taking ourselves too seriously

If you'd had visitor's pass to a specific training suite in central London on Thursday and Friday this week, you;d have seen 2 very different styles of learning environments in action.

One room had its tables in a circle, and all the participants had a laptop in front of them. There was never any noise; it all looked very serious. At scheduled intervals participants (mainly men, wearing the corporate-world financier uniform of neatly pressed shirts and ties) would come out for chocolate biscuits and coffee. You'd only know if the participants were doing an exercise because the tutors would be in the coffee area, whispering to each other.

On Friday morning Pietro, the finance tutor, stood in the doorway of the other training room. Here a ragged flip-chart was crookedly pinned up with the strapline: "How we work together" (What did the contract contain? - Listen, communicate be responsible for your needs, share experiences, have fun). And the horseshoe table was were covered in a colourful jumble of devil ducks, hyperhead hairy squeezy ducks, windup toys, coloured stickers, stretchy aliens, smelly pens, playing dice, coloured cards, and fluourescent pens.

'But what are you doing, and what are these for?', he asked. I explained that the participants came from the management teams of Directors, CEOs and Chairmen of the boards of companies from across Europe and the middle east. And we were looking at changing patterns of choices, developing insight and alternative ways of approaching communications, relationships, decision making and performance. I handed him a duck, then another, then another, then some pens, some card etc etc ... till finally he said 'Stop - I can't h0ld them anymore'. And I explained that's one way I might use them, to demonstrate our patterns for saying no, assertiveness, time management etc. He nodded, and reflected that he now understood how these could be seen as symbols...

I invited him to take some of the ducks into his training room. He looked horrified - and said that they were all very seriously involved in understanding and learning about dealing with the current financial turmoils and melt-down of the global financial markets. And anyway, his colleague was currently running the session. I gave him three little ducks anyway and suggested he just took them in with him and put them in front of him on the desk and see what happens. He did walk away with them (too polite - or reflective - to say no) ... but 30 seconds later was back returning them to me. 'No', he said 'I can't do it'.

We'll never know. The introduction of 3 little yellow ducks into a financial training room could have led to a breakthrough moment and changed one or more company's handling of crisis and recession. Or it might not. But it might just have introduced a moment of light relief!

Still, those little yellow ducks should by now have made it through passport control and be gracing a chairman's office in Dubai! And it's for sure that their new owner will be implementing her action plan with energy, inspiration and determination. I wonder who she'll pass them on to?

Structure? What structure?

[From Sam]

To kick off my contribution to the TaL blog, here's a teaching anecdote from one of the interminable introduction sessions I've had to sit through in preparation for my job as a university seminar tutor. Bear in mind that both of these are trainers of many years' experience, both in the classroom and in conveying their knowledge to fellow professionals.

Facilitator #1, brandishing a to-the-minute schedule of the current session, which has been distributed to all trainees: 'We may have been derailed, timing-wise, but at least I have a plan. If I didn't, I'd be lying on the floor in a gibbering heap by now!'

Facilitator #2, on the subject of planning lessons: 'I never do any preparation, anymore; I just take one or two questions into each seminar to prompt discussion when/if things dry up a bit.'

BBC-fashion, there are absolutely no prizes for guessing at the type preferences of these two individuals, certainly in terms of preferences for Organisation and Structure versus Go witht the Flow...What is interesting, however, is that I get the feeling (from relating to him in both professional and social contexts) that #2 is rather more Structured (J) than he cares to admit -- his excessive Go with the Flow (P) is either a fake projected image of himself in order to convey authority to students and fellow teachers, or a learned behaviour to deal with the specifics of HE teaching. Probably a bit of both.

Let us know if you have any anecdotes of your own on the teaching/training experience, or any similar observations about altering your natural preferences.

Goodbye to "should"

Just received a copy of this poem. I love it. It could have been written for me.

Ros Barber - Thank you!

How to Leave the World that Worships should

Let faxes butter-curl on dusty shelves.
Let junkmail build its castles in the hush
of other people’s halls. Let deadlines burst
and flash like glorious fireworks somewhere else.
As hours go softly by, let others curse
the roads where distant drivers queue like sheep.
Let e-mails fly like panicked, tiny birds.
Let phones, unanswered, ring themselves to sleep.

Above, the sky unrolls its telegram,
immense and wordless, simply understood:
you’ve made your mark like birdtracks in the sand -
now make the air in your lungs your livelihood.
See how each wave arrives at last to heave
itself upon the beach and vanish. Breathe.

"Feel it in your hands ".... "Can't I watch you first?"

I attended the European Association for Psychological Type Conference in Copenhagen 2 weeks ago. As well as running a half-day workshop session on Type in the Training Room (for 33 type professionals), I got the chance to meet new people, talk type, and gather new perspectives of type.

After a typically extraverted and engaging evening on the Friday night (culminating in a group of 10 of us failing to find a salsa bar in the centre, but making a long evening of it even so), I wasn't sure that I was in any fit state to attend a session on Type and Sport. But I'd chatted to one of the presenters and he had assured me we didn't have to do it! So at 9.00 I was there in body if not in spirit, but soon woke up.

It was amazing to see how type preferences play themselves out in all sorts of ways; you can make a pretty good prediction of some type preferences in watching how people stand, or how they approach sport.

We're eagerly waiting for the book on Action Type to be translated from the Dutch (though the authors say that they won't do it till after the Olympics so as to keep the competitive advantage... is that really sporting?) but in the meantime, just consider this:

ST (specifics and thinking) work with fine motor skills ... so from the elbow to the fingers, and the knees to the soles of the feet and the toes (the precise kicking of David Beckham, for example)
SF (specifics and feeling) work with gross motor skills ... they launch their whole body into their activity.
NF (big picture and feeling) combine the gross and the fine - so are elegant movers

and NT (big picture and logic) ... they run it from their head (the thinkers). They need images for the movement, they need to collect and connect lots of images to make the right move. For them, the images are the commands to the body to move in a certain way.

There were lots of "ah ha's" through out the session. And I've been looking and listening to discover more.

So fast forward a week to Marseille airport (I get around, you know) where I was picking up a friend who had just done a 2-day Kayaking course on the med. She's got a director/INTJ preference. She hadn't ever done kayaking before. So getting into the boat and getting the started, the sailing tutor said "Feel it in your fingers" .... Her response ... "but I can't I watch you and follow you first".

I'll be tuning into sport in a whole different way from now.

action planning

We know that your type preferences underpin our behaviours and actions. Our unconscious responses to a situation or a task - based on our preferences - can be influenced by many things. The specifics of language - the words we or others use to describe things - can help or hinder, make or break, action planning and goal setting.

How do we help ourselves, and others, get better at putting the action into the plan, and the plan into action?

If you're involved in setting your own action plan, or supporting others in theirs, here are some things to take into consideration.

Goals, Goal Setting: these are concepts and words that are helpful for people who like their world to be organised and structured. They take one action, or a series of actions, and have one end goal / required result. A goal provides clarity, certainy, direction, a means whereby you can tick the box for completion and pat yourself on the back for a job well done, womething else achieved.

But for those with a Go with the Flow preference, those whose ideal world is spontaneous, flexible and open to exploration and possibilities, the words goals, and planning, can set up an immediate negative reaction, confusion, and stress. How can I possibly choose just one thing to go for? By changing the language we can free up motivation and positive energy for action.

So for the Go with the flow-ers (in type terms Perceivers ... or procrastinators, or put it off to the last moment sort of people), talk about "focus" not goals. Describe the desired and possible outcomes. Look at the journey. Help those who you are supporting see the goal mouth as an exciting door to future possibilities (especially for the big picture perceivers); possibilities that will open up when going through the goal area.

For the Artisans (in type temperament terms the specific, here and now go with the flow-ers), get them to think about practical direction (especially STP) and intention (SFP) in the moment.

But even for those with a natural inclination towards goal setting and action planning, it's not always that straightforward.

For the leaders and directors can seem easy (ENTJ and INTJ). The challenge for the ENTJ might be to leave time and space for things to unfold. Sometimes it's about making a goal of not having a goal. For INTJ it can be about making the action happen in the outer world; taking the steps to bring the vision out into the open and into reality. So the goal here might have to be to get specific, in the here and now, and not introduce new ideas until others are done. Step back from the future vision and plan and execute the interim steps.

For the NFJs remember that good enough can be ok. Practicality can be perfection in itself.

And for the STJ, how about pushing yourself further into the future. Look beyond the immediate goal posts into the field beyond.

Messy Desks

We've done the first day of our launch of Your Preferences and Academy28 at UKHRD today - and it went really well. We weren't exactly a balanced team on the stand (3 x INTP/forward thinkers, 1 INTJ/director, and 2 ENTP/innovators) ... but there's nothing like a real, immovable deadline to galvanise us Ps into action. And we haven't spotted a typo yet - so again that shows that we can all do attention to detail if we want. And we're very friendly to all who pass!

I had a "ah ah" moment on the Judging (organised) versus Perceiving (go with the flow) dimension. We have a large poster on the stand, with one picture showing a tidy desk, colourful scheduler on the screen, to do list by the keyboard with items crossed off. And a coffee mug and stack of papers, of course. The other desk is littered in post-it notes, scattered piles of paper ... you get the picture.

One of the visitors to the stand looked at the right hand side ruefully and said - yes, that looks like my desk. I don't like it - and I do have to tidy it regularly. But after 3 days it starts to look like that.

3 days? I'm sorry - I can create devastation like that in 3 minutes from walking through the door.

Hmmm - how do we show that in pictures?

why trust is essential in the knowledge age

I am currently trying to "manage" years of information and old files (creating an archive of resources on Penelope, our Academy28 internal wiki via Google sites), I just came across some notes on knowledge - and so was provided with a great distraction and topic for a blog entry.

We have to be able to rapidly distinguish between information and knowledge. Information just "is" - however well organised it might be. Knowledge is what happens when we inform others, when we pass on the relevant information. And wisdom is probably knowing what to pass on, to whom, when and why.

Because the context of knowledge transfer and sharing is crucial, it has to be built on trust. We have to choose to volunteer information. We've all known organisations and departments where holding onto information is seen as protecting power. So choosing to share is choosing to trust.

We also need to be able to trust ourselves in managing information. It's almost impossible to avoid information overload in this 24/7 knowledge age. So we have to trust that we can decide what to read, and what to skim; what to keep, and what to let go of.

"Letting go of" is particularly important for change, for getting rid of old "baggage" and moving on.

I was once on the committee of a professional network that was 10 years old. We had serious issues we needed to address: to define strategy, future direction, the needs of the membership - all the normal stuff that is repeated in committees across the world.

We were discussing office space - we were losing our shared space for our part-time administrative support. I questioned why we had to have a physical place - it would be easier and cheaper to outsource it to a "virtual" resource. Wow - I was struck (metaphorically, of course!) by the passionate defence of the status quo. Basically, it boiled down to 2 main things, both of which could be seen through the lens of type:

1. an introverted Feeling response that wanted to hold onto the "shared history" of the organisation - which it felt that the 10 years of paper archives represented. This position was defended both from the sensing/past experience perspective (we need the information to make sure that we have continuity with past discussions and decisions that have been made) and the iNtuitive future orientation - we have to have the archives in case someone wants to write up the history of the organisation in the future.

2. someone in the past had made the decision to buy hundreds of folders for conferences - and these needed to be stored. We couldn't just get rid of them. This was a Sensing response - but again based on feeling, not logic. (Logic would say - they've already been paid for; we don't use them; we need to rebrand anyway and they have the old branding; and we'll be paying for them 10 times over, again and again, if the reason we can't change our structures to meet our needs is that we can't discard the results of bad decisions.

So having information is not always about knowing what is required.

Also, we often only know what we know when we need to know it. And that "knowledge" usually comes from within us. And we always know more than we say, and more than we can write down.

So - trust and knowledge:

1. if you have trust in the context, the environment, and the people around you, you will be more likely to freely and openly share information, so creating knowledge, and developing shared wisdom
2. trust yourself to let go of holding onto "stuff" - if it's not at hand, or in your head, you can either ask someone else, google it, or not bother
3. help build trusting, sharing and supportive collaborative ways of sharing knowledge and meaning

Type and wikis

Working as part of a virtual / dispersed team, I have to take responsibility for keeping my motivation and my engagement energy high enough to do what I need to do and want to do - especially when we are moving forward with developing Academy28. As a person I get energised by my interactions with people and other stimulus in the outer world, through my engagment with things that are external to me (an extravert, in Jungian terms).

What I do in the outside world is to explore ideas, possibilities for the future, and connections between things (this is my dominant function of extraverted iNtuition). But obviously, I'd be a complete pain to my team if I kept phoning them up to bounce off ideas with them; it's a waste of time and energy to be permanently travelling to meet them. And anyway, if I did that, how would they be able to concentrate on their work?

So I was delighted last week to get hold of Google sites - a new collaboration wiki-style tool. A new toy to play with - but not totally new, as I'd "played" with various different wikis last year, and even used one as a collaborative action learning tool in a leading virtual teams programme.

But the notification of Google sites came just at the right time for me. It gave me a new way of interacting with the content I'm putting together for Your Preferences - our set of type application packages that we are developing to help people solve essential business challenges.

Last year I knew "conceptually" (so iNtuitive / big picture) that wikis would be a useful and important tool for collaborative working and knowledge management in all sorts of virtual (and co-located) teams. Now, after a week of using it "at the coal face" to work with my own business requirements, I can see how wikis work well for my personal type preferences.

I can create links between ideas, information and concepts, underpinned by a strong logical framework and structure. It's a tool to get input and feedback and share ideas, knowledge, process and progress with my colleague - so a collaborative space that we can all access and use equally. Through its inbuilt, easy to use features such as filing cabinets, commenting, viewing history, links and lists and attaching and updating files - I can manage the detail of what is often for me a shamble of previously created files, drafts, materials.

So I can get my energy (extraverted energy) from my interactions with something that is "out there". I can explore ideas and create connections while I design and develop new products for the future (iNtuition). I underpin this with a strong logical framework (introverted Thinking). It's a collaborative space (extraverted Feeling). And I can manage data and past knowledge to ensure consistency, accuracy (introverted Sensing) and to save me from my natural instincts to constantly re-invent and look for new ways of doing things.

In terms of closure and organisation, I can follow my natural "go with the flow" - doing whatever takes my fancy in the moment (perceiving) - while knowing and seeing that it is all coming together to achieve the required results (the business imperative of closure - Judging).

However, my type preferences (ENTP - Innovator) is only one of 16 possible types. And it's a type preference only shared by about 4% of the general population (statistics generally referred to in research based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (r) and type temperament research.

But I believe that everyone can use wikis to help them work to their strengths, and yet create fully rounded results. This can be true whether we are a "collaboration of one" - tapping into the strengths of each of our type functions, and not just sticking with our dominant function, or a team. As long as the process the team uses is open, trusting, and is based on a learnt or experienced understanding of valuing type differences, a group collaborative wiki can create and sustain a dynamic and empowering environment where we can truly build shared knowledge and results that are far more powerful than they would be using traditional, hierarchical "command and control" methods that control knowledge rather than share and collaborate in building knowledge.

To summarise, we can all get our needs personal preferences met through wikis:

• Extraverted Energy - gives you something external to you to interact with, and which you can see grow and develop in front of your eyes
• Introverted Energy - no verbal, real-time interactions to distract you or stop you from thinking through what you are doing
• Perceiving - exploration, taking action, following your fancy, going with your own flow
• Judging - creating structure, seeing results

• Extraverted iNtuition - exploring possibilities, ideas and links and creating new approaches to invent the future
• Introverted iNtuition - allows you to work privately with your ideas until you are ready to share them
• Extraverted Sensing - you can just get stuck in, taking action, moving items, building features, exploring who, what, where, when, how
• Introverted Sensing - you can file and organise data step by step, and methodically, knowing that important knowledge and past experience will be available when it's needed, and not lost
• Extraverted Thinking - taking action to achieve results
• Introverted Thinking - creating a logical framework and structure to underpin and provide a robust foundation to knowledge
• Extraverted Feeling - a shared collaborative non-hierarchical space where everyone can have their say, and their contributions can be expressed, listened to, and valued
• Introverted Feeling - allows expression of your values - without having to defend them against critique and criticism

How do you use your wikis?

the flexibility of virtual teams

In Academy28, we're a small organisation. This means that we have a limited amount of internal resource and experience and specialisms (and time) to call on. It also means that we have a limited range of type preferences within the team. So we build partnerships with external partners and suppliers to supplement our internal resources. This also is an opportunity to balance out the Type profile (with its biases and blindspots) of our organisation.

We are leading up to the launch of Academy28 and Your Preferences at HRD week in London in April, and will work with a PR company to help us manage that side of the project activities.

As part of the kick-off of this set of project activities, we did a Your Preferences Team analysis for us all. And our choice of these particular PR specialists shows how well they will fill the gaps. On our own, Tim and I are heavily NT biased (N big picture, T logical analysis). Great profiles for seeing into the future. But we have to work harder to do the detail in the here and now and steadily build personal relationships, get things delivered in the short term for short term impact (SF) (which is the foundation of effective PR). And hey presto - our new PR partners both have the SF preference - and solid organisational and planning skills to get things done and out to timescales and deadlines (J).

This means that we can all work to our strengths, respecting others' strengths - and be confident that we're on track to get the results we need.

type and goal setting

One of the challenges that we face is embedding learning and development into our clients' everyday lives. Everyone is busy - so we need to make it as easy as possible.

But often very language of goal-setting and action planning can itself get in the way, and make things harder not easier.

Sensing works step by step from now into a close future.

But those with a Sensing and Perceiving/go with the flow preference will just do what they do - they don't plan, or set goals and work towards them.

Sensing and Judging - they like short term goals, and action plans that set out the small steps to success. For them - the traditional language and processes of time planning, goal setting and action plans work - and they implement them.

iNtuitives - especially those with a Thinking /logic preference - work backwards from the future to now. Go with the flow iNtuitivies (NPs) hate the concept of a single goal (they feel constrained and tied in, and so the first thing they will do is something that's not on the list. Better for them the language of FOCUS, and DIRECTION, and OUTCOMES.

So as an (ENTP) Innovator - here I am proving my own point. If I had an action plan that said I had to post to my blog once a week - it would just add to my guilt list of things I should have already done. By having a focus of exploring how type plays itself out in everyday life, I get to create my direction, and end up with a result that actually gets me the outcome I want.

tuning into the clues

Poker players know all about the "tell" - those signs that indicate whether a player might be bluffing.

At a recent seminar on Type at the Movies (a great way to spend a winter's afternoon) Peter Malone (INFJ) remarked that people with a Feeling (F) preference will often use the word "Lovely".

So I was really amused to receive a copy of a genuine email that really shows type preferences in daily life:

'...wonderful job you do...you could probably send me a really good version...Our scanner is pathetic. No, that's pejorative. Our lovely scanner produces pathetic scans...How lovely! This will make my job [...] a lot easier...'