There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization’s SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting.
Search terms related to “MBTI” — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers in the 1960s to sort personalities into psychological types — are one of Thoughtensemble.com’s leading traffic drivers.
I wiped my blue-light blockers and looked again! Interestingly enough, for being a smaller organization (historically), I learned that we perform exceptionally well in rankings for this term.
This discovery is relevant, and dare I say heartwarming, for a few reasons:
1. WE ARE IN THE PEOPLE BUSINESS
Thought Ensemble (now a Pariveda company) specializes in strategy and management consulting, yes. But we have always seen ourselves as a people-first team working to support every individual that steps into our orbit.
MBTI assessments, along with tools such as the CliftonStrengths assessment and the Hogan Development Survey, are just a few of the ways we seek to understand and create the space to appreciate our team’s differences better. It’s also core to who we are as deep collaborators. More on the difference between these tools momentarily!
2. CELEBRATING WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE IS INFINITELY MORE VALUABLE THAN CLONING OUR WORKFORCE
It can be challenging to differentiate what makes OUR offerings unique in our industry. We, like many teams, passionately say, “Our people are special.” But in our case, we believe that to be especially true because we have the science to support it.
Thought Ensemble was originally anchored on a belief that it’s our differences that strengthen our ability to support our clients, their organizations, and the world, not necessarily the traits that we share, and personality tools and leadership assessments give us a pathway to articulate those nuanced differences in cognitive functions while also ensuring that our teams are structured to provide the optimal balance.
3. YOU CAN’T WRITE CODE FOR HUMAN DECISION MAKING
Our work can, at times, become very technical. But we hold the belief that HUMANS are at the core of our work, which is why we clasp to the importance of leadership alignment, change enablement, and organizational design as pillars in any meaningful transformation effort.
Thought Ensemble uses a combination of the MBTI Test, the CliftonStrengths assessment, and the Hogan Development Survey when onboarding new members and leaders of our team. The curation of all three of these tools helps support the growth and mentorship we strive to provide for everyone. We also leverage these tools to help inform project team composition when appropriate.
What’s the difference, you ask? Here’s a quick summary of each, followed by a curated list of thought leadership articles written by our Managing Vice President Lisa Jasper.
Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
MBTI is a self-help assessment test that helps people gain insights into their working and learning preferences. The theory is quite complicated, but it is ultimately rooted in identifying our preferences through interests, values, needs, and motivation. We use this as a framework for relationship-building and achieving excellence.
The CliftonStrengths Assessment was researched and developed by Don Clifton, who is often considered the “father of strengths psychology.” The evaluation aims to measure how an individual approaches their work. It examines a person’s talent, which encompasses their personality, attitudes, knowledge, skills, and abilities.
The focus is placed entirely on highlighting the positives instead of the negatives — with the hope that we all can focus on turning our natural talents into strengths instead of fixating on our weaknesses.
Hogan Development Survey (HDS)
The HDS was constructed by Dr. Robert Hogan and Joyce Hogan in 1997 for Hogan Assessment Systems, Inc. The purpose of the instrument is to assess an individual’s capacity to engage in dysfunctional and maladaptive behaviors at work. The HDS aims to predict said behaviors by identifying the natural dispositions that incite them.
We have leaders in our organization participate in this survey and then share the findings with the entire organization for feedback, transparency, and accountability.
And if you read nothing else about how to leverage assessments like the ones above to benefit your organization’s interpersonal growth, read these from Thought Ensemble’s original Co-founder, and present-day Managing Vice President, Lisa Jasper:
One of my Favorite MBTI Exercises
Personalities and Communication: MBTI vs. “the quadrants.”
MBTI: So much more than introversion and extroversion
If you’d like to learn more about how these types of assessments can support your talent development strategy, reach out to us at info@thoughtensemble.com.
