Do you think Myers Briggs is a bit like Marmite? What I mean is, based on the experience you have had or heard others talk about, you either love Myers Briggs or hate it?! Well I can really understand where you are coming from in both camps!
When I was first introduced to it, I was a total sceptic. I guess I had heard so many people in the past going on about their “type” and saying things like “I’m an E, I like talking!” that it appeared that knowing what your ‘Myers Briggs’ type was seemed to be the perfect excuse for some people to wax lyrical about themselves or to justify bad behaviour. My main objection and fear was that I didn’t want to be put in a box or have people I don’t know make assumptions about me when they found out my ‘type’.
What I didn’t appreciate is that it really isn’t about labelling someone or prescribing how you should behave, and there are no rights and wrongs, or better or worse ‘types’ to be.
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator is a psychometric tool that assesses people’s preferences around how they are energised, take in information, process information & make decisions, and lifestyle. We are born with these preferences and develop them throughout our life. By understanding your own preferences, you get to learn a lot about yourself and it gives you a language to describe things about you that you wouldn’t otherwise find easy to communicate.
However, what really won me over to the ‘love-it’ camp was seeing it used with teams, particularly as part of team-building days out of the office. It really does help teams to understand why sometimes they can be frustrated with each other, or why it is that we can instantly gel with some people but not others, or why they get on so well but find it hard to make decisions!
When Sarah and I run these sessions we like to inject lots of fun whilst ensuring that the team is benefiting from lots of learning and understanding. Our typical approach involves running one to one sessions prior to the team day with each individual so that they understand what their Myers Briggs type is and what that means for them; and then we run the team day using all sorts of different techniques and activities to help the team understand different preferences and what that means to them as a team. We have had teams build rockets; design posters; and act out celebrity chef programmes; as well as plenty of quiet time for personal reflection or to re-charge the batteries!
We have found that a team day like this works really well for newly formed teams who need to mobilise quickly (for example project & programme teams); teams who have issues; or simply teams who just want to continually develop and improve performance. It also works well to combine the Myers Briggs sessions with sessions that work on current business issues such as agreeing business priorities and establishing an action plan – gives them chance to put their team learning into practice right away!
If you want to learn more about how Myers Briggs could benefit you and your team, send us an email info@partners2.co.uk or give one of us a call: Deborah Betts 07891537122; Sarah West 07855370768.