50minutes - The Art of Teamwork: Maximise your results by working together

In order to fuel reflection on your effectiveness within a work team, we suggest that you reflect on your position according to these three approaches:

• The individual approach: what are your personal comfort and effort zones in your personal functioning?
• The collective approach: what is your position within the team and your role in terms of functioning and relationships?
• The environmental approach: what are the logics which justify the actions underlying the dominant characteristics in your work environment?

Some of your colleagues are kind to you and you find it easy to collaborate with them, whereas you feel incapable of working with others. The following section will provide you with some key ideas that should help you to understand why some working relationships function and others do not.

This approach was inspired by the work of Carl Gustav Jung (1921) on psychological types. The main underlying idea of this approach is to identify your preferences regarding situations, objects, people, etc.

Introductory exercise

1. Write your name and address with the hand that you usually write with.
2. Write the same thing, but this time with your other hand.

What did you find easy and difficult? The first exercise probably seemed much more simple to you than the second. By using your dominant hand, you found yourself in your comfort zone. Were you less agile when using the other hand? Did it take you longer to write? Did you have to concentrate more? Is the result of identical quality? By using the other hand, in a non-spontaneous situation, you have shown yourself to be capable of doing the exercise, but in your effort zone.

Our spontaneous preferences regarding people or situations require us to use less energy than when we are faced with the opposite case. Our energy therefore takes orientation direction, positioning itself on an axis that stretches between two opposing poles, with a natural preference for one side of the axis rather than the other:

The combination of positions on these four axes enables us to map out 16 profiles that characterise different ways of functioning in our private and professional lives. Do not hesitate to take the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) test to determine your preferred way of functioning. By understanding the basics of your profile, you will better understand why you love handling files with Marcus, why you hate Ritas lack of organisation, or why you feel irritated by your superiors digressions during meetings.

Examples of these different profiles in professional situations

Extraversion (E) versus Introversion (I)

When Marion enters the office, she always seems well. She is naturally sociable, so she goes around the team, exchanging a few words, and even some laughter with some people. When she arrives, everybody knows it. Marions energy is probably positioned towards the extraversion pole (E). Although he finds her nice, Igor is exhausted just watching Marions morning routine. He is naturally reserved and rational, and arrives early in the morning, allowing him to gently ease into the working day and to have a little privacy. When Marion sits down opposite him, he is already focused and feels a little disturbed by her chatting. Igor undoubtedly has an energy oriented towards introversion (I).

Sensation (S) versus iNtuition (N)

Suddenly, Marion calls out to Igor: Have you seen the new poster by the entrance?. The one with the beach and three palm trees, with the writing in italics? Igor asks. He refers to concrete information in a structured and realistic manner (S). Marion replies Erm, I mean the one that makes you dream, that reminds you of holidays and gives you a feeling of escape, some fresh air before you go into the office. Based on her intuition (N), Marion lets herself be carried away by her imagination.