Letter to the Editor, January 10, 1994 Edition
Contact: Larry Jaffe, Senior Editor,
DM News, 100 Avenue of the Americas, New York NY 10013
Phone: 1(212)925-7300 Fax: 1(212)925-8758 e-mail:editor@dmnews.com
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®
(MBTI®) met with skepticism when first introduced in the mid-1950s;
it has since become the world's most widely used personality assessment
instrument. Based on Carl Jung's Theory of Personality Types, it consists
of a series of forced choice questions designed to determine one's "preferences"
in four areas:
- A preference for the outer world of people and things ("Extraversion"), or the inner world of thoughts and ideas ("Introversion")
- A preference for perceiving factual information in a sequential manner ("Sensing") or for searching for "patterns" to new data ("Intuition")
- A preference for making decisions based on objective criteria ("Thinking") versus decisions based on "people centered" values ("Feeling")
- A preference for organizing the outside world ("Judging") versus a preference for adapting to it ("Perceiving")
The theory behind Jung's work and the MBTI® is that the differences
in normal people-and consequently, their bonds and conflicts-are a result
of the different ways they perceive and adapt to the world. We see these
differences in the workplace constantly:
- Janet and Sheila are devising a Marketing Strategy. Janet comes up
with a terrific concept, but is terrible with the details of execution.
Sheila is great with the details, but spends too much time "micro-managing"
them. Sheila gets irritated with Janet for her "sloppiness" and
"impracticality"; Janet gets irritated with Sheila for "getting
lost in the details" and "not seeing the big picture."
- Joe and Brandon are working on the ad campaign. At the first creative meeting, Joe fills his desk calendar with deadlines for every step of the project. He insists that creative content be decided on now, so that deadlines can be met. Brandon becomes angry, insisting that the Marketing Research needs to be studied before creative direction is "locked in". Joe becomes upset with Brandon's "indecisiveness"; Brandon is upset with Joe's "close mindedness."
- Linda and Kathy are grim faced as they speak in the Personnel Department. Harry, Linda's lead pressman, has a drinking problem that's become impossible to hide. "For the sake of morale," Kathy says, "we can't have an organization where people flaunt the rules. Discipline must be maintained, and Harry has to be dismissed." "For the sake of morale," a heated Linda fires back, "we have to show a concern for our employees and their problems. Something escalated this; let's send him into treatment and find out what it is."
- You have a monthly meeting with Bruce the Warehouse Manager, Larry the Mailroom Manager, and Bob the Operations Manager to discuss work flow. All three are competent, seasoned professionals, but Larry says little if anything in the meetings. This concerns you, because you know from his memos that he has some real insights. When you ask him about it, he says-after some hesitation-that he "can't get a word in edgewise while the other two repeat the same things over and over again." Bruce and Bob, on the other hand, resent his memos. "Instead of a long, one sided memo, why can't we just discuss the problem over lunch?"
The above stories have the following in common:
- All of the characters are decent people who are of benefit to their organizations
- All of their viewpoints have merit
- If you are honest with yourself, you sided-or at least empathized-with one viewpoint over the other. Being honest with you, I have to admit to it being difficult (if in fact I succeeded) in keeping my own viewpoints out of these vignettes.
The purpose of the MBTI® is to attempt to measure these differences,
so that the differences in the workplace can be better understood. Instead
of having "Creative Tension" in the workplace, the MBTI® can
be used to be creative with the tensions that come from opposing-but
legitimate-viewpoints.
©1994 Charles E. Vermette. All Rights Reserved.Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator and MBTI are registered trademarks of Consulting Psychologists
Press, Palo Alto CA 94903