A senior manager at our MBTI based Leading With Insight program asked if it were possible to be both Extraverted and Introverted in equal measure. With mature and experienced professionals who have had a range of life experiences (travels, marriage, career changes, children to name a few), it’s quite possible (and common) to have a well-developed ‘opposite’ to our preferred functions and attitude. This doesn’t naturally translate into having an “equal” preference for both, say Extraversion or Introversion (same could be said for the remaining 3 dichotomies). In this case, the person thought she may have been Extravert but was confused because she also engaged in what are typically thought of as Introverted behaviours (such as liking to spend a day on her own from time to time and finding it re-charging). My suggestion to her was that Jung would’ve likely suggested she did and does have a clear preference (say for Extraversion) AND that she had developed the opposite, probably as part of her auxilliary/supporting function (which would be introverted if her leading function was extraverted).
Part of developing a clear understanding Jung’s original intention with psychological type and Myers and Briggs work as well is that clear preferences, on each of the dichotomies, does not preclude one from developing skills in the opposite. This doesn’t therefore mean you are “equally” prefer both.
November 28th, 2008
Having worked with the MBTI(r) for nearly a decade, I’ve heard a lot about it from participants. When J and P are discussed, the word “efficient” is often ascribed more to people who have a preference for Judging, and I’ve always nodded sagely at that, this gelling with my personal experiences being a J and interacting with those who have both J and P preferences.
Recently, I had a senior manager with a clear preference for Perceiving (whole type was ISTP, so leading function is a judging function)… he mentioned that P is a very efficient attitude - you don’t waste any time doing things that later on you might discover didn’t need to be done. This turned my understanding of J and P on its head for a moment - what a wonderful way to think about P!
How wonderful to be still learning something about this most magnificent of psychological type tools!
November 24th, 2008
At a leadership program last week, participants (senior managers) were grouped in trios working on an exercise (or ‘exploration’ as we like to call them). It was clear one trio were having some inter-personal challenges - there was friction in the group. After reflection and journalling time, we opened up the discussion for sharing, and this trio were the first to share.
Two of the senior managers had very different styles (that was part of the reason they’d been grouped together). they both shared their frustrations in working with one another — very rich learning ground — and one of the people shared that if this was a real life project, they would have ‘gotten rid of’ the other person. After being initiall startled to hear such a blunt admission, I had great respect for the senior manager who shared this — an unpopular, un-PC remark that came straight from the core. We then went on to discuss other strategies he might use in future (”getting rid of people” not always being available to us), and fortunately he could identify at least one or two other ways he might proceed when faced with a similarly irritating, difficult situation out there in Consequence Land.
Some of us have such an overarching drive and need for harmony, that we can forget the power that such direct and blunt comment can have to illuminate. Whilst I didn’t necessarily like the comment, I learned a lot from that participant and valued their honesty.
How wonderful also that such a safe and stimulating environment was there to allow this kind of full and frank discussion to occur (I understand that is sometimes a euphemism for “we’ll mop up the blood in the morning”). As a facilitator, great gifts like this are to be cherished.
November 14th, 2008
on Friday I attended a facilitated event in Brisbane called Troubadours of the Sphere - showcasing Open Sphere as a group process, and integrating some voice work. Tim Gartside was the Open Sphere “guy” and Louise Mahler was the voice “gal”. Having attended a lot of workshops along these lines, what made this one stand out was the dignity of Tim Gartside, who has quite publicly shared the experience he is going ahrough t the moment with cancer. He talked on Friday about how he is trying to “get the most” out of his current experience, how intriguing and fascinating it is, and the commitment he is making to continue to live on the physical plane for some time. It was breath-taking in its simplicity, beauty and dignity. I felt honoured to have shared a room with this person, who personified the idea of faciltiators primary responsiblity to Being.
November 3rd, 2008
In 2000 I became a Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI(r)) practitioner and worked for a couple of years with one of the country’s biggest instititional banks running a 1.5 day program using the MBTI. After moving to Queensland in 2003, I moved away from the MBTI (r) partly prompted by a series of life and work changes, including my mother getting lung cancer, a wrenching move from a city I had loved living in (Sydney) and an unasked-for jiggle of my identity now that I lived in a regional area (the Sunshine Coast). The MBTI (r) just didn’t seem relevant.
How wrong I was.
In early 2005, I started having a series of ideas come through me that brought my attention back to psychological type. I learned more on and started to focus on developing my own intuition. I did some improvisation work which sparked thoughts around extraversion and the source of energy for me. I started to meditate which had me reflecting on introversion and its power to balance my energy. I started to wonder about psychological type and its depth and power. And what I might have been missing for those years when I had run a fairly ’standard’ MBTi (r) program.
In early 2005, I attended a networking event and met a corporate actor. Meeting this talented and creative actor was the final jigsaw puzzle piece that I had been seeking (without knowing there was even a jigsaw being created). He was the walking metaphor I had been looking for.
We created a two-day experience, using the MBTI (r) as a platform for discovery. We took an ‘exploration’ approach, rather than an explanation approach… The whole idea was for people to experience a range of things, reflect on those and take their own learnings away. This presupposes that there is wisdom within to be drawn on, and a useful model that can be used to guide our understanding of ourselves and our interactions with other people.
We put a journey metaphor around the two-day experience - getting ready to start out, exploring various stops along the way, sitting by the campfire to reflect & share, making camp, continuing the journey…. Our Adventure Guide is the glue that ensures we safely get on and off the bus, and makes our various stops a source of discovery and fun.
In May 2005, I backed myself and my idea for Insight and we ran a two-day “open” (public) workshop in Sydney. We had 9 participants and we learned a lot. One of those participants was an L&D Manager at one of the Big 4 international accounting/advisory firms. This firm has gone on to become our biggest client. Later in 2005, we ran another open program, with two senior managers from this firm attending; this was a low risk way for our client to test the appropriateness and usefulness of Insight. After that, we ran two pilot programs for this same client, one in Sydney and another in Melbourne, each with 6 - 8 senior managers attending, followed by indepth debriefing, again to confirm the value of the program in-house. In 2006, we ran 7 Insight programs for this client. In 2007, we ran 9 programs for them and this year we have run eleven programs.
Senior Managers exploring
Almost every program, around 60 - 80% of senior managers have been exposed to psychological type before. The record was one senior manager who had attended 12 MBTi (r) programs before. Twelve! That My hat goes off to those senior people who have had multiple exposures to the instrument and find something new and useful in the Insight experience. We are yet to find a participant who cannot find something unique and applicable from their participation and experiences in the Insight program.
The MBTI (r) is a far more sophisticated instrument than I understood it to be when I first started using it. It has only been through my experiences at international type conferences and then being invited to join the Board of the Association that guides the ethical use of type (www.aptinternational.org) that my practice of type has gained the depth that I’ve needed to be able to work successfully with these high-performing senior people.
Is it for everybody? Most decidedly not. One organisation we worked with had a core group of people who were unable to accept the MBTI (r) as a valid and useful instrument for understanding themselves and their interactions with others. When this is the case, as it was for that one program, much energy is spent on essentially debating the fundamentals of the instrument. Carl Jung, Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs are best placed to have that debate and seeing as those 3 visionaries are all deceased, that makes it challenging. So, now we say that any client organisation or group who wishes to have an Insight experience does need to fundamentally accept the tenets of the model as a platform for exploration.
Every program is new, every group has its own energy and dynamics, and during every program I learn something of value about psychological type and its power to illuminate. My own life has had many transforming moments where type has been the torch illuminating an otherwise dark corner of myself and how I interact in the world.
When you go beyond the four-letters and understand the core of psychological type… when it is taken as a possibly life transforming tool instead of a parlour game…. when there is a genuine intention to learn and understand, rather than judge…. then psychological type has much to offer us.
October 27th, 2008
In September, I participated in a 3-day program on Graphic Recording & Facilitation in Melbourne. By morning tea of day one, I knew this was something I HAD to bring into my work. If you’ve never experienced graphic recording, then seeing really is believing. You can visit the International Forum of Visual Practitioners website (www.ifvp.org) which will give you a visual of what graphic recording is.
What I particularly loved about graphic recording is the power of seeing words captured and amplified through colour, layout and iconography. The power of our words has long been heralded — it is true the those who knows the power of words put them in writing. AND, when you see your words captured on mural size paper (1.2m in height and any length from 1m to 35m in length) - well, it’s hard to describe the impact of it.
The first thing the graphic recorder has stewardship of is content - capturing what is said, as it is said. This is not paraphrasing, but capturing the data. It may be summarised and synthesised but it is not interpreted. The graphic recorder’s role is to take the content in through their ears and release the information out through their hands. Exceptional listening skills are required, as is exceptional handwriting skills, and an adeptness for laying out information on the paper, colour and illustration through iconography.
I’m new to graphic recording, having only learned it last month. I have however integrated it into my work already - I graphic recording key debriefing discussions in our Leading With Insight program.
What I’m also offering is to graphic record workshops, retreats, brainstorming & strategy sessions, keynotes — almost any event where people come together to share information is a good one to graphic record — for next to free. This is a way to build my own confidence & capability (and portfolio) AND to expose people to the power and magic that is graphic recording. Seeing really is believing!
October 27th, 2008
Some people love new technology - they can’t wait to try new things and don’t seem to have any fear around ‘breaking’ the computer. For someone relatively young, I don’t seem to have caught that early adopting bug. So here I am, 8 years into my business, 5 years into having a professional website, and am only just starting to use a blog.
Those blogs that I find inspiring, the ones I keep returning to, are ones where the person writes from their own experience about their learnings and their feelings and thoughts on recent and upcoming events. I’d like to follow that lead.
October 10th, 2008
