To strengthen the bond between colleagues, we tested the use of Personality Styles during our last team-building activity. I explain how the activity went, our team-building process, and its impact on our relationships.
Integrating Personality Styles has allowed us to be creative in our team-building activities and has allowed us to get to know ourselves and others in a more profound way.
I share with you our workshop structure and our best tips for running it. For your next team building, try this winning formula. As a bonus, I promise you lots of fun! 😊
Personality styles create a positive buzz internally and spark curiosity.
- Anne-Marie Boutin, Digital Marketing Manager
1. Discovering our Dominant Style
With the entire team, we first led a self-awareness workshop introducing what defines the 6 AtmanCo personality styles and their unique qualities. Here are some of them:
The Driver 🏎️
- Bold, you demonstrate courage, enthusiasm and are not afraid of risk
- Determined and convincing, you will not be stopped easily.
The Caring❣️
- You communicate in a non-threatening, inclusive, and well-meaning way.
- You seek harmony and are open to compromise so that there is as little tension as possible around you.
The Creative 🖌️
- You are not afraid to innovate and do things differently.
- You come up with solutions that go beyond the established framework. You love to experiment and explore.
The Rigorous 🔍
- You have an eye for detail and a talent for detecting flaws, defects, and irregularities to ensure a high level of quality.
- Precise and methodical, you like order and precision.
The Ambassador 🙌
- You have an easier time than average developing your network, whether for personal or professional reasons.
- You have what it takes to be in the spotlight and make your organization shine.
The Investigator 💭
- You are constantly seeking to understand, thoroughly analyze, and make connections between different ideas and concepts.
- Intellectually curious, you have a constant desire to keep your knowledge up to date.
*To find out which one represents you, click here.
It was during this exercise that we first became aware of the dominant and secondary styles that make up our personality.
For example, here is my dominant style: The Investigator
The Styles put into words who I am and allow me to better understand my preferences in relation to my colleagues.
- Frederic Poirier, Product Designer
2. Interpreting our Commonalities
For the remainder of the workshop, the team was divided into 6 distinct sub-groups according to each dominant style (Driver, caring, creative, rigorous, ambassador and investigator).
At AtmanCo, this is the overall personality portrait of our team:
In a small group, we discussed our unique characteristics, preferences, natural tendencies in our work, and what explains our strengths.
It was interesting to see which of our colleagues have affinities, and who have personality traits similar, opposite, and complementary to ours.
Finding 1: These affinities allow us to get to know our colleagues better and further reflect on our dominant personality style.
Finding 2: We may perceive our personality in a certain way, while our colleagues may interpret it differently. This is what fuels the first exchanges: observations, perceptions, and interpretations.
This step in the exercise allowed us to really demystify our personality; to create complicity while discussing without hiding behind a mask.
Styles democratize personality by making its understanding accessible and fun.
- Glenda Farias, Marketing Specialist
3. Contextualize as a Team
Once everyone in the organization has discovered their dominant and secondary Personality Style, and discussed them in their sub-group, we reach the contextualization stage.
For example, in our marketing team, we got together to contextualize our personalities and see how that translated to our day-to-day.
After mastering our own Style in the first part of the large group workshop, we wanted to understand amongst ourselves how each personality translates into our responsibilities.
This team meeting stage allowed us to build a team guide that includes:
- Key characteristics of the group
- Strengths and complementarities of the team
- Tasks that energize each member
4. Knowing our Strengths
Our marketing team is spread across Canada, from British Columbia to Quebec. While getting together in person to share is ideal (I recommend it), an interactive virtual workshop worked very well for us.
We went back to the characteristics of each personality style to identify the ones that best represented us.
Each team member was asked to identify their "top 3" characteristics so that their colleagues could better understand their Personality Style interpretation.
Personality Styles help us better understand the dynamics and our strengths as a team.
- Leen Sawalha, VP Product and Growth
Based on our styles, we were invited to share what we consider to be the great strengths of our team.
Finding: The strengths of our team come from our complimentary Personality Styles.
To finally understand how our unique styles translate into our day-to-day work and synergy, we identified the tasks that energize us, those that motivate us, and those that we are always excited to help a colleague with.
If I need help with a task, I am now able to identify the perfect teammate to help me.
- Glenda Farias, Marketing Specialist
5. Creating New Connections
The findings and achievements that this consolidation activity has enabled us to make as a team have a significant impact on our relationships, which benefit from them every day.
Our team is more unified. The understanding of our personalities has created reflexes and a renewed complicity.
The Personality Styles have allowed us to develop a common language, they have allowed us to reflect on what makes us happy in our work and how we prefer to relate to the people we deal with so much in life: our valued colleagues.
Understanding my personality has positively affected me on a professional and personal level. It makes a big impact in a team moving towards a common goal.
- Anne-Marie Boutin, Digital Marketing Manager
Now it's your turn to discover your Personality Style and understand how you can benefit from it as a team. Try this activity and have fun!