Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)
Every team is made up of people who naturally communicate, process information, make decisions, and approach their work differently. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment gives teams an accessible framework for understanding those differences, and a shared language for working with them more effectively.
Turn Personality Differences Into a Team Advantage
At Horizon Team Design, the MBTI assessment is not used to put people into boxes. It is a starting point for deeper conversations about how people work at their best, where differences can create friction, and how teams can intentionally adapt their communication and collaboration styles.
The result is more than greater self-awareness. When facilitated well, MBTI insights can help teams build stronger working relationships, make better decisions, navigate conflict more productively, and recognize strengths that might otherwise be misunderstood.
What Does the MBTI Assessment Explore?
What Does the MBTI Assessment Explore?
The MBTI framework explores four pairs of personality preferences:
Extraversion–Introversion: How we tend to direct and receive energy
Sensing–iNtuition: How we naturally notice, gather, and interpret information
Thinking–Feeling: How we tend to make decisions and come to final conclusions.
Judging–Perceiving: How we approach structure, flexibility, planning, and the outside world
Together, these preferences form 16 personality types. No type is better than another, and each brings potential strengths, blind spots, and contributions to a team.
HTD places particular emphasis on Best Fit Type, helping participants explore and verify the personality preferences that most accurately reflect how they naturally operate rather than simply treating an assessment result as a label.
Why Use the MBTI for Team Development?
The MBTI framework can help make invisible differences visible.
A colleague who asks for more information may not be resisting an idea. A leader who wants to make a decision quickly may not be dismissing others. A team member who wants time to reflect before contributing may be just as engaged as the person thinking aloud.
Understanding these distinctions allows teams to replace assumptions with curiosity.
MBTI-based team development can be especially useful for:
Improving workplace communication
Strengthening collaboration across different working styles
Understanding team strengths and potential blind spots
Improving decision-making and problem-solving
Navigating conflict and disagreement
Building appreciation for individual differences
Supporting new or evolving teams
Developing more adaptable leaders
Creating shared team norms and operating agreements
For executive and leadership teams, MBTI insights can also illuminate how personality preferences influence strategic conversations, the pace of decision-making, information gathering, navigating change, conflict, and communication throughout the organization.
“We all gained a better understanding of how we work as individuals, and how each of us contributes in different ways to the company. We would highly recommend anyone who is thinking about MBTI to work with Joanna.”
-Kelsey
Every Horizon Team Design program is customized to the team and its objectives. Examples include:
Understanding Our Team Using MBTI®
2–3 hours
A highly interactive introduction to personality type designed to build self-awareness and mutual understanding.
Sample agenda:
Introduction to personality preferences and Best Fit Type
Exploration of the four MBTI preference pairs
Interactive exercises that allow participants to experience differences in real time
Individual reflection: strengths, needs, and potential stretches
Team type distribution and discussion
Communication similarities and differences
“What I need from my colleagues” conversation
Personal and team takeaways
Ideal for: intact teams, newly formed teams, departments, project teams, or organizations introducing MBTI for the first time.
Leading Across Differences
3–5 hours
A leadership-focused experience that moves beyond type basics into the practical implications of personality for leadership and team performance.
Sample agenda:
MBTI refresher and leadership implications
Natural leadership strengths and potential overextensions
How leaders communicate—and how others may experience that communication
Information gathering and strategic decision-making
Productive disagreement and conflict
Leading people whose preferences differ from our own
Applying type to a current leadership or organizational challenge
Individual leadership commitments
Ideal for: leadership teams, emerging leader cohorts, executive teams, and management retreats.
From Insight to Team Effectiveness
3-session engagement
A developmental series that creates space to apply MBTI insights to actual team dynamics rather than limiting the experience to a single workshop.
Session 1 — Illuminate: Understand Our Differences
Best Fit Type
Individual and team strengths
Communication and collaboration patterns
Team type dynamics
Session 2 — Align: Work Better Together
Decision-making and problem-solving
Conflict and constructive disagreement
Communication under pressure
Team operating agreements
Session 3 — Build Momentum: Put Insight Into Practice
Review what has changed
Apply type to current team challenges
Identify behavioral commitments
Develop communication and collaboration practices
Create a plan for keeping the language alive
From Four Letters to Better Teamwork
Knowing your MBTI type can be interesting. Understanding what to do with that knowledge is where development begins.
Horizon Team Design creates customized MBTI workshops that turn personality insights into practical strategies teams can use long after the session ends.
Could MBTI Help Your Team Understand Its Differences More Productively?
Let’s talk about the communication, decision-making, conflict, or collaboration challenges you want to address and whether an MBTI-based experience is the right fit.
Explore other tools that may fit your goals:
DiSC
Explore observable workplace behavior and learn how to adapt communication, feedback, and conflict styles.
FIRO-B / FIRO Business
Look beneath personality differences to understand interpersonal needs around involvement, influence, and connection.
CliftonStrengths
Identify the talents each person naturally brings and how those strengths can complement one another.
EQ-i 2.0
Develop the emotional intelligence skills that support effective leadership, relationships, and decision-making under pressure.