Expecting the Unexpected

Looking into a person’s personality there are surprises around every corner. I have learned to expect the unexpected when working on this assignment. I asked five friends to take the personality test, along with taking it myself, and the results did not turn out the way that I had expected. My friends, who I thought had an okay view on the world, really don’t think that it treats them fairly and the people who I thought were more aggressive than the rest scored lower than those who I thought to be less aggressive people. I also found myself a little surprised with how my scores turned out. Just when you think you have yourself figured out you learn something new. Though no matter what a piece of paper with a bunch of numbers on it tells you, how someone really acts cannot be deflected on a piece of paper.

When setting up the game, it took a little bit of time to figure out how exactly to execute the game in a way that it would cover the vast verities of personalities that are spread among my group of friends. Sure, we have all played games together before, but not for the purpose of analyzing the way that my friends’ personalities fit into the way that they strategically play a game. So, I decided to take a normal card game, and add a twist to it. Phase 10 is a simple card game where the players go around in a circle and pick up and discard cards and the hope to complete the phase that is required before another player goes out. It is usually a game played with several individuals competing together, but instead, I broke my friends up into groups. Since there were 5 friends, one player had to play alone, leaving them at a disadvantage from the beginning. So I chose the friend who scored the highest in the assertive category, to test their true assertiveness. Each group received the same amount of cards as each other and played the game as usual. Though, the team who came in last had to choose another player to eliminate. If the single player was eliminated, the team who won would have to divide and play individually. Now, within the game there are skip cards, which allows a player to skip the next team, but what I allowed was the person who held the skip card could strategically skip which team they would like. This allows them to have some control of who has the ability to go out of cards first. I knew what I was going into this expecting, the assertive person would do what they needed to win, and the people who saw the world as unfair would surly rant and rave as they lose the game, the equalitarian would feel guilty causing another player to lose, and the person with the high introspective score would over analyze the game a little too much. I myself did not participate in the game. I did not want to skew the results, and boy am I glad that I did not play.

The game started out as I had expected, but quickly the tables had turned. I might as well have thrown the personality test out the window, because when it came down to it, everyone was assertive. There was this competitive nature that came out in everyone and people where in the game to win it. I know that people do not like to lose, but it really surprised me how into the game people really had gotten. Usually when we play games together people are slightly competitive, but maybe it was because I was an outsider observing I had the chance to really see how things were. My friends who scored the lowest on the assertiveness section defiantly outshined the assertiveness of the friend who scored the highest. There wasn’t one person who thought of the game as treating them unfairly, or the world around them for that matter during the time the game was played. There were also people who I figured would over analyze the game and really think about everything that was going on and try to figure out others strategies, but that was not the case either. Everyone was so focused on winning that they paid more attention to what they needed to do, rather than focusing on what everyone else was doing. So, I knew that the personality test may have said one thing on paper, but it didn’t depict how my friends acted in this environment.

What I did learn from the personality test is we really do view ourselves a bit differently than other people do. It may not be that either is wrong, it is just that we have different views on how we perceive someone and ourselves. I am sure that if someone where observing me playing the game they would say that I did not act like I scored myself on the personality test. It is something that I would like to try one day. I think that it would be interesting to figure out how people view me as compared to how I view myself. I went into this not expecting that I would see my friends differently than they see themselves. Though, we all have different views on other things in the world, so I don’t know why I would think that we would not see each other differently than we see ourselves.

Since the game already has pretty set rules, there wasn’t too much to the planning, other then tweaking a few of the strategies, like the groups and the ability to freely use the skip card. Though during that short period of time, everyone worked together as a team and agreed on the game rules. Everyone was laughing and having fun and looking forward to playing the game together. I could even tell before the game started that people were a little edgy and I could feel the competitive nature coming out. The only thing that changed once the game started, was as I mentioned before, the assertive traits in my friends really started to come out. It was actually a bit fun to watch. It was like watching people break out of their shells and expand their personalities.

During this exercise I actually learned a few things about myself. I learned that I really don’t relate to people of certain personalities, but to people of very different personalities, well at least different personalities in accordance to how they view themselves. I was very pleased with the way that everyone played the game. It actually made it more interesting that people were so ready to go against each other and “fight” it out to be the winner. But I guess no one really likes to lose. As fair as I find myself and as not assertive as I think of myself, I know that I would have been right along with them playing in the exact manner that my friends were playing.

I also learned different things about each of my friends. Like I have said, people didn’t really act the way that they scored themselves, and to be honest, on a piece of paper, I probably would have scored them the same way. But, when you get people together with their different personalities, and ask them to compete against each other, it is no surprise that peoples personalities change a bit. Yes, there is one friend that is extremely assertive and another friend who is the complete opposite, yet they played the game in the same manner. My “quiet” friend was no longer quiet. Yes, it is a bit surprising, and under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have expected it and still probably would not expect it. I guess this is what happens when you put someone into a situation that they are not used to being in. Which is understandable, most people playing a competitive game play to win.

To make the game more cooperative I could have changed the rules and the scope of the game a little bit more. I would have had to determine a way to make it so that not just one person would win the game and another would lose the game. Technically, there is only one winner in the end and everyone else looses, but I could have made it to where the people who lost the game could have had a chance to redeem themselves and come back into the game. I could have incorporated new cards that we designed that would allow for free plays and a way you can skip a phase and move ahead if you hold certain cards, or where you digress if you hold another set of cards. It would have made the game more strategic and would have required more concentration. I am sure with more thought we as a team could have came up with a way to make the game last forever and never declare a winner or a looser. It would not be an easy task, but I am sure that with a lot work and thought it could be accomplished.

When relating this game back to a business manner, it really depicts how gaining cooperation from people within a business setting can be accomplished with a few key factors. You have to set up an environment that suits many different personalities, and that environment also has to be flexible to those personalities. You have to know that just because you may think that a person may act one way, it does not mean that if you need individuals in a business to work together, that they are going to act the same. Peoples’ personalities change depending on the situations that they are involved in. In a business, you need to have the input from different people to make things work. One person’s idea, may be enhanced by another person. There may also be another person who comes along with a better idea than the first two, but if you want cooperation from everyone, you have to compromise and meld the ideas, and not just go with one. Choosing just one side can cause conflict, but when you bring the ideas together, more people are willing to participate.

Gaining cooperation from and uncooperative co-worker would be challenging, but I know that I would be able to manage the situation. The first thing that I would do is figure out why my co-worker was acting in such a manner. There must be an underlying issue that is causing them to be uncooperative. Once I know what the problem is, I would work on finding a solution. For example, if my co-worker refused to put in extra hours to complete a project while other were working above and beyond their hours, I would first talk to my co-worker and find out why. I would not approach them by telling them that the way they are acting is wrong, because I do not know the reasoning. So, let’s say that their reasoning is that they worked extra hours on the last project, where the majority of the others didn’t. So they do not think that it is fair that they are once again working late. From there I would find a way to compromise with them. I would find a way to make it to where they pitch in and help out but at the same time they don’t feel like they are being overworked once again. It is not to say this plan would be 100% effective, but it would be the approach that I would try.

You never know how a person’s personality will change based on the situation and environment they are surrounded by. What someone thinks of themselves really may not be how others depict them. There is no wrong or right way to think about yourself and you have to know that just because you think one things of yourself, others may not think the same thing. A simple personality test may be a start, but really getting into a game can change a person. Bring on the competition and you never know what you are going to get.