Objective:
- To introduce the group to the increasingly popular MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) Test that is felt by many to help individuals identify their personality type and thereby inform them how best they might work or operate in a team/ group situation.
- To construct teams based on the individual’s responses before setting a task to complete and then reflect upon understanding.
 Introduction:
The increased popularity of Psychological tests to help recruiters or managers select characteristics that they believe will make their work teams more effective is something all students and tutors need to be aware of.
While the practice may (or may not!) be well founded, it cannot be ignored. Personally I have been given several opportunities to have my personality and working style measured through a variety of tests. Clearly the results will be shaped by the environment in which the test is taken. I would feel my responses were different when I was a Business School Director involved in managerial decision making when compared to my earlier life as a humble academic or even when I was a research scientist.
What has to be made clear is – your preferred working style or approach to team situations will change as you change. The results are not set in stone, rather they are an indicator.
The “quick and dirty” exercise here is just that – it is far from rigorous! It should be used to raise awareness of the issue and for those who wish to take it further; then most Universities have licences for the real thing and will be more than happy to pay for a proper test to be completed.
Activity:
I tend to introduce the session by running though the Power Point slide deck to explain the background and the rationale for the activity. Then I ask the four questions and invite everybody to select a letter response.
When everybody has a four letter code, we look how the “population” breaks down.
WE then can talk about how the group feel about the four letter codes they have chosen. Do they relate to the characteristics attributed to the four letter codes from the full MBTI test?
I then invite individuals to adopt a specific role within a group context. I then link a four letter MBTI code to the roles and start to construct teams based on the role mix.
Individuals can do this in a variety of ways. I simply ask for teams of four to be created. A show of hands for each role allows me to go – “OK you ; you; you and you – you are one team.” And so on. Individuals can create teams/ groups based on their knowledge of the cohort and student’s ability to work collaboratively.
You will have teams of varying levels of maturity and motivation and you will find some teams do not have the exact or optimum role mix.
The joy of this activity is to watch how the teams perform when the open ended task is given.
As experienced tutors, you can float and pick out the team dynamics. You will soon hear gentle laughter and see smiles on the faces of those in the teams that are starting to relax and work to their preferred style. This will be contrasted by the teams that have individuals who are not comfortable in their role or team.
Leave the exercise to run for as long as you wish. Make sure you spend time drawing the learning from the exercise. Why did some teams laugh more than others? How did the individuals feel about the role they were asked to perform? How did the team come together? What did they learn about themselves and about team working?
Impact:
I have used this activity when a lecturer with groups of students before they embark on a major assessed team work activity. I conducted this activity with L5 students before they were expected to go out on their Industrial Placement year. An awareness of how to operate in a team is essential preparation for the world of work.
I also have used this with Enterprise Educators in Wales (ELVIS) and when running staff development activities with tutor teams in departments I am supporting. I have also shared this with IEEP participants.
Everybody can take something away from this and use it in their teaching or working lives.
Learner outcomes:
At the end of the session the participants will:
- Appreciate the different roles that are required for effective teams.
- Recognise that personality types impact on effective teams performance
- Understand that they have a preferred learning / work style that will change over time
- Be more understanding of how fellow team members feel when put in situations that do not allow them to work to their preferred style.
Resources:
- Slides and Myers Briggs power point (Print off a number of the slides and hand these out as resources for the task)
- Post-its or similar sticky pads
- Pens
- Overview