Week 7 - Personality Types and Working in Teams

Class Date: Thursday, 8th September, 2011

Today's class looked at the individual and then how individuals work together. Prior to the class we were asked to undertake a test that is similar to the Myers-Briggs personality test. I had done a similar test 13 years ago during my final year of high school and my classification was the same, INTP. I view these things with strong skepticism as to me their foundations seem shaky. Psychoanalysis is to the personality what astrology is to astronomy, a starting point that needs very much to be improved upon. However, my objections were not quite so strong when I was told that I had shared traits with Socrates, Newton and Einstein.

But I realise that this is just a tool to view and understand ourselves and other people. It does not provide a definite definition of the self. And, like all tests, there are factors that limit its accuracy. Is the person being honest? Is it a complete test? How is the person feeling that day? And so on. So the results are not absolute and should never be used to define a view of a person, be it yourself or others.

I do think that there are good personality and psychological tools out there. The book The Happiness Hypothesis  by Jonathan Haidt provided me with an excellent overview of the history of psychology and the search for the good life. It looked back as far as Buddha and the ancient Greeks and included up to date empirical research. It pointed me to an academic website called Authentic Happiness that has a suite of interesting and evolving tests. I don't know whether these would be useful for teaching as there isn't a large peripheral industry around them yet and so I don't think that the ideas have become part of modern business culture. Which is a shame as I do think that they offer a richer analysis of the individual. (edit 15/9/2011, I just found out that Geelong Grammar include positive psychology as part of their curriculum and that they base it upon the researchers behind Authentic Happiness.)

The second half of the class dealt with working in teams. I've never had a bad team experience, or if I have I've never dwelt on it. I guess that may also mean that I've never learnt from it. In the class the notion of team work and how to structure teams was looked at. The previous topic of personality types was a good lead in. Teams are comprised of different people completing separate tasks so to have the best team possible you want to have the most appropriate person in each role. And by knowing which personality types suit specific roles you are part of the way there.  Again, this classification of roles bothers me. I realise that the categories should only be used as guides but if they are out there and become part of the business norm then there is every chance of people taking them too seriously and letting them become the sole guide of the decision making process. But perhaps that is just my personality type makings a stand.

Some random thoughts that crossed my mind during the class......
- In a workplace personality types should be known to make dealing with each other easier (it probably will never happen as it will just become another label and path to discriminate).
- If I need to find another house mate, or try my hand at speed dating, I'll include the Myers-Briggs test, just to make it interesting.
- Team building by statistics seems to be taking place in the now Brad Pitt movie, Moneyball.
- My two favorite teams were created due to horrible circumstances. The enigma crackers and the Manhattan Project.
- I wonder if anyone has looked at the structure of the Circus from Le Carre's Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy and personality types of it's members.
- Though there is not a hint of team work the personality types of the characters in I, Claudius would be very interesting. Though historical and cultural differences would probably mean that the the personailty types are completely redundant.