Good Chemistry

The age old question of “Where do you want to eat lunch?” has plagued enough workplaces. Take a look at a typical interaction in our office.

Jason: “Where do you want to go for lunch?”

Tony: “Anywhere, doesn’t matter”

Jason: “Great, let’s go to Jack Astors”

Tony: “No, we went there last week”

Jason: “But you said you didn’t care”

And on goes the battle of picking a lunch location.

This may seem like a normal interaction, but if you analyze the types of people in the story, and their chemistry, you might see that Jason, would like to go to the same place as it is consistent, whereas Tony would like anywhere, and is open to suggestions, but wants diversity.

The importance of understanding chemistry at work with coworkers is paramount when working on a timeline, on a tight budget or even when trying to have lunch together. Alas, knowing who you are working with is quite important especially in an advertising agency.

Taken from a seminar at TCAAN, our account team lead the process of determining what type of personality we are by facilitating a quiz and plotting our outcomes on a chart. Are more people amicable? expressive? drivers? or maybe analytical?

You might assume that the graphic designers are all expressive, but that was not the case. Or that members in our accounting department are all analytical, but that was also not the case. Our office has a very good mix of all types, across all departments. Knowing this information has helped us understand that the drivers would like to make decisions, and the analytical might want to ask questions. The amicable are more open to what everyone else wants, and the expressive like to be animated and exciting.

Understanding what type of personality and traits we have, has helped build better chemistry, improve communication and allowed us to work more effectively in our office. No longer will the age old question of where to go for lunch cause such a commotion.