Self-exploration v. Self-explanation

For the longest time, like since middle school, I bristled against the idea of personality assessments explaining who I was or how I might act. I remember the resistance. I can feel the scowl of disbelief creeping onto my face and lodging itself resolutely between my adolescent eyes, secure on a furrowed brow.

This test won’t explain me. This result is bull shit. I am pretty sure at least 30% of my responses could have gone another way, depending on how I chose to read the question.

I dismissed assessments like the Enneagram, Myers Briggs, Clifton Strengths, horoscopes and the like as a puzzling phenomena that a not-insignificant number of my peers seemed to value to a puzzling extent. I dismissed the assessments as someone else’s fascination.

And then I didn’t.

I don’t remember the exact assessment, or the circumstances surrounding me. I don’t remember making some premeditated mindset shift before starting. Oddly, I do remember the couch I sat on. And when I completed the assessment and tabulated the results, instead of recoil or bristle, I thought, “Well, interesting. I wonder…” and then I started to ask myself more questions based on the results.

The shift of perspective was this: I used to orient myself to assessments as tools for self-explanation, to explain the respondent to their peers, their bosses, their partners and themselves. The result of the test would make it clear who I was and how I needed the world to treat me in order to be happy. Or how my boss needed to treat me in order to get what they needed from me.

Curiosity invited a new orientation to assessment tools as potential starting points for deep self-exploration.

At a(om), we orient ourselves and our clients to assessments as tools for self-exploration, not self-explanation. This bias to curiosity inspires our very open minds when it comes to assessments and how to use them. You have a favorite? Great. Bring it. Never tried one? Great. We can make recommendations…based on what you are most curious to learn.

Also, I can almost guarantee the first question we will ask you about your assessment will be, “So, what did you notice while taking that test?”