Myers Briggs Personality Types
We'll the cats and I arrived in CA only a little worse for ware. As planned I went into eBay on Friday for a special event.
The whole design labs took the Myers/Briggs personality test. According to the woman leading our workshop Myers and Briggs were sisters who read 3,000 biographies of different people. After doing a card sort/affinity diagrams they organized people into 16 types based on four dimensions:
The Myers Briggs model of personality is based on 4 preferences.
- Where, primarily, do you direct your energy?
- How do you prefer to process information?
- How do you prefer to make decisions?
- How do you prefer to organize your life?
By taking a questionnaire you discover where you are along four dimensions.
Extrovert vs. Introvert
iNtuition vs. Sensing
Thinking vs. Feeling
Judging vs. Perceiving
These four dimensions generate a matrix of 16 personality types. These types closely mirror the personality system developed by Jung.
It turns out I'm an ENTP. I was excited to hear this is a category popular with inventors.
 Of course Weird Al is an ENTP too so who know. :) 
After we found out our type the rest of the workshop was about learning to work in teams with other personality types, dealing with conflict, and collaborating with stakeholders outside the team. I don't have time to blog it all, the the take home messages were:
- it's important to have a mix of personality types on teams. They can provide multiple perspectives and provide a more complete solution.
- When peoples' type differ by more than two letters there's often a fair amount of conflict. This is because:
1) The way they see the world is fundamentally different,
2) While the basic steps in problem solving are sequential different personality types spend more or less time at each stage. Therefor keeping evening 'on the same page' within a team when individuals are of different types can be a challenge.
 Have you ever stoped at a stop sign and seen a line of cars preparing to turn. Thier turn signals slowly go in and out of sync. The woman who lead the workshop did an excellent job and I really enjoyed the experience. It made me want to learn more.
If you want to know your type you can take the test online.
11:10:31 PM 
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