Don’t Attend Any MBTI Team Building Workshops Till You Have Read This

MBTI Team Building Singapore workshop

Or Don’t Think MBTI Team Development Workshops can solve all your work problems.

Before I facilitate any team building workshops using MBTI, I always check with my clients on whether there are any team issues which they wish to address. Whilst MBTI can address a number of teamwork and team communication issues, it cannot resolve every organisation problem. Sometimes, I find the reasons that my clients want to have the workshop are not necessarily what MBTI can help them address. Here are some examples of possible ‘wrong’ reasons for attending or organising a MBTI Team Building session.

MBTI Team Building Workshops Do Not Change A Company’s Culture which is normally set at the top

Recently a client told me that the staff do not speak up during team meetings, and there’s a lack of creative input into team discussions.  They wanted a MBTI team development workshop to address this.  From an MBTI perspective, there are Extraverted/Introverted personalities, as well as Sensing/Intuition as well as Judging/Perceiving types that can affect a person’s natural tendency to want to speak up and to be spontaneous with creative input.  So I gladly took up the challenge to facilitate and prepared a number of exercises to help them. (In fact I used a few exercises from my Presentations Skills Training courses for them to practise.)

MBTI does not solve every problem in the workplace culture

As we progressed during the Team Development workshop, it was revealed that their company culture has little tolerance for errors, causing staff to clamp up and not speak up.  The senior management wasn’t in the training session, and MBTI team building workshops are not the solution to addressing culture issues such as this.  We did everything we could to encourage participants to speak up, but the fear created by the top management was not something MBTI can address.


Don’t Use MBTI For Recruitment

One of the most common common questions I face as an MBTI Trainer is whether MBTI is suitable for recruitment use.  My answer is “No, MBTI cannot tell you who you should hire”.

MBTI Assessments not for recruitment

Is MBTI good for recruitment?

The MBTI assessment provides insights about people, but using it for the hiring process is inappropriate. In fact, the publisher of the assessment, the Myers-Briggs Company, stipulates that the assessment should not be used for hiring or selection, conditions that users of the questionnaire agree to. And to my participants who ask me: “What is the perfect MBTI style for the workplace?” – the answer is “no, there isn’t a perfect MBTI type. Every type has its strengths and development areas.”

However I have my own perspectives on how MBTI insights can contribute to the hiring process. Let me share here.

In recruitment, you hire potential suitable candidates based on skills and fit.  MBTI Tests or Assessments do not measure skills or competencies.  They measure innate preferred behaviours which do not necessarily lead to competent performance.  Eg, a person may be extraverted, and you might prefer, as a hiring manager, to hire such a type for a Sales role.  But that does not mean an Extraverted person will be a good sales person.

However,  as a line manager (previously), I do consider the personalities and skill sets of my existing teams and try to hire people who can complement.  One of my previous project teams was very competent in execution but highly introverted, and would not want to present during clients’ meetings.  I arranged for them to attend presentation skills training, but innately, if they have a chance, they would rather not speak publicly.   That is why I decided to challenge status quo, by bringing in new blood who are eloquent and could present the right image for the company we worked for.   The mix of the ‘new’ and ‘old’ blood in my team turned out to be a wise decision.   So in my opinion, recruitment should not just consider skills, but fit.  Every opportunity I have, I hire new people who can fit into the organisation (it has to be both ways).  The fit can be in culture, personalities, aspirations or needs that you have.  So in this sense, whilst I do not use MBTI for recruitment in terms of skills/competencies, I consider it for ‘fit’.

MBTI Does Not Predict Performance

Another favourite MBTI discussion question is whether MBTI Tests can predict performance.  MBTI Assessments are very useful to reveal behavioural preferences (eg what types of info you need, how you make decisions, how you interact with the world etc) but MBTI does not look into the crystal ball to predict the future nor performance. 

MBTI Cannot Tell Who Will Be A Great Leader

Whilst MBTI tells us which MBTI type tends to be what type of leaders based on behavioural preferences, it cannot predict nor tell who will be a great or capable leader.  For eg, ESTJ are known for preferring to exhibit decisive and commanding leadership, and this can come in very appropriate in crisis situations where timing are decisions is important. But not every ESTJ will necessarily become a superb leader.

MBTI Does Not Tell You Which Job You Will Excel In.

Another popular question during the MBTI Team Building sessions that I facilitated before is whether MBTI Tests give a good prediction of which job you will excel in.  There are lots of online info that provide jobs that certain personalities may be suited for.  Again, being suited based on preferences does not mean excellence in the job (although there may be a strong correlation).

Do not use MBTI Assessments to tell you which job you will excel in

MBTI Tests are NOT for telling you which jobs you will excel in

So by all means, check out what jobs might be suited for your MBTI type after you have taken the MBTI Assessment, but don’t use this as the sole yardstick.  Your career choices are more than just based on your personality!


So don’t attend any MBTI Team Building workshops if you plan any of the above as your MBTI discussion questions.  But if you intend to help your teams understand themselves better, get to know each other’s working styles better, deepen communication quality, improve buy-in techniques, foster strong relationships – then yes, my teambonding workshops can help you meet these needs. 

How is MBTI used in team building?

How does Myers-Briggs help teams? Knowing your team’s MBTI personality type can tell you more about their working style. For example, intuitives (N) tend to look for new solutions to problems. On the other end of the spectrum, sensors (S) rely on their existing knowledge while solving problems.

We have trained companies, government related bodies, schools and educational institutions, in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and have refined our training over the years to meet your unique needs.  We have specially designed MBTI (Free) Team Development Activities MBTI activities to help you improve your (MBTI) team dynamics.

Contact 36 HR Training & Consultancy for a free consultation on how our Corporate Team Building and Team Development workshops can help you!

HOW TO LEAD A TEAM BUILDING SESSION ON MBTI (MYERS BRIGGS PERSONALITY TYPE)

Planning to run your first MBTI Team Building Workshop or Offsite? Fret not. This article provides you with practical tips on how to facilitate and lead your MBTI team building session.

Do you want to improve teamwork and maximize productivity with the help of personality type insights? The MBTI, personality types developed by Isabel Briggs Myers helps improve communication and teamwork by creating self awareness and team awareness.  It also highlights commonalities among members of different backgrounds. Learn how to maximize the effectiveness how to lead your team development session by reading on.

1.      Define objectives and desired outcomes

It is very important not to assume every MBTI Team Building workshop is the same, even if you have similar experiences.  Hence an important starting point is the define your objectives and desired outcomes for your team/learners.

Perhaps you have a general idea of what motivated your interest in a personality type session, but now is the time to refine your objectives. Specifically, what do you hope people will learn from the workshop that they didn’t know before? How might you like to see your team evolve as a result?

Your workshop will provide a high-level overview of personality traits and how they affect employees’ approaches to the workplace. Participants will develop an openness to differences in types and behaviour, diversity, which can improve teamwork and output. In order to get even more specific with your workshop, you might want to define some objectives as:

  • Enable participants to understand their behaviour, strengths and blindspots
  • Help participants understand each other, and ways to engage each other despite differences in types.
  • Improve quality of conflict management through deeper understanding of each other.

Increase teamwork and conflict resolution by fostering an understanding of and respect for one another’s differences, as well as participants’ strengths and weaknesses.

Outlining your goals in advance will aid in communicating their importance to your team and in selecting the best means of achieving them.

2.      Assess your team

I normally consider the demographics of the team so that I can appropriately plan and carry out the right types of MBTI team building learning activities. For eg, if you have females who are pregnant, avoid strenous physical exercises. If the majority of your participants are young working adults, avoid ‘lecturing’, and instead facilitate.

MBTI Team Building Singapore - demographics

Consider your team’s demographics in the design of your objectives and team learning activities.

In most cases, it’s a good idea to have all employees who plan on attending the workshop take a personality assessment beforehand so that they can come to the workshop with knowledge about their own personality type already in hand. Educating your participants on the theory of personality types and how their teammates may be different from them will give them a deeper appreciation of the differences and  think about ways to engage each other.  Furthermore, it discusses that perennial favourites of human beings, ourselves, in order to introduce the ideas of personality type.

With technology advancements, personality assessments and tests can be administered online or use of paper test booklets.  For eg, MBTI assessments can be handled easily online where participants’ results can be obtained before the workshop.  For anyone new to the administration of the MBTI assessment – a word of caution:  do give at least 2 weeks to administer the MBTI test.  In Singapore, there is only 1 central MBTI Assessment body which is responsible for the administration – hence there can be ‘traffic’ congestion when many companies do their MBTI assessments at the same time especially during year end.

Read more on different Personality Profiling Workshops by 36 HR Training & Consultancy.

3.      Plan your venue and logistics

You have to decide whether the MBTI teambuilding workshop is in Singapore or overseas, eg Malaysia, Thailand or Indonesia.

Training Room for MBTI Team Building

Following that, you have to ensure you secure the venue in advance based on how much space you need, the no. of participants, the types of team building or team development activities you organise. 

Typically, for small groups, eg up to 15 persons, I prefer to seat the participants in a semi-circle to allow free-flow of ideas.  I also normally do away with tables so there is no psychological barrier between participants.   I also normally like to have the other half of the room to have empty space for activities and movements – but that depends on what types of team building activities you hold.  I usually will design learning activities that bring out the key learning insights, based on the team building objectives.

For large groups eg, 50 persons or more, then cluster seatings are recommended.  

There are lots of good teambuilding venues in Singapore.  Depending on your budget, you can get a decent room size (up to 15 persons) for between S$500-$1000 per day.  I will separately write an article to provide suitable corporate teambuilding venues.

Training Room Venue Singapore for MBTI Team Building

In Singapore, there are lots of interesting training venues for corporate team building events. This picture shows a training venue (if budget is not a huge concern for your clients) I had recently used which delighted my clients. I will be writing more on these venues in the coming days.

4.      Plan your resources/Logistics

Do consider:

  1.  What types of preparation you need in terms of content.  For MBTI Team Development workshops, the lead facilitator should be familiar with the MBTI concepts, and should be certified.  Contact 36 HR Training & Consultancy if you need help in facilitating your planned MBTI Team Development Workshop or any MBTI Offsite event. For more info on 16 MBTI types, read here.
  2. Consider whether you need any assistant facilitators, and whether any help for logistics.  When I facilitate any group larger than 15, I usually will get a logistics helper or trainer.  I will scale up the no. of assistants depending on the size of the learners.
  3. Team Building Activities and Games.  Make your learning insightful but make sure it’s fun too! The best way to learn is to incorporate fun into learning and let participants experience.  Check out some of our suggested MBTI Team Building Learning Activities.
  4. Facilitate using a combination of powerpoint, flip charts and papers, kahoot, games, plus course notes for participants to write their thoughts.
  5. Reflections – how do participants reflect and how do they bring these learnings back to the office?  Plan these!  I usually will create booklets or space in course notes for reflections.
  6. Music – consider using appropriate music for different learning activities.  Music can help create the right mood easily!  But make sure the venue has the means to project your music.  If not, get portable speakers.
  7. I normally will test my laptop connectivity with the venue ahead of the team building event – just to be very sure! 
  8. Feedback – consider how you would get feedback from the participants at the end of the team building event.  Design your feedback form accordingly!

 

5. Perform A Mock Run

Do consider practising your facilitation/presentation several times from beginning to end to ensure a smooth flow of ideas whether you use the free presentation script provided above or write your own. Make sure you have everything you need for your planned activities by doing a checklist of timings and logistics.

Normally I would rehearse with another MBTI trainer at least the first part (eg 15 min) and then walk through the team building games and learning activities.  I often get useful feedback and adjust accordingly.

 

Ready and Set! Prepare to facilitate and lead your team building workshop on mbti.

You’ve selected the materials you need to facilitate a workshop on personality type in the workplace, where you’ll help your team members better understand and appreciate one another’s unique qualities and contributions.

On the day of the workshop, be punctual – you don’t want to be sweating rushing in when participants are seated.  I usually get there early 1 hour before hand to set up the laptop and the space, place the course notes and arrange the flip charts.  And set up the area for the team building activities that have been planned.

If you would like to get help to facilitate for your company an MBTI Team Building session, or to have a MBTI lunchtime talk, please contact 36 HR Training & Consultancy.


THE MBTI ASSESSMENT (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand) by Myers Briggs

Note: This is a paid MBTI Test. This MBTI Test can be performed online. The cost of the MBTI test is indicated below. Read on.

The MBTI assessment, widely used for corporate team building workshops or team development, is more than just a test or evaluation. It’s a process of helping you understand yourself and becoming better.  In fact, there are no correct or incorrect answers, and hence technically MBTI Assessment is not an ‘assessment’ nor test.   Therefore, at 36 HR Training and Consultancy, we don’t say, “Here are the results, best wishes.” Instead, we work with you to discuss the results, and make them more relevant to your reality.  

Perhaps the most popular and well-known, reigns supreme among all others: the MBTI. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or “MBTI,” is a nearly 100-year-old questionnaire that has become a standard among all personality and profiling “tests”.

What you should know about the MBTI, what research and personality experts think about the test, and how you can work with your results are all covered here.

16 MBTI Types using MBTI Assessment

16 MBTI Types by Myers Briggs

Find Out Which Type You Are with the MBTI Assessment

In a nutshell: MBTI embraces insights on your perspectives, sources of energy, decision-making style, communication style, strengths, weaknesses…

These are all aspects of your personality: who you are. And when you truly know yourself, doors open in your job, relationships, and life. With MBTI insights, you not only better understand and appreciate yourself, but you also better understand and appreciate others, and this helps in fostering deeper engagement in teams.

Click here for more info on the 16 MBTI types

Trump vs Jobs using MBTI Assessment Tool

ILLUSTRATION: BOTH DONALD TRUMP AND STEVE JOBS ARE THINKERS.

But they are as different as night and day.

FIND OUT USING MBTI Assessment which gives detailed insights on who you are.


Why MBTI Team Development Workshop?

One reason for the wide popularity of the MBTI assessment is due to its extensive practical applications, which include:

  • Personal Effectiveness – insights into self is a powerful way to nurture strengths and work on blindspots, and developing behaviours that work for the individuals.
  • Team building and development— it’s a useful tool to identify team strengths and blindspots, facilitate communication between team members, and developing action plans for enhanced performance.
  • Leadership development – increases leaders’ understanding of their own type and the personality types of those they are leading in order to help them manage more effectively, provide more relevant feedback, and enhance individual and team performance.
  • Conflict management – improves skills in detecting conflict sources and intervening early to reduce underperformance, disruption, and disengagement.
  • Stress management – improves resiliency, increases productivity, and provides tools for identifying and coping with stress triggers.
  • However, do not organise any MBTI training for the wrong reasons! You can read more here : Do Not Attend Any MBTI Team Building Workshops until You Have Read This.

Do you agree?
“Personality has the power to uplift, depress, curse and to bless.”


What does a MBTI team development programme look like?

All our MBTI Team Building and Team Development workshops are customised to suit your needs.  A sample agenda of a 1 day MBTI programme is appended below:

09:00 – 09:30    Fun Ice-breaker and Getting to know each other

Create a safe and non-judgmental space for team members to share and learn together

09:00 – 09:30    Introduction to MBTI Team Building Session

Understanding from  participants their personal expectations and objectives

09.30 – 10:30    Introduction to MBTI and ascertain Individual Best Fit Type

What is MBTI, why MBTI and how it helps understand ourselves the way we do, decide, take in info, organise, and and appreciate the differences in others.

10:30 – 10:45   Tea Break

MBTI assessment traces the pattern in behaviour to one of 16 different personality types. We look at this in detail.

10:45 – 12:30   MBTI Team Building Learning Activities

12:30 – 13:30   Lunch

We can recommend interesting and thematic learning venues which provide lunch catering

13:30 – 14:30    Fun Learning on MBTI types  –  Working styles

14:30 – 16:00   Applications of MBTI at work and Effective Communication plus case studies

16:00 – 16:15   MBTI Team

16:15 – 16:45   MBTI Game: Hello or Silo

Powerful game to reinforce learning.  Alternative games may be used.

16:45 – 17:15   MBTI  Team and Self Reflections

The most important part of learning is to consolidate and to reflect on how it applies to each individual and team.

17:15 – 17:30   Strategies to transfer learning back to workplace

How Is Our MBTI Team Building workshop delivered?

All our MBTI training workshops can be delivered via:

  • In person or zoom
  • In ½ day, 1 day, or 2 days
  • Can be delivered as part of a company’s offsite in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam or China. 
  • We can train between 5 to 100 participants for different scales and sizes of workshops

We organise seminars for teams of various stripes, from schools to professionals to managers to CEOs.

Having a better understanding of oneself and one’s coworkers is one of the main benefits of participating in a workshop, since it can lead to deeper engagement, higher communication quality and better teamwork.

A Team-building Workshop’s ultimate goal is to help a group or team work better together and accomplish more. The team will have a shared vocabulary and a structure within which to analyze and improve upon its strengths.

Commonly Asked Questions About MBTI Assessments (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand)

How Much Does The MBTI Assessment cost?
Details can be found in the section below.

Where can I take the official MBTI test?
Only certified MBTI trainers, like 36 HR Training & Consultancy, may purchase the online tests and administer the MBTI tests online before the workshop.

Is MBTI assessment free?
There are unofficial bootleg versions on the internet which we are unable to recommend.

Is this a MBTI certification (Singapore)?
This is not an MBTI certification course, which is only for trainers and coaches.


What Are The Most Common Types of MBTI Assessments?


Step I™ Form M (93 items).The current standard form of the MBTI® assessment and is scored for four-letter type and the preference clarity indexes. Online administration and scoring is available through the publisher, The Myers-Briggs Company. Computer or template scoring is also available. (note: only certified trainers may purchase from the online company)
Step II™ Form Q (144 items).Used to generate a four-letter type and scores on twenty facet scales, with five facets in each of the four primary MBTI dichotomies. The facet results highlight individual differences within type. Used when in-depth individual feedback is needed (e.g., coaching, counseling, executive development, relationship counseling).

Your Investment – How Much Does the MBTI Assessment (Singapore) Cost?

The 3 components that you need to invest in, for a MBTI Team Development workshop, are:

  • The MBTI Assessment (Singapore) Tool fee – this ranges between S$66 to S$122 per participant, depending on the type of tool you use. There are broadly 2 categories of MBTI Assessment tools, namely Step I (also known as Form M) and Step II (also known as Form Q) assessments. Type 1 MBTI Assessment will suffice for half or 1 day workshops. However, Type 2 MBTI assessments are extremely insightful and detailed, hence useful for 1-2 days of workshop or one to one leadership coaching. Contact us for samples of the reports and tell us your needs.
  • Training Fees/course notes for facilitating. Our affordable rates are by per half day or day or for 2 days. We also customise for 2 hour lunch time MBTI Talks.
  • Venue – most of our clients use their own venue and hence there is no venue cost.

Why 36 HR Training and Consultancy

We have been facilitating team building workshops since 2011.  Our master trainer Tan Teck Kim is certified in MBTI, FIRO, FIRO-B, STRONG, Knowdell, Facilitating Career Development and uses these tools to help leaders, professionals, and organisations to achieve personal and team effectiveness.  One of his favourite tools for Team Building and Team Development is MBTI Assessment by Myers Briggs as he has witnessed teams opening up, becoming more self aware and able to identify weaknesses and make plans to progress.

We make learning fun and memorable by facilitating using a variety of techniques, from group discussions to individual reflections, video clips, case studies, learning activities and specially designed learning games.

Tan Teck Kim is a firm believer of lifelong learning and is extremely passionate about people.  His goal is to learn, help and give.  He is most acknowledged for his ability to encourage and inspire. 


MBTI Team Development Activities

36 HR Training & Consultancy uses a variety of fun team building and team development learning activities as well as interesting games to help learners learn to experience during the MBTI Team Building Training Workshops. Below are some examples of simple MBTI Team Development learning activities.

Extraversion-Introversion Team Development Activity – Birthday Party

The following exercise will be suitable for groups of 5 to 8 people:

Myers Briggs Team Building activity on birthday

It’s a good friend’s birthday, and you want to throw them a surprise party.

Discuss in your groups what you would do, such as where you would hold the party, what kinds of entertainment you would provide, and anything else you would like to happen.

Allow the groups about 10 mins to play the party and then have each group describe their party to the other groups.

Questions to Ask

  • How simple was it to make party decisions?
  • Are they themselves excited about the party?
  • Are the opposite type groups excited about the party?
  • How different groups of people would react to parties planned by others?

Debriefing

This is where the fun is. The extroverts typically will use words like “fun”, “interesting”, “outdoors”, to describe their idea of an ideal party. The introverts on the other hand, tend to use words like “quiet”, “indoor” to describe their ideal party. The participants will have a ‘revelation’ of what they want could be very different from what the birthday person wants.

It is also worthwhile to discuss with the participants to consider this insight that the preferences can be so different and how this insight would affect their decision making or communication with the ‘opposite’ MBTI type from themselves.

Ok let’s move to the next fun MBTI Team development game.


Sensing-Intuition Team Development Activity – Apple

Talk about an Apple

Fun Team Building Activity on Sensing Intuition using Apple

As a prop, bring an Apple to the MBTI team building session. Show the apple to the participants and ask the participants to write for 2 minutes about it.

The Apple Experiment in Sensing and Intuition

Sensing types will typically write a description based on their senses (what they can see, hear, taste, and touch). Read the sensing student examples below, and then have the sensing students in the class read what they have written. They will frequently provide apple facts.

Then read the examples from intuitive students below. Then, request that intuitive types read what they have written. These types frequently go beyond the facts to describe associations with apples. They rarely just describe the apple’s physical characteristics.

When giving instructions for this exercise, use caution. If you ask students to describe the apple, they will all focus on the description rather than using their intuition. Remember that some students are combination personalities, so they may describe the apple in both sensing and intuitive ways. It is beneficial to provide examples of sensing type responses and to inquire whether any sensing types wrote similar responses. Apply the same logic to intuitive responses. This exercise can be done with any other object. Any fruit is appropriate for this exercise because you can describe it using all of your senses and add any creative insights.

Debriefing

  • Ask participants what differences they have observed between Sensing Participants and Intuition participants.
  • Ask participants to relate these differences at work and how they have managed
  • Invite participants to think about how to engage the opposite type taking into account the differences

Here are some examples of what my sensing participants wrote about the apple:

The apple is red and yellow in colour. It has a small stem and does not appear to be fully ripe. It has a sticker on it and is quite small.

The apple is yellow, red, round, delicious, and nutritious. It has a pleasant aroma and flavour.

The apple is red, yellow, and almost gold in colour. One side is red and gradually blends into the yellow. The stem has a 90-degree bend in it. One side is significantly larger than the other.

Here are some of the things intuitive participants in my class wrote about apples:

Apple can feed, but it can also kill, as demonstrated by the wicked godmother’s use of it to choke Snow White.

Apple is a symbol of invention, as Steve Jobs used to portray it.

Based on the above insight, you can ask the participants how this impacts their work in the office.

Let’s go on to the next MBTI activity on Thinking-Feeling.


Thinking-Feeling Team Development Activity – Workplace Question

Give the following instructions to the participants:

Fun Team Building Activity for Thinking-Feeling

You’ve been invited to lunch with a new employee. He or she inquires,

“What makes this such a great place to work?”

How do you respond?

Take five minutes to brainstorm 4-5 responses with your group.

Debriefing

Request that the groups share their responses, noting how their responses tend to demonstrate the values associated with their respective types. Thinkers are more likely to notice opportunities for advancement and personal achievement, high earning potential, or the company’s market standing. Feelers are more likely to notice a positive company culture, helpful coworkers, or a charitable company mission.

  • Ask participants what differences they have observed between Thinking Participants and Feeling participants.
  • Ask participants to relate these differences at work and how they have managed
  • Invite participants to think about how to engage the opposite type taking into account the differences

Let’s progress to the next MBTI Team building activity on Judging-Perceiving and have some fun!


Judging-Perceiving Team Development Activity – Workplace Question

This activity can be completed by each participant individually.  Instructions:

MBTI Team Building activity on Judging Perceving

You suddenly inherited $20,000 due to the passing of a distant relative.

What are you going to do with the money? How do you make your decision?

Allow 5 minutes for participants to list what they would do with the windfall, and then ask participants from both the Judging and Perceiving types to share their responses.

Debriefing

Answers frequently reveal Judging type to be responsible, organized, and intentional with money and Perceiving type’s tendency to be more spontaneous or to gamble or invest the money in order to make more.


This blog will be regularly updated to reflect more free Myers Briggs activities as well as how to use MBTI learning activities for your MBTI Team Building workshop.

Readers who read this blog post on MBTI Team Building activities are also interested in our MBTI Resource on