What’s the Best Personality? (part 2)

Years ago (and shortly after we had cracked the code of personality) my [then] husband/partner (Eric) and I were given the opportunity to create a working team of radiologists. We were very excited about creating a group of physicians and including our newfound knowledge in the interview process. Our goal was to create a team made completely of the emotionally neutral and positive outlook personality types. We had calculated that by screening for temperament would help us to create a completely harmonious group with an incredibly positive working environment. We created our team of seven physicians and were off to a great start. But guess what? Something was going terribly awry and we were completely unaware of the situation, until it was too late.

Apparently, all along, what had been happening was that our well-meaning doctors were saying, “yes” to our great ideas but grumbling elsewhere about the things they didn’t agree with in the name of maintaining peace and harmony. By not having a single reactive personality in the group there was no “ canary in the coal mine”; in other words, there was no one to say, “Hey, I don’t want to do that” or “I don’t think it’s a good idea”. In nine months the entire team collapsed into a horrible festering wound that had been covered by one positive “ band aid” after another.

So what we learned while trying to be smarter than Mother Nature was the value of bio diversity. Even though now it seems so obvious, we learned that by including not only different personality viewpoints but various personality temperaments we could create a richer and stronger group. Of course, another key element, is to create a diverse group that are average to above average in health and who are willing and open to the idea of learning how to “speak” the language of others’ personality.

I must say it was a humbling experience but it was also a very powerful lesson that I hope will be included in future lessons related to understanding the biological basis of personality.