[Teachldsseminary] story about "taters"

[Wayne Whitaker]

I just googled "tater story" and this came up.  There's no "particitater" 
but I imagine you could easily add it.

Becky Whitaker
EMS Florida

The Tater Story

How we interact with our peers, our students and others we come in contact 
with through leadership positions, helps define our success or failure many 
times.  I would like to introduce you to the Tater Family of Personalities 
that you find in almost any group activity.

(Pull out potato for each member, saving the sweet potato for the last).

This is SPEC-tater.  She’s very happy to be considered a “speck” on the wall 
and someone no one notices.  Don’t ask them any questions, they have no 
answers.  Sometimes, they are shy; sometimes they are unsure of what they 
can do.  We don’t need SPEC-taters in our organization.  Try pulling them 
out of their comfort zone.  Lead them to sit in the front of the room, away 
from the wall and ask their opinion about small things and build up to big 
things.

This is AGI-tater.  She likes to run to this person and talk about that 
person and then run back to tell the other person what that person said.  
She speaks out of both sides of her mouth and if she can cause a serious 
disruption, all blamed on someone else, of course, she is happy.  She will 
take the smallest situation and blow it out of proportion.  AGI-tater is 
going to be at every meeting.  You can avoid her challenges by making her 
identify “they” or drop the discussion.  Making as much as possible open and 
answering all comers takes the agitating motion out of her and can slow her 
down!

This is IMI-tater.  Nothing should ever change.  Favorite phrase “we haven’t 
ever done it like that before.”  She is completely comfortable with never 
creating a new program, nurturing a new idea or moving away from her comfort 
zone at all.  IMI has to be brought along carefully, but firmly.  Advise 
her, that yes we have never done it this way before, but maybe it’s time to 
try something new and if it doesn’t work, we can always go back to how it 
was.  She will agree to this because she knows that you are going to fall on 
your face and she will be able to say, “I told you so.”  If it works, she’ll 
say, “we’ve always done it that way.”

This is DICK-tater.  She is the only one who knows what should be done about 
any and all situations.  She is the most knowledgeable, the most 
intelligent, the most everything.  She is a bully, who just wants his way.  
DICK-tater will usually back down from an assertive person and you can use 
his “nay-saying” as a devil’s advocate situation.  Make sure she does not 
bully her way into what you are trying to do.

This is SWEET-tater.  I want all of you to be a sweet tater.  The Sweet 
Tater is assertive and accepting.  They allow others to have their input and 
they encourage everyone to be a part of the whole.  A Sweet Tater knows that 
people support what they help create.



>From: <anndejong at fuse.net>
>Reply-To: Free Email list for LDS Seminary 
>Teachers<teachldsseminary at latter-dayvillage.com>
>To: teachldsseminary at latter-dayvillage.com
>CC: teachldsseminary-request at latter-dayvillage.com
>Subject: [Teachldsseminary] story about "taters"
>Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 13:51:30 -0400
>
>Hi all,
>
>I was hoping one of you had a story about "Taters".  Years ago I remember a 
>story about different attitudes students possessed when coming to seminary. 
>  I specifically remember "be a particitater".  There were several other 
>different kinds of taters represented.  I thought it would be fun to 
>present this at my seminary kick-off brunch on Saturday, but I can't find 
>it anywhere.  Any help would be appreciated!
>
>Ann
>
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