Finding Strengths

Last week my team at work all took the Strengths Finder 2.0 test and then got together for a 4-hour brainstorm and team-building meeting. I have taken several of these types of personality assessments before and I'm always eager to answer the seemingly endless multi-choice questions in the hopes of learning something new and profound about myself.

That has yet to happen.

Usually what comes out of these tests are things I already know about myself: I am an introvert, I have a strong work ethic, and I like to think before acting. Perhaps it is a good thing that I already have a good sense of my working style, but it is entertaining to read through the results and say, "yup that's me!" What is great about these tests is that they provide some actionable feedback for me about how to work with people of other "types" or "strengths" depending on what system is being used. 

Being a designer of software products, I could not help but notice how painful it was to take the assessment itself from the Strengths Finder website. First of all, the unique access code in the book was a long string of capital letters and numbers without any spacing or dashes. Entering the code online took a lot of double-checking and glances from paper to screen to make sure I got it right. Next, the radio buttons on the multiple choice questions were very tiny click targets. The amount of precision it takes to click the right target plus the length of the test was pretty tiring! 

Anyhow, there are many more details of the Strengths Finder "experience" I could pick on, but overall I am very glad we did it as a team!