Yesterday our church ‘team’ got together and went through a process called “Team Management Systems”. Basically we all filled out an online questionnaire that asked us about how we prefer to work and interact with people. We were then given a pretty detailed report on our ‘work preference style’. The importance, for our team, came in seeing how everyone preferred to work.

We were able to see that some in our team preferred to be creative and come up with new ideas. Some preferred to take those ideas and mould them into something that would actually work in practice. Others preferred to be given a task and knuckle down and get it done, while others like to evaluate what was going on and make sure we stay on track.

We were also given an assessment on our personality. Some are introverted, whilst others are extroverted. Some find routine and repetition comforting, while others find it constricting. Some make decisions based purely on rational facts and hard data while others rely on their beliefs and gut feelings.

Some might think that defining our personality into set types puts people into a box. I think yesterday most people found it interesting to read their report and have it presented to them how they like to work. It told you things you needed to focus on as well as things to remember about working with other people. For example it told me that I have to explain to others where I am heading so they come on board, rather than expecting them to meet me there.

Personalities are amazing things and to break points of our personality down to binaries and split people accordingly can provide a stark reminder of our diversity. Having the self awareness to recognise how our actions affect people of differing personalities will go along way to helping us work in teams.

Perhaps if we understood ourselves better, working with others might become easier. Just a thought.