Background
The easiest way to describe the difference is to know that MBTI was based on the seminal work of Carl Jung. Carl Jung, in 1921, published his seminal work ‘Psychological Types’. Its core theme was two functional dualities of Thinking-Feeling and Sensing-Intuition with an attitudinal overlay of Introversion or Extroversion. Jung called Thinking-Feeling the rational domain and Sensing-Intuition the irrational.
By forcing the choice between Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), Sensing (S) or Intuition (N), and combining with Introversion (I) or Extroversion (E) you ended up with eight initial personality types. Myers & Briggs further developed Carl Jung’s work in the 1940’s. This became the standard source point for all further instruments. It is two-dimensional by its nature with the forced choice of either/or. You are either thinking or feeling.
Summary of Psychometrics
- Myers Briggs is known as a psychometric instrument.
- All other psychometrics developed in the 20th century, are based on Jung’s original concepts.
- They are all about psychology and personality.
- They all end up with a two-dimensional framework of types (4, 8, 16).
- The core is based on a duality. It is an ‘OR’ framework – Thinking or Feeling etc.
- Jung himself did not like these instruments calling them “A mere parlour game”.
Foreground
In the late 90’s the emerging field of business coaching was being created. One of the areas that repeatedly cropped up in organisations was that of communication. One of the pioneers of this emerging field, Think Feel Know, had the insight that communication could be framed as a triad of Thinking and Feeling and Knowing.
They saw that people used all three to varying degrees. They also saw that when someone who was, say, a primary Knower was communicating with a primary Feeler, or a primary Thinker, then that was where all the lovely difficulties started to show up. For example; A Knower will like to have and process all their information in very succinct ways; minimal and brief is their mantra. By contrast Feelers like to have all the nuances, the story; flavour and imagery are their hot buttons. Thinkers like to have all the detail, the numbers, the analysis, the process; the manual and the report fire them up.
You can start to see where the flashpoints occur right away. Our coaches started to have a lot of fun in educating clients, on how to improve their communication with this then conceptual framework.
Summary of TFK
- Think Feel Know is all about communication.
- It has been developed in the 21st century.
- The core is based on a triad. It is an ‘AND’ framework.
- People Think and Feel and Know.
- It is a three-dimensional model with the Thinking, Feeling, and Knowing being the three axes.
- It is an empirical framework that has been shown to work.
The beauty of Think Feel Know is its simplicity. People get it, they remember it, and therefore they use it. As a consequence what people love about Think Feel Know is the immediate results they get for themselves in communicating to their peers, their team, their family.
