“I started this blog to give voice to what is in my head and share important issues in the fields of personality type, organizational change, coaching, and development.” – Linda Berens
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Cognitive Style, Respect, and Forgiveness
I recently conducted a workshop with a type knowledgeable group and they explored their Cognitive Styles related to a burning issue inside their organization. The insights that emerged were amazing and they were able to apply them immediately. What I noticed was that by looking at their Shadow Cognitive Styles, they were able to realize how they had discounted input from other styles and were extremely irritated by interactions with people who were habitually engaging in those styles. And this led them to disrespect the person even though they had tried not to. This new lens on type provided a... -
The Fine Art of Clarifying Type
We used to offer an advanced workshop, called The Fine Art of Clarifying Type, with the tagline of Get the F.A.C.T.s. I’m seeing the need for this now more than ever so I thought I’d post some thoughts on a place to start. Frequently people don’t agree with their instrument results or can’t seem to settle on patterns and preferred dynamics in a self-discovery process; they just can’t find a fit. Sadly, they sometimes just accept the instrument results as accurate or they reject the utility of using typology models. I’ve heard people ask what it means if their results... -
Agenda’s for Change
This is an update on a blog I wrote in 2009. I’ve been puzzling over what the Interaction Styles model would predict about change. Then it hit me…the movement tendency that is favored by each Interaction Style would give us some insight. In the past, I have talked about how if you push a change too fast and too hard, you will get resistance that may result in only a temporary change. My consulting bias is always to work with the system to move it to where it wants/needs to go. Now, I’m wondering if this is universal wisdom or... -
Directing—Informing, a Powerful Polarity
Last night I had a dream in which I was trying to get the attention of a large group of people I was supposed to be training. Finally I was so frustrated I yelled, “What I’m going to tell you, will change your life forever!” (or something like that). They all quieted down and I proceeded to tell them about the impact that recognizing their unconscious preferences for either Directing or Informing communications could have. Directing communications are aimed at getting something done in a timely way. The consciousness behind Directing is one of either wanting to achieve a result... -
Task vs People
Recently in a LinkedIn group discussion someone asked for an instrument that would identify whether leaders had a task focus or a people focus. Quite an interesting discussion took place and I was moved to post my view. Here is a blog version of what I posted. It seems that what is being sought when asking for an instrument is a way to identify natural tendencies that are often unconscious so that they can come into awareness and therefore be under conscious control. Instruments to do this are often subject to the same unconsciousness that exists in the first place...
