Great Minds Think… Differently?

by Christina S

Recently at DS, we thought it would be fun for the whole office to take the Myers-Briggs personality assessment (despite one office manager’s insistence that she was far more complex than four letters!).

We decided to do this as a company strictly for fun, entirely aware of the controversy that the Myers-Briggs test may be irrelevant. For those of you who don’t know what this test is, the Myers-Briggs type indicator is intended to measure how people make decisions and perceive the world. The questionnaire evaluates four elements of your personality, the results of which categorize you into one of sixteen personality types.

So do great minds think alike? Here at Design Science, we think that idiom might be a little hackneyed, after all…

The Results

The Myers-Briggs assessment is based on a series of dichotomies that are intended to represent opposite personality traits. The concept is that if you are inclined towards introversion, you would not be inclined towards extroversion. It’s not an absolute rule, but more of a guiding principal.

We were surprised to discover our dichotomies were all fairly close to 50/50, with only some minor preferences. We are slightly more inclined to be extroverts than introverts and our inclination towards intuition means we are willing to trust abstract or theoretical information. Our slightly more dominant tendency towards thinking means we like to empathize with situations and consider the needs of all people involved, but will make decisions based on logic and science. Finally, our instinct to judge means we enjoy completing tasks and following through.

While we found we had a high number of Rationals (fieldmarshals, masterminds, inventors, and architects), as well as Idealists (teachers and counselors), we were pleasantly surprised to see how diverse the minds at Design Science are overall.

The most prevalent personality type result was ENTJ, also known as a fieldmarshal. ENTJs reputedly enjoy leadership and prefer logic, planning, and sharing knowledge.

To learn more about the talented people who make up Design Science, make sure to check out our Team page.

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