I’m a scanner personality. This is a relatively new realization for me, but one that has been remarkably affirming. But I realized that I’ve largely shared about disadvantages and how to overcome them. But honestly, there are a lot of advantages to having a scanner personality! Though our society tends to hold specialists up as the model of cool, generalists (as most scanners are) bring a lot to the table. So let’s take some time and talk about the great things about being a scanner!
Scanners are Great at Lateral Thinking
Lateral thinking is creative problem solving. It’s basically the opposite of step-by-step or logical thinking. A great example of lateral thinking at work is the Judgement of Solomon, where two women both claimed to be a child’s mother. Lacking modern DNA tests, Solomon decreed that the child should be cut in half, so each potential mother could have their half of the child. One of the women didn’t squawk, but the other said, “No, give her the baby if you have to, just don’t kill the baby!” Solomon pointed out that clearly the second woman was the mother.
So what? Lateral thinking leads to creative solutions, and those can be useful both at work and in life. By cramming our brains full of a wide variety of interests, we prime our brains to find solutions other people might not notice.
Scanners are Fast Learners
This is probably one of the most marketable advantages to a scanner personality. We learn FAST. I think it comes from practice. When scanners get excited about something, they tend to want to jump right in and get going. This urge starts at a young age, so by the time we hit adulthood, we’ve spent a lot of time figuring out HOW to start something. So we’re much faster at it than most non-scanners.
This comes in handy at work because a scanner will ramp into a new project really fast. And when your manager is willing to add you to new teams (because they know it won’t disrupt project flow), you get a lot broader exposure in your company.
Scanners are Enthusiastic
This is probably one of my favorite advantages to a scanner personality. For years, “enthusiastic” has been my favorite adjective. When we notice a potential new interest, it doesn’t just catch our eye – it gets us EXCITED. This is why a scanner daybook is such a useful tool for scanners. Having a dedicated place to capture our interests and give us space to explore them makes life as a scanner much easier.
Did you know that mindsets can become habits? Our brains are efficient, so when you follow similar neural patterns consistently, your brain becomes more likely to follow those patterns. In other words, the more time you spend being enthusiastic and excited about things, the more likely you’ll be enthusiastic and excited in the future. It makes it easier to muster energy for seemingly mundane tasks, and that’s nothing to sneeze at!
Scanners are Open To Change
This was something I didn’t realize most people didn’t have. Once at work, my director pulled our team into a quick meeting to announce that he was moving to a different team. He mentioned that he knew that people deal with change in different ways, so let him know if we needed time to process. Now, I’m not saying that change doesn’t affect people. But I was surprised that some of my teammates needed time to get used to this change. It seemed relatively inconsequential to me – my work wasn’t going to change, just who I was working with.
As it turns out, that’s one of the advantages to a scanner personality. Change doesn’t phase us quite as much as it would non-scanners. After all, we’re used to our interests shifting constantly. We’re practiced at rolling with the punches and continuing to move forward.
Scanners are Great Cross-Discipline Communicators
This is the benefit of knowing a little bit about a lot of things. It’s not just useful for bar trivia (although it can be VERY useful for that) – scanners are great at working on cross-functional teams. I don’t know about you, but I tend to have a feel for how different teams work. Having even the smallest understanding of someone else’s work makes it SO much easier to collaborate with them. A scanner might have some information from their own broad personal learning.
