U R A P? I R A P 2! o-o

Many of you will be familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a test designed to predict a person's personality preferences, as first suggested by Carl Jung in his descriptions of typology. One pair of possibilities is the 'J' or the 'P' type. P stands for Perceiving, J for Judging.

J's and P's are often the bane of each other's existence. J types are decision makers. They work well with structure, time limits and specific goals. P types are more open-ended. They prefer the process to the outcome, are often unaware of time and space, and the details necessary to reach a particular goal.

I am a 'P'. It is definitely my preference to take whatever time is necessary to gather information or finish a task. How can you stop, just because the clock hands are straight up, when you're getting such good data, such interesting responses?

The other chaplain I work with is a 'J'. She is always on the move, quickly, getting from here to there, finishing this and that. Quantity seems to attract her more than quality, but that may not be fair. When we work together, I try to do my part to organize, be timely, plan ahead, so that I won't drive her crazy. When we led a grief group together, it worked out all right. When we do another, I will take a little more latitude to do what I do well. We'll have better snacks, more thoughtful questions, a little more leeway in our agenda.

I'm doing a grief group for children now, with a social worker who is new to our agency but has lots of experience with children. Now that we have done four weeks of groups, I can see that he is a 'P'. He leaves all the snacks, set-up and planning to me, not by agreement but by default. The curriculum-- I don't know who chose it, but it isn't very age appropriate. I suppose we didn't know who would show up for the group when it was first set up.

It's a strange feeling to be a 'P' and be responsible for getting things begun and ended on time, set up effectively, etc. I had an EFM group for four years that had many 'J' members, yet I was the one who had to round them up to get them started on time and herd them along to finish the evening by 9. I am more sympathetic when it's another 'P' I'm working with, but still, it's a surprise to find myself needing to fill that role.