Six videos that help illustrate MBTI type
Betsy Kendall - COO and head of Professional Services at OPP
Training aids that are memorable and that bring clarity to descriptions of MBTI® type are like gold dust. One of the commonest questions I come across in the various MBTI-related Linked In groups, including OPP’s own OPP Qualified Practitioners, is the plea for good exercises to help illustrate the MBTI preferences and dichotomies.
There are many resources available, and in recent posts on Personality Matters we have talked about posters, Pinterest resources and innovations such as Typies that can bring feedback and L&D sessions to life. But one area that seems relatively underdeveloped is the bite-sized type video.
With this in mind, OPP has begun searching for entertaining and insightful clips that practitioners would find useful in group sessions. To kick things off, we have put together a set of YouTube and Linked In video clips that illustrate the four MBTI dichotomies, plus one each for Extraversion and Introversion.
Introversion and Extraversion
- Susan Cain’s video illustrates the differences – literally
Sensing and iNtuition
- Bert and Ernie get into a circular argument
Thinking and Feeling
- "It’s not about the nail": this one certainly hits the nail on the head!
Judging and Perceiving
- He starts early, she has a last-minute rush – no mistaking the message in this one!
Introversion
- "15 things introverts want you to know"
Extraversion
- Clip from the movie Night Shift. Spot the extravert!
Clips such as these as these could form part of the MBTI training session, or could be referenced as optional extras – homework of the most gentle kind! If you know of any other good examples, please let us know.
Video clips can also be used to bring to life more general points about the nature of type. For instance, the well known Monkey Business Illusion makes the point that we think we see the world as it really is, but actually we are missing a whole lot, especially when our attention is elsewhere.
A link can be made to the need to use both preferences within a dichotomy in order to see and understand the world clearly, eg both Sensing and iNtuition. Sensing-iNtuition and the Monkey Business Illusion are actually very different concepts, so don’t be tempted to take the analogy too far!
Short clips are easy to integrate into sessions; but practitioners sometimes go for full length movies too. One of the members of our OPP Qualified Professionals group on Linked In uses the Robin Williams movie Dead Poets Society as a case study and type identification exercise – the various characters displaying clear MBTI preferences – and delegates watch it as part of the training.
I hope to return to this theme in a future blog post, once we’ve compiled a good selection of clips.