Ever wondered why the best-laid plans for your team (or church, or department, or school…) are still hard to put into practice?

The answer may be that the people in your team are just not aware of how different they are from one another. The result can be a failure to communicate properly, or to understand each other’s agendas. A good plan can run off the rails just because the people involved don’t understand one another, or themselves.

One way of addressing this is to use a trusted psychometric instrument like the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). MBTI shows up the sometimes hidden preferences we have at the root of our personalities. It helps us understand how we prefer to make decisions, how we take in information, the kinds of situations we find energising or draining, and the way we like to organise our lives.

Clients using the MBTI typically reflect that it is a very creative process – they recognise themselves more clearly in the type descriptions used, and are able to understand how others may differ from them. It begins to unlock relationships in teams and groups that work together. And it does so without judging or threatening – it really is just as good to be one type as another.

Here’s what some members of one team said about the experience of a day spent together reflecting on insights they had gained from learning about their own and one another’s preferences: "Helped with overall team bonding/understanding…","greater understanding of colleagues as they opened up…","learned more about my colleagues…", "great interaction and communication…" , "the day was enjoyable and the time moved a lot faster than anticipated…", "helped me to start thinking about the team’s potential… insight about how I am currently working and how I can improve it…"

MBTI uses a simple questionnaire that takes about 30 minutes to complete. The best way of experiencing MBTI is through one-to-one feedback on this questionnaire with a trained practitioner, but it is also possible for large groups to receive feedback together. If this could help you or your team or organisation, contact jerry@perceptiondevelopment.co.uk to find out more.

Author's Bio: 

Jerry Gilpin has undergone training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and qualified as a Coach-Mentoring Practitioner. He has set up perception in order to develop a context for coaching which matches clarity of expectation with empathy so that the individual is both supported and appropriately challenged.