Autumn is proving a very busy time!
These early months of autumn are proving a busy and fascinating time for RiverRhee Consulting Associates. Our work has been very diverse and has included:
- Applying an understanding of personality types to our work with teams that are experiencing significant change and implementing Open Innovation.
- Working at the interface of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming).
- Applying our expertise in Knowledge Management to help establish Communities of Practice.
In reflecting on the breadth of our work, we thought you might be interested in how an understanding of personality types and mindsets can help with teamwork and innovation.
MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming)
There is of course a whole range of psychometric and related tools available to help us get a better understanding of ourselves, our personal strengths, and how our individual preferred ways of behaving affect our interactions with each other.
Elisabeth Goodman has been helping the Babraham Bioscience Technologies team and some of their colleagues in the Babraham Institute in Cambridge to do just that: to help them prepare for some significant changes expected from a major growth in their client base.
One of the tools we use is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which describes four preference pairs, and 16 personality types that reflect how people prefer to behave. We can all of course display aspects of each of the 4 preferences at some time or other and what we experience and our own development will help us to do this more over time, but we will always keep our intrinsic preferences.
Very briefly, the 4 pairs address how we prefer to:
- Direct and take in energy – through a more dynamic interaction with others, or through more individual reflection (Extravert and Intravert)
- Take in information – through a more precise use of our five senses, or through a more intuitive, ‘bigger picture’ approach (Sensing and Intuition)
- Make decisions - with a greater focus on logic, and cause and effect, or a greater focus on what we and others might be feeling (Thinking and Feeling)
- Generally approach what we do – in a fairly structured way that seeks closure sooner rather than later, or in a more exploratory, open-ended way. (Judging and Perceiving)
It turns out that there is a strong relationship between MBTI and NLP. Lorraine Warne ran a 3-day Coaching Diploma in Cambridge which included looking at how the NLP “Meta Programmes” influence values and behaviours. The “Meta Programmes” are based on the MBTI model. It helps new coaches understand how others communicate within a team environment and gives them greater flexibility in how they do so.
Applying personality types to teamwork
An understanding of our own personality type, and that of others’ in the team not only helps us in communication as mentioned above, but in everything that we do together.
Our preferences will influence every aspect of our interactions: how we share information, tackle problems and projects, make decisions, innovate and respond to change. Understanding the diversity of the personality types within your team will enable team leaders and members to draw on individual strengths, interact more effectively and be aware of and address any potential blind spots!
Personality types and innovation
Elisabeth introduced the MBTI personality types to delegates at a recent 3-day course on Open Innovation in R&D with OI Pharma Partners and WTG Training. We will be running this again in January!
It’s fascinating to understand how different types are drawn to the different phases1 of innovation in open innovation networks and collaboration or partnerships and through crowd-sourcing platforms:
- Defining the problem to be addressed, or solution to be offered
- Discovering all the potential ideas ‘out there’
- Deciding on the ideas to be adopted
- Delivering them through implementation
The Sensing and Intuition pair come into play in exploring ideas: where those with a Sensing preference might look for more incremental improvements, those with an Intuition preference tend to look for more original (or “disruptive”) ideas.
The Judging and Perceiving preferences are important in implementing the ideas: those with a Perceiving preference tend to want to ensure that options have been fully explored, whereas those with a Judging preference tend to drive towards closure.
Lucy Loh has also been looking at the profiles of innovators and entrepreneurs in terms of the thinking styles they use in a series of workshops that she’s been running on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Commercial skills.
Elisabeth and Lucy will be exploring these themes further in November in their seminar “How can Personalities and Mindsets Influence Creativity and Innovation?” at the Stevenage BioScience Catalyst OI Summit on 15th November.
A quick mention about some other things RiverRhee Consulting Associates have been involved with.
John Riddell has been working with Knoco Ltd where he is supporting the start-up of several Communities of Practice (CoPs) in Belgium, Europe and the USA. The work for two of these will be carried out virtually, which should pose some interesting challenges!
Elisabeth also led a half-day workshop on “Healthy Change” with Pelican Coaching and Development. The focus was on helping the team involved to understand the change process and cope with their reactions to change in a mutually supportive way. We drew on ideas from the ‘Being Resilient’ book to support this.
If you’d like to find out more
Do get in touch if you’d like to find out more about RiverRhee Consulting, our range of off-site and in-house courses, and how we can help you to not only enhance team effectiveness but create an exceptional team. See the RiverRhee Consulting website or e-mail the author at elisabeth@riverrhee.com.
1. Based on: “Introduction to Type and Innovation”, by Damian Killen and Gareth Williams, Introduction to Type Series. CPP, Inc. Mountain View, California.