The world needs to move on – the oldest psychometric test, MBTI, is still widely used globally and it was developed in 1943!!
How on earth can this correlate with the excitement & move forward of AI? Are you using your profile as an excuse, or writing yourself off because of one? Are you really sticking to methods that were developed 75 years ago to develop your people?
The media are constantly telling us that AI is growing in importance. Driverless cars and even fighter jets are now being developed. Don’t get me wrong, technology is great if it advances us and doesn’t damage society or keep us stuck in the past!
In the world of Learning & Development every day we see apathy and boring methods, lacking in power, being repeated again and again as we are so enthralled by so called “smart software”. My question is, is your “smart software” really smart and are you questioning whether it is at all? Along with outdated profiling there are reported cases of AI or automation getting it wrong, ex Facebook executives admitting that the way Facebook was built is bad for society, and driverless Uber taxi accidents. The fact that online search algorithms provide suggestions based on our previous searches that narrow our experience rather than widen it – giving us what we have always had, rather than expanding our experience. We stay unawares.
What we have gained in technology in recent years is undoubtedly amazing, it has revolutionised the way we work, and used wisely and well, it really helps us.
But are we also in danger of being so enthralled by “smart software” and the cost savings, that we underestimate the power of being human? Are our futures at work determined by a machine?
Are we all ending up being slaves to the algorithm, relying heavily on AI and software that we are collectively unaware of, at the expense of being ourselves at work?
An article in the FT earlier this year, talks about a “depressing reminder of the relentless spread of psychometric testing.” In discussing the growth of testing used by private equity and venture capital firms since the 2008 financial crisis, it shares the view of an expert that the growth is chiefly due to “spread accountability if it all goes horribly wrong”.
Articles debating psychometric testing quote the case of a disgraced ex UK banking chairman. When he left the business, the Commons Select Committee were told, during the investigation, that one of the explanations of why he got the job ahead of better qualified and experienced candidates was that “he did very well in the psychometric tests.” !!
An FT article also points out that along with the growth in psychometric testing there has also been huge growth in an industry built up to help people beat the tests!
Psychometric testing can be useful in creating objectivity and removing bias from assessing employees, but the downsides, when not used correctly, can be putting people in boxes or giving them labels that they then live to or feel ‘written off by’ or seeing people as black and white, either/or – when we are all more complicated than that!
You are not a colour, number or collection of letters, you are you!
#beyourselfatwork