SQUARE, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, SQUIGGLE????

SQUARE, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, SQUIGGLE????

Here is my response to one of the 73 people who have responded to a THINKING STYLE SURVEY I am currently running.  117 have volunteered so far. 73 have responded that I have assembled their data and analyzed it.

The 4 Shapes exercise is one I came across decades ago.

During some conferences and very short presentations I have used it off and on since CPSI's Winterfest in 2004 instead of using my M.I.N.D. Design.

I was actually hired to do a dinner keynote speech at a conference that year because I had used it at Winterfest.

Over the past 8 years I have included it also in longer programs as a doublecheck against my MIND Design and other instruments out of curiosity and to demonstrate to people that whether you ask for a shape, 9 questions, 20 questions, 120 questions or many more.....

The key point is that we have THINKING STYLE "PREFERENCES" and they can cause problems working with other people, whether one on one, in teams or in larger groups.

None of them actually depict THINKING STYLES, only an apparent PREFERENCE, and most of the time those are STEREOTYPIC and not how people truly do THINK.

While I was in South Africa and Namibia presenting at 3 creativity conferences and then for a few other audiences: high school (all 800 students), all the teachers, about 100 business entrepreneurs at Business Engage (a networking assn), PSASA-Joberg (Professional Speakers Association of South Africa), CSIR (a client...giant THINK TANK supported by the SA government that I have done a couple other programs for), a gathering at a new creativity focused group: Creativity Cafe, and at my friend's LAUNCH of her brand new "aHa! Idea Catalyst Centre" I experimented by using the 3 different approaches to using the shapes...

1. pick one
2. arrange them in order
3. rate them

Also when I had the groups PICK ONCE I had them go to the 4 corners of the room representing the shapes.....square (left front), triangle (left rear), circle (right rear), squiggle (right front).

Then I asked the people to talk about why they chose the specific shape over the others.

Next I asked the people to go to the corner of their least liked shape and talk about why they didn't pick it.

Finally I had them go back to the first corner and then I handed each group a list of 10 traits that "MIGHT" be descriptive of people who chose that shape's apparent THINKING STYLE PREFERENCE.

Are the shapes truly representative of their THINKING STYLE PREFERENCES?

More often than not they appear to be based upon the now hundreds of times I used it and had people go to that corner and then I shared traits of those shapes.

Is it accurate....?

Hmmm?

I don't see it unanimous.  It appears to be somewhat close or predictive.

My survey is meant to provide evidence to verify that there might be a correlation between the 4 SHAPES exercise and other questionnaires.

So far too few people who have responded have provided consistent information to make that statement.

Alan