I very much like this conversation about personality types. I was in
charge of R&D at CPP the publisher of the MBTI for 10 years and thus have
some background.
I think personality typing is harmful when one person is making judgements
about another person. Where it is very helpful is for self understanding
(having certain preferences or foibles) since there is some clustering of
traits. It is also helpful to realize that other people are different
from oneself and should be treated and related to in ways that are not
salient for oneself. For example, if you want to reward an employee for
good work, find out what that person likes. Similarly, some people have
preferences on how they want to receive feedback or structure their work
time, and so forth.
I see personality typing as a mental model and thus is most powerful when
you can use it as a model in your mind to explain the world.
If you understand personality you can also relax to how other people
behave since they often behave in ways that seem inexplicable.
Good conversation here.
thanks
Robb Most
--"Robb Most" <bobmost@msn.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>