How can practical wisdom about personalities — ours and others — drive better change?
Introducing the Big Five— or OCEAN
Psychologists use the Big Five as a way to conceptualise personality
The Big Five, otherwise known as the five-factor model, is a concept introduced by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa ¹. The Big Five examines five personality constructs, administered via a questionnaire.
The questionnaire has strong psychometric properties. Strong psychometric properties are essential to psychologists. They will scrutinise every test to check for validity and reliability. Does the questionnaire test what it claims to test (validity)? Does the questionnaire provide similar results each time (reliability)?
So this formal introduction is all well and good, although how does it apply to managing change? The Big Five provides change professionals with a personality ‘model’. The acronym OCEAN captures each of the five personality constructs:
O = Openness to Experience
C= Conscientiousness
E = Extroversion
A = Agreeableness
N = Neuroticism
Each of the five personality constructs display on a continuum. Psychologists ‘score’ each personality construct based on participant responses. It is also worth mentioning that traits are different from states. Personality traits are enduring over the course of someone’s life. States are temporary and often triggered by external events. So, look at enduring traits only when using OCEAN. This model helps you form a working hypothesis of someone’s personality.
Openness to experience
People with high scores in this trait may be open to unconventional ideas and life experiences ³. These people may enjoy artistic work, or careers with greater freedom of expression ⁴. In contrast, people scoring low in openness to experience may be afraid to challenge the status quo. Does this sound familiar to any change professionals out there? They may also prefer structure and predictability. This is an opportunity for change professionals. We can help provide with sound planning and delivery schedules to aid this structure.
Conscientiousness
People scoring high in conscientiousness are often detail-oriented. They strive for high achievement and invest time and effort in their career. High conscientiousness scorers are likely to have high levels of grit, defined by Angela Duckworth as ‘perseverence and passion for long-term goals’ ⁵.
You may find these groups of people ask curly, yet astute questions during your training sessions. They might absorb the details of your communications and Frequently Asked Questions. They are likely to be the ones to find loopholes in your messaging. In contrast, low scorers in conscientiousness may be late to your meetings, may be impulsive and have a relaxed approach to life.
Extroversion
People scoring high in extroversion gain energy from interacting with other people. An introvert can comfortably engage with many people. Yet, at the end of the day, an extrovert may want to continue the party. In contrast, introverts may want to recharge their battery and curl up with a good book. Do extroverts make better change professionals? This may be a hotly-debated topic! Extroverts may choose careers with a robust enterprising focus, such as leadership roles ⁴. This doesn’t prevent introverts from shining in these types of roles. Scorers across the entire continuum bring other strengths to their change practice. Being somewhere in the middle (an ambivert ³) may be a helpful balance for many change professionals. Ambiverts can deal with the interpersonal side of managing change, balanced with the need to plan and work on detail .
Agreeableness
Others often see those scoring high on agreeableness as friendly, approachable and unguarded. People in this group often make excellent team members and take a diplomatic approach to conflict. People with low levels of agreeableness may be seen as guarded, hostile and more comfortable with conflict and ruffling feathers.
Neuroticism
People with high neuroticism scores have quite a sensitive survival mechanism in place. Others may view them as anxious, defensive and tense ⁶. They may be thinking two steps ahead, sometimes working off incorrect assumptions. You might need to invest time in helping these individuals raise their concerns about your change, with the view to calming them down. In contrast, colleagues may view low neuroticism scorers as relatively emotionally stable, adjusted and calm.
As a change professional, you are not likely to be privy to a Big Five scored test with professional interpretations of other people’s scores. Thus you cannot scientifically draw conclusions about others in our circle. It’s also worth mentioning again that states and traits are two different things. How stakeholders respond to you may be entirely different from how they operate within their team. As change professionals, we are often working with stakeholders who are grappling with the changes you represent. You are also likely to be working with project-based colleagues operating under pressure. So being quick to label anyone is fraught with danger.
So what can we do without scored tests, and when we only see stakeholders in a specific context?
We can apply OCEAN as a model to influence greater change effectiveness. OCEAN can help you with a working hypothesis about stakeholder preferred approaches or to quickly appraise stakeholder strengths and interests.
Here are some ways to apply OCEAN as a model:
If we know that some stakeholders are quite open to new ideas, we can frame change solutions that fit that interest.
If specific stakeholders or stakeholder groups are highly diligent, astute change professionals can make the most of this diligence. Providing conscientious individuals with your draft communications may help provide them with a greater sense of control over the change. You will likely find their brilliance as editors of your work.
Some stakeholders and stakeholder groups might have an extroverted approach, and prefer many meetings, and enjoy parties and other gatherings.
Project teams are also a constellation of personality traits, with some traits more prevalent than others. Some project teams, leaders and stakeholders prefer open dissent. In contrast, others will shy away from conflict and discord. For stakeholders that may be high in neuroticism, they might prefer a calm, methodical approach to change. An astute change professional can understand this personality dimension in many stakeholders. They may aim to provide a sense of calm and assurance that the people side of change is well in hand.
The Change Quotient: heart, mind or hands
Understanding your own personality can help inform your activities and approaches to change.
Dr. Barbara Trautlein has taken the application of personality to change management a step further with the Change Quotient (CQ) ⁷. Dr. Trautlein suggests three Change Manager’ personalities’ or leading strengths. She positions the CQ for change professionals preferring to use their heart, mind, or hands to lead change. And there can be combinations of head heart and hands that change managers choose to engage in. So the CQ is a handy framework in addition to OCEAN for understanding yourself as a change professional.
Aren’t you a bit judgemental, however?
And what about the role of unhealthy aspects of personality? Is an ‘unhealthy’ part of one’s personality is in the eye of the beholder? And whether a trait is ‘unhealthy’ or not depends on the context. Is an observable personality trait one that is ‘healthy’ yet overused? Or could particular personality traits (especially in certain roles) be a career derailer?
It also may be your perception of that person’s aspect of the personality. You might not ‘like’ this person. Or is there something about the trait itself that you might find distasteful or unpleasant? Your perception and the reality yet are often two different things. There is a bias about justifying your reasons for how you behave versus others ⁸ ⁹. You might have your own tendencies towards explaining or attributing other people’s behaviour. You might make a mistake but attribute your mistake to external reasons. Whereas when others make the same mistake, you might attribute it to their internal motivations, or personality. This is called a fundamental attribution bias ⁹. This bias is something we need to be aware of as change professionals!
Putting personality into perspective
Don’t rush to conclusions about personality constructs!
For people-oriented professions like change management, is being an extrovert is a natural advantage? Do we consider extroverts ‘naturals’ at stakeholder engagement and influencing?
Yet introverts do have their strengths applicable to complex interpersonal relations and leading stakeholder engagements.
You might equate certain personality constructs with specific jobs, for example, extraversion and selling concepts or ideas. Melody Wilding’s article about personality takes a different perspective. Melody’s article speaks to the idea that introverts can be great salespeople, precisely because they are skilled at building rapport, listening and empathising with customer needs ¹⁰.
An important lesson from Melody’s article is to channel the strengths from your unique personality into areas where you can be effective. You can, regardless of your personality, play to your strengths. So you can lead with your preferred method of head, heart or hands — or a combination of these. But it is worth thinking through how you can best play to your strengths and adapted to the project environment that you’re in.
It’s also worth mentioning as a change professional to focus on what gives you energy. Melody suggests we limit or drop tasks that drain us. Throughout your project lifecycle you might find that there are times of heavy people interaction, requiring social confidence and diplomacy. Equally so, there may be long stretches of solitary strategic planning and delivery work requiring introspection and alone time.
You need to see how you can manage the task demands with your personality. For example, if you’re an introvert and have a heavy schedule of meetings, make sure that you leave a gap to recharge between each meeting.
Recap
OCEAN and CQ are helpful tools to guide change professionals. You may want to use either informally as a conceptual model to guide your thinking. As models, both provide a quick, simple (and unscientific) way to provide you with a working hypothesis of your personality — and others. It’s important to remember that personality traits are enduring, and are observable by many people.
Thus as a change professional you may see only a small aspect of your stakeholder’s personality. Remember: what you see is open to mis-interpretation!
How do you position your personality traits to succeed in steering change? How can you adapt your approach to gel with the observable personality traits of your project team and stakeholders? Can these frameworks and ways of thinking help you detach and consider ways to get the most from each situation throughout the project lifecycle?
Your call to action
How can you adapt your understanding of OCEAN and CQ to your change practice?
Our book — The Change Manager’s Companion — is available now. You can also check out our online course on Change Management.
Reference List
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7. Trautlein B.A. You Know Your IQ, What’s Your CQ? https://castbox.fm/episode/id2280209-id180146742?utm_campaign=android_old_share&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=android_old_share&country=au. Accessed October 31, 2020.
8. Heider F. The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley; 1958.
9. Jones EE, Harris VA. The attribution of attitudes. J Exp Soc Psychol. 1967;3(1):1–24. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0022-1031%2867%2990034-0
10. The Quiet Strength of The Ambitious Introvert | by Melody Wilding, LMSW | Mind Cafe | Medium. https://medium.com/mind-cafe/the-quiet-strength-of-the-ambitious-introvert-df2413cb4698. Accessed October 31, 2020.