How psychometrics can help resolve team conflict
A few years ago I worked with a client who managed a team of highly experienced, skilled and professional individuals. They needed to work together to deliver against some challenging targets. But they didn’t seem to be able to gel as a team. There was conflict, low morale and poor performance.
This is the story of how psychometrics helped to build better team relationships and improve performance.
A little context
The team was made up of a mix of people with many years’ service and those who had been recruited within the previous six months or so. There was poor integration between the old-timers and the newbies.
There were conflicts too. One person I spoke to – Julie – had a particular issue with one of the original team members who seemed determined to shoot her down in flames every time she came up with a new idea. He (Mike) would constantly knock her back, saying “it won’t work, we don’t do it like that.” She felt this was a personal attack on her. But similar issues were happening across the team.
Using psychometrics to reveal personality types
Determined to get to the bottom of the problem, the manager arranged for the whole team to complete the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality questionnaire. This is a psychometric tool that helps you to understand how you take in information and how you interact with the world.
For example, two people see an advert promoting a holiday in the Alps. Person A thinks, “that looks lovely, it looks like somewhere I know, it reminds me of a holiday I had.” They’re the type of person who sees the big picture and connects what’s in front of them with their own memories. Person B thinks, “whereabouts is it exactly? Is it near a ski-lift, what about other amenities? When’s the offer valid for, am I free?” They’re the sort of person who responds to information in a more specific, tangible way. These are just two of the personality types that the MBTI identifies.
We discovered that the team was a mix of different types of people. Julie, for instance, was more like Person A (intuitive and big picture) while her nemesis Mike was more like Person B (interested in detail such as facts and figures). Which explained why they were having such a battle to understand each other.
Tackling the problem
Each member of the team identified and agreed specific tasks to help them adapt their personal style to cater for the other people in the team. Julie’s task was to put any ideas in an email to Mike before discussing them with him so he had a chance to digest the detail. Mike then had to hold back any objections until Julie had finished talking about her idea so that she felt able to express it fully. Then Julie would invite Mike to voice any concerns he had so they could discuss them together.
All of which changed their relationship quite significantly. Having recognised that they were opposites, they became more accepting of their differences and adapted the way they communicated accordingly.
Across the team communication, integration and performance improved.
Using psychometrics to reveal individual strengths
A few months later two new team members were recruited. This was the trigger for a repeat of the exercise, but this time using Strengthscope. This is a questionnaire that helps you identify what motives you at work, what you’re interested in and engaged by. This in turn is a pretty reliable indication of what you’re good at.
One of Julie’s strengths, we discovered, was relationship building while detail orientation was not a key strength. This meant that while she was perfectly capable of completing a task like organising events, as she enjoyed getting to know people better, she found the task of project planning sapped all her energy. On the other hand, Mike who had strengths of detail orientation and efficiency, got a real kick out of project management. He was particularly good at planning Christmas parties (sorry, too soon?!) – the date, the menu, the people, the venue.
Utilising people better
The Strengthscope questionnaire showed that individual strengths were not being utilised effectively within the team. For example, Mike’s role did not include project management. But the questionnaire showed it would be a missed opportunity not to involve him in something he enjoyed and was more likely to excel at.
The group started to consider how they could make better use of people, how they could work more effectively as a team. Tasks were assigned according to people’s strengths and team members started to work in pairs where their strengths complemented each other.
As a result they became a very high-performing team, winning awards and exceeding targets.
Knowledge is power
A team that doesn’t work well together can feel like an intractable and complex problem.
But psychometrics and profiling tools can help you to get a better understanding what makes your team members tick. And by doing so you can help them to work more collaboratively, communicate better and play to their strengths.
What do you think? Have you used psychometric tools to address team performance issues? Are there issues you’d like to address? Let me know how you get on.