American Chopper - How Personalities Clash At Work
Today we take a look at the popular Discovery Channel series American Chopper, featuring the misadventures of the Teutul family (Senior, Junior and Mikey) and their company, custom bike manufacturer Orange County Choppers. The relationship between Junior and Senior illustrates two opposing Myers-Briggs type preferences extremely well.
By now, you probably know that every episode of American Chopper features a heated, no-holds-barred argument between Senior and Junior. The argument is about the same thing every week - whether it’s more important to make a good product, or stay on schedule. We witness a classic clash of personality types that might look like something you’ve experienced in the workplace yourself.
Sphere: Related ContentHow To Leverage Collaborative Innovation
Every now and then I read an article like this one in Forbes that touts the virtues of looking outside the walls of your company for innovation. There is a whole section in Mavericks at Work devoted to this, and the concept was, in fact, a partial inspiration for the name of this blog. I’m an outwardly focused individual, and naturally seek opportunities to collaborate and increase my knowledge. Similarly, organizations can seek the same opportunities for all kinds of situations - new products, new business solutions, new technologies, new perspectives on old problems.
Sphere: Related Content7 Myths and Misconceptions About Myers-Briggs
These seven tend to come up during Myers-Briggs workshops and can cause a lot of confusion. So without further ado…
How To Transform A Culture With Innovation
Have you ever witnessed an innovation that transforms everything in a culture?
It doesn’t happen often. Most of the time innovation improves rather than transforms. Well over 90 percent of the time, in fact.
There’s a good reason for that. Change is hard. In Myers-Briggs terms, most people in our culture (75 percent) prefer ’sensing,’ and one of the aspects of sensing is resistance to change. Incremental change, if useful, might be OK. Transformational change is painful.
Sphere: Related ContentHigh-Priced Gas Is GOOD For America!
How could this possibly be? We rely on gas for just about everything in this country - how could high priced gas actually be GOOD for us?
Because without high-priced gas, we’d have no incentive to innovate.
In my article on ‘Who Killed The Electric Car?’ last year, I emphasized the fact that no one wanted an expensive, inconvenient-to-operate electric car while gas was cheap. The economics would never work out, even if electricity was marginally cheaper than gas, because batteries were way too expensive. But it’s safe to say that many foretold the coming of high-priced gas back then. Peak Oil is a concept dating back to the 50s, and those who adhere to its principles saw a drop in petroleum production on the horizon.
So why didn’t we do anything about it? Same reason we don’t do anything about Social Security, widely predicted to collapse in a couple of decades - it’s not a current crisis. We respond to current crises pretty well in this country - we plan for future crises poorly (just ask those living in New Orleans).
Sphere: Related ContentHalf Price Myers-Briggs Step II!!
FINALLY.
I’m now able to offer the Myers-Briggs Typing Indicator® (MBTI®) through the blog. To commemorate this momentous occasion - the first five people who email me get the MBTI® Step II, Form Q - normally priced at $115 - for half price: $57.50. Here’s a sample of the Form Q Interpretive Report - all 18 pages of it.
Simply email me via the handy email form on my About… page, subject ‘Half Price Form Q.’ If you’re one of the first five you get the most comprehensive Myers-Briggs assessment, including 18 pages of highly detailed information, custom-taylored to your individual personality type, for a bargain price.
Sphere: Related Content7 Things Innovators Do That You Don’t
What prevents you from being a great innovator? Not much. Innovators by and large aren’t creative geniuses gifted with da Vinci-like talent. It’s not what they ARE - it’s what they DO. They do these seven things you most likely do not.
Sphere: Related ContentOrganizational Character Index
Organizational Character Index (OCI)
The OCI was developed by William Bridges (in his book The Character of Organizations) to apply the principles of Myers-Briggs® to organizations. Using the OCI you can determine the character of your organization in terms of how it gets energy, how it gathers information, how it makes decisions, and how it shows itself to the outside world.
Here are a few instructions for taking the OCI:
a. Answer the question in terms of how your organization ACTUALLY operates, as opposed to how you THINK it SHOULD operate.
b. The OCI lets you express a ‘degree of strength’ between two choices. The choices will be indicated by (a) and (b) in the questions. Select your response as follows:
1 = Distinctly or usually (a)
2 = Somewhat (a)
3 = Somewhat (b)
4 = Distinctly or usually (b)
c. Don’t agonize too much over your answers - select what you think is the best fit. Be sure and answer all questions.
d. Include your name and email address and the results will be sent to you in a day or so. You will be sent your organization’s four letter type and a brief discussion on how to interpret it.
OCI For Groups - the form I’ve encoded below is optimized for individuals. If you have a group that you’d like to have take the OCI, I have another version optimized for groups. Email me from my About page and I’ll send you a link.
Note - A lot of visitors are filling out the survey but not submitting the data. As a result, I have no way to view and interpret it. Remember, when you are done entering data you must hit the SUBMIT button at the bottom of the survey. Please and thank you.
Sphere: Related ContentTake The MBTI
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The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assessment is the best known and most trusted personality tool available today. From developing more productive work teams to building closer families, the MBTI can improve the quality of life for anyone and any organization.
After more than 50 years, the MBTI instrument continues to be the most trusted and widely used assessment in the world for understanding individual differences and uncovering new ways to work and interact with others. More than 2 million assessments are administered to individuals annually —including employees of many Fortune 500 companies.
At OSI, included in the cost of your MBTI assessment is Exploring YouTM, an advanced web-based tool that helps you self-verify your MBTI results by experiencing the eight Jungian functions directly.
Taking the MBTI Assessment online is easy. Just complete the following steps:
- Determine which report you’d like to receive and purchase it (see the list of available reports below). Reports range from brief summaries to comprehensive assessments.
- After purchasing your report, you’ll receive an email providing the web address and password for your online assessment. Follow the link and take the assessment, which consists of 93-144 questions and takes 20-30 minutes to complete.
- After you complete the assessment, we’ll contact you with further instructions. All reports include a phone consultation with our MBTI consultant to explain and verify the results of your assessment.
Here are sample reports for the different assessments listed below.
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Updating...7 Levels Of Change (Part 9 of 9) - Bringing It All Together
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Table of contents for 7 Levels Of Change
- The 7 Levels Of Change - Introduction (Part 1 of 9)
- 7 Levels Of Change (Part 2 of 9) - Level 1: Effectiveness
- 7 Levels Of Change (Part 3 of 9) - Level 2: Efficiency
- 7 Levels Of Change (Part 4 of 9) - Level 3: Improving
- 7 Levels Of Change (Part 5 of 9) - Level 4: Cutting
- 7 Levels Of Change (Part 6 of 9) - Level 5: Copying
- 7 Levels Of Change (Part 7 of 9) - Level 6: Doing Things No One Else Is Doing
- 7 Levels Of Change (Part 8 of 9) - Level 7: Doing Things That Can’t Be Done
- 7 Levels Of Change (Part 9 of 9) - Bringing It All Together
The last in a nine-part series on Rolf Smith’s 7 Levels of Change, I bring everything together and discuss how to put the 7 Levels to work.
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