David Hua

Published on January 12, 2013 on The Lean HR

The Myer’s Briggs Type Indicator assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.

By taking this Personality Test (10min) you come up with a 4 letter code that you can decipher here.

Conducting a Personality Test Session within your company

I know what you’re thinking, “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” or “Oh no, not some touchy feely team building exercise”.

Working with a rainbow of personality types can often be a challenge. Understanding yourself, those around you, and how other’s perceive you can be very helpful in bridging the gap between co-workers. I created a session while on our workcation that was pretty effective at accomplishing these goals. It took about 45 minutes with 16 people.

Equipment Needed: 
- 3 different color Post-It Pads (2 of the pads should have each the names of all the team members - one to each post-it) 
- 16 pieces of 8.5 x 11 inch paper (each piece of paper having one of the different combination of personality types)
- Tape, Markers, and Pens
- Personality Key

Preparation: 
1) Have everyone take the personality test to come up with their 4 letter codebefore the session. 
2) Give everyone a post-it and have them write their name and 4 letter code and hand it back to you (don’t share your 4 letter code) 
3) Break up the team into two teams and hand each team a different color Post-it Pad with pre-written names. (ex: Team 1 = blue. Team 2 = pink. Correct answers = orange) 
4) The Challenge: Guess the 4 letter code for each person using the Personality Key and write it down on the pre-written post its. If a team member is being assessed, have that team member refrain from speaking. The person should be listening to what is being said about them and how they are perceived by their colleagues. 
5) After the two teams have finished, post the assumptions from each team onto the 16 pieces of paper
6) Then compare the Post-It on what the actual personality type is to what was guessed from the two teams. Award a point to the team who gets it right. This is a good moment to ask why the teams picked what they did and how the person assessed themselves on their own. 

Have fun getting personal :) 

example of our board

Here is a more in-depth Myers Briggs test that shows where the person stands along the spectrum of each personality trait: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Published on December 10, 2012 on The Lean HR

Working at a startup is kinda like working at a circus.

One character that resonates with startup life is the juggler. You know, the juggler on the tricycle throwing bowling pins, knives, axes, and torches high up into the air with total coordination and focus.

At startups, we are all jugglers. CEO’s, managers, and leaders have a lot to balance, especially in product, people, and shipping said product into the hands of anxious customers. The true challenge being the allocation of time and resources into these areas without sacrificing product quality, your team’s sanity, and the timeliness of delivery to market.

For the Back to the Future fans out there, imagine a Flux Capacitor on a see-saw framework with each end pointing to either “Product”, “Team Sanity”, and “Ship”. Without overstating the obvious, it’s important to spend time on “Product” so you make something kick-ass but without killing your team and putting something out in a timely manner.

Of course there are going to be times when you “drop the bowling pin” and that is fine. The best jugglers shrug it off, take a deep breath, throw the freaking thing back in the air, and do it with a smile

• Thanks to Matt Brezina for the inspiration of the “Flux Capacitor” analogy.