ESFJ

Here is what I have learned in b-school: I am an ESFJ and I am yellow. I also can likely tell you what color you are and what your Myers-Briggs indicator is -- remember people, it is not a test, just an indicator (a point ingrained in us after 3 days of training).

The program hired consultants to help us understand our types and learn to work together in our assigned "high-performance" teams. Now, by defining people as mere colors and categories, I know why I enjoyed my previous job and what works in my new team - both truly high performance teams.

Despite my cynicism about it at times, it actually has been very insightful. My current team is top notch. We have three reds, a blue and a yellow - I suppose brown is the group color though... In any case, here's what that means: we have three who execute to results, one who likes compliance and one (me) who harmonizes the bunch. But beyond colors and indicators, we really have:

• An amazingly humble former U.S. pediatrician who has taught us to love someone idea for at least 5 minutes - to at least be open to hearing the other side.
• A former Israeli lawyer and NGO worker who is so creative and passionate about building a team, you can't help but "love her idea for at least 5 minutes"
• An Australian renaissance man who seems to make sense of it all by explaining in English what we've all been saying...in English (I swear he is a yellow)
• A brilliant young introvert that has taught us "E" types to ask more questions and talk a little less.
• and me.

It's an amazing team that I'm looking forward to working with for the rest of the semester, hopefully year. But again, what I really take from all of this is how I can psycho-analyze each one of you to explain away any behavior in my effort to harmonize the world, as yellows do.

And all of this, I learned in b-school.