Between 1 and 3%

In my work, I get to spend a fair amount of time with 'management consultants'... an optimistic, hopeful (and particularly expensive) breed of humans who spend their working lives telling people what they already know 'deep down inside'...


One thing that they often use for a diagnosis of particular relational issues is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

For those who don't know, the basic idea of Myers-Briggs is that people largely find themselves tending towards one end of a number of different behavioural tendencies. You might be more extrovert than introvert, more rational or intuitive, more empathic or judging... and so on.

These tendencies are combined into a four letter 'type'... I'm apparently an INFJ; an 'ethical, intuitive, feeling idealist' - which explains my quirky disregard for rules, and my commitment to always want to see the big picture (and often trip over the details).

On its own, this wouldn't be important, until you take into account that someone that I work closely with is an ISTJ a 'logical, scientific, inspector' type... and has an approach to work that is almost diametrically opposed to mine on nearly every level you can think of.

• Where I have a vision for where things should go... he is firmly anchored in observable fact.
• Where I am concerned to ensure harmony where possible... he is focused on right and wrong.
• Where I prefer to see people empowered... he believes people should deliver - or leave.
• For me, integrity is in the process... for him, nothing matters beyond the goal.
• My eyes are usually up - looking ahead... his are firmly down - finding and tackling mistakes.

Extraordinarily gifted and generous... he's one of the cleverest people I know... he's also one of the thickest, most stubborn, infuriating, hurtful and irritating people I've ever met.

Now here's the rub.

According to Wikipedia (that source of gospel truth), by combining the four Myers-Briggs pairs in different ways, you get sixteen different types, which are not evenly distributed but each cover different proportions of the population. And, whilst INFJs like me represent between 1 and 3% of the population, my colleague and his ISTJ pals represent a much meatier 11 to 14%.

So, if it came to a fight in the office, I'd be outnumbered by about 5 to 1... a fact which my colleague would accurately predict, and then tell me afterwards that he 'told me so'... he would add that my pummelling was deserved... tell me in detail where I had gone wrong, and then forget all about it and move on to the next problem.

I, on the other hand, would honourably endure the injustice of the pasting, encourage him to take his time and have another go if he really wanted to... hate it for the damage that it might cause to the integrity of the group... and then work on ways to avoid such a conflict again by trying to promote the central vision of the team - thereby exasperating him by ignoring the detail...

Transferring this to our Christian lives makes me wonder whether this is what challenges us so much about church (meetings in particular). It's not that we want something inherently 'different' (or maybe we do)... it's just that the ways that we approach the whole question of how to get there are so different that we share little in common with the whole...

Interestingly, none of the personality types can lay claim to any more than 14% of the population, which means that whatever type we are - we're always in the minority. So there's no 'one' type who outnumber the others...

So key to being the church that God would want us to be is positively embracing the fact that we're different... and looking to him to build ongoing unity rather than to suppress difference...

... or at least that's how I see it...

... my colleague might prefer to take a vote - and then expect everyone to toe the line.