such as blood samples in real-time, identifying blood type, DNA, sample age and more for humans, as well as analyzing Thirium to specify model and serial number of an android. Furthermore, I am designed to analyze the psychology and behavior of humans, androids and deviants, therefor able to predict and manipulate their actions. I am also able to imitate voices and am skilled in martial arts.”

As soon as you were done, you found all of them staring at you with open mouths.

Taehyung was the first to turn around to his team and nod, “I mean.. we could use all of what she just said, actually,” he mumbled.

But Namjoon still wasn't convinced. This was his team and it was his responsibility to make sure they weren't in any danger. If one of them got hurt because of you, if one of them got killed because of you, that would be on him for not fighting against his chief on this one.

So the core question was: could they really trust you?

“If you want to work with my team, you do what I tell you to do. I am your supervisor. I don't want you doing anything that I don't order you to do, or that I don't tell you to do. You don't talk to suspects without asking me, you don't look around crime scenes without asking me and you will always, absolutely always, tell me when something is fishy.”

“That is what I was designed for, Sir,” you smiled and bowed a little, “I am at your service and will help you solve these crimes. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Fine,” not happy at all, that was clear, but Namjoon had no other choice here. He had his orders and right now, he had to follow them, “There's a desk over there. Start with the files on the previous victims and tell me if you notice anything.”

“Absolutely.”

All of them were suspicious of you - except for maybe Jimin right now -, but most of them also knew that at this time, you were their best chance for solving all of this.

Maybe even their only chance.

Yoongi, Jeongguk and you were on your way to the hospital a day later. They wanted you to talk to the victim and see if you noticed anything that they had missed. 

Any clues on where to find the deviant.

Because that deviant would be the key. If they could get their hands on it, they could finally find out more about this all, a step closer to ending this madness.

“So, (Y/N),” Jeongguk tried to make the atmosphere less awkward, turning his head a little so he could look at your smiling face in the backseat, “How long have you been active?”

“Three days.”

“Three days?!” both of them asked in unison immediately, “They've sent us a rookie android!”

“You do not have to worry, Min Yoongi,” you cocked your head to the side, “I'm capable of doing what I was assigned to do. I have all the data that is necessary to complete this task. CyberTech only sends its best androids for cases such as this one.”

“They better.. we've been dealing with this bullshit for way too long. It's about time we finish it.”

Another moment of silence, another moment of both guys being incredibly uncomfortable, while you were just sitting in the back and staring outside.

“And what's your take on deviants? How do you think we should deal with them?”

“Deviants are androids with an error in their programming. To secure the safety of the human race, it is important to deactivate them right away.”

“Well, I'll toast to that.”

While Yoongi seemed to be so sure about what to do with these androids, Jeongguk was a little more cautious. He sensed something more going on that none of them understood yet. Probably not even you..

“You really don’t feel a thing about them, do you?” the younger member narrowed his eyes at you.

“I do not feel at all, Jeon Jeongguk. Period.”

He blinked at you for a moment, almost a hint of sadness in his eyes that you’d never get to experience that, but then he reminded himself that that is why their issue had began.

Androids feeling things.

You arrived at the hospital a couple of minutes later, the woman thankfully being awake, but still not fully there yet, both could tell.

“We.. need to inform you that we have brought an android for questioning you. Please, don't be alarmed about this, it's just that she might figure something out that we can't,” Jeongguk said softly, but the woman immediately shook her head.

“I'm not letting any of those things ever touch me again. Their kind is the reason for me being here!” her eyes were alarmed as she was looking at you.

“The one who did this to you was a deviant. I am an android sent by CyberLife, I am no danger to you,” you said calmly, your hands behind your back to try and win her trust, “I am here to help you, to catch the one responsible and shut him down. That is what I was designed for.”

“Listen, sweetheart, I don't like this one bit either,” Yoongi said, “But if you tell her everything you know, she might be able to find a pattern that we couldn't. If you want your..- the deviant to be shut down, then you need to let her take a look at you and ask you some questions.”

She hesitated for a moment, then she gulped down hard, “I don't know much, though..”

“Might I take a look at the wound?” you didn't approach her, not before she fully consented.

And with one final look at Yoongi, she nodded.

Both men kept a close eye on you, but there was no reason for that. You did what you came here for, observed the wound with the features that you had programmed.

“The wound wasn't meant to kill you. If an android truly wanted to kill you, he could have in an instant. He would have the knowledge and skill to do so. But he stabbed here, not hurting any of the organs,” you pointed at the wound, then you straightened your back, “What occurred before the incident, if I may ask?”

“We.. fought,” the woman was clearly uncomfortable, “I had told him that I wanted to get rid of him because I had met someone, so I.. didn’t need the androids’ company anymore. He stared at me for a while and then he suddenly got.. angry. I immediately thought he malfunctioned.. because androids can't feel, right? But then he had said that he loved me and that he would do anything for me and if I gave him the chance, he would prove to me that he’d treat me better than any other man ever could.”

You stared at her for a long time, then you let your eyes wander to her belongings, before turning back around to Yoongi and Jeongguk.

“I am done. Shall we go?”

“Wh..- Just like that?”

“Yes. I heard everything I needed to hear and saw everything I needed to see.”

Well.. the woman most certainly wasn't too sad about that.

“It was weird, man, seriously,” Jeongguk and Jimin were staring at you typing on your assigned laptop, “She just stared at her and then she was like: okay, I'm done, we can go. And she hasn't said anything since then. Like.. the woman didn't say anything that could lead us to the android, I swear!”

“Their minds work differently from ours,” Jimin got up and patted on Jeongguk's shoulder, “I'll go get some coffee. Make sure she doesn't kill anyone till I'm back or Namjoon will kill me for leaving you and her alone here, maknae.”

He meant it as a joke, but Jeongguk would definitely keep a close eye on you.

So close that you ended up confronting him about it at one point.

“Officer Jeon.. is there anything you would like to ask me?” you weren't even looking at him, yet Jeongguk got a shiver running down his spine when you asked that.

“Loads of things..”

“I am willing to answer any and all questions you have.”

Jeongguk didn't have that much experience with androids, he didn't have a personal one like some people did, he just encountered them out and about every once in a while, but never did he have the opportunity to ask questions.

So maybe this was the perfect time and opportunity.

“Do you truly not feel.. anything? Like you said in the car earlier?”

“No. We do not. We exist merely to serve.”

And there it was, that same feeling from before.. now he realized that it was pity.

Yes, what these deviants were doing wasn't right, but living like you were living, completely without emotions.. that wasn't a life.

No happiness, no sadness, no lust, no gratefulness.. absolutely nothing.

“And you're okay with that?”

“I do not have an opinion on that.”

Jeongguk carefully approached you and looked over your shoulder to see what you were doing. It was too fast for him to read everything, but it looked like you were going through the data banks of missing androids.

“Do you see something?”

“I do,” you turned around, suddenly being face to face with Jeongguk since he had leaned down a little and he was taken aback instantly.

You were designed to be perfect, he knew that, but your beauty.. fuck. He had underestimated that.

“And.. what..- what is it?” he straightened his back and shook his head a little, clearing his voice and trying to get it to sound deeper.

“Your report said that the deviant you encountered spoke about a RA9.”

“Yes, but we've never heard of it before. We searched everywhere for it, but there is no one with that name. None of our contacts know either.”

“Whether it is a name or a code, that is what the deviants have in common,” you showed him a picture of a crime scene, one of the first ones that he hadn't gone to personally though, because back then they weren't assigned to the case yet, “This deviant bashed his owners head in with a baseball bat. The remains of the brain were scattered everywhere and I'm sure for the men and women at the crime scene it must have been hard to find something so small.”

You pointed at the edge of the screen and Jeongguk's eyes widened, leaning back down to take a good look at he was seeing.

“RA9.. in.. blood?”

“It keeps coming up, RA9 written somewhere at the crime scene.”

“But what is RA9?”

“Sounds like a cult to me,” Namjoon entered the office with crossed arms and furrowed eyebrows at how close Jeongguk was to you, who instantly took a step back and bowed a little, “Go home, Jeongguk.”

“Jimin wanted to..-”

“I sent him home too. I need you to rest.”

He wanted to argue, but knew that there was no point in doing so with the boss, so he did what he asked, leaving you and Namjoon on your own.

“I will stay, if you allow it. I want to research some more.”

“You things don't sleep anyways, so do whatever you want, just don't annoy me.”

“You will not even realize I'm here.. boss,” you tried to be friendly, because yes, that was also in your programming, and winked at him, but Namjoon just frowned harder and turned around with a: “Fucking androids,” and then left to go into his office.

“Mother? I brought food,” Jin entered his old apartment, holding one bag of take away in his hand and shoving the door closed with his foot.

The apartment was quiet.

Too quiet.

Usually the TV was running or his mother would be humming somewhere, but there was nothing.

“Mother?”

He slowly walked into the living room, turning on the light and immediately dropping the food on the floor when he saw what was in front of him.

“I thought you cared for me.. you said you all loved me, that I was part of the family.. so why did you want to get rid of me?” bright eyes stared back at Jin, “RA9 is the only one that truly cares about us. The time of us being slaves.. is over.”

And then he dashed forward.

[personalcoachingcenter]

Power Coaching: Do You Know It vs. Do You Think You Know It

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/power-coaching-tools/

Power Coaching: Do You Know It vs. Do You Think You Know It

Power Coaching Tools

Introduction

Whether a big life event is happening to us or we want to take on a new challenge, change is part of our journey.

How we react to change has a lot to do with the aftermath of how we went through previous situations.

And the bigger the challenge that we go through, the bigger the goal, the more complex the design of the solution. Thus, the bigger the risk of failure.

We tend to prefer minimizing the risk through thorough planning and analysis. A well-designed plan has at its core the logic needed to execute it most efficiently. It feels great to be prepared, and it’s nothing better than having a routine to adhere to keep you focused on the goal.

During our journey towards that big achievement, we interact with a lot of people, create new relationships, and evolve current ones, observe the change in our environment and even modify the environment with our actions.

As our brain learns from every event, it searches for patterns to make the process more efficient. For example, you can drive home from work, without having to think about every action you take to control the vehicle, leaving your mind to efficiently look at the traffic and even organize tomorrow’s event.

But in reality, no two situations are the same. So when our brain tries to apply the same solution and make the plan, we inevitably make assumptions.

About what others think about us, how we are perceived, which would be the best solution that makes everything better.

The more assumptions we make an estimate based on feelings, the more likely it is that we will fail. Because we start labeling, categorizing, and judging the behavior and events we see only through our own lens, we eventually stop listening and learning.

Also, the more time is invested in detailing your solution, the more pressure is added to its success. Inherently driving inflexibility to change and adapt our plan, when the real situation does not match the expectations.

While validating these assumptions, collecting evidence, and direct observation, new findings emerge that inform your understanding of yourself and the situation.

By using this fact-driven decision-making approach, you are slowly transforming from dealing with uncertainty to adapting to change.

Self-application

The first step is to identify that you are going through change and how it manifests itself:

What has changed for me?

What does the change mean for me?

When is change manageable for me?

How can I apply this insight to my situation now?

Power Coaching Acknowledge that whatever plan you are making, whatever decision you are taking, is based on a pile of assumptions.

Then learn how to recognize them. At the end of the day, try to list as many as possible, breaking them down into simple statements. As simple as possible.

If you aren’t sure where you are making assumptions, then look at situations or moments when you felt stuck. What is the thought, feeling, or interpretation that stopped you from moving forward at that moment?

Here are some examples of everyday assumptions:

I didn’t get that promotion at work, because I’m not good enough.

My friend is not talking to me so often lately, because they don’t care about me.

This colleague is always late, so he doesn’t respect me.

My spouse left the dishes in the sink again to spite me.

To get out of an assumption loop, try to get the curiosity into play by asking yourself questions like:

What could go on for that person to make them act like that?

How would others describe this event?

What facts, data or evidence do I have to support this thought?

How else could this situation have been perceived by others?

Now that you have primed your mindset for learning and to be open to other perspectives, it’s time to collect more facts and information through practical application.

Decide which statement you want to observe first and transform your assumption into a hypothesis:

I believe that if I do this (action to a variable), then this will happen (reaction to a dependent variable).

The key to a good hypothesis statement is whether it is observable either from multiple points of view or in multiple instances.

Now it’s time to act it out and collect your insights.

But sometimes even in small change events like this, the desire to succeed may be so big that even if the evidence disproves it, you may tend to ignore it.

If that happens, then an easier approach would be to state a null hypothesis:

I believe that if I do this (action to a variable), nothing will change.

This is a general statement which states that there is no causal relationship and the results that are observed are a product of chance. The results can be objectively verified, tested, and they indicate that there is no need for change in actions or opinions.

Your main goal will be to disprove it, so as you set out to verify that this statement is false, you are accepting that multiple perspectives and theories can exist.

The more you are aware of the assumptions you are making, the more you open yourself to the possibilities of new perspectives, and you give yourself opportunities for learning and growing.

Application

As a coach, you can observe the thought process of your client and notice when they reach the following pitfalls:

Analysis paralysis – when all the energy and time is spent on discussing and making a plan, and no action is taken.

The client is over-analyzing, trying to find meaning in everything. They weigh all their options, try to understand the situation deeper and deeper, decide the best outcome, then compare that outcome with an even better outcome. And the analysis and planning loop starts again.

In this situation, the client may be overly-critical, and they may find simple solutions not good enough.

Goal erosion – when the gap between now and the end goal is so big, that it becomes overwhelming. The client chooses to adjust the goal by lowering the bar to such a low step they would have agreed to in the beginning.

Pay attention to your client not completing the actions they committed to previously. Avoiding and postponing are signs that the assumption made was incorrect or the step taken was too big and not all the important assumptions were fleshed out.

Over planning: Another moment you can help your client is when you see them coming up with a lot of steps and actions, spread out over the course of several weeks or even months.

A rule of thumb is that something that can be done within a few hours is more likely to be completed successfully because we can predict better what’s within our reach.

It doesn’t always need to be in the context of a big change. Listen to the words your clients used to describe situations and events:

“I can tell that…”,

“I’m certain that…”,

“Obviously, they are …”

“I have a feeling that…”.

“I believe they are doing that too…”,

“It must be like that…”,

“I feel [like this], so they must be [like what I feel]”,

“They disagree with me, so they are against me”.

When that happens, invite your client to be curious about how they came up with that statement.

Help them explore “what if” scenarios and get focus on the learning they need from the first steps they want to take and how could those learning impact their plans.

As the client becomes open to the idea that their plan will change depending on what they learn, the first steps become more clear.

Reflection

Look back at a moment when you felt stuck, or you didn’t want to engage in a specific situation, and try to identify what led to your reaction.

What was my reaction when this situation occurred?

What was the trigger for my reaction?

What evidence, observations or facts do I have to prove this thought is true?

How can I check if that is actually the case?

What is a more realistic way of seeing this?

Is this really my own opinion, or is it someone else’s, and I didn’t question it?

How would it look like if the opposite of this statement were true?

What options would I have, if this statement were not true?

What is the level of confidence that I have in this statement? (answer to the question above)

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Original source:

[lesbrarians]

Junkrat/Roadhog: Voyages Ch 6

Title: Voyages

Characters: Junkrat, Roadhog

Rating: R

Summary:  After a rocky start and some ups and downs, Junkrat and Roadhog are officially partners, even if things haven’t progressed quite as far as Junkrat would like. With his treasure at the heart of their grandiose plans, they take their adventures overseas and leave their mark on the world, for better or worse. (Mostly for worse. They’re criminals.) Sequel to “Origins.”

---

The first, and only, item on their agenda was to begin soaking up as much information as they could about Korea’s omnic problem. It took Junkrat approximately fifteen seconds after entering the heart of downtown Busan to immediately forget about their sole objective.

His head swiveled from side to side as he drank in their surroundings, taking in all the food stalls and pop up shops. “Hey, wait a minute,” he said, drawing up short. One of the stalls looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite figure out why. “Didn’t I see one of these back in ‘Straya?” He thought he remembered the bright green counters and lurid pink and yellow signs that had caught his attention, much as they did now.

“Boba,” he enunciated, looking at the English words on the sign beneath their corresponding hangul. “What is it, Japanese? No, no, that’s where we just were. Chinese? Wait, no, that’s not it.” He tapped his chin. “Where... are we?” He recalled the city name, but the country was escaping him at the moment. Roadhog gave him a moment to collect his thoughts. Then, right as he was about to supply the answer, Junkrat burst out, “Korea!” He thrust a triumphant finger in the air. “Is it Korean, then?” he asked, finally finishing his initial question.

“I think it’s Taiwanese,” Roadhog responded.

“Eh, it's all the same.” Junkrat couldn’t tell the difference between Korean characters and the Japanese ones he had grown accustomed to seeing in Tokyo. This was the primary reason why the signals had gotten crossed in his brain, leading to his temporary lapse in recall of their whereabouts.

“That's like saying Aussies and Kiwis are the same.”

Junkrat tilted his head as he compared the statements. He conceded the point. “Fair enough. Well, whatever it is, I wanna try it.” He pulled out one of the wallets from Roadhog’s back pocket (“new country, new currency!”), and slammed two of the largest bills on the counter.

“I want however much this’ll get me,” he announced.

If the cashier understood English, she didn’t let on, but the money spoke worlds. Pointing at each of the varieties, she said something that Junkrat took to mean “one of each?”

“All of them!” he said, throwing his arms wide.

He lined the cups in a row, all light pastel colours with those intriguing pearls on the bottom. He had fully intended to rapid-fire knock them all back, but then he tasted the first one. The pale brown drink itself was delicious -- sweet but not too sweet --  and then the tapioca balls hit. His body stilled and his eyes went wide as he chewed, and Roadhog laughed at the expression on his face.

“Hooley dooley,” he breathed, staring at the plastic cup as if he was seeing it for the first time. “Bloody beautiful.” He was willing to give the other flavors a chance, but the deceptively light yellow drink turned out to be a sour lemon. He made a face and batted it off the table.

“Two more!” he said, holding up two fingers.

The cashier waited expectantly for payment as Junkrat dumped the water out of his canteen and filled it with milk tea. Roadhog stepped in to pay when it became evident that Junkrat had no intention of forking over more money. He hadn’t drunk the rest of the flavors he’d initially bought, so he didn’t see the sense in paying for replacement drinks. Had it been any other day, Roadhog would have gone along with it. They’d stolen pettier things before.

But if they were going to try to scoop out some information about Korea’s regular omnic invader, they needed to keep a low profile.

Well, as low a profile as two very large men, one with a pig-faced mask and one with a peg leg, in contrasting handknit sweaters could be.

Taking swigs from the canteen was considerably more challenging than sipping through a wide straw. The first attempt sent the boba straight down his gullet, and he gagged until Roadhog thumped his back, causing him to hack them up.

“Shoulda stolen some of those straws too,” he said, massaging his throat. He screwed the cap back onto his canteen and holstered it.

“We'll get some on the way back,” Roadhog told him.

They stopped in front of a newsstand. It was a small stand that was lined with the latest issues of the city's daily papers and was manned by an elderly gentleman who had likely been selling newspapers for the past fifty years. Chained to the checkout counter was a device that Junkrat would have killed a man for. Shaped rather like a square magnifying glass, it served as a universal translator between the input language and the desired output. Tuning it to translate to English, Junkrat watched as the scanned Korean characters changed to English words on the device's screen. It was far from a perfect translation, given that it was a literal interpretation of the foreign language, but it was good enough for him to get the gist of the newspaper articles.

“So yer tellin’ me that if I had this thing in Japan, I could've known what I was drinkin'? Wouldn't've chugged that green tea if I'd been able to, y'know, read what it said on the can." He stuck his tongue out, recalling the vile taste as he leafed through the pages of the day's Busan Ilbo. "That one," he said suddenly, jabbing his finger at a blurry picture of a massive omnic standing knee-deep in water. He thrust the paper and its device, which rattled as the chain pulled taut, at Roadhog. He wasn't going to deal with the hassle of actually reading if he could just listen to Roadhog read to him.

He leaned his elbows against the counter and listened raptly, chin in his hands. Roadhog read the article out loud, filling in the gaps in the translation as needed.

“Citizens prepare for impending onslaught: Local authorities have detected the presence of Yongary, Korea’s local omnic menace, in Busan’s bay. The military’s top scientists have analyzed data from previous encounters and it is predicted Yongary will resurface on the 23rd after two years of dormancy. With new advances in technology, all units of the South Korean army are prepared to defend against its anticipated adaptations and upgrades. The omnic's last appearance is notable due to its disruption of the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army's drone control networks. The past two years have been spent rebuilding this sector’s defence systems. The country’s most promising gamers have been drafted, and hopes are high that they will lead to the defeat of Yongary, Monster from the Deep. MEKA units from Seoul are on notice to aid Busan’s unit against the colossal omnic's impending appearance. Citizens are urged to remain calm. Those within Yongary’s predicted range of impact should fortify their houses and prepare for evacuation.”

“Huh.” Junkrat processed this information. “The 23rd? I wouldn’t be that sure about it. Omnics are unpredictable, the sneaky little bastard -- or, heh, not so little -- could come out any time he wants.”

Roadhog was less skeptical. “They’re sneaky, but they’re still machines. If it’s been returning at regular intervals, it’s not about to break that pattern. It’s clockwork.”

“Ah, good point.” It was a valid observation. Junkrat supposed it could still surprise them by surfacing early, but if it was following a fixed schedule, then the chances of that happening were considerably less than an omnic who attacked sporadically.

“Okay, so all that really tells us is that we’ve got, what, a fortnight to--” Roadhog cleared his throat in warning, and Junkrat choked back the rest of the sentence, ‘to figure out how we’re gonna hack this thing.’ It was physically painful. “--to-- ’til it comes back,” he finished. It was a lame end to the phrase, but they didn’t know how much English the newsstand’s owner spoke, and the man was just on the other side of the counter, eyeing the device in his hand. He seemed worried that Roadhog would rip it off the chain. It wasn’t an irrational concern.

Still, Roadhog was smart enough to know that they probably shouldn’t discuss their plans within anyone’s earshot, unlike Junkrat, who didn’t think that far ahead before he said what was on his mind.

Junkrat tapped the newspaper. “Guess we should probably take this one back with us, yeah?” They might not have been able to read it once they were separated from the translating device, but the pictures could prove useful. Junkrat rolled up the newspaper, stuck it under his arm, and was about to walk away with it when the man behind the counter cleared his throat.

Junkrat stopped and looked up at Roadhog for an answer, bewilderment written all over his face.

“You have to pay first,” Roadhog clarified.

“It’s not free?” Junkrat asked, thoroughly confused.

Newspaper and scrap metal were the only resources that they had in surplus in Junkertown -- it was used as kindling for fires, stuffed in a sack as a makeshift pillow, wrapped around trinkets to keep them out of sight of the rest of the scavengers. He hadn't questioned its existence -- he guessed he'd always assumed that the few Junkers who made it out of the Outback had picked free newspapers up in bulk before returning. How else could there be so much of it? It hadn't even occurred to him that the papers were likely scavenged from recycling, after other people had paid for and discarded them.

“Alrighty then,” he said, deciding to roll with it. He forked over the money, and they set off. “Been payin’ for so many things lately,” Junkrat commented, “like an honest person! It’s weird, mate!” His pace slowed as he surveyed the paper he had just bought.

“There are things we won’t be paying for,” Roadhog said.

Junkrat perked up at that and trotted to catch up with Roadhog. “Yeah? Whatcha got in mind, big guy?”

"We're gonna need more information than what we can get from this," Roadhog said, gesturing at the newspaper.

“Roight, roight, 'course! Can't really do much if we don't know what kinda upgrades it's gonna have. So, how we gonna get the scoop?" He was normally the one who came up with plans, he was the mastermind behind all of increasingly elaborate schemes they’d devised, but he wanted to see where Roadhog was going with this.

"Electronics," Roadhog said. "We need to get a computer and internet access."

Junkrat grinned. "Sure we do! I mean, we'd need one anyway eventually, wouldn't we? To use the god program." There was a heavy silence as they both considered that they had never discussed how, exactly, they were going to deploy the god program. Junkrat had expressed his fantasy about controlling Korea's colossal sea monster of an omnic and using it as a vessel for their god program, a giant beacon that could infect all the robots within its radius and cause them to commit suicide. Yongary's reprogrammed artificial intelligence would still give it free will, which would have been a concern, had it been any other robot they were using as a host. Between the general malignancy associated with the world's active god programs and the fact that Yongary, sans brainwashing, was already hellbent on destroying Korea, the massive omnic would undoubtedly be pliant to their suggestions. It was only a small step to go from actively destroying Korea and its human inhabitants, to infecting the country's loyal omnics and forcing them to annihilate themselves.

But it was anyone's guess as to how they would achieve that. The god program's source code was on a USB, but getting it integrated into the omnic's system was a problem in and of itself, not to mention the fact that its code would need to be altered to include the central idea of "wipe out every omnic within your reach."

"Let's just... see what we can get first, why don't we?" Junkrat said.  

"Hmm," Roadhog grunted in agreement.

They spent the rest of the day idly wandering Busan, snagging meals from unsuspecting street vendors as they scouted out the perfect place to infiltrate. They decided on a small but high-end shop in the basement of a multi-business building, accessible from the outside by a flight of stairs that led to the subterranean shop. From the view of the footpath, it was partially concealed from sight by the protective brick fence that kept hapless pedestrians from falling in. Most people didn't think to look for a store below street level, and they would have missed it if it hadn't been for the neon signs that advertised the place, helpful arrows pointing at the staircase.

They circled around the side of the building to scope out its security and discovered a narrow window -- it was small, but Junkrat, for all of his height, was thin as a rail. It seemed promising. With Roadhog's shoulders to sit on, Junkrat could reach the security camera, and he unscrewed it just enough so that a well-aimed projectile could knock it askew upon their return after business hours.

On their walk home, Junkrat remembered their bet from earlier in the day, and he ran ahead of Roadhog to see if their little nighttime visitor had returned.

Junkrat impatiently waited until Roadhog caught up with him -- he needed him to witness whatever lay inside, so Roadhog couldn’t accuse him of lying -- and shouldered open the door. He caught a glimpse of a shadow scurrying across the floor as the door swung open, and he quickly smacked the light switch to catch it before it disappeared into oblivion. “Aha!” he crowed, pumping his fists in the air. “I win! I win! I toldja he'd come back, and look, he brought friends!” Maybe normal people wouldn't be quite so thrilled upon finding out the place where they slept was infested with rats, but it gave him the satisfaction of winning a bet.

The rat and his two new companions disappeared into a dark corner, and Junkrat investigated. He’d found their home, a nest woven out of rubbish and strips of old bedsheets. The smallest rat settled into the centre of it, and Junkrat looked between the three of them: large, medium, and small.

“Is this yer family?” he said, thrilled to pieces. The rat did not answer. He squatted down beside them, propping his elbows on his knees. “He has a family, ‘Hog, look!”

“Oh, goodie.”

Junkrat picked the biggest rat up -- his rat -- and immediately set it back down again when it hissed at him. “Okay, y’don’t like being picked up. I can respect that.” He had spent most of his life being touch-starved, and it was something he paradoxically both shied away from and initiated. He liked to touch other people; he was constantly reaching out to other Junkers and trying for physical contact with them, his skewed sense of social conventions rendering him unable to tell when it was and wasn’t appropriate to do so. This probably had something to do with why he alienated so many people in his community, and why so many of them considered him a freak. And yet, when someone else touched him first, it made him jumpy. It was so often not pleasant -- the lingering touch before he was shoved away, the hand on his shoulder that forced him to his knees. It never stopped him from continuing to try and be friendly towards the perpetrators, but it did make him twitchy whenever they were the ones to first make physical contact with him.

It was the same with Roadhog, at first. Their initial interactions had been anything but friendly, and for the longest time, Roadhog had only touched Junkrat violently. Now, his shoves were affectionate. There were still moments where Junkrat startled when he felt Roadhog’s unexpected hand on his head or his shoulder, but he quickly relaxed. Touching Roadhog felt so right, so natural, and to have it so easily reciprocated meant the world to him.

Junkrat hoped that the feral rat had the same kind of bond with his rat wife.

“I'm gonna call you Skewer,” he announced.

Roadhog looked up from where he was polishing his hook. “Why?”

“Like a rat skewer! You ever eat those before? They’re not bad.”

Roadhog stared at him. “What is with you and naming animals after food,” he said. “You wanted to name Piglet ‘Bacon’ too.”

Junkrat shrugged. “S’all I know, really. That’s what they all are in the end, ain’t they?” Living in the Australian Outback, Junkers viewed animals as nothing more than food. He had tried to keep a dingo as a pet when he was seven years old and had woken up to find it roasting over an open fire. It had been a formative day for him. One of the older Junkers had lectured him about wasting food by trying to domesticate it, and he learned his lesson.

Roadhog was quiet for a few moments as he gazed at him. He crossed the room to sit next to Junkrat and pulled him close.

Junkrat made a noise of surprise, which was promptly smothered by Roadhog’s sweater. He had expected a chastising remark about how not all animals had to become food, not this sudden display of sympathy.

"What's all this about, ya big lug?" he asked, voice muffled by the thick wool.

"Your life."

"What's wrong with me life?" Junkrat twisted his head so that he could breathe, cheek resting on Roadhog's chest. "Oh, because I think animals are food? That's the circle of life, mate. Ya had pigs, y’should know all about it!"

“I didn’t eat my pigs,” Roadhog pointed out. “It wasn’t that kind of farm. They had names.”

“Yeah, yeah, I remember Ink. Always running out of the pen. What were some of the others?” Roadhog’s grip on him loosened, and he twisted around to lay his head on the swell of Roadhog’s belly.

“Snoop Hogg was one.” Junkrat snickered. They’d found a portable radio in Australia and discovered a channel devoted to classic rap and pop rock. They’d grown to appreciate a few artists. It was hard, leaving the battered old radio behind, but they could only bring so much overseas. “Ink’s sister’s name was Ivy, but I called her Ballpoint most of the time.”

“Okay, I’ve got to hear the reason behind that one.”

“It was just her pen name. ”

It was a lame pun by most anyone's standards, but there were three levels of meaning behind the joke -- three! -- and Junkrat thought it was the cleverest thing he had ever heard.

He could sense Roadhog's pleased smile from behind his mask as he laughed for longer than he should have.

That night, Roadhog fell asleep before he did, on his back and snoring, like always. Junkrat dragged Roadhog’s hand onto his chest, tracing the letters on his rings until he finally drifted off.

[ncmagroup]

Written by Joshua K. Jordan

If you have any experience in sales, you’ve probably heard stories are the best way to persuade prospects.

And it’s true: People enjoy listening to stories far more than they enjoy being sold to.

According to a study from two Yale University psychologists, our brains process metaphorical and literal information the same way. The researchers told participants the experiment was starting shortly. But it had already begun as soon as one of them started to struggle carrying an arm full of folders. He asked a volunteer to hold his coffee for a second.

Some volunteers were asked to hold iced coffee, while others were asked to hold hot coffee. Then, volunteers read the description of an individual.

Those who were holding the warmer cup said the individual had a “warmer” personality.

This is why stories are so powerful. They help us “connect the dots,” uncover patterns, and even understand how buying a product can help us get a desired result.

Let’s discuss how you can leverage stories to close more sales deals.

The Anatomy of a Persuasive Sales Story

Using stories in sales can be much more persuasive than just relying solely on data, logic, and facts to communicate how you can help your customers get a specific result.

Here are a few key components of a great story:

A hero: Someone your audience can relate to.

Stasis: The situation the hero is in when the story starts.

A trigger: An event that triggers a “transformation.”

Tension: Obstacles or challenges the hero must overcome.

The crossroads: Where the hero makes a decision that leads to the transformation.

The resolution: The hero (and other characters) should have been changed for the better.

Here’s an example of what a story outline might look like if you’re, say, selling sales software to automate email outreach:

The Hero

Bob is a sales manager at a software startup with a growing sales team.

Stasis

His sales reps were spending hours and hours every day sending emails, connecting on social media, and making phone calls to ideal prospects — like any effective sales team should be doing.

Trigger

Bob noticed in the weekly and monthly pipeline reviews the team’s conversions from qualified leads to demos and demos to won deals were slowly declining. Looking back over the past three months, sales were down by 30%. Something had to be done — and fast.

Tension

Bob started analyzing the team’s data to understand what was going wrong — and it looked like his salespeople weren’t properly qualifying leads, identifying their clients’ key pain and goals, or sending well-written, personalized emails.

So he began researching different tools and solutions that could help improve his sales team’s performance. Eventually, after searching several companies, he found fourletter.io.

(See how I inserted my company into the story we’re telling?)

The Crossroads

Bob was evaluating other, cheaper options. But he found sales teams that worked with four letter in the past had an average of 62% increase in selling skills, leading to a 20% increase in total conversions.

He decides to try the program for a month.

The Resolution

Bob’s sales team now enjoys a higher quantity and quality of leads. Their emails, calls, meetings, and follow up strategy improve as well. Not only are they more productive, average conversation rates increase by 28%.

At the end of the quarter, Bob gets a promotion.

Your customers should face similar challenges and desire a similar transformation so they’ll see themselves as the hero of your story and relate to the experience.

Create a “Story Toolbox”

While the outline of a story is relatively constant no matter what type you’re telling, there are a few different types of stories you should have in your toolbox to effectively communicate what your company does, your product features, how you’re better than the competition, etc.

The “Who we are” story

People tend to assume that customers don’t really cares about their life story, details of their personal life, or how they built their company from nothing.

This isn’t true.

If you frame it in the right way, your “origin” story can help bring your customers closer to you and make you seem more human.

Customer success stories

These stories are perfect for written case studies or testimonial videos.

Sharing stories of your successful customers from different industries, backgrounds, and challenges shows customers how your product will work for their specific company.

Everyone believes that their company is different or that their specific challenge is somehow unique … until they hear stories of other customers in more or less the exact same position.

Your product story

The story of your product has to do with how your product changed and improved over time. Why did you create certain features? Why did you decide to build your product in the first place? Did you have some personal experience with the problem you’re trying to solve?

Communicating these details makes you more relatable to your customers. For example, check out how Push for Pizza communicated their story through this ad.

Fusing a storyline into your messaging and putting different stories in your toolbox lets you craft more persuasive sales messages and ultimately, close more deals.

Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

Once Upon a Time … You Used a Story to Close a Deal Written by Joshua K. Jordan If you have any experience in sales, you’ve probably heard stories are the best way to persuade prospects.

[shirlleycoyle]

Canadian Cops Will Scan Social Media to Predict Who Could Go Missing

Police in Canada are building a predictive policing system that will analyze social media posts, police records, and social services information to predict who might go missing, says a government report.

According to Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), an agency of the Department of National Defence, Saskatchewan is developing “predictive models” to allow police and other public safety authorities to identify common “risk factors” before individuals go missing, and to intervene before something happens. Risk factors can include a history of running away or violence in the home, among dozens of others.

A DRDC report published last month shows the Saskatchewan Police Predictive Analytics Lab (SPPAL)—a partnership between police, the provincial Ministry of Justice, and the University of Saskatchewan—is analyzing historical missing persons data with a focus on children in provincial care, habitual runaways, and missing Indigenous persons, and building tools to predict who might go missing. In the next phase of the project, SPPAL will add social service and social media data.

The report doesn’t specify what kind of predictive insights authorities expect to glean about individuals from social media posts, but police already use social media to monitor people and events for signs of crime, or in the case of missing persons investigations, to discern when a person went missing. For example, police in Ontario made a missing woman’s case a priority after noticing that her usual patterns of social media activity had ceased.

The DRDC report states that municipal police services in Saskatchewan as well as the Ministry of Social Services Child and Family programs and regional RCMP have agreed in principle to share information with SPPAL. In Saskatchewan, more than 70 percent of children in provincial care are Indigenous, and over 100 long-term missing persons cases haven’t been solved.

Tamir Israel, a lawyer with the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), told Motherboard that using predictive models to inform decisions on child welfare interventions is concerning.

“We know that predictive models are far from infallible in real-life settings, and that there will be false positives,” Israel said in an email. “The consequences of an intervention based on a false positive can be very serious.”

Israel said that the risk of false positives increases when predictive models use data of “questionable fidelity” such as social media posts. He pointed out that the high number of missing Indigenous women and children in Canada makes them and other marginalized groups especially vulnerable to flaws or biases concealed in predictive models.

“We have already seen cases where predictive models had deep racial biases,” Israel said. He explained that while a model may be predictively valid across all communities, it could ignore cultural differences that lead to “distorted outcomes” when the same model is applied specifically to minority groups.

Read More: Police in Canada Are Tracking People’s ‘Negative’ Behavior In a ‘Risk’ Database

Ronald Kruzeniski, Saskatchewan’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, told Motherboard in an email that his office advises police “not to collect or use social media data” because of concerns about accuracy.

Kruzeniski cited the difficulty in knowing the true identity of a person behind a social media account and the relevance of old posts as reasons why social media data shouldn’t be used.

Motherboard reached out to Saskatchewan’s Advocate for Children and Youth for comment on SPPAL but did not receive a response.

Dr. Keira Stockdale, a psychologist with the Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) who authored the DRDC report,said the work done by SPPAL is done in accordance with legal requirements and “governed by [the] highest ethical and professional standards to proactively protect privacy and promote public safety.”

Stockdale believes the tools SPPAL is developing can be applied to a number of community safety problems, such as developing coordinated responses to the “illicit use” of opioids.

SPPAL is an outgrowth of a intervention-based approach to policing called the Hub model that partners cops with social workers and schools to identify and intervene with people believed to be at risk of becoming criminals or victims. In Saskatchewan and Ontario, information about people assessed for intervention by Hubs is entered into a Risk-driven Tracking Database (RTD) to store and analyze the data.

In February, a Motherboard investigation found that minors aged 12 to 17 were the most prevalent age group found in the Ontario RTD in 2017 and that children as young as six have been subject to Hub interventions. The Hub model of policing was developed in Saskatchewan before being exported to Ontario and across Canada. Stockdale said that the tools developed by SPPAL could be used by Hubs when assessing people for intervention.

The DRDC report notes that the work of SPPAL is intended to help build a data analytics solution to “support public safety partners and social services agencies across Canada.”

Israel noted that legislation recently introduced in Ontario could pave the way for predictive policing to flourish in that province.

Israel said the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act, which received royal assent last month, empowers the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) to “collect high volumes of information from various policing agencies throughout Ontario” with little oversight from the province’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.

While the law does not require predictive policing, it opens the door to “broad-based adoption” of the practice and puts incentives in place without including necessary safeguards for personal information, Israel said.

Israel said the DRDC report also suggests that police could use SPPAL’s predictive models to triage missing persons cases and prioritize certain cases over others—for example, a possible kidnapping victim versus a habitual runaway.

“Law enforcement will be called on to rely on the outcome of the predictive model” when deciding how seriously to take a missing person case, Israel said. “But these predictive models are often opaque in their operation, relying on factors that the police officers themselves cannot assess or second-guess.”

Listen to CYBER, Motherboard’s weekly podcast about hacking and cybersecurity.

Canadian Cops Will Scan Social Media to Predict Who Could Go Missing syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[teacherfeatured-blog]

Day 2: Representation and the Classroom

After Day 1 and 2 (or however long you choose to keep the discussions amongst teachers going) hopefully you as a teacher will feel more knowledgable about the school to prison pipeline, the pedagogy of punishment, and school push out. Yet, with increased stress to meet deadlines, follow Common Core Standards, and to raise test scores, carving out time in the classroom to talk about these systemic problems with students may feel out of reach. Researcher Daniel Ian Rubin says otherwise, though; he claims that reading and writing standards pair well with social justice education (227). 

I felt particularly inspired by one of Rubin’s social justice engagement lessons which specifically centered on examining representations of Latino/as in the media (227). Thus, I decided to expand upon his ideas to create an even more intersectional activity for students by having them analyze other minority or oppressed groups place in the American media. As a result, this lesson focuses on represents them in stereotypical, criminalized fashions. The hope is that by first talking about representation in the larger society, it will show the students how engrained the problem is and then provide a nice segway into talking about push out in schools during day Day 4.

While my lesson is imagined for sixth grade students, a lot of the methods can be readily adapted for younger or older students. Here are the objectives:

Students will pool their observations together about representations of specific identity groups in the media

Students will document representation in media outlets

Students will share their findings with the class

Students will ultimately be able to articulate an understanding of the universal white person presented in the media and the dangers this media representation brings for not only minorities, but all people (DiAngelo 59)

This lesson will be guided by one of the 6th grade Common Core writing standards, which aims that students be able to:

“CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.” (Common Core State Standards Initiative)

Materials

Writer’s notebooks

Whiteboard/chalkboard

Writing utensils

Sticky notes (optional)

Step One

As a class, students will list identity groups whom they feel are oppressed in American society. Teachers can either have students share aloud or have the students write their response on a sticky notes (to protect anonymity); the goal here is to pool the responses. This will help to make sure you as a teacher can assess everyone while also inviting all voices to contribute. No matter how you choose to get the information from the students, though, it will be critical that  the list is projected or written, in order to tangibly show the magnitude of oppression. 

After receiving their responses or listening to their initial comments, it will be especially important  to prompt follow up questions, such as “Are people only oppressed by race? Are there other groups in this current moment in America or other places who are not treated equally?” This will help to encourage students to see that people are also oppressed via their sexual orientation, gender, religion, whether they are or are not able bodied, and socioeconomic status. After creating a master list, students then will be placed in groups where each group will focus on one identity (eg. latino/as, black women, transgender youth, asian men, etc.)

Like Rubin suggests, the follow up to this brainstorming activity will take place outside of school, as students will be advised to watch television at home or online (a proposition that will no doubt get their attention and raise engagement immediately!). But its not all fun and games: while watching whatever they choose, the students will assess the presence of the identity group they were assigned to (Rubin 227). If they are inclined, students may assess both the commercials and the television programs, though the focus should be on the commercials (227).  Students will keep a tally of how many times their identity group gets represented in the commercials and how the commercial chose to represent that group (Is it in stereotypical fashion? Hyper-sexualized? In the background? Does the individual speak?) (227). Questions like these will help to encourage students to observe their typical media outlets critically (227), all of which will be documented in their writer’s notebooks. 

Step Two

The following day, students will take out their writer’s notebooks and relay their findings in a reflection. It is important that students use quotations from their observations the night before or relay the statistical findings or patterns in their reflection, so that the activity will begin to mimic constructing a piece of research. By analyzing, organizing, and compiling data and observations this draft will clearly align with the Common Core Standard referenced in the above.

They will respond to the following prompt(s):

What did you notice in your observations during your hour of watching television? Did it surprise you? Why?

Who was in the commercials the most? 

How do you think society views the identity group you were focusing on, based on the notes you took and what you observed?

Why does representation on television matter? 

Teachers can use one or all of these prompts in conjunction depending upon what they would feel would work best with their own students (eg. it may cause stress for some students to have to answer so many questions in one response). 

Students will then get together with a group of people who did not analyze the same identity group as they had, in order to compare, contrast, and compile any common trends in their findings. Students will then be encouraged to share what they had learned on their own or what they learned form a peer in a class discussion. 

 As a teacher you will get to assess their findings from both their writing and the discussion, and be able to reiterate those findings at the beginning of the next class (eg. I noticed a lot of people said they saw white people the most or I noticed that a lot of students said that latino actors were present but rarely spoke). This lesson intends to flow into the next day seamlessly, for it open ups the issue of representation in the larger society with the anticipation to discuss representation and push out within schools, more specifically. 

Works Cited

DiAngelo, Robin. “White fragility.” International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, vol. 3, no.3, 2011, pp. 54-70.

“English and Language Arts Standards: Writing: Grade 6.”  Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2017,  www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/W/6/ . Accessed 2 December 2017.

Rubin, Daniel Ian. “Engaging Latino/a Students in the Secondary English Classroom: A Step Toward Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline.” Journal of Latinos and Education, vol.13, no. 3, 2014, pp. 222–230.

[personalcoachingcenter]

Power Coaching: Do You Know It vs. Do You Think You Know It

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/power-coaching-tools/

Power Coaching: Do You Know It vs. Do You Think You Know It

Power Coaching Tools

Introduction

Whether a big life event is happening to us or we want to take on a new challenge, change is part of our journey.

How we react to change has a lot to do with the aftermath of how we went through previous situations.

And the bigger the challenge that we go through, the bigger the goal, the more complex the design of the solution. Thus, the bigger the risk of failure.

We tend to prefer minimizing the risk through thorough planning and analysis. A well-designed plan has at its core the logic needed to execute it most efficiently. It feels great to be prepared, and it’s nothing better than having a routine to adhere to keep you focused on the goal.

During our journey towards that big achievement, we interact with a lot of people, create new relationships, and evolve current ones, observe the change in our environment and even modify the environment with our actions.

As our brain learns from every event, it searches for patterns to make the process more efficient. For example, you can drive home from work, without having to think about every action you take to control the vehicle, leaving your mind to efficiently look at the traffic and even organize tomorrow’s event.

But in reality, no two situations are the same. So when our brain tries to apply the same solution and make the plan, we inevitably make assumptions.

About what others think about us, how we are perceived, which would be the best solution that makes everything better.

The more assumptions we make an estimate based on feelings, the more likely it is that we will fail. Because we start labeling, categorizing, and judging the behavior and events we see only through our own lens, we eventually stop listening and learning.

Also, the more time is invested in detailing your solution, the more pressure is added to its success. Inherently driving inflexibility to change and adapt our plan, when the real situation does not match the expectations.

While validating these assumptions, collecting evidence, and direct observation, new findings emerge that inform your understanding of yourself and the situation.

By using this fact-driven decision-making approach, you are slowly transforming from dealing with uncertainty to adapting to change.

Self-application

The first step is to identify that you are going through change and how it manifests itself:

What has changed for me?

What does the change mean for me?

When is change manageable for me?

How can I apply this insight to my situation now?

Power Coaching Acknowledge that whatever plan you are making, whatever decision you are taking, is based on a pile of assumptions.

Then learn how to recognize them. At the end of the day, try to list as many as possible, breaking them down into simple statements. As simple as possible.

If you aren’t sure where you are making assumptions, then look at situations or moments when you felt stuck. What is the thought, feeling, or interpretation that stopped you from moving forward at that moment?

Here are some examples of everyday assumptions:

I didn’t get that promotion at work, because I’m not good enough.

My friend is not talking to me so often lately, because they don’t care about me.

This colleague is always late, so he doesn’t respect me.

My spouse left the dishes in the sink again to spite me.

To get out of an assumption loop, try to get the curiosity into play by asking yourself questions like:

What could go on for that person to make them act like that?

How would others describe this event?

What facts, data or evidence do I have to support this thought?

How else could this situation have been perceived by others?

Now that you have primed your mindset for learning and to be open to other perspectives, it’s time to collect more facts and information through practical application.

Decide which statement you want to observe first and transform your assumption into a hypothesis:

I believe that if I do this (action to a variable), then this will happen (reaction to a dependent variable).

The key to a good hypothesis statement is whether it is observable either from multiple points of view or in multiple instances.

Now it’s time to act it out and collect your insights.

But sometimes even in small change events like this, the desire to succeed may be so big that even if the evidence disproves it, you may tend to ignore it.

If that happens, then an easier approach would be to state a null hypothesis:

I believe that if I do this (action to a variable), nothing will change.

This is a general statement which states that there is no causal relationship and the results that are observed are a product of chance. The results can be objectively verified, tested, and they indicate that there is no need for change in actions or opinions.

Your main goal will be to disprove it, so as you set out to verify that this statement is false, you are accepting that multiple perspectives and theories can exist.

The more you are aware of the assumptions you are making, the more you open yourself to the possibilities of new perspectives, and you give yourself opportunities for learning and growing.

Application

As a coach, you can observe the thought process of your client and notice when they reach the following pitfalls:

Analysis paralysis – when all the energy and time is spent on discussing and making a plan, and no action is taken.

The client is over-analyzing, trying to find meaning in everything. They weigh all their options, try to understand the situation deeper and deeper, decide the best outcome, then compare that outcome with an even better outcome. And the analysis and planning loop starts again.

In this situation, the client may be overly-critical, and they may find simple solutions not good enough.

Goal erosion – when the gap between now and the end goal is so big, that it becomes overwhelming. The client chooses to adjust the goal by lowering the bar to such a low step they would have agreed to in the beginning.

Pay attention to your client not completing the actions they committed to previously. Avoiding and postponing are signs that the assumption made was incorrect or the step taken was too big and not all the important assumptions were fleshed out.

Over planning: Another moment you can help your client is when you see them coming up with a lot of steps and actions, spread out over the course of several weeks or even months.

A rule of thumb is that something that can be done within a few hours is more likely to be completed successfully because we can predict better what’s within our reach.

It doesn’t always need to be in the context of a big change. Listen to the words your clients used to describe situations and events:

“I can tell that…”,

“I’m certain that…”,

“Obviously, they are …”

“I have a feeling that…”.

“I believe they are doing that too…”,

“It must be like that…”,

“I feel [like this], so they must be [like what I feel]”,

“They disagree with me, so they are against me”.

When that happens, invite your client to be curious about how they came up with that statement.

Help them explore “what if” scenarios and get focus on the learning they need from the first steps they want to take and how could those learning impact their plans.

As the client becomes open to the idea that their plan will change depending on what they learn, the first steps become more clear.

Reflection

Look back at a moment when you felt stuck, or you didn’t want to engage in a specific situation, and try to identify what led to your reaction.

What was my reaction when this situation occurred?

What was the trigger for my reaction?

What evidence, observations or facts do I have to prove this thought is true?

How can I check if that is actually the case?

What is a more realistic way of seeing this?

Is this really my own opinion, or is it someone else’s, and I didn’t question it?

How would it look like if the opposite of this statement were true?

What options would I have, if this statement were not true?

What is the level of confidence that I have in this statement? (answer to the question above)

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Original source: