(no subject)

[arontius]

.....If the Shipyard were a living person, I'd have to send it to see a doctor as I firmly believe it is bipolar. :-) Most of the time we lectured on cost and schedule. I spend a good third of the week it seems building and maintaining metrics and charts and graphs, explaining exactly how much we've spent and where exactly we are on our schedule. The Shipyard is very 'Business Model' driven these days. Seeing how much budgets struggle each year I can understand this approach.

.....However, it is amazing how often the Shipyard clubs you with some 'touchy-feely' philosophical program. Last year it was 'mentoring'. Earlier this year it was coaching. Today though, I went to a new two hour seminar entitled 'Strengths Finder 2.0'. This consists of a (200) question survey that is take and then scored. It reads a lot like a Briggs - Myers survey.

.....The Briggs - Myers is always an interesting survey. I usually take it once a year to see if things drifted a bit. I took it again about six months ago and came up with the same thing I always seem to get, INFJ. I really would have thought all face time I get these days in meetings and discussions with management that it would have changed a little. Nope.

.....The Strengths Finder questions were pretty much in line with Briggs - Myers, but seemed to be geared more towards an office environment. After about a hundred questions though you pretty much quit trying to 'figure it out' and just want the questions to end sometime soon.

.....Here are the results. My 'Top 5 Strengths' as defined by the Program, ranked from first to fifth:

"Input - People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.

Connectedness - People who are especially talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.

Intellection - People who are especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

Context - People who are especially talented in the Context theme enjoy thinking about the past. They understand the present by researching its history.

Developer - People who are especially talented in the Developer theme recognize and cultivate the potential in others. They spot the signs of each small improvement and derive satisfaction from these improvements."

.....Philosophically this is all well and good, even though it is all 'touchy-feely'. I was a little unwilling to buy into it at first. But as I read into each attribute I was finally able to see it in my own personality. The hard part is to use it to my advantage when dealing with those around me at work.

.....Which has its own issues. I was amazed that my top five attributes are almost the polar opposite of most senior management in the Operations Department. :-) THAT, I can believe. :-)

.....The descriptions for each attribute are pretty good, as are the ideas on how to interact with other personality types in the office.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Comments

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

"Most of the time we lectured on cost and schedule. I spend a good third of the week it seems building and maintaining metrics and charts and graphs, explaining exactly how much we've spent and where exactly we are on our schedule."

One of the things I've always loved about the government - how much time and money you spend proving you're spending your time and money wisely.

[monkeyjunk.livejournal.com]

"Intellection"....Is that a word???
I always find those tests to be interesting...I score INFP. On the MB.

[pernell-camber.livejournal.com]

I went to a Guiding Coalition meeting yesterday for the "Future Workforce" group. They are going to tap in to the StrengthsFinder database and email invitations to all the people who had Future as one of their top five strengths. It might be a little big brotherish, but I think it's a pretty cool use of StrengthsFinder, especially since everyone is welcome to join the group no matter what their top five strengths are.

My strengths are Learner, Input, Analytical, Achiever and Intellection. Our strengths are similar but I don't like SCA court, ceremonies, mythos, magical realism or Lord of the Rings or poetry. Do the slight differences in strengths explain that? I can really see your Developer skills in your desire to develop all members of the barony, while I just want to encourage the people who will come play A&S with me.