In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of companies out there claiming expertise in team building. Some of these will have you playing pin the tail on the donkey, or running around on a scavenger hunt.

To continue, let’s begin at the beginning and review the four scales of the MBTI, which include:

• Sensing and Intuition     (S and N)  How we gather information
• Thinking and Feeling         (T and F)  How we make decisions
• Judgment and Perception     (J and P)  How we live our lifestyle
• Extroversion and Introversion (E and I)    How we gather and expend our energy

I was at a social event recently where I was engaged in a three way conversation (well three people listening to one person talk about himself), when out of nowhere the woman in our group bounces a carrot stick she was eating off this guy’s forehead.  In utter amazement and surprise he asked her, “Why did you do that”? She calmly replied, “Because my beer bottle would have hurt you”.

I guess considering the alternative she was making a kind gesture, but what is it about who we are that can be both an asset to our team at times, yet totally annoying at others?

The publishers of Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s book, The Gold Standard: Building a World-class Team, tease the newly published book with these words: “Coach K had to work with huge egos and personal rivalries in order to create an American team that could win against the best competition in the world and restore Team USA to the gold standard of basketball.” Wow, take out a few words and I’ll wager that sounds like a familiar challenge.