Special Topics
Type and Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning is a key business activity for many organizations, and yet, many of these plans remain on the shelf while day-to-day demands take over. In our experience, effective strategic plans balance both future-focused visioning and concrete implementation planning; consider both outcomes and the people that produce them; and plot a clear course forward while also allowing flexibility to shift paths along the way. Given these dynamics, psychological type is a great tool for supporting a strategic planning effort.
To learn more about the connections between Strategic Planning and Type, access the following materials from the August 2009 APTi conference session Type and Strategic Planning, led by Jennifer Tucker and Hile Rutledge: (Workshop Slides) (Workshop Handouts) (Session Exercise Output) Feel free to contact Jennifer Tucker at jtucker@typetalk.com for more information, or to discuss how these ideas could be applied in your organization.
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Experiential Learning: A Ropes Exercise
In this eight-minute audio recording, Hile Rutledge describes a Ropes exercise we often use with consulting clients. The audio clip includes a description of the exercise, and tips for effectively debriefing it with a group. Press play (triangle symbol) on the graphic below, or right click on this link to save the mp3 file to your computer: Audio File: Ropes Exercise (large file: 1.4 MB). This interview was originally recorded by the team at Leadership Connection for Childcare Professionals.
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New Tools and Approaches
PMAI. Here, we provide data from a group being introduced to the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator™ (PMAI™). In the exercise, each of the 12 archetypes highlighted by the PMAI had a work station, and each workshop participant was asked to go to the 3 or 4 archetypes to which they most connected and answer the following: "When I am being guided by this archetype: What does it feel like? What motivates me when I am there? What does it look and sound like?" Link to Recent Class Output.
KGI. The Klein Group Instrument (KGI) was created to assist people in acquiring skills to become more effective leaders as well as group participants. A powerful self-report instrument, it assesses people’s preferred ways of functioning in four domains: group leadership, negotiation, task focus, and interpersonal focus. A group of consultants and trainers studying to use the KGI took six of the nine KGI subscales and derived a number of potential leadership and team actions that could be taken to elicit better group functioning: Link to Recent Class Output.
Special Focus on the Leadership Spectrum Profile (LSP)
Link to Leadership Spectrum Profile (LSP) Slide and Audio Presentation - The LSP is an award-winning instrument designed to assess a leader’s priorities along an organization or project life cycle. The LSP outlines a results-driven framework that reflects the different demands that teams and leaders face when implementing any initiative.
In this 10-minute presentation, Dr. Mary Lippitt (Founder of Enterprise Management Limited and author of the LSP), and Jennifer Tucker (OKA Consulting Director) talk about the structure and benefits of this unique tool. To hear audio, make sure your speakers are on, and your volume is set appropriately.
Interesting in bringing the LSP to your organization? Link to Workshop Fact Sheet and then give us a call!
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Type and Project Management
The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is a hot credential for managers today. Training in formal project management principles is one thing; applying those principles is another. Here are some tools to help:
Putting Type on the Critical Path. Scroll down to the end of this July 2008 newsletter to read Jennifer Tucker's essay about how type professionals can have the greatest impact in using the MBTI assessment with project managers and their teams.
Introduction to Type and Project Management: Booklet. Inspired by ten years of applying psychological type and the MBTI with project teams, this booklet was written by OKA's Consulting Director to connect the benefits of psychological type to the needs of project managers. It contains practical guidance for recognizing how the eight preferences both help and hurt project efforts, and advice for getting and keeping projects on course using type insights.
Type and Project Management Slides. Want a sneak peek at the ideas in Introduction to Type and Project Management above? Download these slides for an introduction to key connection points between type and project management, as well as some exercises you can do with your own groups. This presentation was used to support Jenny's September 2008 talk for the APTi e-Chapter.
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OKA Articles for Download and Distribution
The Human Dynamics of IT Teams (PDF) - This article in DoD's CrossTalk Magazine was part of a five-year research project that OKA completed under subcontract to a large defense university. It describes the personality and team dynamics in Information Technology (IT) teams, using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) Assessment, FIRO-B, Work Environment Scales (WES), and an OKA Team Observation Instrument.
Transforming Cultures: A New Approach to Assessing and Improving Technical Programs (PDF) - This article in DoD's CrossTalk Magazine introduces OKA's Cable Model as a unique methodology for assessing program dynamics, and for formulating action plans for targeted change.
Organization Development and Project Management (PDF) -Written by Jennifer Tucker for the 2006 OD Network Conference, this article reviews critical real life challenges facing today's project managers, and approaches that organization development professionals can take to help project managers and teams increase their effectiveness.
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