10 Responses

1. Interesting question

   Both have got a lot of heavyweight research behind them and have a lot going for them. But based on personal experience, I would pick HBDI without hesitation. 

   As an ‘end user’ I found MBTI interesting & helpful at work but never really impinged on me other than understanding the impact of my boarderline I/E rating.

   HBDI, on the other hand, remains the only such tool that has consistently helped me inside & outside the working environment.

   It helped me make sense of the way I think, the way others think and how to come up with ways to value & communicate with people who think in completely different ways. The profile also shows the differences in your thinking preferences under normal circumstances and when you are stressed – it is amazingly accurate.

   I also use the tool to help me to design training that appeals to different thinking styles (use a whole-brained approach), rather than risk getting caught up in my preferred thinking style and missing important aspects.

   I would love to hear other people’s views, but the bottom line is the best tool is the one you have faith in, can enthuse over & can apply the most effectively. For me that is HBDI, but I am sure you can find many for whom MBTI will be the one.

2. HBDI or MBTI or something else

   Both these tools are excellent and can be really useful at both an individual and team level. Like any tool they are only as good as the person using them so it is worth making sure you select someone accredited and experienced in their use generally and for the sort of purpose you are considering. 

   There are many other options but in a team context I particularly rate TMSDI which, like MBTI, is also based on Jung.

   However, deciding which tool is best depends on the sort of purpose you have in mind. In a teamworking sense, and in terms of understanding how and why people operate differently, I’d marginally prefer MBTI. If it is a training team, I think the spin off benefits of understanding the brain element, and how that relates to learners as well as colleagues, might just favour HBDI.

   In your request you suggest that you want to use a tool to help assess skills and identify possible development needs. I’m not sure either of these tools are really geared to that purpose. You may want something like http://www.stcsig.org/mgt/docs/Management%20Skill%20Assessment%20Tool1.pdf which you can adapt for your specific context.

   Best of luck

   Graham O’Connell

3. MBTI or HBDI?

   I think this may partly be a matter between ‘training’ (and acquiring specific skills for the role in question) and ‘development’ (for identifying future potential).

   That aside, I have used and admired MBTI for several decades,.  As all licensed pracitioners will know, "there are no right answers". – we are all allowably different.   In a learning context, it can certainly be helpful for participants to identify and access their own preferred learning mechanisms and possible blind-spots.  In a development context, it can be especially useful to highlight preferred behaviours more generally and areas for possible development.  But I wouldn’t use this for either purpose on its own, and certainly not in any formal assessment capacity.

   I am much less familiar with HBDI (but see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrmann_Brain_Dominance_Instrument) – which would appear to have its critics – as all such intruments might, because none are ‘perfect’.  But I suspect the same concerns might still apply.  And as far as I am aware, it may also be rather less culturally sensitive than MBTI in terms of validated scoring norms for different ethnicity.

   Frankly though, if I were a candidate for either training or development needs analysis, I’d ask for much more than a one-off profile, and some considerable triangulation of results – which might well include observed, work-based exercises against a well-researched competency-based profile, and probably additional peer-review feedback.  And I think this should most especially apply in a competitive development process, which may well be career-defining.

4. Good point Jeremy

   I know that for HBDI, they are very clear it is not designed as a tool to select people during the recruitment process.

   That said, I have found it exceptionally useful to share profiles within a team to understand what each person ‘brings to the party’ and for that it is great for opening up the debate, as is MBTI.

   Re the ethnicity relevence, I cannot comment on the research that went into it. All I can can say is that when I first experienced HBDI I was in the Middle East & our entire office was made up of 40+ people from across the globe (5 continents, but no polar bears). We were all profiled & my boss (who was a HBDI practitioner) had demi-god status amongst the entire team; I never heard anyone who didn’t love it.

   Tis but a small snapshot I know but loving the debate.

5. Answering a question with a question…

   … I hate it when people do this to me, sorry, but I’ve got to ask… are you thinking of the traditional Step 1 MBTI only? Or the more advanced Step 2?

   If it’s the former, I’d say toss a coin – if you can do the latter, I’d go MBTI2 certainly – I’ve always found it to be a massively powerful tool for teams.  The downside of the Step 2, of course, is the extra time and cost. 😉

   Cheers….  Simon

   PS: For both though (at risk of teaching my grandmother to suck eggs!) beware assuming the results corellate with talents or skills!  For both, AFAIK, the results indicate preferences/trends/habits/etc not strengths, as such.

    

6. Thanks

   Thanks every one for your inputs so far. I am researching on both the methods according to the way we plan to use it internally. Thank you very much for your valuable time.

   Keep in touch … ! 

7. HBDI does work

    As a coaching development company we would always favour HBDI over MBTI in any environment where it is breaking down team barriers, enhancing creative or working with diversity/conflict.  MBTI has its place for individuals development but in my business we find HBDI excellent, I would highly recommend it.

8. HBDI or MBTO

   It was really intereting to read the all the comments.  I had an MBTI profile done on me in the mid 1990’s and found it extremely accurate.  However, I couldn’t tell you now what I came out as, as I did find the various combinations of letters very confusing and not easy to retain.

   I have since trained to become an accredited HBDI facilitator and find this method far more effective in every way.  As already said, it represent whole brain thinking, whilst I felt with MBTI I had been put into a box and the whole of me had not been honoured or celebrated.  HBDI, for me, offers a much more rounded view of a person and in my experience of using it over the years with clients, it is consistently received well.  Everyone responds very positively and can see how to easily apply the information learnt in every areas of their life, not simply at work.  They can instantly recognise colleagues, manager and team members, they find the tools acquired easy to apply to allow them to adjust the communciation style to ‘meet’ everyone they work with.  As a result, the information is retained more easily and is more sustainable, helping to create long term change and shift in thinking for the organisation and the individuals.

   I have found HBDI to be an exceptional tool for team buidling, to help any organisation going through periods of change and reorganisation, which has bene the back bone of the work I have undertaken most recently.  It is excellent for customer service and communication and offers an practical add on for Managers to work with the teams effectively and with consistent good results.

   I do find it useful, too, to have discusssions with organisations in termsm of their recruitment.  Many a time I have worked with quite small companies who are struggling, only to find the profile of the people employed is virtually the same, therefore offering no alternative thought pattern or skill set.  Once this has been identified it becomes much easier to plan a way forward by actively looking for people with the HBDI profile different to those already employed, and for the people already there to pratice strengthening their least preferred style.  This works just as well with teams within large organisations.

   So overall, whilst I absolutely accept MBTI has its place within the training arena, I would always vote for HBDI as my preference.

9. Old hat! 🙂

    Hi Katie… find the facilitator who made you feel you’d been put in a box and shoot them!  That’s absolutely NOT what MBTI is about…

   As a side issue, that long ago you’d only have done the Step 1 tool.  I’m not sure many people use that any more, now that the more sophisticated and robust Step 2 has been available for quite a few years.  Comparing Step1 with the alternatives is a bit like apples and oranges!  🙂

    

   S

    

10. We have been using HBDI for
    We have been using HBDI for over a decade and we use MBTI, though less so. I prefer HBDI for its simplicity and because whenever I aks someone for their MBTI letters they usually cannot remember them, where was they can remember their HBDI colour.

    MBTI provides much greater depth. Unfortunately most teams and people do not need unitl they have begun using the first few levels of discovery to become more effective.

    We particularly use HBDI for team building: http://www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk/training-courses/team-building-training-course-outline/