Human Art vs. Other Personality Tests: Sensing vs. Intuitive

Posted on February 19, 2019May 30, 2023 by Brook Thornley

Picture yourself in a directive situation. It could be a classroom setting, or in a lecture, or possibly even listening to a video. What do you imagine you are doing? How is the information affecting you? More importantly, how are you taking it in or experiencing it? What dynamics come up? How aware are you of what is going on with your senses, and how much do you intuitively take in? Most self-report tests measure you in one or the other – sensing or intuition. At Human Art we look at both.

“It’s hard to separate sensing and feeling. For example, we all think in the here and now, but we can’t help but consider the possibilities of the future.”
-Rod Thornley, Clinical Director of Human Art

Children are a great example of this dynamic. You can watch them experience life and see this sensing and intuition happening. We have a pond near our home. It is in the center of a park and it is large. It has a bridge and many paths around it. The children in the neighborhood love to go there in the summer and catch frogs. They study them and then throw them back. Every once in a while, a child will do as the others do and take their bucket to the park and join in with the others catching frogs and observing them; then it occurs to them that they want to take it home. Let’s break down what happens just prior to them getting home, mom seeing the frog, and the well-known, and expected, march back to the pond to return the frog to his home.

The child might experience the frog by taking him out of the bucket. The sensing part will kick in first. The child will take the frog in his hands and feel the slime that coats the frog, he might sense the smell of the pond in the area around the frog. He moves on to how any mud left on the frog’s skin slithers around on his hands and makes it difficult to hold on to the frog.

It is at this point he moves to the intuitive part of his experience. It might occur to him right then that his mom might not be happy with the new member of the family that the child brings home. He might be wondering how the frog is going to like his home. He is now thinking intuitively by processing what could happen in the future.

We all have and experience both sensing and intuition. Depending on how we are made up, our design or our personality is how each of us would respond to the frog situation as a child. Some might think intuitively first, before the sensing experience. Others might alternate between the two very quickly and often. The important thing to remember is that we have both and we all have different degrees. So as unique as each human is, is how unique we will experience life and move in and out of sensing vs intuition. The point is to learn how you do it and then support yourself in it.

Your call to action today is to really evaluate how you do it. You would ask yourself in any given situation, “what would I do?” “How long do I stay in each?” Use your relationship with yourself. Have “self-talk” and learn to collect information from yourself in an honest way; not to please or impress others, but to really get to know yourself. Then take a step toward supporting yourself. Use this information as you better collaborate with others. It could be as simple as explaining the frog dynamic. You might find yourself standing up for yourself and really learning to love yourself.

You are unique, you are one of a kind. So is your neighbor, and whoever you interact with in a given day. Celebrate you, celebrate others, and remember everyone is a masterpiece.

Brook

Human Art vs Other Personality Tests: Thinking vs. Feeling

Posted on February 12, 2019May 30, 2023 by Brook Thornley

“Based on another test, I am a thinker not a feeler,” was the statement from one client. It is not the first time this issue has come up from clients that have been profiled by other personality tests (others might say they were told they are a feeler). One said that after taking a test that put them in a thinker category, they became very self-conscious about being perceived as cold and aloof. They find themselves being preoccupied in groups; worrying about how they are coming across and if it is too cold. They expressed they feel as though they have lost their natural curiosity when they are with other people because they are worried about it. This is an example of what happens when a personality test of any sort is limiting. If we start to specialize humans too much, we find ourselves in a place that we might be hurting more than we are helping.

In my opinion, a far more superior system is when we look for patterns and equations of how they do both thinking and feeling. At Human Art you have a profile of how you authentically think and how you authentically feel. We all do both. It might be in a different order or in different degrees. It can even show up differently when in different settings. Human Art can define that for you.

The most important step is that we, as a society of humans, really settle in to the idea that we are all beautiful in our own right. And defining the complexity of each one of us is far more rewarding than categorizing our ability or traits in too much of a simplistic way. I will tell you that over the years I have fought for this. We have had so many well-intentioned and intelligent people try to convince us that, from a business stand point, it is better to just identify each person with one or two of the Human Art designs (rather than a unique combination of all four) to make it more duplicatable. We refuse to do that because it is not authentic. I tell you that you as a human have the God-given right to have someone take the time to see you for who you really are. From your most obvious and predominant trait to the one that is so small it might be a just a “fume” – that “fume” changes everything that we think we know about you.

Showing the amounts and the order for each of the designs is the key to helping people fall in love with their authenticity again. The amount of thinker and the amount of feeler that you are, and what it looks like for each individual. We can talk about what it feels like to you and also what it looks and feels like to others around you.

Let’s go back and look at the client that was worried about coming across too cold. Her original test was correct in that she is a “thinker” first, but it failed to measure how fast the “feeling” part of her design accompanied that. It was amazing to me how fast it was. She is high in what we call the Saturated Design. Her thinking is done in an introverted, clear way, but immediately her feeling part of her design accompanies the thinking. This would lead her to move right away to how she felt about the things that she was drawing conclusions about. I saw it time and time again when I watched her interact with others. It was so beautiful to me. The minute that happened (the thinking) she would turn her head slightly, her chin would shift smoothly in the direction of her left shoulder, and she would immediately start to ask questions and deduct how the conversation was making the other person feel. She already knew how she felt because she is such a clear thinker. So before the person she was interacting with even has time to deem her cold, she was swimming in a pool of empathy for that person. No time at all for aloof feelings, just understanding. I also noticed that when she was preoccupied with the results of the prior test, her authentic come across, or that shift to feelings, would not happen. We did not get to experience that observable empathy because of her worry, so she would actually get more of what she was afraid of—negative reactions and less authenticity. When she was more authentic and understood herself, her Saturated and Blackened design did the thinking first and then quickly moved her into her Grayed that felt things in an intuitive way and with compassion and sensitivity.

I had a conversation with another client who is very high in her ability to feel. She took a test that was helping her employer define the best task for her and they came up with the task of typing. They actually told her that she should focus only on that. That is just far to limiting for this particular client, or for any other human being. In Human Art, we would see that this person is high in the Whitened personality and has large amounts of it at first. This type of feeler is a free spirit and full of natural curiosity with no guile. She is very curious and full of spontaneity. She loves social interactions and can enroll others easily. Taking a test that is too simplistic would see that and be able to point that out. What it would miss is that she then has an underlying amount of thinker that is done in a serious and detailed way. These come from her second and third designs. That means she has the ability to be serious and logical in her tasks as well. This is critical to know. I agree with the original test based on the Myers-Briggs, she would be an excellent typist, but it falls too short and depreciates the breadth of what she can do. Her employer is missing out on so much that she has to offer by basing their idea of her abilities on such a narrow perspective. That is the mindset we are trying to challenge.

So again, I worry that when tests that are accurate in the application but not the complexity, they run the risk of marginalizing or devaluing the totality and the capability of what a person can offer. You run the risk of putting someone in a corner to do a job and, though they will do it well, they could also have the potential and the desire to be more—maybe even a great executive. It is not just in business this happens. It is in family, friendships, learning settings, and social settings.

The point I am adamant about making is that we all have something so unique to add to this great earth and it is time to get smarter about discovering it. We as a human race can define other complex systems and we have evolved enough and are intelligent enough to demand them. We wouldn’t settle for limited or simplistic ways of interacting and contacting each other, so we demanded it until we got social media and better networks. We knew we were falling short of how we take care of ourselves, so we are constantly finding ways to be healthier—we demand it. It is time to want a more complex system to measure a person, and to demand for ourselves nothing short of our full and complete authenticity. You need to find it, we can define it, and we all need to require it of each other. We are unique, we are all complex, we are all beautiful, we are all one of a kind.

We cannot settle for anything less, because everyone is a masterpiece.

Brook

To learn more about Human Art: The Original Personality Test, visit our website at https://theoriginalpersonalitytest.com

Human Art and Myers-Briggs — How Do We Compare to Other Personality Tests?

Posted on February 4, 2019May 30, 2023 by Brook Thornley

When someone new runs across Human Art, our personality methodology, they are often very curious as to how our methodology compares to other personality typing approaches. There are many that we are aware of and probably a few that we are not. One that comes up a lot because it is so well known is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Several of the other personality tests are also a spin-off of the Myers-Briggs, so we will use that as an example to compare, but know that this analysis also applies to the other tests.

Self Report vs. Empirical

The first important distinction is that the Myers-Briggs (as well as others) is based on self-report; meaning you are answering questions or providing the information yourself. Human Art, on the other hand, is empirically based so it is observable. You do not need to take a test to see one’s personality. You can simply start to deduct what their design or personality is within seconds of them walking through the door or approaching them.

This is important for several reasons but the most obvious is that when needing the benefits of a personality test you do not always have the luxury of sitting down, administering a test, sending it in to an expert to evaluate it and draw conclusions and then sending the results back to you. With Human Art you start to get a clear view of someone’s personality within seconds, and you can do it for yourself. We use correct principles of art, design, and psychology and the elements of color, line, sound, and movement to quickly observe someone’s personality or design.

Potential for Skewed Results

The second reason self-report like a Myers-Briggs test and those that spin off of it might not always be the superior option is that an individual taking a self-report test can skew the test results. This can happen when a person answers a question to portray the way they want to be seen, rather than how they truly are. Or if there are traits seen as more valued than others, they may answer in an effort to show they have that valued characteristic or meet an expectation. This skewing could be a conscious or subconscious decision. Regardless, it has the potential to cloud the results, leading to a gap in which unhealthy relating seeps in.

Then you are in a situation where the advantage of knowing someone, or using a test to know how to best work with an individual, is based off false information; which then has the potential for failure and negates the reason you were administering the test in the first place. The test has the potential to be inaccurate. For example, if an employer administers a Myers-Briggs or other similar test, if any answer is skewed or based on false report, it gives the employer a false sense of what the profile means; which then leads to an incorrect expectation or view of the person they are hiring. That could give you the opposite result, low job satisfaction and high turnover.

The original intention from the other personality tests, in my opinion, is to categorize which type of people can do certain tasks. At Human Art we just simply tell how all personalities do that same task in their best way.

Motivation and Categorization

The third reason, and the most important one to me, is the motivation of the Myers-Briggs and other tests seem to be too simple in my opinion. It is trying to categorize a human and put them in a specific category, which is counter-intuitive to human independence and the need for a healthy autonomy. I hear this all the time with people who are afraid of personality tests; they all say about the same thing: “I don’t want to be put in a box.”

I Googled how many people are on the planet and got the answer 7 billion. Because we are all so different and unique, that would require a personality system that had approximately seven billion boxes.

The Purpose of Human Art

I feel very strongly about this. It is not in my nature to compare. My usual response is to find the good in all systems. I have done that. Today it is not about that. Today it is simply a warning to not let our industry, one that yes I am a part of, in any way rob you of your autonomy and independence. My intention is to have a healthy debate about how we use personality tests and move into a space where we get more of what we all want: healthy independence, more efficacy and higher sense of self. No more beating each other up over who has a superior personality type and who has the superior thought process.

To be clear, every human being is born with a basic right to be acknowledged for who they are, understood for what they need, seen for how they feel and think and love, and to be one of a kind.

Here is an example of this. One of my mentors, we will just call her Nancy for today, was high up in a very large international company. She did a lot of public speaking and training. It was time for one of her first appearances with this new and rather large company. Her boss, a very smart and well-respected man in the business community, was trying to get her to be more of a prototype business personality type. He had worked with her on this with all the good intentions in the world. As often happens, he had his view on how she would best find success. As she was about to walk on stage, he mentioned something that had a negative ring to her and led her to believe in her mind that she was not enough. The thought rang through her head, “Don’t be Nancy.” This is the problem I am talking about.

When she got on stage she recounts how she made the decision to not only be Nancy but to really be Nancy, in an attempt to stay true to the Nancy she knew was authentic. When she was done, she said to her boss, “don’t ever ask me to speak again unless you want me to be Nancy.” She turned and noticed the crowd and they were all on their feet giving her her first standing ovation.

Later, in an attempt to find the “real Nancy,” she was administered another self-report test like Myers-Briggs. When we finally caught up with her at Human Art, the first thing she did was throw the report at us and said, “here you might have more use for this than me. I don’t even understand it.” She recounts her first interaction at Human Art when I had the privilege to explain her equation and design. She said it hit her so hard when I told her she was introverted first and then in social settings she became more extroverted. She told me I was the first person who had ever understood that about her. Every other personality test she had taken identified her as extremely extroverted. She said it meant so much to her that I knew her, and it was all because of the principles behind Human Art. That was my goal and always will be—to know someone for who they really are.

Everyone is A Unique Masterpiece

At Human Art, we use four personality types, we call them harmonies or designs, to find a unique equation of a person’s personality. Everyone is a unique combination of all four. The slightest amount of one makes a totally different profile than what someone else’s is. I personally have done thousands of personality profiles over the years and no two people have ever been the same. I can attest to the fact that EVERYONE IS UNIQUE. Even though I have not met everyone, it just makes sense to me that if everyone I have profiled is different and unique, so must be the rest, and I will spend the rest of my life observing personalities and their uniqueness.

Our test is empirical and can be observed. You do not have to fill out a self-report test. You can watch and see with your own eyes, the study, the science, the art of being human—Human Art—where everyone is a masterpiece.

~Brook

To learn more about Human Art: The Original Personality Test and what we do, visit our main website at theoriginalpersonalitytest.com

New Year Goals by Design – Part 5 – Landscape Your Goals

Posted on January 29, 2019May 30, 2023 by Brook Thornley

Remember at the end of December/beginning of January, we talked about building an inner landscape before we set goals. Each week we walked you through one design’s inner landscape tool and we discussed and put into place a different tool. We had you practice all four of them. Now, you are equipped to move forward with goals. (If you haven’t read our previous posts about the inner landscape tools, start here first).

In the true form of a pep-talk of sorts…move forward and make goals, keeping the inner landscape tools as the priority. It is so common for all of us to have a pure and true desire to conquer a goal but it is very difficult, seemingly impossible, to do it without a good healthy inner landscape. It is the foundation for any goal setting, milestone, growth or achievement. So when you start a process of any kind, lay the foundations by strengthening your ability to use these tools and then landscape your goals until you get what you desire.

Setting goals by design is just as we have discussed over the month of January. It is finding the desired growth and then putting into play the inner landscape to support the growth in the goal. The degree we have each design is the degree that we need a good solid ability to use and support our growth with that specific tool. For example, if I was a person that had A LOT of Saturation and a large amount of Whitened right after it, I would need A LOT of discipline (Saturated tool) and a LARGE amount of ability to qualify and disqualify in a healthy way (Whitened tool). That would be my focus on my journey to achieving anything. Let’s also say That would leave a small amount of Grayed and “fumes” of Blackened in my design. Naturally I would notice I didn’t need to focus so much on staying engaged (Grayed) or my effort (Blackened). I would simply try to take notice of when I disengaged and what were the circumstances around that, also when did my effort start to lose its focus or strength.

As a reminder:
-Saturated inner landscape tool is discipline
-Whitened inner landscape tool is the ability to qualify and disqualify in a healthy way
-Grayed inner landscape tool is to stay engaged
-Blackened inner landscape tool is effort

A real life example from the Human Art family….

One client has Saturated first then Blackened second. She wants to achieve success in educating herself to get the desired profession she desires. It is her dream. Naturally she has no problem engaging herself in study and getting things done. She is literally like her own personal drill sergeant, marching to her own calls. She is very motivated and very structured—she has check off lists and compartments and she has the discipline to not move on until the task at hand is done. When she started the process at Human Art of learning and strengthening her inner landscape she could see that it was in her third design, Whitened, where she was falling behind. It was her inability to qualify and disqualify in a healthy way that was taking her out and shutting down her growth.

It was interesting because she had a great ability to qualify healthy and unhealthy systems and people, she just didn’t have the ability to qualify herself and her efficacy in a healthy way. In other words, she disqualified herself easily and then her Grayed (her very last design) was quick to come up with evidence to support that unhealthy system. Her call to action, before any achievement or setting any goal, was to strengthen her ability to qualify herself. She learned to go into any task asking for help and learning to get integrated feedback so she didn’t have to be so quick to disqualify herself; instead she could make accurate evaluations about what she did well and what she needed to learn more about and move on from there. Her Whitened in a weak state literally had the ability to take out that great inner drill sergeant that was moving her forward. Now with a better foundation of a strong inner landscape she can move forward with her goals and find joy in achieving them.

If you desire your true authenticity then this is your new system of learning, growing, achievement and finding success. In each new process of moving forward in life, each new stage, each time we all find ourselves uncomfortable in growth, find security in this system. Now, at the end of January, set goals, sign up for new things, look to your dreams and think about what you want to accomplish and use your inner landscape to get there. You can and you deserve to grow. We all do, because…
everyone is a masterpiece.

Brook

READ ALL THIS MONTH’S POSTS ABOUT INNER LANDSCAPE TOOLS:

Part 1 – Introduction and Saturated
Part 2 -Whitened
Part 3 – Grayed
Part 4 – Blackened

New Year Goals by Design – Part 4 – Blackened

Posted on January 22, 2019May 30, 2023 by Brook Thornley

We are finally to the week of learning about the Blackened Design and their inner landscape tools! (if you haven’t read about the first three yet, read them here: Introduction and Saturated, Whitened, Grayed)

The Blackened design craves tasks, so the required inner landscape tool is Effort. The central focus of the Blackened design is to fix it. They love to get the job done. This has the potential to step over emotions in order to get things done. This may alienate others because they become too narrowly focused on the task at the expense of bringing others along and integrating others’ perspectives and priorities.

When you meet a Blackened person, you immediately notice their effort and focus for the task. What is often missing is effort directed at considering different opinions on how the task may be accomplished. The Blackened person puts their energy into the obvious thing that needs to be fixed but it is a challenge for them to listen to the factors contributing to the problem or the impact of the problem in terms of emotional fall out.

When the Blackened person sets a goal, they focus on the obvious solution and can become resourceful to a fault. This looks like finding the most simple and pragmatic solution which is efficient and cost effective. It is hard for them to set a New Year’s goal because they tend to wait for something to break before they engage. It is kind of like a cycle of “break and fix, break and fix, break and fix,” etc.

When a Blackened person comes into Human Art, they express that others are too dramatic, too wasteful, too complicated, too stuffy, or too irresponsible. When we get to work and broaden their perspective, they can start to appreciate the bigger picture. Their effort is to look deeper to see what is really broken. As they understand a broader array of variables, they will be able to see and prevent problems before they break.

So the call to action this week is to ask more questions. Listen more deeply. Slow down and collect more information before acting. Fix feelings instead of things. Consider the intentions and values of others. Try taking the other’s perspective. If they are happy, then you fixed it.

And remember Everyone is a Masterpiece.

Brook

READ OUR OTHER GOALS BY DESIGN POSTS!

Part 1 – Introduction and Saturated
Part 2 -Whitened
Part 3 – Grayed
Part 5 – Landscape Your Goals