When I was working for 3M many years ago, I was first introduced to the MBTI personality test. When I first took it and was presented with the results, it reminded me of astrology and I pretty much ignored it. Twenty years later, I was exposed to it once again in graduate school where I learned that it could be a useful tool for understanding the diversity of a group. All class members took the assessment and the results showed that (as expected) people were represented as expected in each type. I also came to see that there was some validity in the personality description of each type as a way of seeing more of the angles that make up complex personalities. It might have helped that I tested as the same type as I had previously.
One of the characteristics of that type that I could never reconcile myself to was that I was supposed to be good at brainstorming. I’ve worked for several large organizations who insisted on conducting large group sessions where a facilitator wrote down on a huge sheet of paper whatever someone in the group shouted out. You know, the “no such thing as a bad idea” strategy. They claimed that this was the best way to find great ideas. I would sit there subdued because I never had enough time to give serious consideration to the “problem” and anything that came out of my mouth sounded like word-picture-association.
I was reading an article the other day that confirms for me the futility of brainstorming: seems that it leads to groupthink which actually produces deficient results. I may not be good at it but at least I haven’t been part of the problem all these years! But that got me to thinking about what is the best way to generate good ideas?
Taking into consideration the 16 MBTI personality types, I came up with the following steps:
- Give as much advance notice to the people you will be asking for input.
- Gather all the facts and listen to as much input as possible.
- Analyze and look for connections to previous situations.
- Get all the people in the group together, thank them for their input, and explain that weʻre all going to do this together…. my way.
Any questions?
So That's Life? 
One and One Makes Three
04/17/2012I can hardly believe it but Summer is almost here. If I had to judge from the blustery weather, I wouldn’t even think Spring had arrived. Yet, most schools finish their year in about 3 weeks so, like it or not, children will be filling the streets, buses, and malls.
I may be curmudgeonly but I don’t begrudge kids this respite from school. There’s all that pent-up energy just waiting to explode and even one more day in school is probably risking spontaneous combustion. No, we have to let them out so they can forget all their lessons and return 3 months later with fresh, blanks slates.
As a kid overexposed to Saturday morning cartoons and corporate consumer programming, Summer was also time for the Slip-n-Slide and Kool Aid. I really did want that Slip-n-Slide but my parents never got one for me. We had to make do with left-over plastic wrap, garbage bags, or plain ‘ol cardboard down a grassy slope. It wasn’t cool but we still had fun.
Kool Aid was something we did have; it was something I loathed. Who in their right mind ever thought kids would like this? It barely had any flavor of its own so, unless you poured 3 cups of sugar in the pitcher, it was virtually undrinkable. It didn’t matter if Kool-Aid Man was cartoon or live-action, if he sang the jingle or just yelled “oh yeah”, the stuff sucked.
When I first heard the phrase, “he/she drank the Kool Aid”, the first thing I thought was, “who’d want to do that?” If you didn’t know, it originated from the 1978 Jonestown massacre/suicide where Jim Jones and his followers gave poisoned Kool Aid to their children to help them perform what they termed “revolutionary suicide”. It has since become synonymous with naiveté, gullibility, brainwashing, and cult worship.
In Hawaii, we have something similar to Kool Aid called Malolo. It comes in liquid form but it has the same no-taste-needs-heaps-of-sugar quality. My mom once bought a bottle and it sat in the cupboard literally until (if this was possible) it went bad.
I’ve been thinking that we need to coin a “drank the Malolo” phrase that would clearly delineate active thinkers from blind followers. We could use the phrase whenever someone kowtows to the ever-present provincial mores, succumbs to cultural stereotypes, or caves in to societal pressures about preserving natural beauty, “keeping the country, country”, or not being pono. Better yet, we could use it for all the people who sit on the fence and wait for their personal messiah to tell them which side has the greener grass.
It may be Summer but harsher seasons will come and we’ve got to stand on our own two feet if we want to take charge of our situation. Nobody is going to come and save us, no one person is going to have the grand plan and vision to guide us into the future, and the minute that we give in to the temptation of hero-worship is the moment we’ve forfeited the right to be a member of a winning team.
In general, leaders get the kind of followers they deserve. Demand better leaders.
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