Creating Comfort: Promoting psychological safety through personality profiling

Have you ever done one of those personality profile tests where you’re given a colour? And no, I don’t mean one of those quizzes to find out which house you’d be in at Hogwarts. What I’m talking about is where some magic monkeys, also not at Hogwarts, perfectly sum up my personality and communication style based on the 25 questions I answered because I had 15 minutes where I didn’t want to look at my inbox.

Yes, those questionnaires.

As you can probably tell, I was (and still am to some degree) a sceptic. It feels a bit too hocus-pocus-wingardium-leviosa-ry for my liking.

That being said, I’ve found it wonderfully enlightening and useful. Not so much the part where it explains who I am (I’m fully aware of how amazing I am, and as stereotypical as it may be, I’m in Gryffindor), but to help me recognise other personality types, how they work and how they would like to be communicated with.

Using Insights Discovery for profiling

I’ve always known that I’m often a loud voice, like to lead, and need to understand the data to make decisions. So when the Laughology team used Insights Discovery for team profiling, and I found out I was a ‘blue’ with ‘red’ tendencies, it was no surprise. But something I hadn’t put too much thought into was my blind spots (funny that, right?).

I now recognise that ‘yellows’ are my blind spot. Especially when I’m at work, and there’s a job to be done. I’ll dive in with a solution that’s the quickest way from A to B. Yellows might not think like this. They will likely want to bring the team together, share possibilities and discuss the bigger picture.

These all sound like fantastic things to do. Except, my blue/red brain doesn’t want to talk about it; I just want to get it done.

Neither option is right. Both can be beneficial in different scenarios. For example, I’ve been told I’m great in emergency/urgent situations. I take control, quickly work out the course of action and get sh*t done. My very yellow sister, on the other hand, wouldn’t have a clue where to start. She would panic.

The converse of that is my sister can plan a surprise party for my mum and dad, with over 100 guests and have time for every single one of them, finding ways to include each individual in the day. My mind can’t comprehend that.

Knowing our differences to feel psychologically safe

Maybe growing up with a yellow sister has helped me out with working at Laughology. I often joke that they hired me to do the organising because nobody wanted to do it. Now, there’s some truth in this. A lot of our Laughologists are wonderful, creative people. Their strengths are on stage, leading sessions and being playful with teams and organisations. And without naming names (you know who you are), the work pre-session organisation and planning isn’t something they always enjoy or excel at. Which I’m super glad about because it means I have a job!

I’m also very conscious of the fact that my personality type can lead to strong and forceful language. I want to get jobs done, so I often forget that ‘human’ element. Do you ever send a message to a colleague that’s entirely work-related, to then realise you haven’t asked them how their holiday was or what they got up to for their birthday? It’s at that point I send a second text, almost apologising for my single-mindedness and asking the ‘nice’ stuff.

At Laughology, we’re great at recognising these differences. We’ve all done personality profiling through Insights. We all shared the results with each other and gave ourselves the time to chat about how we interact moving forward.

I’m sure on a few occasions you’ve received a short, sharp email with lots of full stops and thought to yourself, ‘Who do they think they are?’ or maybe something even ruder… we’re not here to judge. However, I often message people like this when I’ve got loads to do and just need to tick this job off the list. I don’t mean any ill intention; it’s just getting the job done with the least amount of effort. It’s not always malicious – only sometimes.

One of the main reasons I love working at Laughology is the psychological safety that’s created by each one of us understanding that we work slightly differently. Because we feel safe, we are able to question each other curiously and playfully.

As someone who is sceptical of personality profiling, I’ve still found it extremely useful when knowing how to interact with others. We offer Insights as part of our Team Building workshops, and the feedback is so frequently similar to my experiences – unsure at first, but then the realisation that it’s a brilliant way of getting people to think differently and communicate efficiently.

So, as much as I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of that scepticism completely, I am fascinated by the unique takeaways each person has from their profiles. 

Maybe the magic monkeys do know what they’re doing after all?!

If you’d like to have us come in to use Insights Discovery with your team, get in touch with Doug - doug@laughology.co.uk - and he’ll explain what we offer. And as he said, he likes to get sh*t done, so you can be sure of a very prompt response.

Doug Green has nearly a decade of experience in training and consultancy and is our learning and development coordinator. He works closely with customers to understand the needs of their business and to ensure learning opportunities are maximised during sessions. He’s also half German but don’t worry, he still has a good sense of humour.