Preferred ways of working
Understanding how you work and appreciating differences in others.
- Easy
- Short test + discussion
Unacknowledged differences in ways of working can cause friction within a team. The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator can help identify preferred ways of working. It gives a framework for understanding yourself and appreciating differences in others. MBTI is sometimes used in Manaaki Whenua to encourage collaboration and to gain an appreciation of each other’s differences, so as to avoid conflict.
It is based on work by Carl Jung who had speculated that humans experience the world using four principal psychological functions — sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking — and that one of these four functions is dominant for a person most of the time.
There are 16 personality types that are made up of combinations of these four:
- Introversion / extraversion
- How inwardly or outward focussed are you?
- Sensing / intuition
- How do you prefer to take in information?
- Thinking / feeling
- How do you make decisions?
- Judging / perceiving
- How do you approach the outside world?
A chart with descriptions of each Myers-Briggs personality type as well as instructions for how to determine one's type, Jake Beech, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The test involves self-assessment and subsequent discussion with your team.
More information
How does the Myers-Briggs test work, MBTIonline.com.
