The WA IET YP Leadership Programme launched this month. Check out what participant Lachlan Strickland thought of the first workshop.
Word by Lachlan Strickland, a participant
The first workshop of the 2018 IET Leadership Programme in Western Australia had all participants meeting at the well-known engineering pavilion at Curtin University. As a graduate, I wondered if I would even be able to enter the pavilion on my own seeing as most university buildings require swiping a student card to enter. Luckily the building was open to anyone, and a few of the program mentors were waiting for new arrivals. Once everyone had arrived, we were ushered upstairs into an open, well-lit room.
The workshop was centred around understanding the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), particularly, how you can use this to your advantage in the workplace and finding out which MBTI group you were categorised as. Clare Senior (our presenter) was well-spoken, nice and enthusiastic, which made listening for people with my personality type (you will find this out later) a whole lot easier. The MBTI categorises people as one of sixteen different personality types, based on how you act socially, take in information, make decisions and approach tasks. After deciding which personality type we all thought we fell under (I thought I was an introvert), and completing some fun and engaging activities, we were given a test to fill out. The test determined which of the sixteen personality types you were categorised as. The test was simple and easy to complete. Once completing the test, my results determined my personality type as ENFP, which stands for extrovert, intuition, feeling and perspective (not introvert as I expected). Once everyone finished the test, we all placed our name under our respective personality type on the board for everyone to see. Most of the class fell into two of the sixteen personalities, with the majority as INTJ (Introvert, intuition, thinking and judging). At the end of the workshop, the presenter showed a slide which had quotes relating to each of the personality types. The quote relating to my personality type read, “God, help me keep my mind on one th- LOOK, A BIRD! -ing at a time”. I thought that the quote was extremely relatable, and perhaps my MBTI type gives me an excuse to ask for some work extensions…please?
After the presentation had finished, we were offered food and drinks, which included a wide selection of pizza. I found the workshop extremely interesting, engaging, fun and well organised (especially due to the delicious food at the end). I learned how to work more effectively with people who think differently to me, how to act more efficiently in group discussions and meetings, and how to benefit from working in diverse teams. I have a feeling that the rest of this leadership program will involve working with people who have opposite MBTI categories as my own, which will be both challenging and rewarding, allowing me to develop many essential skills which will be useful as a graduate engineer.
