What’s it all about?

Helen Carter is the new WA president of our AusAPT chapter. This is her first contribution to this blog. It will not be her last.

“I don’t know how to love him” is a lament from that well known rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar where we hear of the despair of not knowing how to love another. He was just a man after all and she had known many men before – this one was different? I question - what type was she – what type was he? This may have helped.

What’s understanding type all about?

To some, it is just another tool that lines up with many other tools to be pulled out and used when needed, and delivered to others for whatever purpose they may desire.

For others it may provide a much needed process for deep exploration of self to better understand past experiences and their impact on the present and the future.

Is it too simplistic to think that it could be about understanding ourselves in order that we may understand others? And could it also be more about understanding others so that we can build more positive and effective relationships with the other people with whom we live, love and work? Building better relationships to enable us to collectively learn and achieve more – sounds good to me - or am I just blinded by my type- INFP?

Understanding and meeting other peoples needs so that we may meet our own, communicating in a ways that others can hear, accessing then valuing difference as an asset and strength that adds to our understanding of ourselves, striving to build vibrant, effective relationships can all be strengthened by truly understanding and valuing all types as well as our own.

However we also need to transfer this knowledge into practical skills if we, as a type association, are to have any credibility in the use of type to build positive personal and work based relationships. It is too easy to keep the stamp boldly on our forehead and act out of a known box. So, how do we develop the skills to move out of what is so familiar?

The type association provides the opportunity to explore and learn about self and others type behaviours, and to develop the skill in using type effectively to build stronger relationships that ultimately benefit the users and receivers of training in type.

This requires that the association models the strong leadership required to promote learning, to enable the skills for using type in a positive and vibrant way to be developed and to promote the ongoing use of type to build effective relationships and workplaces for its members.

So “what’s it all about” …… for you?