Appreciating Differences - Jack Falt - Ottawa area, Ontario, Canada

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Teaching Game Review by Jack Falt

Thiagarajan, Sivasailam “Thiagi,” The Type Deal: Card Games for Mastering the MBTI® Preferences, Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychological Press, Inc., 2002, ISBN - None, loose-leaf binder 6o pp, 120 cards, reproducible masters.

When teaching new concepts the tendency is to talk the audience to death in hopes that the material will somehow stick. Yet when you tell people you are an MBTI® facilitator, how many times have they said, “Oh, I took that once.” When you ask their type, they can’t remember. No matter how fascinating the presenter is, people have to become involved for it to stick in their memories and therefore have a chance of actually being of use to them.

We need to engage our audience and games are an effective method to do just that. People may groan and grumble a bit, but once they are into a game, they become actively interested. Our “competitive” gene seems to kick in.

This material provides 10 games plus a bonus game to play with a deck of cards. There are reproducible masters to use as overheads or as handouts. These master are to define the eight preferences and as rules of the game for each team to have on hand. The games can be used with large groups or small groups. If you have a fairly large group, you will probably need additional decks of cards. Many of the games are variations on traditional playing card games using suits and values of the cards. There is even a solitaire game.

The cards consist of blank cards (wild cards), eight preference cards, and 104 numbered cards each with a word or statement that can be identified with one of the eight preferences. The overall object of each game is to help identify the preference of each of these words or statements.

The competitive nature of games encourages people to try to determine the preferences rather than passively listening to a presentation.

The games are useful when presenting a traditional version of the Jung/Myers theory. With the greater emphasis today on the cognitive processes you would need to adapt the games and come up with statements that related to introverted Sensing, extraverted thinking, etc.

The other limitation that facilitators often encounter is the time to use these games. We don’t often have the luxury of extra time to just play.

Overall, this material is an excellent way to learn to identify the various preferences in an enjoyable way. Even staid bottom-line executives might let their inner child out long enough to have some fun with the games. It definitely would be a hit at a Personality Type chapter meeting.

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