I've been using the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator (MBTI) personality test (actually the 16 Personalities variation) for years in the classroom. The format is simple - you answer a bunch of questions, and the test assigns you to one of sixteen different personality "types." This is one of the tools I will use to help construct our Tribe, which is one of two major components of this project.
Now, before I go further, it's important to note personality testing itself is problematic and the MBPI is one of the worst. The gist of the problem? Since the tests are self-report, they reflect how you see yourself, not necessarily how the rest of the world objectively sees you. There are other problems with any personality test, but this one's a biggies. For the purposes of this project, though, the flaws of the test are okay.
According to my hypothesis about Tribes, the more ideological diversity a Tribe possesses, the more effectively that Tribe will be able to navigate the world. Why? Because the diversity gives the Tribe a large repository of different opinions, perspectives, skills, knowledge, and wisdom. The various members of the Tribe can contribute their perspective. Using the right decision-making framework (we're starting to implement the Holistic Management decision-making framework in our Tribe... only we're applying it to our circumstances instead of reversing grasslands desertification), all of our major decisions are, by definition, collaborative.
The general idea is to get as ideologically-diverse of a Tribe as we can, which means we need a convenient method to roughly assess people's world views. If you read through the personality types on the 16 personalities site, you'll see they represent a really wide range of people who typically play fairly specific roles within society. Or on a smaller scale, within a Tribe. Leaders, planners, logistical managers, nurturers, artists, rule-enforcers, mediators... and so on. Every important role is represented within these 16 personality types.
As we're assessing WHO will be part of our Tribe (using the questions from this post), we'll also be assessing WHERE each Tribe Member fits in WHAT role. How can they best serve the Tribe in a way that utilizes their strengths? This is where the self-report aspect of the MBPI comes in handy. Because people are answering the questions from their own perspective, they're sort of projecting their desires through the test. The personality type they receive is the personality type they WANT to be, which means they're likely highly intrinsically motivated to fill that role.
One of the criteria we look for in that blog post I linked to in the last paragraph is "Are they hungry?" As a general rule, we're all hungry for something. This is a rule I learned in my twenty years as a public high school teacher - even the laziest, unmotivated, unfocused kid will play the latest Call of Duty game for 37 hours straight. We all have a carrot that is our desired role within a group, and the MBPI is a great tool to reveal that carrot.
In the early stages of the development of the Tribe, we'll use the 16 Personalities tool to help figure out what roles Members should fulfill. At some point, we'll actively start searching for the personality types that aren't well-represented throughout the Tribe. Ideally, we'd have about three or four of each of the sixteen types, but for an optimally-functioning Tribe, we'd likely need at least one of each type. This will give us the raw diversity we need to make the Holistic Decision-Making framework an even more useful tool. The formula:
Diverse people + Holistic Management Methodology = Excellent Creative Problem-Solving.
I've sort of used this kind of idea before in the classroom, but it was quite informal. But damn, was it ever effective. It should be even more effective in the Tribe environment.
~Jason
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Interested in this project? Join our Facebook planning and idea group that discusses these ideas in detail!
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