Everybody sees the world through their own lens, contributes to the world in their own unique way and builds relationships based on their own preferences.

I am fascinated by the art and science of personality types, which I believe, provides us some great tools to better understand first ourselves and then others, leading to richer relationships and more effective ways of working together.

There are many different models for understanding type, my favorite system is Insights.com which is where the four color image in the post is from.

The Insights system is based on Carl Jung’s psychological types, published in 1923. (I am predominantly blue, then yellow then red, with green coming in last – a 136 on the Insights Wheel, aka a Creative Reformer)

Also based on Jung’s work is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator   (I am a INTP in this system)

This system has some nice free evaluators on-line where you can find out your type: Here is one I like

Some of these systems date back thousands of years, one you may recognize is an interpretation of Hippocrates (sanguine, melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic). I found an indepth article on the history and comparison here.

In a couple of hours from now, I am presenting a weave a Big Ooga Event, a gathering of entrepreneurs and professionals, who are asking what can we do together to create a more abundant economy.

You can see these talented and devoted people here on the second Big Ooga Biz Bonding Weave. One of the views, which you can see by clicking “important four”, is an introduction to a view of typology.

My challenge is how to present these ideas in 5 minutes, so that we can use the tool of typology to see beyond our own lens, so that we may indeed work together to create greater abundance.