A Synopsis of The Case of the Judgemental Inner Voice Featuring The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan
Just as Luke was about to bring the weekly project meeting to a close, Marc nervously began to speak, in a voice that was shaking. He addressed Luke, saying, “It’s really hard for me to say this, Luke, but I’ve got to tell you, in every meeting, I feel harshly judged by you, and it really bothers me.” Luke was a little irked, and he had another meeting to go on to. Thinking on his feet, he said to himself: “I can’t give this any air time; I need to shut it down; I really don’t have the time for this”. Turning to Marc, he said, “Marc, thank you so much for giving me this feedback, this is really helpful feedback, I’ll certainly take it on board.” While saying this, in the back of his mind, he was thinking, “Of course, you feel judged by me, you idiot, you’re the biggest loser in this group, how else do you expect me to think about you?”
He was about to stand up when Abigail said, “Marc telling you that gives me the courage to tell you I also feel harshly judged by you, Luke, and often I’m really bothered by that.”
Then Evan said, “I feel your judgment too, and I feel it stops you from seeing me as who I really am.”
This was followed by Karen saying, “I feel the same, and it causes me to question if you will ever recognise and value my input or if you will use your judgement as a way to justify not doing that.”
Luke kept thanking them, but with an arrogant denial going on in his head. Then Charles, who was perhaps the one person on the team who Luke admired and respected, and who was sitting to next to him, stood up in disgust, took a seat across the table from him and said: “I am so disgusted by your inability to hear the truth that people are telling you, I can’t even sit next to you anymore.” He then stood up and walked out of the room, and the rest of the team followed.
There was something in the moment of that passionate truth-telling which caused Luke to have the sickening realisation that what everyone was saying was right. He got up and walked to Charles’s office.
Charles glanced up at Luke as he entered and said, “I’m that angry at you. I have always felt judged by you, too, not negatively - but positively. The moment you met me, you put me in a box, you put me on a pedestal, you’ve never really seen me for who I am. The air of judgment you portray reveals you for who you are and what you’re really thinking. People deserve better.”
Charles’s parting words to Luke as he indicated their conversation was over was that he should read The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan.
........................................................................................................
The Case of the Judgemental Inner Voice Featuring The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan is part of the WorkLife Book Club Learning Through Reading series, by Carmel O’ Reilly from School of WorkLife.
The Learning Through Reading series is a collection of stories inspired by real life WorkLife struggles and successes, presented as case studies for group discussion. The case and the accompanying recommended book will be required reading for each meeting, and will help to frame the subsequent discussion.
The premise behind the WorkLife Book Club Learning Through Reading series is that experiences we have in our WorkLife shape our understanding of the world. Stories help communicate truths about human behaviours and relationships, bringing an opportunity for change and development. Books help anchor WorkLife conversations through characters, plots and settings, enabling a range of issues to be worked through.
My stated mission is to guide learning through reading. I also have a secret mission, which is to draw attention to stories of change and active decision making – people standing up and saying they want to do something different with their WorkLife. I want to highlight stories, books and discussions that focus on in-depth portrayals of subjects inner feelings, thoughts and motivations. While readers will not encounter the exact scenarios they read about, they will be able to use an increasingly finely tuned ability to understand and respond to multiple competing viewpoints.
Carmel O’ Reilly, WorkLife learning practitioner, writer and founder of School of WorkLife. Author of WorkLife Book Club: Volume One: Shoreditch.