Lead people
Big Five working styles
Also called OCEAN, Big Five personality traits
Each person places themselves on five personality traits to share how they like to work, and the team agrees how to work across differences.
- Time30 to 60 minutes
- People3 to 10 people
- Steps3
What it's for
Psychologists describe personality with five broad traits: openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and sensitivity to stress (often called neuroticism). No end of any trait is better than the other. Knowing where people sit explains a lot of small frictions, such as why one person wants a plan and another wants options.
This is a self-description, not a test. People place only themselves, share what they want to, and the conversation is about working together, not labels.
How to run it
Place yourself10 min
Each person puts a note with their name in each row, where they think they sit.
Share one thing15 min
Each person says what one of their placements means for how they like to work.
Work across the differences15 min
Where are the team's widest spreads, and what will you do so both ends can work well?
Tips
- Don't place anyone else. Guessing someone's personality in front of them rarely goes well.
- A team spread across every row is a strength, as long as people know it.
Where it comes from
The Big Five grew out of decades of research into how people describe personality, from Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal in 1961 to Lewis Goldberg, who named it, and Paul Costa and Robert McCrae in the 1980s and 1990s.
Pairs well with
Personal maps
Each person draws a mind map of themselves (home, work, hobbies, values) so a team learns who it is working with.
User manual for me
Each person writes a short guide to working with them: how they like to communicate and get feedback, and what helps them do their best work.
Three needs theory
Each person places themselves between achievement, affiliation and power, so the team sees what drives each of them and where they might clash.