Project Management

Home / Blogs / People, Planet, Profits & Projects /

You're just not my type

From the People, Planet, Profits & Projects Blog
by Richard Maltzman, Dave Shirley

About this Blog

RSS

View Posts By:

Richard Maltzman
Dave Shirley

Categories

6th, 6th Edfition, 6th Edition PMBOK, 7th Edition, 7th Edition PMBOK, 8th Edition PMBOK, 8th Edition PMBOK Guide, Activism, actuarial, actuary, adapt, addition by subtraction, Africa, africa, agriculture, airforce, ajaita, Alaska, amazon, analogous, analytics, ancient, and more power, antarctica, anti-science, apple, apps, architecture, arctic, arrakis, Artificial Intelligence, asch paradigm, Assistant, asthma, astronomy, automobile, automotive, autonomous cars, b, bankhar, Banksy Crypto, basalt, baseball, bats, batter, beauty products, benefit, benefits, Benefits Realization, beyond epica, biases, bicycle, big data, big dfata, big dig, bike, biodiversity, biomedicine, birdhouse, blockchain, blood, blue blood, blue trees, bluefin, bluefin tuna, book review, boston, boston university, Boyce, Brazil, brazil, Breakdown Structures, BS, building, buildings, built environment, built environment, bumblebee, cake, capacitor, car, Carbon, carbon, carbon capture, carbon negative, carbon neutral, carbon pool, carbon sequestration, carbonate, careers, CEO, ChatGPT, chatGPT, chatgpt, chatgpt, chess, China, china, chopsticks, citrus, cli-fi, climate, climate change, climate resilience, climeworks, Clumsy, CO2, co2, CO2 Utilization, coalition, cobalt, coffee pods, cognition, cognitive, Collabortion, colombia, concrete, Conflict, construction 5.0, cool projects xyloscope, cooling, coral, corn, cost of good quality, cost of poor quality, cost of quality, crazy, criticism of project management, cryptocurrency, CSR, csr, data, data analytics, data privacy, datacenter, dataset, death spiral, Decision Making, decomposition, Defense and Climate, definition of a project, deforestation, dependencies, dependency, desert, DIKW, dikw, dimopoulos, disposal, dna, DOD, dogs, dolphins, dream, drilling, drink, dune, dune, dutch, early start, earth, eatlocal, eco-tourism, ecological, economic, economics, EKC, electric grid, electricity, electronics, elysis, embodied carbon, emerging technologies, empower, Energy, energy efficiency, environmental degradation, escalate, escalation, ESG, extreme weather, fallacy, FARC, farming, finance, fish, fish brains, fishing, fix, fixing the earth, flint water, Flint Water Supply, flood, flooding, Food supply chain, food waste, forest, forest for the trees, forestation, forrestgump, frank herbert, Fruitcake, fungus, fusion, Galvao, garage, gas, gasoline, geese, gender equality, gender partnerships, generational differences, Generative AI, gladwell, gold, Goodness, google, Government, GPT, great pacific garbage patch, green, green building, green buildings, green energy, green iguana, green project, green project management, greening, guest post, gyre, harkonnen, Harvesting Benefits, hawasina, hedgehogs, heursitics, historical data, hlb, holitsic, holland, horseshoe crab, human-caused climate change, hydrogen, hydrology, ice, iceland, ignition, iguana, imagery, impact, india, inequality, information, initiatives, injection, insurance, intelligence, interacting risk, internal combustion engine, invasive species, investment, isomer, issue escalation, issues, ITER, jobs, Jupiter, justification, kids, kill point, knowledge, koch brothers, Kuznets, laboratory, LAL, landscape mode, lapampa, launch, LCA, Leadership, Leadership, life cycle analyses, life cycle analysis, lifecycle, Linkedin, liquid, lizard, local, long term, long-term, long-term thinking, look up, loud, maintenance, maker, makermovement, malcolm gladwell, management, marathon, marine biology, market, mars, Martin Luther King, mean, megawatt, MeHg, melting, mercury, metal, Microgrid, microplastics, migration, military, millennial, mindset, minerals, mission, mitigate, MLK, mongolia, museum, museum of london, nature, nematodes, net gain, Net Project Success Score, net zero, netherlands, network, New book, New Jersey, New Practitioners, new york, NFT, nitrogen, noise, noreaster, norway, nova, NPSS, NREL, ocean, ocean cleanup, ocean life, oil rig, oil rigs, oklahoma, oman, only murders in the building, opportunity, overall risk, oxygen, packaging, pareto, PBS, permafrost, persistence, peru, Pharmaceutical, planet, planet.com, planning, plant, plasma, plastic, playground, pm, pm education, pmbok, pmbok guide, pmnetwork, PMXPO-2018, podcast, pollutants, pollution, poop, poor, portfolio, power, power skills, privacy, privacy concerns, professors, program, Program Management, project, project leader, project leadership, project management, project management 3.0, project on fire, project progress, Project Success, project success, projecticity, projectleadership, projectmanagement, projects, psychology, pulse of the profession, purple bacteria, purpose, quiet, rainforest, rationale, reef, refugees, renewable, renewables, Repair, repair, repeatable process, repeatable processes, repurpose, research, resource breakdown strucuture, Resource Management, reversing climate change, revisionist history, rich, rigs2reefs, ripe, risk, risk avoidance, Risk Management, risk mitigation, risk response, risk responses, river, robots, rocks, rules of thumb, rural, rural India, russia, Sarcasm/Irony, satellite, saudi, schedule, sci-fi, Science, science, science-fiction, scientific american, screaming monkeys, sea, sea life, Sea-Level Rise, sea-level rise, seagreens, seawall, seawater, seawater temperature, seaweed. beat;es. farming, secondary risk, selena gomez, sequestration, shipping, skyscraper, SLR, smart cities, smart city, smelting, social, social pressure, soil, solar, solar panels, solar perovkites, solar saheli, sonic, sponge cities, SRI, stage-gate, stagegate, stakeholder, stakeholder management, steward, stewardship, storage, strategy, stupid, success, suffer, sulphur, sunk cost, supercapacitor, supply chain, survey, Sustainability, sustainability, Sustainable Investing, Sustainable Tourism, sybiosis, symbiosis, system 03, TBL, temperature, terraform, terraforming, test, threat, threats, totem, touchscreen, tour, tower, Trains, transparency, transportation, trash, tree, tree species, trees, trillion, triple bottom line, triple constraint, truth to power, UMass, us army corps of engineers, USDA, vacuum, value, venus, vision, voice, voltage optimization, vw scandal, washing machine, waste, wastewater, water, we mean business, whales, Whirlpool, wind, wisdom, women, Women in Project Management, wood wide web, woonerf, Work Breakdown Structures (WBS), world breakdown structure, worms, xian, xylotron, Yale

Date

As we consider how to integrate long-term thinking into project management, one thing we really need to remember is the project manager as an individual. Lately our focus has shifted to the program and portfolio manager, because that level is closer to the corporate mission and vision statements.

That's still valid, and we think it's an important shift.

But it made us stop and think: are we doing this because of the positions of Program and Portfolio Management only, or is it because of the people who are at these levels? Or is it a little of both?

WIth that in mind, we'd like to open a discussion about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and how it relates to project management, and of course how it relates to long-term, big-picture thinking in project management.

This cannot be a thorough treatment of the subject - for that you'll have to wait for our upcoming book and assessment tool (The Sustainability Wheel). But we want to get our readers and blog followers used to this topic because it's important to us (and we think, to you, too).

Read through the following, adapted from public sources, inlcudig Wikipedia. Do a little thinking - about yourself, your favorite project managers, your most - and least - successful peers, and how these four sets of Myers-Briggs "temperaments" relate to those projects.

Artisans (ST) are concrete and adaptable. Seeking stimulation and virtuosity, they are concerned with making an impact. Their greatest strength is tactics. They excel at troubleshooting, agility, and the manipulation of tools, instruments, and equipment.^[3] The two roles are as follows:

· Operators are the directive (proactive) Artisans. Their most developed intelligence operation is expediting. The attentive Crafters and the expressive Promoters are the two role variants.

· Entertainers are the informative (reactive) Artisans. Their most developed intelligence operation is improvising. The attentive Composers and the expressive Performers are the two role variants.

Guardians (SJ) are concrete and organized. Seeking security and belonging, they are concerned with responsibility and duty. Their greatest strength is logistics. They excel at organizing, facilitating, checking, and supporting. The two roles are as follows:

· Administrators are the directive (proactive) Guardians. Their most developed intelligence operation is regulating. The attentive Inspectors and the expressive Supervisors are the two role variants.

· Conservators are the informative (reactive) Guardians. Their most developed intelligence operation is supporting. The attentive Protectors and the expressive Providers are the two role variants.

Idealists (NF) are abstract and compassionate. Seeking meaning and significance, they are concerned with personal growth and finding their own unique identity. Their greatest strength is diplomacy. They excel at clarifying, individualizing, unifying, and inspiring. The two roles are as follows:

· Mentors are the directive (proactive) Idealists. Their most developed intelligence operation is developing. The attentive Counselors and the expressive Teachers are the two role variants.

· Advocates are the informative (reactive) Idealists. Their most developed intelligence operation is mediating. The attentive Healers and the expressive Champions are the two role variants.

Rationals (NT) are abstract and objective. Seeking mastery and self-control, they are concerned with their own knowledge and competence. Their greatest strength is strategy. They excel in any kind of logical investigation such as engineering, conceptualizing, theorizing, and coordinating. The two roles are as follows:

· Coordinators are the directive (proactive) Rationals. Their most developed intelligence operation is arranging. The attentive Masterminds and the expressive Fieldmarshals are the two role variants.

· Engineers are the informative (reactive) Rationals. Their most developed intelligence operation is constructing. The attentive Architects and the expressive Inventors are the two role variants.

So here's our take on this:

Although the MBTI is not a definitive science, nor is it a way to definitively decide who can do what jobs, and although it indicates tendencies and not permanent behaviors, it's fairly common experience that certain types (for example, ESTJ specifically, and Artisans in general) do better, naturally, as project managers.

But these types (and we're in that category ourselves) are NOT great at the long-term, big-picture thinking needed if sustainability is to be integrated in the project. It's the Rationals that we need on our teams to point us to this holistic, sustainable view.

We're doers. We're focused (as we NEED to be) on getting the project objectives done. But it's in our own best interest (to say little of the organization, the community, and the planet) to have Artisans around to remind us of 'benefits realization' and the steady-state of the product of our project.

We'll be blogging about this and including this topic in our new book. But for now, we urge you to share your opinions about this. Who knows, you may end up being quoted in the book!

Comments (1)

Please login or join to subscribe to this item

Kwiyuh Michael Wepngong

Community Champion

Financial Management Specialist | US Peace Corps Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon

Just wondering if it's not going to be great to factor in all of these styles and have a unique blend?.

Thanks for this

Posted: Jan 28, 2024 2:56 PM

Please Login/Register to leave a comment.

You're just not my type

About this Blog

RSS

View Posts By:

Recent Posts

Categories

Date

Comments (1)

Sponsors

Vendor Events

Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data

Newsletters