Type Turns a Corner
By: John Dunn
June, 2003
Sometimes things come our way that surprise and delight us, in addition to offering us a way of doing something we love, but in an entirely different way. That’s what happened to me in late June.
As a person who has actively lived with Type for more than 20 years, and has been qualified in the MBTI® instrument for more than ten years, I was interested in, but somewhat sceptical of, Personality Dimensions® (PD) when I was given the opportunity to take the qualifying course. My expectation was probably not too far off: “this will probably be a ‘light’ instrument that I can tap into from time to time; looks good on the resume.”
It didn’t take very long for Lynda McKim (the Master Trainer who conducted the program) to set that notion aside. In reality, the instrument itself quickly dragged me onside, as I began to see and experience (within the group) the accuracy of it. More than that, I began to understand some things about myself that had previously eluded me. Mostly, though, it was seeing my fellow students validating their preferences and in doing so validating the instrument. It also happened to the rest of us, who like me, were experienced type practitioners. We discovered that PD offers a way to reach a whole new audience that was previously difficult to reach or unavailable. It offers ready accessibility to personal preferences that the complexity of Myers Briggs instrument doesn’t always address. This is not to say that type is at all superceded, not at all. No one instrument, including the MBTI® model, or for that matter PD, can meet all needs and situations. But PD offers a fully valid instrument to reach people in particular circumstances.
Our qualifying group discussed applications of interest to us. As an introduction to personal preferences, PD enables access to markets where the time available is limited. Now a clear understanding and appreciation of personality preference is available in well under the 6+ hours that most of us struggle with. A thorough introduction to PD can be done in about 3.5 hours. Additional time for “Applications” sessions, in areas such as communications, life values, relationships and work situations, can be conducted within the same time-frames. So the instrument is flexible and applicable in a wide range of sessions. An example of the difference with MBTI® instrument is that coaching or counselling is probably more appropriate with that instrument. Of course, over the next few years, who knows who will figure out how the use of PD can be legitimately expanded.
With the advent of Personality Dimensions®, we are now able to access the critical, combined elements of type and temperament in a concise time frame. In addition, it resonates with True Colors® but provides an underlying sound statistical and validity base; actually the ‘validity’ will become deeper as the instrument is used and the data base grows. Personality Dimensions® offers us an opportunity to reach a broader audience within shorter time-frames with a fully researched and statistically valid instrument. It also offers user-friendly presentation formats that meet the ‘detail’ that type practitioners typically value.
The national research and further documentation that Career/LifeSkills Resources (CLS) has launched, promises to provide us with a full range of longitudinal studies, a growing reliability of application history, and new professionally developed and documented insights into the value, use and reliability of the instrument.
CLS should be commended and supported by all of us who are committed to reaching out to people who seek self-discovery of their preferences and those of others. They have committed significant financial and human resources to developing PD and to funding ongoing research into varying aspects of the instrument. Their innovative and ground-breaking move to develop and bring this instrument to market now provides Canadian practitioners with a leading-edge instrument. It also offers us an opportunity to participate in the on-going development and introduction of the instrument across the country, and beyond. Moreover, it is ‘made in Canada,’ by Canadians.
I’m really looking forward to rejuvenating my outreach to those who are trying to make sense of why they prefer some things and people and not others. PD will be my preferred introductory instrument. I wonder if CLS is working on an instrument called ‘marketing for dummies’?
