MBTI, TKI, and Conflict

Have I told you lately how much I love the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)?  If you've ever read one of my posts or followed me on Twitter you already knew that, but I'm not one dimensional.  I love plenty of other things...taking pictures, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, LOST, Heroes and Fringe, etc.  Oh, and I also like many other personality assessments.

The MBTI is a wonderful tool for gaining insight into leadership, communication, and decision making styles.  It is also phenomenal for addressing Conflict.  However, when looking at conflict, I also prefer to use the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI).  In fact, I typically use the MBTI and TKI in combination to better understand how to approach the conflict situation.

The MBTI contributes to the conflict situation by helping explain communication styles, orientation to the world, and how you internalize information.  

The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) is the world’s best-selling instrument for understanding how different conflict-handling modes, or styles, affect interpersonal and group dynamics and for learning how to select the most appropriate style for a given situation.  In other words, the TKI is based on the situation, and the MBTI is based on your innate personality preferences.  Using the two together gives you a more robust understanding of how each individual approaches a conflict situation.

The TKI contributes to the conversation by explaining your most common response to a conflict situation.  There are 5 conflict modes according to the TKI:

• Competing-  High assertiveness and low cooperativeness. The goal is "to win."
• Collaborating-  High assertiveness and high cooperativeness. The goal is "to find a win-win solution."
• Compromising- Moderate assertiveness and moderate cooperativeness. The goal is "to find a middle ground."
• Avoiding- Low assertiveness and low cooperativeness. The goal is "to delay."
• Accommodating- Low assertiveness and high cooperativeness. The goal is "to yield."

Once you understand your preferred conflict style, you can learn to assess the situation and decide whether or not that approach is positive or beneficial and then adapt to the situation.

The TKI Interpretive report is narrative and offers suggestions for how to more effectively approach a conflict depending on the situation.  You can see the Interpretive Report here.

Additionally, the TKI is an A-level report meaning that you do not need any specific certification to obtain the assessment.  However, to aid your ability to debrief and train to the TKI, there are several trainer support materials here.