Planning a Team Building activity? Read this before you begin.
In the journey towards team building excellence it is important to recognise the impact that human personality and psychology have on team health and group trust.
Lifelong influences of one’s heredity, coupled with the shaping of one’s attitude by the environment can cause people to build walls around themselves. These walls are sometimes so hardened that even the most well thought out team building activity is not able to shake and brake through.
What you then have is a tricky situation where unpleasant behaviours manifest, but the real reason is not understood by people around. This situation not only undermines team building efforts, it polarizes the group further.
The science of sensitization
Sensitization of participants to their own colleagues will justify the personal effort required to accept each other for what they are and what they bring to the table. This will also give the power and put the onus of developing esprit de corps required for high functioning teams, into the hands of the team members themselves and not just on the team lead.
Personality profiling through psychometrics is an easy, fun and effective way to sensitize a team. The benefits of this exercise far outweigh the minimal effort required to administer it. By taking simple assessments, participants are involved in a scientific exploration of each other’s innate choice of expression, emotions and mindsets.
When these traits show themselves as reactions, responses, and other behaviours during a team building activity, individuals begin to realise the kind of specific personal effort required to build bridges that last.
One could go so far as to credit this approach with making psychologists and personal coaches out of every team member. Talk about distribution of power!
OMi’s battery of psychometric assessments and certification
A battery of psychometric assessments has the scope to enrich any team building exercise. It is a proven weapon in the hands of facilitators who want to bring in the dimension of true people understanding, in a relaxed, fun environment.
The Battery consists of the following 5 insightful assessments
FITS – Based on the ‘psychological types’ of CARL JUNG, captures the emotional tendencies, temperament and attitudes towards the world, brought on by heredity.
4Cs – Built on the work of Dr William Marston, looks at the motives behind the behaviours of people. Every behaviour is a rational response to a situation, designed to lessen the strain of the moment. The secret to understanding people lies in identifying the stressor.
PPC20 – People Performance Competency test: Develop to measure the state of development of 20 crucial leadership competency. This assessment is a powerful tool when combined with the FITS or 4Cs, and used for competency mapping, succession planning, recruitment and career planning.
CPA – Communication Pattern Analysis: This powerhouse of an assessment draws from the works of Dr Eric Berne and Douglas Mc Gregor. It captures the communication styles and habits of the participant in different situations.
BPA – Behavioural Pattern Analysis: Based on the work of BF Skinner, this assessments reflects the behavioural tendencies of an individual on 4 parameters, off work and at work. CPA and BPA assessments are often used together to diagnose communcation challenges and chart the way forward, in teams and families.
How does one bring a psychometric approach to team building?
A team building facilitator, should be able to administer and interpret psychometric assessments accurately and independently, adding a formidable arm to your capabilities.
You can choose from a wide range of assessments that you can apply, to capture crucial information on behavioural patterns, communication styles and habits, leadership competency mapping as well as personality profiling.
The real impact, however, comes from being able to interpret the results of the tests to align with the need of the client. This takes skill and practice but can be learnt quickly with the proper guidance.
Learn how you can use OMi’s battery of assessments to your advantage. Get in touch with us.
