Should You Split Extroverts and Introverts in Workshops?
Is it Better to Keep These Personality Types Apart?
A little later I ran a creative thinking session for a major pharmaceutical company and I decided to try this approach. First I read out the definitions of extrovert and introvert as given on Wikipedia. I then asked people to self-select into which group they fitted. It is important to stress at this stage that there is no judgement that one group is any way better than the other - they are just different in their approaches. Happily about half of the people fell into each group.
We then did some advanced brainstorming using SCAMPER and 'What if....?' methods. It worked well. The extrovert group were lively and active with plenty of strong personalities and good ideas. The introvert group was a little quieter but came up with ideas that were at least as good and possibly more radical than the extroverts. In the analysis and feedback session the introverts said that they preferred the arrangement because they were not dominated by noisy extroverts. So it was an interesting experiment that seemed to work.
Paul Sloane speaks and writes on leadership and innovation.
Published by Paul Sloane
I am a Speaker & Author of books on lateral thinking puzzles, leadership & innovation. I help organisations to improve creativity and innovation. I give keynote talks and I facilitate brainstorms and worksh... View profile
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6 Comments
Post a CommentExtroverts ". . . like to speak first and think second"? That's an interesting supposition. I am surely an extrovert, but I seldom speak without first listening a bit and thinking about what it is I'm addressing. For many things, I've spent countless hours thinking about them prior to their every coming up in a group situation, so I'm not exactly shooting from the lip. I also re-read almost everything I write (including blogs, much to my chagrin). I suspect I'm not all that different from other extroverts.
Essentially, though, I agree with most of what you offer here, as well as the comments preceding mine. Brice raises an interesting point, and I have lots of experience with de Bono's Six Hats methodology Patricia mentions.
As a facilitator of business and strategy meetings this is a topic that really keeps me on my toes. I find that working in small groups gives more time and space for introverts to crystalise their thinking. Also giving people space where they can jot down ideas in their own time during breaks - as simple as flip chart on the wall and some post-its for writing on is effective
Ann Schwarzenbach
Data and Process Advantage Ltd
www.dpadvantage.co.uk
http://dpadvantage.wordpress.com/
Perhaps it's extrovert facilitators who think that brainstorming is the only way to generate ideas... How often do you make extroverts in the group try more introverted activities such as brainwriting (http://bit.ly/8PrQKd)?
Interesting question, which I often asked myself in quite the same context as you. I tried many options (though I never thought of asking participants to define themselves, which is an interesting starting point). It comes to this: I found out that the introverts actually learn a lot from the extroverts but need to be given specific time to express themselves, on a regular basis: alternate oral and written exercises, ask everyone around the table to give one insight from left to right, etc.
So it comes to this: I think it's interesting to continue moderating introverts and extroverts together, but to alternate "free speech" and "moderated speech" to make sure they can learn from each other. I will try your method however in the coming weeks, if only for the experiment!
Thanks for sharing! None of us is as smart about group moderation as all of us... ;D
Many creatives are inherently more introverted (she says with a sweeping statement - we can all think of exceptions)
I saw a great presentation at a conference this year on the de bono methodology, and it works by allowing people to have a voice on an equal basis, but without pigeon-holing.
The wiki link for it is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats
It makes everyone acknowledge the positives, negatives and feelings which accompany every situation
I was impressed anyway.
Interesting but not surprising results. Introverts many times, allowed time to think, come up with the more creative ideas. Quiet surroundings make for a playground for introverts so being distracted by external noise would certainly toss the sand around too much. And you are spot on: neither group is better than the other they just get results differently.