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PERSONALITY AND CHANGEPERSONALITY AND CHANGEWe have looked at different approaches to change, and suggested that individuals do not always experience these changes in a consistent or uniform way. However we have not asked whether people are different, and if so, whether their difference affects the way they experience change. We have found in working with individuals and teams through change that it is useful to identify and openly discuss people’s personality types. This information helps people to understand their responses to change. It also helps people to see why other people are different from them, and to be aware of how that may lead to either harmony or conflict. The most effective tool for identifying personality type is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This is a personality inventory developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers. The MBTI is based on the work of the Swiss analytical psychologist Carl Jung. The MBTI identifies eight different personality ‘preferences’ that we all use at different times – but each individual will have a preference for one particular combination over the others. These eight preferences can be paired as set out below. Where individuals draw their energyExtraversion is a preference for drawing energy from the external world, tasks and things, whereas Introversion is a preference for drawing energy from the internal world of one’s thoughts and feelings. What individuals pay attention to and how they receive data and informationSensing is concerned with the five senses and what is and has been whereas Intuition is concerned with possibilities and patterns and what might be. How an individual makes decisionsThinking is about making decisions in an objective, logical way based on concepts of right and wrong whereas Feeling is about making decisions in a more personal values-driven and empathic way. What sort of lifestyle an individual enjoysJudging is a preference for living in a more structured and organized world which is more orderly and predictable, whereas Perceiving is a preference for living in a more flexible or spontaneous world where options are kept open and decisions not made until absolutely necessary. So for example, a person who has a preference for Introversion, Intuition, Thinking and Judging (an INTJ, in the jargon) will have certain characteristics. Likewise an individual with a preference for Extroversion, Sensing, Feeling and Perceiving (ESFP) will have quite different characteristics. The MBTI has been researched and validated for over 50 years now, and people rarely move permanently from their preferred ‘home’ type. That is not to say that Extroverts cannot spend time reflecting and being on their own, nor Introverts spend time in large groups discussing a broad range of issues. What it means is that if you are a particular type you have particular preferences and are different from other people of different types. This means that when it comes to change, people with different preferences react differently to change, both when they initiate it and when they are on the receiving end of it. We can group the MBTI types into four categories for ease of analysis. One group of people will be cautious and careful about change – the Thoughtful Realists (those who are introverted sensing types). A second group will generate concepts that represent how things should be – the Thoughtful Innovators (introverted intuitives). A third group will have the energy and enthusiasm to get things done – the Action Oriented Realists (extraverted sensing). Meanwhile the fourth group – the Action Oriented Innovators (extraverted intuitives) – will be wanting to move into new areas and soon! (See Table 1.5.) 195
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