While perhaps few people would argue against the desirability of
placing creative people in NPD project analysis positions, the questions of how a firm can
accurately identify creative people has been less clear. One answer is to use personality
testing to assess the creativity of a firm's personnel. One such assessment tool that we
have found to be particularly useful is the MBTI Creativity Index, or
MBTI-CI . (Another useful instrument for measuring creativity is the Kirton Adaptor Innovator or KAI.)
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or MBTI) is a widely used personality measurement
instrument which is administered to over three million people a year [35] in the
USA. The MBTI is available in several languages, including English, Spanish, French,
German and Japanese. (Please inquire about other languages and we will be able to
determine if it is available in that language) The MBTI Creativity Index is calculated by
taking MBTI scores and placing them into a formula that has been developed based on 30
years of creativity research at the Institute for a personality Assessment and Research
(IPAR) [1,3].
Creative individuals tend to be more intuitive ("N") rather than sensory
("S"), more perceiving rather than judging ("J"), more extroverted
("E") rather than introverted("I") and more thinking ("T")
rather than feeling ("F") [3]
The average creativity index according to the MBTI data bank of 50,000 women and 39,000
men is 235.5 [2] Individuals with Creativity Index scores less than 250 are less likely to
demonstrate breakthrough creative talent, and those with scores above 350 are likely to
show a breakthrough creativity [1, 2, 3].
References:
1. Gough, Harrison. Studies of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in a
personality assessment research institute. Paper presented at the Fourth National
Conference on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Stanford University, CA (July, 1981)
2. Myers, Isabel Briggs, and Mary H. McCaulley. Manual: A Guide to
the Development and Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Palo Alto, California.
Consulting Psychologists Press. 1992
3. Thorne, Avril and Harrison Gough. Portraits of Type: An MBTI Research
Compendium. Palo Alto, California. Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. 1991
For a fee of $145, WinOvations will provide you with a MBTI instrument
and questionnaire via e-mail (or via regular mail). gstevens@winovations.com
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