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HR PRACTICES AND PROCESSES THAT MAKE SUSTAINABLE VALUES STICK 59

A number of interesting things are worth pointing out about this company view of
type preferences. When I first starting working with Melaver, Inc., there were more
reported introverts than extraverts. With additional hires, the profile has changed. This
may be owing to the company’s consensual hiring processes, where a team interviews
all potential hires. One issue I have with an inclusive interviewing process is that it
might screen out introverts. Not only is the process intimidating for people who like to
think before they respond to bombardment of questions by this team, it also creates a
situation where the interviewee is asked questions on the spot about the company. A
person who wants to gather facts quietly and then respond does not interview well in
this open forum. The company likes this unique process and is aware that it might need
tweaking to be sure that people of all type preferences are considered when hiring.
Another interesting insight about the chart in Figure 2.2 is the strong preponderance
of TJs (Thinking and Judging, the four corners), indicating that this company as a
group tends to make decisions emphasizing logical Thinking as opposed to Feeling,
and it tends to move toward closure in its overall orientation rather than remain open
and spontaneous to various possibilities. Given this bias, I try to remind team mem-
bers that they need to pay particular attention to those whose preferences are for
Feeling and Perceiving.
A third insight comes if you look at the chart as an amalgam of four quadrants hav-
ing to do with Design, Build, Run, and Maintain. Melaver, Inc.’s culture is primarily
constructed of builders and runners—those who construct ideas and those who execute
these ideas. There isn’t a surfeit of people who maintain the ideas once they are exe-
cuted, so care needs to be exercised to ensure that personalities are in place to address
day-to-day managerial issues. Moreover, there is not much excess capacity in terms of
visionary designers. The company may not need much more capacity today, but it needs
to keep this in mind as it plans for the long-term leadership needs of the company.
Another excellent tool used by some of the Melaver leadership for developing self-
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awareness is FIRO-B , Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior ®
assessment, which helps us understand our behavior and that of others in interpersonal
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situations. Dr. Will Schutz developed FIRO-B to examine three dimensions of inter-
personal relations considered to be necessary and sufficient to explain most human
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interaction. The FIRO-B instrument consists of scales that measure how you tend to be-
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have with others and what you seek from them. FIRO-B measures and reports on
three fundamental interpersonal needs: inclusion, control, and acceptance. Inclusion mea-
sures our need for recognition, participation, and contact with others. Control measures
our need for influence, responsibility, and decision making. Acceptance measures open-
ness, closeness, and personal warmth.
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Within each of these needs, FIRO-B also measures whether we prefer to initiate the
behavior to achieve the need (expressed behavior) or whether we prefer others to do so
(wanted behavior). For example, we may want inclusion but prefer others to initiate the
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interaction that results in our feeling included. When we use a tool like FIRO-B to
understand our interpersonal needs, we become more aware of why we react—and be-
have—the way we do. This level of understanding is necessary before we develop the
ability to monitor and manage ourselves.