Type and Collaboration Tools

This post was originally submitted and shared for the MBTI Users Conference 2015 in San Francisco, supplementing my keynote presentation.

A question that often comes up in a Splitting Activity for Extraverts and Introverts is whether collaboration tools make it easier for those who prefer Introversion to interact at work. Same-preference groups get together at the flipchart and there’s a sense of ease, comfort, and connectedness. The question from the Extraverts to the Introverts might sound like this, “Do collaboration tools make it easier for you to contribute because you don’t have to talk?” Surprising or not, the immediate response from the Introverts is a resounding, “No.”

Collaboration through digital tools can occur very much like a “thinking out loud” conversation. The experience for a collaborator can be a rapid-paced, interruption-driven flow of partially formed thoughts and ideas.

At The Walt Disney Company, our technology teams use a variety of collaboration tools to facilitate teamwork for operations, development, and innovation. Teams are dispersed across geographies, time zones, skills, and abilities. We work cross-functionally and cross-organizationally in a matrixed environment with a variety of stakeholders. Some of the tools we use include Yammer, Slack, Lync, BlueJeans, Basecamp, Campfire, Rally, Jira, Confluence, Box, and other content and workflow management tools developed in-house.

Interaction through digital collaboration tools can be effective or ineffective across preferences in the same ways that in-person interactions can be, and recommendations for improving collaboration apply to the virtual interactions in similar ways.

Extraversion or Introversion: People who prefer Extraversion use collaboration tools to discover and process their thoughts and ideas. Their contributions tend to be fast and frequent, and their work progresses best when others contribute quickly. People who prefer Introversion develop their thoughts internally and post to a collaboration tool when their ideas are fully formed. They often choose not to pay attention to updates because it interrupts their thoughts. They report that collaboration tools are helpful when they can see a complete view of a discussion, but not when they have to scroll back through several entries. More often than not, Introverts have tools set to “ignore.”

Extraverts value all types of interaction, including banter and small talk, which often shows up in collaboration tools.

Recommendation: Designate a facilitator to periodically summarize contributions and to seek input from, or review by, individuals who haven’t yet contributed.

Sensing or intuition: People who prefer Sensing like facts and details; they value accuracy and precision. They proceed methodically, using a concrete, sequential approach. People who prefer Intuition are comfortable with broad statements about trends, clues, patterns, or seemingly unrelated data. For example, using a collaboration tool for troubleshooting when a system is down, Intuitive individuals might enter:

“Tried a few servers, response time seemed normal.”

“Checking for firewall changes….this sounds like an incident from a couple weeks ago.”

“Flushed DNS cache, checking Load Balancer configuration.”

This type of input can create frustration for people who prefer Sensing as they want to know, “How many servers and which ones? On which VLANs? How many milliseconds? Checking for firewall changes in the last 24 hours, or last week? When exactly did you flush the cache?”

Recommendation: Use a template for collecting input. The template can include spaces to capture specifics like measurements and timestamps. This gives Sensing types a form of accuracy and method. Intuitive individuals can still follow their instincts, working “all over the map,” but they can enter their findings in a way that meets the needs of the Sensing people. Intuitive people will learn to value this approach as it may help reveal a pattern or inspire an idea when they see details emerge.

Thinking or Feeling: Thinking types use logic and order, while Feeling types are guided by the values or relationships involved. Thinking people will consider contributions objectively and will be less inclined to associate a contribution with a person. Feeling people may want to have everyone’s contributions acknowledged or to receive equal praise. Feeling individuals are especially appreciative of video chat and conferencing tools that allow them to make eye contact and see facial expressions.

Recommendation: Use the capabilities of the collaboration tool, such as anonymity or polling, to coordinate the review of contributions. Designate a person who prefers Feeling to design the review process.

Judging or Perceiving: People who prefer Judging work toward closure, while those who prefer Perceiving like things open ended and often want to gather more data before making a final decision. Judging types love workflow tools that provide visibility into the progress of a task. They are likely to be annoyed by contributions that are off-topic or social. Perceiving types may abdicate their role as a contributor or approver for a period of time to introduce delay or work outside of the tool.

Recommendation: Use a template for summarizing input. This will provide a visual that shows Judging types that you are working toward a conclusion and shows Perceiving types the volume of data gathered. You can designate a monitor to control banter or let teams know that the tool captures a record of work in progress that may be reviewed later.

Collaboration tools are fantastic and getting better all the time. They are a necessity in our work world where geographically dispersed resources with a wide variety of skills and abilities create, innovate, and deliver. It’s not enough to believe that collaboration will occur by virtue of the team using a collaboration tool. The opportunity for participants in MBTI® learning is to recognize that barriers preventing complete and self-expressed interactions in person are also present when using digital tools. Tips and techniques for accommodating preferences are transferable to the use of collaboration tools.

Collaboration tools enable collaboration, but people make it happen.