The PEOPLE Process TYPE TALK Understanding People is what it's all about.
June 2008

Greetings!

Thank you for the great reception to The PEOPLE Process TYPE TALK. We've received lots of appreciative comments and helpful feedback on the first issue and look forward to hearing from more of you.

This issue is devoted to TEAMBUILDING. The first article is a summary of a 13-page article from the Journal of Management Development in 1997 and the second article is from The TYPE Reporter Issue No. 4 on Teamwork. Although both articles were written over a decade ago, the information is very relevant to applying the theory of personality type to team development.

In 1992, Roy and I conducted a training for a large organization that included teaching the basics of personality-type theory and how to apply this theory in putting together "The Balanced Team." At the time, this was leading-edge thinking - a "balanced team" - and we developed materials to aid in teaching this philosophy. After reading these two articles myself, I plan on dusting off those materials and converting them into a PowerPoint product for sale on the TPP website.

IN THIS ISSUE
  • Are you ISTJ? ENFP?
  • FOUR CHARACTERISTICS OF PRODUCTIVE TEAMS - The Effect of Personality Type on Team Performance
  • SIX QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN CREATING A TEAM - The TYPE Reporter Team Diagnostic
  • About the Author

  • FOUR CHARACTERISTICS OF PRODUCTIVE TEAMS - The Effect of Personality Type on Team Performance

    The ideal team should be highly diversified in the talent and knowledge each member contributes, while maintaining open, non-threatening communication. The four dominant individual difference characteristics of productive teams - Leadership, Comunication, Cohesion, Heterogeneity - can be combined, based on the common thread of personality type, to form an evaluative model of the impact of personality type on team performance.

    Effective leadership is an especially important factor in the success of a product development team. A knowledgeable, assertive leader must not only be available and properly trained in group dynamics, but must also be the type of person who can lead people who represent different functional areas and different levels of management. They must control the team meetings, drawing everyone into the discussions until a consensus


    SIX QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN CREATING A TEAM - The TYPE Reporter Team Diagnostic

    A Team Needs A Good Mix Of Types - Tom Carskadon

    Do "opposites attract," or do "birds of a feather flock together?" This is an important question not just in friendship, love, and marriage, but also in team building. A large body of research in psychology suggests that in general, we are most attracted to people who are fairly similar to us. Isabel Myers concluded that we tend to favor people similar in type to ourselves more often marrying them, for instance; but that when it comes to team building, a well rounded mix of types is the most effective and desirable.

    A few years ago Bruce Blaylock, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University, did a major study in which 17 four-person teams of students competed with each other over a month in a sophisticated and realistic simulated production exercise. Writing in Volume 6 of Research in Psychological Type, Dr. Blaylock notes that no particular type preference was predictive of success; instead, teams with a thorough mixture of types outperformed virtually any single-type or similar-type team. In forming teams, it may be tempting to choose people similar to ourselves but even in tasks that seem made for a particular type, the best results are likely to come from a well rounded mix of types.

    The TYPE Reporter Team Diagnostic - How To Measure The Mix - Susan Scanlon

    From dozens of interviews, my team and I selected six team stories. These stories illustrated some of the more common problems a team might have, and how the MBTI can help. We looked for messages in these stories, and from the messages, we came up with six questions you might ask yourself about your own team....


    About the Author

    Pamela Hollister, INTJ, developed The PEOPLE Process with the intention of providing a package that would simplify the understanding and use of personality-type theory. Pam has over 35 years of professional business experience with emphasis on entrepreneurship, marketing and business communications. She has created and directed training programs for a large number of Fortune 500 companies, the US Air Force, the Department of Energy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and numerous school districts throughout North America.


    Are you ISTJ? ENFP?

    Now you can tell in 5 minutes with this user-friendly personality type profile indicator!

    Based on psychological type theory created by Dr. Carl Jung, this 3-part package consisting of a Wheel, Profile Sheets and Booklet is an easy and fun way to help employees get valuable insights into interacting with others. Great for a leadership development program and communication skills training, this powerful tool for personality assessment is highly effective as a teambuilding communication training.

    What clients are saying about us.....

    Following the merger of four multi-billion dollar aerospace companies, I was asked to lead a technology transition team chartered to integrate and develop the combined technologies. The PEOPLE Process proved to be an invaluable tool for choosing and building the team comprised of scientists, engineers and physicists that are among the top in the world. Because the technical community often emphasizes the technical (hard stuff) over the people (soft stuff), the materials provided a powerful, unique and practical way to get the team members to understand and complement their differences and strengths. Above all, it was key to developing strong personal and professional relationships and enabled effective communication among team members who had been arch rivals and competitors for many years prior to the merger. Col. Jerry Tiahrt, Retired, U.S. Air Force, Director-Technology Integration, Raytheon Company

    We have found this product to be effective in training diplomats in negotiation and crisis management skills, retrenched fishermen in job seeking skills, managers in hi-tech organizations in career development, hospital emergency-room staff in managing conflict encounters, civil servants in time management skills, trainers in advanced facilitation skills, and entrepreneurs in new business start-ups. Without exception, participants have been able to relate easily to the use of the system, are amazed at the uncanny accuracy of the personality type profile, and have been able to apply The PEOPLE Process in their daily work. David Kenny, Director, PKA Training & Development, Ireland

    ...a great tool to help team members understand themselves and their teammates better. My clients love it because it has been delightfully accurate and is a practical "take-away" that they can share with the significant people in their lives. I highly recommend it as a key tool for facilitators to use to assess personality type preferences. Ruth Urban, M.S., Certified Professional Facilitator, The Urban Group, Las Vegas, Nevada

    Find out more....
    Quick Links...

    The TYPE Reporter

    Center for Applications of Psychological Type



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