Difference between Myers Briggs & Human Design
One of the first questions I had from a HR professional when I began working with her a few years ago was, ‘so what’s the difference between Myers Briggs and Human Design?’ And it got the cogs whirring. Sure, there are so many different ways we can categorise people and get the best out of them. And yet, something felt inherently forced about them too. I remember being in corporate world, doing the Myers Briggs test… I never got the results back, goodness knows whether they were a true reflection of me or not. Because the real issue with Myers Briggs and other personality tests is this.
Myers Briggs reflects the conscious and often unconscious conditioning we hold as humans. It reflects the life we’ve led so far and the beliefs we’ve picked up along the way. As a personal example, I spent many years being categorised as a Defender in 16 personalities. It wasn’t until I really began working on myself and questioning my alignment that I eventually, a few years later, was recategorised more correctly as a Mediator.
Whereas Human Design sees the humanness and the person at their core. Sees their core skills and gifts before trauma or stories, or just life happened to them.
Why might this be helpful?
Well… the most common reasons for people leaving a workplace are a lack of work-life balance, burnout, and a poor company culture.
So let’s just look at these for a moment, shall we?
Work-life balance is MUCH more important when people are doing jobs that they don’t actually suit. Because when people are working jobs to their strengths, they see work as an extension of themselves, as part of their life purpose, rather than something they seperate out from ‘real life’. One biggie here is getting people to recognise who they are, how they work, what their preferred work styles are, and where they are strong vs where they are weak. And I don’t mind using this language. We can’t all be good at everything, let’s re-introduce that idea, have the awareness to build on strengths rather than work on our weaknesses. Are our weaknesses just showing us where we won’t be particularly happy long term and risk burnout? Perhaps.
Human Design can help with this, because it takes people back to who they are at their core, who they were as a child. Getting to their real, core gifts, strengths, skills… and let’s face it. Life and work gets a lot easier when we work with our greatest assets, right? Myers Briggs leaves space for conditioning to creep in, for us to take on other peoples beliefs for a while, OR to give answers based on what we believe our employer wants to hear, rather than what we actually believe. This, in the long term, is a recipe for disaster.
The final biggest reason for people leaving a workplace is company culture. Human Design can greatly help individuals understand themselves and in turn, advocate for their personal needs, taking the pressure off just the company to sort out their culture, and placing the power in the hands of individuals. Because afterall, a company is people. It allows for employees to be completely empowered, and when you team that with a Management Team who are on board with personal development and building a business based on core skills and strengths too...
Imagine what could happen if everyone understood themselves and their needs in life, admitting their weaknesses and playing to their strengths. TPFS is here to help make that happen…
