Today we spend more time than ever at the office. Ask any election official about the days and months leading up to Election Day, and they will tell you they easily log upwards of 10-12 hours in the office.  In some cases we see our colleagues more than we see our family. Not to mention all of the interactions we have with suppliers, customers, vendors, voters and the list goes on and on. We tend to assume that other people’s minds work the same as our own but what we are actually faced with is people who do not value the things we value, reason the way we reason and are not motivated by the things we are motivated by.

Organizations have to rely more than ever on ever on good communication skills, teamwork and an increased understanding of the people we work with side-by-side?  Insight into why Michael always barges into your office without even knocking or why Susie prefers to take notes rather than comment during meetings can go along way.

By learning about typology, we would be able to infer that Michael may be an extravert who enjoys talking to others and doesn’t think before he speaks and Susie may be an introvert who while not appearing to pay attention, is actually honing her comments and may even send you an email with all of her observations and comments after the meeting is over.  Understanding personality types allows us to better handle conflicts, understand our shortcomings, develop plans to address them and find out what motivates our staff. According to workforce.com, 89 of the Fortune 100 companies use MBTI in some manner.

MBTI classifies each of us by one of the four opposite pairs: Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I), Sensing (S) or Intuition (N), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F) and Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).  Each pair relates to a specific personality characteristic. Although throughout life we use all of the attributes, we each have a preferred way of thinking and acting that we naturally fall into.  Just as a right handed baseball player can learn to throw left handed and left handed player can learn to throw right handed, but it’s a lot easier with their preferred hand. We learn throughout life to adapt and use the right function at the right time. Even the most introverted person can summon the strength to stand up in front of the whole office and give a speech on their time management project while the most extraverted person can remain completely quiet during a brain storming session.

As trainers, we use MBTI everyday to better relate to our students. Some students require step-by-step instructions and want a lot of one-on-one instruction, while others prefer to get the assignment and work through it on their own. As a so called “work through it on your own” person, it becomes even more important for me to understand that not everyone wants the quick once over, and I need to make sure that my written instructions are very clear and detailed for the students who like to make sure they dot every I and cross every T before getting started.

Take a look at the people you work with, think about how much they are alike or different than yourself. Does it frustrate you when they go about things in completely different manner than you do or do you find it a breath of fresh air? Would you like to have tools that help you to communicate with them better and learn new ways to motivate your staff? Stick with us and in future posts, we will further explore the individual preferences in more detail and show you how knowledge of MBTI can be used.

After the proofing class I mentioned in the last post, I thought back to my original question of Nature vs. Nurture and whether there was a clear cut answer to this age old question.

Were we born to be great proofers or could a class teaching you how to look for mistakes be just as effective?

It seems that the question will never be answered in a cut and dry manner. While there were individuals in the classroom that appeared to enjoy and excel in the proofing exercises even without our instruction, many other students who struggled in the beginning after given the right instruction and tools completed all of the activities correctly and enjoyed the same success as the others.

Today’s organizations are being asked to do much more with even less.  Understanding your organizations preferences can better assist you in assigning tasks where your staff will excel and be most comfortable. To help out we’ll be posting now and then on understanding MBTI and how it can be an effective tool for your office. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them. I personally have used and been certified in the Meyers Brig Type Indicator. It helps me to better relate to students in class by understanding how I prefer to think and act vs. how they prefer to think and act. I firmly believe any organization who takes the time to utilize MBTI will be better off and see happier and more productive employees.