Copper Rise Consulting

Sharing our learning, insights and practical tips – May 2003

The Great Tidal Wave – Which Story Would You Tell?  Consider the aftermath of a strange occurrence on a beach anywhere, eyewitnesses tell you the following stories:

• It was early afternoon, just after a great lunch of hot dogs and sand.  Suddenly, like something out of “The Perfect Storm”, this huge wave crests – taking out a zillion surfers, then turning over multitudes of swimmers and inner tubers – reaching way up on shore.  Far enough up to completely wash out a number of family belongings.  Thankfully, no one was hurt – just in ‘shock and awe’.  It looked like a hurricane had hit – colorful fabrics strewn along the golden sands.

• The wave, possible 25 foot in height crested at the location of the surfers at 1:14 pm.  12 individuals on surf boards were overturned, closer in there were at least 22 swimmers and 5 people on inner tubes who were immersed. The wave came onto the beach another 14 feet past the current tide level, taken out the blankets, ice chests, towels, radios, chairs and other personal belongings of all parties at that level - I estimate about 7 families were impacted.  There were no injuries, just surprised people.

Who is telling the correct story?  Depends on your preference. The lifeguards and police want to hear the second version, the news reporters will embellish with the first.   Both eyewitnesses saw the same thing – they just mentally took it in and organized the in the way that comes natural to them.  One through facts and details – the other through patterns and connections.

Learning these differences is the beginning of understanding Personality Type.  It helps us appreciate subtle abilities and use them to work better together – by using the natural knacks of different types; we get compatible working relationships – as opposed to adversarial.  Consider the employment interview – if you use the second style, known as “sensing” you will be able to develop a practical interview questions to help you uncover desired traits. And then, when interviewing – the first style or “intuition” can be used to connect the applicant’s past experience to your needs, or to see a pattern in answer that should be investigated further. 

There are many successful ways companies are using to personality type tools, such as the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) to develop leaders, teams and individual employees.  If you wish to learn more about how such a resource can benefit your organization, please contact Sandy Barnes.  Sandy is a qualified administrator through the Association of Psychological Type and has conducted assessments and workshops for over 500 individuals in the past five years.

Copper Rise Consulting specializes in a variety of leadership and team development programs, facilitation and training services. If you wish to explore developing your employees and creative top performing workplaces, please call (360) 225-9407 or e-mail sandy@copperrise.com