The first part of the exercise involves taking a test to determine your "Temperament."
The training focused on the positive aspects of this which I thought was kind.
But the facilitator seemed to be under the impression that temperments were fixed, and I don't really agree with that perspectve.
Anyway I thought I would share what I learned about my temperment just because I find this stuff interesting and your reading this means you might too!
[Please don't copy the italicized text as it is not mine to give]
I am an independent thinker, Some people can even go so far as to call me a non conformist.
This title might worry other people, but it really describes the way I look at the world. I don't accept things at face value and find myself in a constant state of analysis as I try to understand and improve every part of my world.
In my personal life I feel the need to keep my head in charge of my heart. Relationships are important, but once they are developed and everyone understands what is expected, I feel it is important to leave thigs alone and focus my efforts on other issues in my life. In truth I am more comfortable working with data than with people.
Work has to be challenging, then I can become totally consumed with its completion. When I have completed a project, however, I prefer to move on to new challenges and leave the day to day tasks to others. I get hooked on Ideas and concepts and can't seem to let go of them.
I must respect a superior or fellow worker before I can begin to value their advice and/or authority. Decisions are often difficult for me to make because I have to be certain that I dont make a mistake. Issues are never black and white, but filled with a multiplicity of possible choices or outcomes.
Some words that describe me are: Scientific, Curious, Complex, abstract, independent, ingenious, intellectual, inventive, fact-oriented, logical, cool, calm, collected, and theoretical.
Now I bet those who know me well might see where I object to some bits and pieces of this but in general I would say it is good enough to go with considering the nature of the limited numbers of possible outcomes available (4) and because there was a limited amount of time for the training event. Overall I thought it was a good class for developing interpersonal relationships.
Take care,
Jordan
4 comments:
Hi Jordan,
It will be interesting to see if, over time, anything changes for you and/or your team, as a result of this exercise.
Let us know!
Barry
Hi Barry,
We did this last year, and from what I saw it came to be just another way people passed judgement on and categorized each other...
greens vs blues, oranges vs golds. Which seemed like the opposite of the intent of the classroom exercise which was aimed at appreciating people and working with their temperaments. But allot of the personal have changed so who knows!
Take care,
Jordan
I did a fair amount of this kind of thing in my corporate life. The events themselves were fun and produced lots of good feelings.
But like all feelings, they soon changed.
Real change, in my experience, comes slowly and is the hard-won fruit of uprooting mind-habits. There's a process behind it that I've never seen discussed in these team-building exercises (not to say that some such programs don't go more deeply).
I agree, however because of the way the Marines rotate from place to place there is not a whole lot of followup on this sort of exercise. I still think it is a great Idea and would recommend it to any organization that is interested in its most important resource.... People. and who knows, maybe it could be used as a gateway to ZaZen!
Take care,
Jordan
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