How 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…
The Organizational Character Index
After an overly long transition, we’ve set up shop in our new home. To celebrate I’m giving everyone a gift. I’ve coded William Bridges’s “Organizational Character Index” (OCI) into a survey-style page. Now anyone can apply the principles pioneered by Myers and Briggs to their organizations. The OCI is not an adaptation of the MBTI® - it is an experimental tool based on the same type research and using the same dimensions:
- Energy - how your organization gets energy (Extroversion or Introversion)
- Perception - how your organization gets information, what it pays attention to (Sensing and iNtuition)
- Judgment - how your organization uses information to make decisions (Thinking and Feeling)
- Orientation - how your organization shows itself to, and deals with, the external world (Judging or Perceiving)
Organizational 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 ContentRecommended Reading
These books represent the best of the best on the topics of innovation, creativity, and personality type.
