Synergy beyond the four letters

By Eliska S. Padilla

March 16, 2021

You’ve taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment and know your four letters. Now what? So many people are amazed at how accurately the report pegs their personality. Still others are off-put by the theory, feeling somewhat pigeon-holed and invaded. After the excitement of “knowing” wears off, too often people forget that ah-ha moment and the insights that can be gained from MBTI are lost. But a simple refresher can bring back the value you first experienced.

There’s considerable value to understanding your type dynamics in combination with those in your work team.

Synergy

This movie clip from In Good Company, explains the word Synergy in a team pep talk well. The word has been overused, but it is the best word to explain the true dynamic value of MBTI in teams. Using your strengths together, you can be more efficient communicators, problem-solvers, and persuaders, and more effective in change management.

Communication

Want to improve communication? Use your Type differences to create synergy together. Persons who prefer Extraversion direct their energy and receive energy from the outside world and tend to prefer to communicate verbally. To improve their communication, they should partner with Introverted people. Why? Because, persons with Introversion give and receive their energy in their own inner world of reflection and ideas. Introverted people often communicate really well in writing. So, the Extraverted leaders could take their ideas to an Introverted leader to seek help in writing proposals, emails, agendas and meeting planning. Extraverts tend to want to prepare a proposal and go over it, live and in person in a meeting. But an Introverted partner will tell you they prefer to be sent the proposal in advance so they have the time to review it and come to a meeting prepared with their best thinking.

Likewise, Introverts prefer agendas, while Extraverts may not. They’re also very good at written presentations and proposals and may want the assistance of an Extravert in oral communication. Together, the two can be stronger than either one of them alone. And that. Well, that’s synergy.

But that’s not all.

Problem Solving

We’ve all been there. Remember the time when you were looking at a puzzle and just couldn’t find that one piece that would connect a major part to another? Then, it happened. That person walked up. Seemingly took one look at your puzzle. Picked up the wayward piece, and Eureka! Problem was solved. This is the type of synergy that comes from those with the Sensing preference partner with those with the Intuition preference. Sensors and Intuitives take in different types of information when considering possibilities and importance. The Intuitives can see the interrelations, the possibilities, the bigger picture. Where the people who prefer Sensing focus on the facts, the current situation, the here and now.

So, when you are problem-solving, partner with someone of your opposite type in the Sensing and Intuition dichotomy. If you are a rationalist or idealist Intuitive, find someone who is a guardian or artisan with the Sensing preference, and ask them questions like:

How did we get into this situation?
What are the verifiable facts?
What exactly is the situation now?
What has been done and by whom?
What already exists and works?

Turn it around. If you are a person who takes in information that is real and tangible (a Sensor) and by focusing mainly on what they can take in with their five senses, then you should partner with those who take in information by seeing the big picture and focusing mainly on patterns and interrelationships (an Intuitive). Synergy then, in problem solving for the Sensing person, is to ask questions of the Intuitive person, such as:

What interpretations can be made from the facts?
What insights and hunches come to mind about this situation?
What would the possibilities be if there were no restrictions?
What other directions/fields can be explored?
What is the problem comparable to?

Persuasion/Leadership

You don’t have to be in sales to persuade people to do or support a thing. A major part of leadership is persuading people to support a new policy, a new method, or to rally behind team goals. As a leader, you’ll improve your success in persuading others to follow you if you synergize with someone opposite of you in the Thinking and Feeling dichotomy.

People who prefer Thinking base their decisions and conclusions on logic, with accuracy and objective truth with primary goals. They will naturally make convincing arguments better in their own mode of decision making. But partnering with someone who typically bases their decisions and conclusions on personal and social values, with understanding and harmony the primary goals (Feeling Type) will reach more people in their preferred decision making language.

Those who naturally make decisions from the Thinking function are analyzing, debating, creating or applying a logical model, and questioning assumptions. They are asking things like:

What is my logical analysis?
What are my pros and cons?
What reasons support my opinions?
How can I take an objective approach?
What is most rational?
What is the bottom line?

Those who are making decisions from the Feeling function involve all parties, consider effects on others, and seek to keep harmony. They are commonly asking questions like:

What is my personal appraisal?
What are the emotional impacts?
What values support my opinions?
How can I take a meaningful approach?
What is most inclusive?
What is best for people?

Partnering with your opposite type for the Thinking and Feeling function, then, provides balance to the decision making process, ensuring that logic, people and values are considered.

Change Management

70% of the population in the US today is of the Judging persuasion, meaning they typically approach the world with decisiveness and tend to like planning and closure. While 30% of the world prefer approaching the world with flexibility and tend to like spontaneity and openness. So, if you are of the majority party (the Judging leaders), synergy can be achieved by partnering and valuing the opposing approach with the Perceivers.

Judgers can do well if they momentarily suspend a conclusion in order to engage Perceivers and listen to them and their requests for more information. By suspending their conclusion in order to listen and request for more information, and obtaining input from perceivers, a Judger might come to a different, even more accurate conclusion due to the presence of new information they might not have otherwise considered.

Likewise, Perceivers, who are prone to be flexible and open to changes, need to learn from a Judger when to call the matter closed. Realizing that getting off go with a decision, is often better than no decision at all.

So as you see, knowing thyself, is merely the tip of the iceberg with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The real power comes in knowing how to work with others, and in creating synergy by partnering with others’ strengths to more successfully communicate, problem solve, persuade, and manage change.