MBTI is trash but trash can be treasure, it all depends on your approach to it. The fact is the science behind Myers-Briggs is super sketchy. It fails 2 basics requirements needs to be solid; reliability and validity. Adam Grant, Organizational Psychologist, wrote a great breakdown of all its flaws back in 2015 in this piece titled Goodbye to MBTI. Countless others have done similar before and since and yet MBTI persists. What I love most about Grant’s piece though is that he includes the two big reasons it persists and not just all the reasons it’s pseudoscience. This is the treasure in the trash, it’s the way to use MBTI to it’s maximum benefit – learn from it and apply it as a lens over all other questionable practices.
The two critical points Grant raises are from Annie Murphy Paul’s book The Cult of Personality Testing. First, “thousands of people have invested time and money in becoming MBTI-certified trainers and coaches.” There is BIG money behind MBTI, and money to be made from perpetuating it. It’s smells much like a pyramid scheme to be honest. And second, “the “aha” moment that people experience when the test gives them insight about others—and especially themselves.” Basically we know people hate ambiguity, we want things to be in neat little boxes – black & white is easy and comfortable. To see yourself or others as being a certain “type” makes it simpler to justify and ultimately accept reasons why you are/they are acting a certain way. Neat but wrong.
I think MBTI, with these points in mind, is super powerful for us to use to question every simple solution that comes our way. For example, knowing that we hate ambiguity we can look at other tools and approaches and ask – “is this idea dividing people too conveniently?” Millennials are different we’re sold (errr… I mean told) but is that really true or is it just us conveniently taking a few observations of some people born in a set time and classifying all in that segment to be the same? This behavior is better known as stereotyping but that word sure feels yucky. Ahh Generational Differences… that’s better! The other is to follow the money. The best way to push an agenda is to turn followers into ambassadors. These people buy certifications and then unconsciously suffer from a sort of cognitive dissonance, i.e. “I paid for it, so it must be right!” The tools, glossy handouts and official looking exams don’t hurt either, they help to solidify legitimacy. Ask yourself – Are there armies of people or resources behind this that paid to play? It’s a pretty good indication something isn’t right.
So where else can we apply these lessons from MBTI?
Learning Styles?
Communication Styles?
Work Styles?
All = Big shiny money and the defeat of ambiguity through convenience of categorization.
So, yes spread the word of the myth of Personality Types but also use the bigger lessons from it’s monetary success and perseverance over time to combat each new idea that presents itself as ready to divide people and divide people from their money!
