MBTI and Team Dynamics: How do you use MBTI to build an effective team?

[barbara]

I am a Leadership trainer and I want to use the MBTI concept for the topic of "building effective teams".
Any suggestions or ideas on how that can be applied?

 

[Pionart]

The middle 2 letters are crucial for compatibility. ESTJ works well with ISTP for example because the function orders are the same.

 

[Vendrah]

I am a Leadership trainer and I want to use the MBTI concept for the topic of "building effective teams".
Any suggestions or ideas on how that can be applied?

My own personal advice: MBTI types are not skills and are not highly predictive of skills, and there are even some cases that the MBTI turns a blind eye towards the correlation of a certain skill (like intelligence), especially if empirical. Generally, I would say the best is to try to group people with similar types and different skills, because similar types means people that have more chances of understanding each other while the different skills supplement each other.

 

[highlander]

I am a Leadership trainer and I want to use the MBTI concept for the topic of "building effective teams".
Any suggestions or ideas on how that can be applied?

My experience is that it is helpful to have diversity - or a mix of types on a team. You wouldn't want a team with too many ESTJs for example. I have seen overall lower performance when there is a lack of diversity. I also see that the type differences can sometimes be used to understand the conflict that occurs between members with different preferences. Type doesn't seem to have anything to do with individual performance though I do see certain types more represented in leadership roles (ESTJ, ISTJ, ENTJ, and INTJs seem to dominate the executive suite).

 

[Seymour]

My experience is that it is helpful to have diversity - or a mix of types on a team. You wouldn't want a team with too many ESTJs for example. I have seen overall lower performance when there is a lack of diversity. I also see that the type differences can sometimes be used to understand the conflict that occurs between members with different preferences. Type doesn't seem to have anything to do with individual performance though I do see certain types more represented in leadership roles (ESTJ, ISTJ, ENTJ, and INTJs seem to dominate the executive suite).

That's basically what Wilde argued in his book Teamology: The Construction and Organization of Effective Teams (that I mentioned when posting about this other book). Basically he argues that its good to have a each function-attitude represented on a team. If there isn't someone who leads with a particular function-attitude, getting a representative who has some access to it is better than nothing. Wilde claimed teams in his classes that were organized around function-attitude diversity did much better in practice (although sometimes there was more conflict along the way).

Of course Wilde has his own model for function-attitudes (basically cognitive processes). Years ago I made a little visual web page to demonstrate how he calculates function-attitudes. I hope to review his model against the the data gathered by Mina Barimany, since at a glance looks like it might be a closer fit than traditional type dynamics.

 

[Sparkykun]

You can consider Resource Temperament, where you have Creditors (people who focus on resource gains), and Benefactors (people who focus on emotional gains). For this, it might be helpful to consider the Multi-Disciplinary Approach to solve problems, where you gather people of diverse majors together to make decisions, rather than just people who have PhD in the particular subject study the problem.

 

[Skimt]

My recommendation is to use MBTI for profession, and Belbin for teams. I also recommend not following it slavishly, but as a rule of thumb.

If you tested as an F-type in MBTI, but can't stand mediating clients, you probably ought to reconsider a T-type.

If you tested as the Analyst role in Belbin, yet dwell on imperfections and never seem to quite finish polishing your work, you probably ought to reconsider the Completer role. This is my problem, and I need one of the other team roles to tell me "Stop!" That's the point of Belbin, to create a team that make up for each other's shortcomings. Belbin is used at universities.