Brilliant article by Dennis Millard from HumanRysk – first published on his blog HERE
Honey they get me! They get me at work!
Wouldn’t it be great if our employees all felt they were understood in our business? I often hear business managers/owners saying how frustrated they are to have their staff not following procedures, making mistakes, being injured or their plans not going to plan.
If you don’t know your own or your teams “individual code” (Their “Y”) it makes it near impossible to get to where you want to go smoothly. The old Peter Drucker statement “Culture eats Strategies for Breakfast”, hits home about the reality of our business culture’s impact on the direction of where our business is going. We all see, hear and interpret the world differently, so why is that? We are hard wired at birth with a personality, which is then influenced a lot by our social arrangements that affect what we believe and how we go about our business such as: family beliefs, school, sports, religion, money and many more.
When we look at the four key temperaments of personality it gives us an indication on how really different we are. So let’s look at four samples and then imagine how they may affect the workplace.
The Four Temperaments:
Guardian: They are certain and organised, tend to love schedules. They seek security and belonging, they are concerned with responsibility and duty. They excel at organizing, facilitating, checklists and supporting.
Rational: They are abstract and objective. They tend to seek mastery and self-control, they are concerned with their own knowledge and competence. They excel in any kind of logical investigation such as engineering, conceptualizing, theorizing, and coordinating they are great strategists.
Idealist: They are abstract and compassionate. They seek meaning and significance, they are concerned with personal growth and finding their own unique identity. They excel at clarifying, individualizing, unifying, and inspiring.
Artisan: They are concrete and adaptable. They tend to seek stimulation and craftsmanship; they are concerned with making an impact. They excel at troubleshooting, responsiveness, and the creative handling of tools, instruments, and equipment.
The above four are just samples to what types of people we may have in our business and how they see and value the world.
There are 16 different types of “Y’s” to understand. Carl Jung’s model includes 4 ways to collect data (Perception) and 4 ways to organise information and make decisions (Judgment). We all have the ability to collect data in all 4 ways, but we only have preference to use one of these functions.
An example is catching a cricket ball.
• Extraverted Sensing (Se): How and where to catch a ball.
• Introverted Sensing (Si): Know where to run from past experience.
• Extraverted Intuition (Ne): Estimate where the ball could end up.
• Introverted Intuition (Ni): Picture the ball from several ways and estimate where you could catch it.
If we don’t all process how to catch a ball the same way, then how do groups of employees make sense of risks and company procedures? We need to understand how to have the right discussions and “listen” carefully to one another and be mindful of our team’s collective views.
Dennis Millard
Latest posts by Dennis Millard (see all)
- Safety Journal–Leading in Safety - June 27, 2023
- Are You Risk Intelligent? - November 1, 2016
- Honey they get me! They get me at work! - June 19, 2016
- Lost money in safety? - April 12, 2016
- Free Safety and Risk Lunch n Learn - March 12, 2016
Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below