Articles
The Map is not the Ground
– or How to increase and ease acceptance and engagement with MBTI™.
This article describes an exercise/demo that I often use, at the start of type sessions, or as an answer to some questions or objections if they arise. It is great for easing any anxiety about ‘boxing’ or ‘categorising’ that people may have.
When I first met the NLP belief “The Map is not the Ground”, I sort of understood it at a “yes and so what…..?” level. I didn’t understand what it really meant in terms of application. It was only when, in discussion with colleagues, that we devised the following exercise that the belief really became clear and more importantly the impact on our use and explanation of MBTI™ and type.
Let me describe it.
- I have 5 maps of the Isle Of Wight – (but choose any area people will recognise) – A road atlas, an Ordnance Survey 1:25000, an OS 1:50000, a A-Z street map and a marine chart.
- I spread them out on the floor in the middle of the group.
- I ask “What can you see?” and usually someone will say, or already have said “Oh, the Isle of Wight”
- I ask “So can you see the Isle of Wight”
- I get the reply “Yes” or at that point someone will say “Well OK it’s a map of the Isle of Wight.”
- Depending on previous I ask “So can you really see the Isle of Wight?” and at some point the agreement, that it’s just a map emerges.
I then pick up and go with this and say
“yes the map is not the real thing, it is just a representation of some aspects of reality, a piece of paper with ink on it. The reality is the rock, mud, buildings etc that are 50 miles over there…..”
“And you may be wondering what on earth this has to do with a questionnaire and personality? Well MBTI™ is just a map it is not reality, it is a map for understanding some aspects of our psychology as human beings, it isn’t reality, YOU are reality.”
Commonly the following discussion ensues.
I then relate my experience at the APT conference where most introductions were, with a quick glance to my name badge
“Oh hi, you’re Phil and…you’re INFP”.
I felt people were relating to the Map more than to me as an individual and I wanted to say
“yes and I’m a developer, potter, sailor and a father and I live in Portsmouth…”
I say something like
“Reality is much more than any map and let me illustrate what can happen/was happening”.
I then pick up one of the maps and talk through,
if I’m going to talk to a client, who I have maybe found difficult, and someone shows me a map of how they think, that could be really valuable. So I try it and it works, and the next time I go and see them I consult the map first. I then hold the map up in front of my face to show the danger of only looking at the map because I lose sight of the real person.
I then ask
“So which is the best map?”
by which time people have cottoned on and say
“well it depends on what you’re doing”.
Going with that, I make the point that effective people are usually good at picking up and working with different maps as appropriate. Ineffective people see the value in a map and then try and use it for everything. For example if I sail in the Solent and I’m fed up with running aground, when someone shows me a marine chart and how to use it, I will think great, brilliant, best thing since sliced bread…….and if I then use the marine chart for a cycling holiday across the Island….I get in trouble.
So MBTI™ is a map, there are others that people will have met Belbin, Firo, etc (whatever they may have met – astrology even). We think it’s an accurate map for a lot of circumstances, it seems to work and it doesn’t invalidate others that people find useful.
By this time there is probably enough pulled out of this metaphor but some extras and points that can be used to answer questions later on in the event are –
There is little point in arguing about what’s the same/different in each map. It may be useful when moving from one to another. Also sometimes the same reality is represented in different ways (road colours etc) and sometimes there is something on one map that is not on another. I think this comes to light particularly if a group is familiar with Belbin – Steve Myers has some material on correlations (Belbin/MBTI™) in that there are some fits and for other types/roles there is no fit, i.e. there are some things on one map that are not contained in the other. I find the same when working with the Enneagram, there are some correlations to MBTI™ and loads of exceptions and it, for me, can be a diversion to get hung up the details of these. They are different maps.
- What is also very useful is to say, when discussing personal development,
- this is where I’m going, so what does this map tell me (MBTI™)
- and what does this one tell me (Enneagram or others).
In business terms, what’s the Job to be done? What can this map inform us about it? What else should we consider? When people are discussing the preferences and someone says “yes I think I’m Extravert but I don’t quite do it like that”
It’s great to be able to refer back to the maps analogy. For example an O.S. map has areas of woodland marked that are all the same colour and described as the same thing. The reality on the ground is beautifully varied – enjoy!
The final point, which has only come up a few times, can be very profound. It’s particularly relevant in Enneagram work where world views are part of the model.
A delegate once said
“and of course if you and I are standing on the same spot, same time, on the isle of Wight, we would be experiencing a different reality – or the same reality in different ways”.
People’s world views and what we “foreground” and “background” are very different.
So, along with my 6 lengths of rope for the living type table, the set of maps is part of my kit for any type session, not always used but very good to have. It is also easy to improvise, so recently when doing a session for Russian BBC staff in Moscow, the Isle of Wight might not have worked(!), but the hotel reception had a couple of formats of street maps and there was a separate one for the Metro/Buses etc.
Which also brings to mind the London Underground. Transport for London have the “Real Underground map” on their web site. Worth a look as it morphs from what we know, the stylised graphic diagram, which is very usable, to the real positions of the stations which look weird. So there’s plenty there about sometimes maps distort reality to make them more useable.
I wonder how much does MBTI™ distort reality to make it more useable? Discuss…….
Phil Dickinson
