Nurturing collaboration: A CLO’s guide to mediation

Even if there’s not an actual conflict, understanding personality types can help everyone in your organization communicate with their team members more effectively, setting the stage for deeper collaboration.

To foster cross-departmental collaboration and teamwork, chief learning officers are well-positioned to build and nurture a safe, transparent culture in which information flows freely across their organization.

In this article, I will focus on conflicting personalities within the workplace. In my last three articles, I have mostly written about creating the right conditions for collaboration to occur. However, in some cases, it’s actually a matter of two different personality types not knowing how to communicate.

Even if there’s not an actual conflict, understanding personality types can help everyone in your organization communicate with their team members more effectively, setting the stage for deeper collaboration.

Your personality type primer

One thing that CLOs need to instill in their teams is that adapting your personality is very hard, but equipping people with tools to work with people who may or may not have the same style as you is critical to breaking down silos, eliminating bottlenecks and fostering a culture of collaboration.

While there are many personality assessments — from Myers-Briggs to Enneagram — below I will share a high-level description of the four primary DISC personality types. When CLOs are designing collaboration or conflict resolution programs focused on working with someone different from you, this kind of knowledge is very valuable

Dominant type

How to spot them

• Self-reliant, result-oriented and competitive
• Makes decisions firmly and quickly
• Comfortable being in charge and delegating

How to work with them

• Be direct and straightforward, getting right to the point
• Give them enough autonomy so they can move at a fast pace
• Communicate in a logical, objective manner

Influential type

How to spot them

• Enthusiastic, positive and social
• Enjoys working in teams
• Encourages and motivates others

Read the complete article here.