I wanted to have a poke and prod at a popular topic that I've found irratating (I have a few favourites). In fact I'm wanting to purposely tread on some toes and burn a sacred cow!
This cow is widely accepted, not just within our homes, schools and communities, but also strongly present in businesses. Resulting in a multi million dollar income for some.
So here goes...
Old Origins
We seem to, as a race of people, since the earliest of ages wanted to know about the meaning, origin and destination of many things. Like the stars, the planet, people, the future, the after life etc... and have embraced many different ways of gaining understanding or insight into these.
Look back through history and you will have stories of prophets, fortune tellers, readers of the stars providing many creative ways of trying to understand each other, or the situations we face. Especially the unknown and difficult to explain events.
My focus here is on how we have tried to understand each other. What will happen of me? Where am I headed in life? Who am I best suited to work with or marry? What career am I best suited for? Will I get on with everyone in the team. These and many other questions have been posed, and needing to be answered.
So over thousands of years we've come up with very creative answers by gazing into crystal balls, the reading of tea leaves, tarot cards, faces, palms, astrological signs and goodness knows what else. All in an attempt to try and answer those questions about who am I and how do I fit in with others.
In Modern Times
Well, with science and skepticism, and the modern day, 21st century world, we have moved on (some of us have). And we like to debunk these old methods of reading people and whether they are the perfect match or not. Right?
Wrong!
Instead, we have confidently replaced them with covert models. Psychological models that are supported by research and data and renamed them psychometric testing or analysis rather than tarot card reading!!!
We get a respected field like Psychology or Neuro Science (preferably people with a Ph.d, although in Myers Briggs case a Mother and Daughter will do) to condone the use of the "proven tool". To evaluate (guess!) one another and make determinants about how this person or that person will perform in the workplace. Sounds so very feasible and with so many doing it, it must be right. Right?
Wrong, Again!
If there has ever been an outstanding pseudo-science it would have to be the attempt to predict human behaviour, character, talent, attributes and the like, byway of an elaborate list of questions and answers. Presented in some well designed software package, which you purchase for thousands, in the hope your recruitment program will pick (like a rabbit out of a hat) the right person for the position you've advertised.
Human Resource departments, Recruitment Agencies, Counsellors, School Teachers (learning styles) the Police Recruiter and the Psychologist must be right. Right?
Wrong, Three Times! (3 strikes you're out)
This cow is widely accepted, not just within our homes, schools and communities, but also strongly present in businesses. Resulting in a multi million dollar income for some.
So here goes...
Old Origins
We seem to, as a race of people, since the earliest of ages wanted to know about the meaning, origin and destination of many things. Like the stars, the planet, people, the future, the after life etc... and have embraced many different ways of gaining understanding or insight into these.
Look back through history and you will have stories of prophets, fortune tellers, readers of the stars providing many creative ways of trying to understand each other, or the situations we face. Especially the unknown and difficult to explain events.
My focus here is on how we have tried to understand each other. What will happen of me? Where am I headed in life? Who am I best suited to work with or marry? What career am I best suited for? Will I get on with everyone in the team. These and many other questions have been posed, and needing to be answered.
So over thousands of years we've come up with very creative answers by gazing into crystal balls, the reading of tea leaves, tarot cards, faces, palms, astrological signs and goodness knows what else. All in an attempt to try and answer those questions about who am I and how do I fit in with others.
In Modern Times
Well, with science and skepticism, and the modern day, 21st century world, we have moved on (some of us have). And we like to debunk these old methods of reading people and whether they are the perfect match or not. Right?
Wrong!
Instead, we have confidently replaced them with covert models. Psychological models that are supported by research and data and renamed them psychometric testing or analysis rather than tarot card reading!!!
We get a respected field like Psychology or Neuro Science (preferably people with a Ph.d, although in Myers Briggs case a Mother and Daughter will do) to condone the use of the "proven tool". To evaluate (guess!) one another and make determinants about how this person or that person will perform in the workplace. Sounds so very feasible and with so many doing it, it must be right. Right?
Wrong, Again!
If there has ever been an outstanding pseudo-science it would have to be the attempt to predict human behaviour, character, talent, attributes and the like, byway of an elaborate list of questions and answers. Presented in some well designed software package, which you purchase for thousands, in the hope your recruitment program will pick (like a rabbit out of a hat) the right person for the position you've advertised.
Human Resource departments, Recruitment Agencies, Counsellors, School Teachers (learning styles) the Police Recruiter and the Psychologist must be right. Right?
Wrong, Three Times! (3 strikes you're out)
When will we understand that a battery of questions, supported by a population cross-section analysis, does not qualify any "tool" to define whether a person is or is not capable. We have accepted without question that Myers Briggs, DISC, Personality Plus, Tetra Map, Meta-Programs, Psycho-geometrics, Psychometric Analysis and every other personality typing tool is useful for determining human character. (makes me wanna puke! If your tool isn't listed here, doesn't mean your not included - cause you are!).
As a sideline, I'm also targeting those Leadership typing inventories that are being used by Training Companies and HR Departments! Apparently to know your strengths and weaknesses in the hope that you'll develop into a great or more improved leader. What did they do a few hundred years ago to select a great leader? I wonder...?
Personality typing is at best as useful as reading today's horoscope in your local paper! Many are making large financial gains in promoting these typing tools just as the fortune tellers of long ago did, and still do today.
Great arguments support each typing inventory from people with lots of letters after their names gained from prestigious Universities. Quite impressive! And very credible (for some).
We spend billions of dollars on forecasting the weather. We have weather satellites monitoring it's every move. Meteorologists world wide extrapolating every possibility from the data collected, and still they can't predict the weather accurately!!!
Personality typing is less a science than meteorology and far more inaccurate as well.
You can no more depend on personality typing to predict "team-fit" in a recruitment process than you can in reading palms or throwing a dice. I love the story of an HR Manager, short listing CV's for a Managers position by throwing a dice and deciding that way, which applicants will progress to the next stage. Because he only wanted those to he employed who have "luck" on their side!
Put In Context
Personality typing is in my opinion modern day fortune telling. Use it with caution or for a laugh! Use it as an indication how some one MAY respond in a given context. Use it as 1 spoke in a multi spoked wheel of recruitment - never as a determinant of whether a person gets the position or not.Get very good at knowing who you are searching for if your recruiting for a specific position and refuse to evaluate "team-fit" by using a personality typing tool. If you know from experience who you are wanting to recruit you wont have a need for a "best-guess" tool like psychometric analysis.
I haven't got enough space to fully explain the in's and out's of the point I'm wanting to make here. If I have gotten you to think more about getting to know people and putting less trust in your typing tool, then I have achieved what I wanted to in this blog.
I'll write more on this topic in later articles and because I love a good BBQ - I've got more sacred cows to burn in the near future!!!
A Word of Warning for Coaches:
Sadly, the overplaying of typing evaluations is seeping into Corporate Coaching.
Beware!
Get to know your client. Treat them as the unique human being they are. Allow your client to be who they are and not some pathetic profile you've bought into. Coach them to their needs and not to a predetermined evaluation.
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