Strategic Serendipity

If you've been on social media the past 24 hours you've seen the infamous page from the April Issue of Self Magazine.  Check them out here .  You may have even seen the half-hearted, tongue-in-cheek apology from the magazine's Editor-in-Chief.  Opinions are flaring and some are siding with the magazine and some are siding with the women pictured in the article and their company Glam Runner.  For the record, I am very strongly on the side of the women pictured and very offended by the article, regardless of whether Ms. Allen was a cancer survivor.  Here's the point the magazine has missed entirely up to this point - sometimes just starting the race or just finishing the race is a major accomplishment.  If people want to put on "armor" to face a challenge like a tutu, face-paint, custom t-shirt, etc. who cares?  Not everything is about being the fastest or being first or being stylish.  Unless you are magazine for marathon winners, you probably want...

Shame on the Washington Post for its one-sided article about MBTI yesterday and its thinly veiled criticism of using it for professional development in federal agencies (and no I will not give the courtesy of a link).  The author uses a quote from a professor of industrial psychology at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School that equates the usefulness of the MBTI to that of the horoscope.  After acknowledging that "A common line from supporters is that the test starts an important dialogue around who we are and how we interact with others," the author uses a quote from a Cambridge psychology professor who says “Insight from the Myers-Briggs can start that conversation, but unfortunately it often ends the conversation. You’ve got your type stamped on your forehead.” For those who use MBTI to coach and develop others nothing could be further from the truth.  We use the MBTI to help individuals understand their preferences on each of four dichotomies while remind...