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Sensing

Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Perceiving

by Ron Potter March 25, 2021

The perceiving pair in Myers-Briggs (MBTI) helps identify how you perceive the world. Each of us has a preference for either sensing or intuition.

The Positive and Negative of Sensing

This preference is for seeing and understanding as much detail as possible. When making decisions, the sensing preference wants the facts. What information is available to help make a decision?

The sensing function also seems to be focused on more of the near term than the future. In the business world I’ve seen the sensing types have the attitude that if we don’t make the right decisions at the moment, there will be no future to worry about.

The positive side of sensing is that they will often pay much more attention to detail than the intuitive preference. Like many married couples, my wife and I tend to be on the opposite ends of this scale. She has more of a sensing preference while I have more of an intuitive preference.

This has saved our (my) bacon many times, sometimes in big ways like purchasing a new home. I tend to think about the overall look and feel of the home and how that will help or hurt us when we’re ready to sell in the future. I’m also thinking about future market conditions and how that will affect our purchase. Meanwhile, she is going through the buy-sell agreement with a fine-toothed comb and is also paying attention to the details of the mortgage. I may be ready to buy or reject based on my preference when she’ll point out something I didn’t catch that changes my decision foundation.

The negative side of sensing is they will always want more detail. Having more detail is always a positive thing in their preference world. However, this can often delay decisions.

The Positive and Negative of Intuition

The positive side of the intuitive preference is that it is almost always thinking about the future. The intuitive preference will want to know why a decision is getting made, what will be the positive and negative outcomes of that decision, and will a sensing-based decision support our future goals?

Often the intuitive preference can discount the current data. They might ask questions like “Will this decision help prepare us for the future?” or “Should we be hiring now when the skills we need at the moment don’t align with the skills we’ll need in the future?”

Best to Use Both

Obviously, the best decisions will be made (keep this in mind when we look at the statistics) when we balance sensing and intuition. In my consulting work, I would often say to the teams, it never really matters which side of this scale (or any of the other scales) you fall on, the key issue is balance, balance, balance!

We talked in our last blog about a technique of pausing during a team meeting to have people write down key points. That helped balance extravert and introvert preferences. You can also use that time to ask team members to identify meaningful details and discuss their future implications. This helps balance sensing and intuition.

Statistics

It’s important to note that in the MBTI nomenclature, we use an N for the intuitive types rather than a I. This was done to help distinguish between introverted and intuition. Introverted = I; Intuitive = N. You have a preference for E I and S N.

US Population: Sensing = 74% iNtuitive = 26%

Leadership Teams: Sensing =41% iNtuitive = 59%

Operations Teams: Sensing = 60% iNtuitive = 40%

Notice that Leadership Teams are highly iNtuitive. This helps a team to be prepared for the future but can become a problem if they ignore or discount current details that the sensing preference will provide.

Operations teams need to be much more sensing focused because they are dealing with the here and now.

Balance, Balance, Balance

I’ve told my consulting clients that I don’t care if they ever remember what their natural preference is in the MBTI. What I do care about is that they learn to balance each of the four types. It’s the balance that brings the power of better thinking and better decisions.

I’ve spoken of a few of the CEOs that I considered the best I ever worked with. Their common trait is that they learned to balance the preferences. It didn’t mean that their personal preference changed.

It did mean that they had learned to balance the preferences by becoming better at asking themselves questions that their natural preference wouldn’t have thought of and by appreciating the balance they had in their leadership teams. They never let themselves or anyone else on the team ignore the questions that may come up based on opposite preferences.

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Blog Myers-Briggs Myers-Briggs Under Pressure

Myers-Briggs Under Pressure: Sensing

by Ron Potter June 19, 2017

I’m telling you it won’t work!! We’ve tried this a hundred times and it just never gets us anywhere. No, this is not a new approach and it won’t get us any closer than the last effort. We’re missing something. We just don’t have enough information to make the final decision. Now leave me alone so I can get the information we need from marketing, demographics, customer surveys, the last time we tried this, the data base, the internet, etc, etc, etc.”

(If you didn’t start with the introduction to this “Myers-Briggs Under Pressure” series, I suggest you make a quick review because it will help you better understand these subsequent blogs.)

Norm is stuck! He can’t seem to find his way out and he wants the security of more information and data. Often that information and data doesn’t exist, especially when we’re trying to make decisions about new directions or innovative approaches. Norm’s dominant function is Sensing (need for detail and information) and his inferior function is iNtuitive (conceptual and future focused).

There are four types that have this particular combination, the Introverted ISTJ, ISFJ and the Extraverted ESTP, ESFP. As noted above the dominant in all four cases is Sensing and the inferior in all four cases is iNtuitive. These are what’s known as our Perceiving functions, how do we perceive the world around us? These are the functions that we use to take in the information that we’ll need to eventually make a decision.

In a healthy state, these Perceiving functions would work in tandem with the “deciding” functions of Thinking or Feeling depending on type. But, under pressure or stress, Norm begins to lose this natural balance, falling back to his dominant function which has a need for more and more data and becomes unable to combine it with his deciding function to keep things moving along. Norm becomes very pessimistic about the future.

Balance, Balance, Balance

This is where team members and colleagues come into play. It’s difficult for any one of us to break out of these pressure packed situations. As colleagues, we want to help Norm back into a balanced state by asking and sometimes even forcing him to use his auxiliary function. Notice that Norm’s auxiliary function could be either Thinking or Feeling depending on type. Let’s start with the Thinking balance.

“Norm, what do you think the answer will turn out to be?”

“I told you I haven’t gathered enough information.”

“I know, but tell me what you’ve figured out so far.”

“Not much”

“That’s OK, just share the pieces that you’ve thought about. Even if they’re still open questions in your mind.”

As we begin to force Norm to try a little balancing act, he’ll begin to regain his footing. Note that we can’t tell Norm what we’re thinking. It has to be the act of balancing his own functions of Sensing and Thinking that begins to restore his sense of balance and allows him to begin functioning on a more normal basis for his own type.

If we’re dealing with either the ISFJ or ESFP than Feeling is the auxiliary function, not Thinking. The approach is similar, just using Feeling questions rather than Thinking questions,

“Norm, what’s bothering you about this decision?”

“I don’t know yet I just know something’s not right.”

“Let’s talk through the source of your concern.”

“I don’t even know what that is yet, I haven’t gathered enough data to even express what’s bothering me.

“Well, give me some clues. Is it a concern about values? Are you concerned about how people will react or be affected? Is it more anger or fear?”

As Norm begins to answer these very basic Feeling questions, he begins exercising his own balancing mechanisms and it begins to help him out of the rut. Norm is regaining balance.

It doesn’t help to point things out or share what we think or feel about the situation. Our job is to help Norm regain his own, natural balance.

Stay tuned, this was just the first of four installments about working under stress titled “Myers-Briggs Under Pressure”. Come back and join us for future installments.

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Blog Myers-Briggs You Might Be Surprised

You Might Be Surprised: Intuitors Acting Like Sensors – Part II

by Ron Potter April 25, 2016

Is Sally the data miner a Sensing type or Intuitive type?

Spoiler alert!!! To fully appreciate this post take just a minute and read our last post that sets the stage for understanding Sally.

When we left Sally she was preparing a presentation to the leadership team. She really wanted them to “get it” so she had asked her staff to gather every shred of data available on the issue. After her staff had assured her that there was no more data to be had, Sally went to work pouring over the data, learning and understanding every piece of it.

At this point it might be easy to assume that Sally is a Sensing type. Sensing types like to present the details of their work first, they usually proceed step-by-step and seldom make error of fact. But what we haven’t yet seen is how Sally views and uses the data that she so meticulously gathered.

Sally always wants her projections to be fact-based. She knows that several members of the leadership team will check her facts and she wants to be prepared. But what Sally actually does with the data is to look for trend lines, inflection points and other “implied” results that the data can suggest. She is always looking into the future. “What does this data produce in the long run?” “What opportunities or threats does the data lead us to think about ahead of time?” “How does this align with our long-term goals?” Sally isn’t worried about what needs to be done by Friday, she wants to know of we’re preparing ourselves for the future. Sally is a very Intuitive thinker.

It’s not just the Sensing types that make sure the facts are correct or are the only ones who base their decisions on the facts. Intuitive types are fact based as well. But they want to both start with the long-term projections and implications and understand where the trends are going to lead us. They also want to know about the decisions we’re making today and if they will lead us in the intended directions.

Sally is an Intuitive type on the Myers-Briggs scale. That doesn’t mean she ignores the facts or makes her decisions on “gut instinct” only. It simply means that her search for meaning and direction in the data will influence her decision making.

Most of the mistakes that amateurs (and even some Myers-Briggs practitioners) make is bases our assumptions on behaviors that may lead us to assume that a person is a Sensing or Intuitive type. Be careful. You might be surprised!

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Blog Myers-Briggs You Might Be Surprised

You Might Be Surprised: Intuitors Acting Like Sensors – Part I

by Ron Potter April 11, 2016

Sally runs a division of a company in a highly technical industry. At her disposal is a team and technology that can dig into any question and come up with reams of data to support the analysis. Sally with collect this data, cross-reference it, put as much of it into spreadsheets and data base systems that would blow your mind. At her fingertips she can go deeper and deeper into any question or issue until she reaches the base level of data and facts that support the whole structure.

When her people approach Sally they know where the question is going to head:

Where’s the data on this issue?
To what level of depth have you uncovered?
How recent is the data?
Have we gathered it from more sources than just our own?

And on and on. Sally wants to be sure that we have all of the data that’s available to us as we search for answers and directions.

Once Sally feels that she has all the data to be had, she’ll spend hours poring over the spreadsheets of data looking for the insight and understand that she needs to present her finding to the leadership team. She really wants to make sure they “get it” based on the facts.

What do you think? Is Sally as “Sensing” or an “Intuitive” type?

Myers-Briggs gives us some quick sketches for each type:

Sensing
- Like to present the details of their work first
- Seldom make errors of fact
- Like using experience and standard ways to solve problems
Intuition
- Like to present an overview of their work first
- May make errors of fact
- Like solving new complex problems

So, what do you think? Sensing or Intuition?

In our next Myers-Briggs based blog we’ll continue the story of Sally the data miner. Please join us. You might be surprised.

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Blog Myers-Briggs You Might Be a Jerk If

You Might Be a Jerk If: Sensing

by Ron Potter November 16, 2015

(If you didn’t start with the introduction to this “You might be a jerk if…” series, I suggest you make a quick review because it will help you better understand these subsequent blogs.)

You Might be a Jerk If

“I’m telling you it won’t work!! We’ve tried this a hundred times and it just never gets us anywhere. No, this is not a new approach and it won’t get us any closer than the last effort. We’re missing something. We just don’t have enough information to make the final decision. Now leave me alone so I can get the information we need from marketing, demographics, customer surveys, the last time we tried this, the data base, the internet, etc, etc, etc.”

What is ‘Sensing’?

Balance, Balance, Balance

This is where team members and colleagues come into play. It’s difficult for any one of us to break out of these pressure-packed situations. As colleagues, we want to help Norm back into a balanced state by asking and sometimes even forcing him to use his auxiliary function. Notice that Norm’s auxiliary function could be either Thinking or Feeling depending on type. Let’s start with the Thinking balance.

“Norm, what do you think the answer will turn out to be?”

“I told you I haven’t gathered enough information.”

“I know, but tell me what you’ve figured out so far.”

“Not much”

“That’s OK, just share the pieces that you’ve thought about. Even if they’re still open questions in your mind.”

If we’re dealing with either the ISFJ or ESFP than Feeling is the auxiliary function, not Thinking. The approach is similar, just using Feeling questions rather than Thinking questions,

“Norm, what’s bothering you about this decision?”

“I don’t know yet I just know something’s not right.”

“Let’s talk through the source of your concern.”

“I don’t even know what that is yet, I haven’t gathered enough data to even express what’s bothering me.

“Well, give me some clues. Is it a concern about values? Are you concerned about how people will react or be affected? Is it more anger or fear?”

As Norm begins to answer these very basic Feeling questions, he begins exercising his own balancing mechanisms and it begins to help him out of the rut. Norm is regaining balance.

It doesn’t help to point things out or share what we think or feel about the situation. Our job is to help Norm regain his own, natural balance.

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Blog Myers-Briggs Myers-Briggs In-Depth

Myers-Briggs In-Depth: Attending and Perceiving: Sensing vs iNtuition – Part II

by Ron Potter March 30, 2015

Hidden Danger in the Perceiving Function

I mentioned in the previous post on Myers-Briggs that most successful business people have figured out that they need to balance this function. This balancing act most often takes the form of a trusted partner, colleague or consultant.

Great appreciation on a peer basis

I find that my Sensing leaders love to get together with their more natural iNtuitive colleagues. The say things to me like:

“I just love the way Margaret breaks me out of my “down in the weeds” focus. She gets me thinking about big-picture, long-term implications of my decisions and how we need to think about making these decisions.”

Similarly, my more natural iNutiive clients will often praise their more Sensing colleagues.

“Steve really gets me out of the clouds and grounds me in what’s going on right now and pointing out the issues that if we don’t fix soon will prevent us from achieving our long-term vision.”

Danger in employee evaluations

However, that appreciation seems to be limited to the peer-to-peer relationships. Often that same appreciation is not offered to subordinates.

I will always ask the iNtuitive types on a team which preference (sensing or iNtuition) they would prefer to have working for them. Their answer is always an overwhelming “Sensing!” Why? Because they know that while they would prefer to stay at the 40,000 foot level, watching what is going on around them and looking to the future, they need people working for them that are clearly paying attention to the day-to-day ups and downs of the business.

But what’s interesting is that when I ask the Sensing types which preference would they prefer to have working for them, their answer is also an overwhelming “Sensing!” Why? Because if they’re preference is to pay attention to the details and you’re working for them, you had be at least as good if not better at paying attention to the detail.

Here’s the problem

Even though the iNtuitive types appreciate the skills and attention to detail that the Sensing types provide, they may also be thinking “That person is great but I’m not sure they could take over my job because they don’t think broad enough.”

And while a Sensing type may have a creative, innovative iNtuitive type working for them, iNtuitives are often known for making “error of fact”. That “failure” really bothers the Sensing type and therefore are more likely to give poor performance reports.

We tend to fall back on our natural preference more when we’re evaluating people who work for us than the honor and appreciation of other types when we’re dealing them on a peer basis.

Honor and appreciate all types in all cases and people will begin viewing you as a very honorable and appreciative leader.

Myers-Briggs In-Depth is a blog series in which I dive into each MBTI function with more detail, providing some practical applications for creating better dynamics and better decision making. Click here to read the entire series.
Interested in an overview of each of the four Myers-Briggs functions? Click here to read the Using MBTI to Great Advantage series.

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Blog Myers-Briggs Myers-Briggs In-Depth

Myers-Briggs In-Depth: Attending and Perceiving: Sensing vs iNtuition – Part I

by Ron Potter March 16, 2015

How are Things Going Here?

Several years ago when I was working with an automotive supplier I experienced one of the clearest examples of this function in action when I was sent to work with the Plant Managers of two different manufacturing plants.

What do you Pay Attention to?

This function was for years identified as your Attending function. “What do you pay attention to?” In recent years Myers-Briggs have gone back to Carl Jung’s (who’s work the MBTI is based on) original title of Perceiving. “How do you perceive the world around you?”

A Simple Question

When I first met each plant manager I asked each of them a simple question “How are things going here at this plant?”

These two plants were almost identical in several ways:

They served the same customer base
They generally produced the same products
They had about the same number of employees
They were just in different geographic locations

The first plant manager gave me a very precise answer:

“Things are going great. By 10:30 this morning we had 1,370 units out the door. Currently we are about 5% ahead of schedule for the day which means we’ll have the time in the morning to sit down and discuss the waste problem that we’re experiencing that’s just killing us financially.”

After spending a couple of days at the first plant I arrived at the second plant and upon meeting the Plant Manager for the first time asked exactly the same question: “How are things going here at this plant?” And I once again received a very clear answer:

“Things are going great. I think the truck industry is headed in this new direction. I’ve ordered some equipment from Germany. We should be able to get it fabricated, shipped and installed in about nine months. With some reasonable time for training I believe we’ll be ready to go and will be totally aligned with this new direction.”

What did you notice about these two responses from successful plant managers at two almost identical successful plants?

After noting that they both started their response that “Things are going great”, notice the differences.

Plant Manager One:

10:30
1,372
5%
Today – tomorrow

Plant Manager Two

New direction
9 to 12 months
Aligned with industry direction

What do you think happened when I asked PM 2 how many units were produced today? He said “Fred, how many units did we get out today?”

Now, here’s the real question for you: Which approach is better?

Both! I believe that if you’ve chosen to be in the business world in particular, you must balance this function or you’ll lose the business!

In this real case example, a year from now PM1 would be producing the highest quality, lowest cost product that nobody wanted to buy. And in a year from now, PM2 would likely be in dire straits because the same scrap and waste impact that was at the top of PM1’s radar was not very high on PM2’s radar.

Make it Deliberate

My experience has been that most successful business people have figured this one out even if they didn’t know about the natural preferences. What enhances this function is not leaving it to rely on natural preferences (you may not have a naturally balanced team) but to turn it into a very formal process. During your team meetings, be deliberate by asking the Sensing questions (what are the facts, what actually has happened, where are we today?) but then be very deliberate about asking the iNtuitive questions (what’s the implication in the data, where are we headed, what changes on the horizon may impact us?)

Caution

While this one seems to naturally balance, there is a hidden danger that I’ve seen time after time. Check out the next blog on the MBTI Perceiving function.

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Blog Myers-Briggs Using MBTI to Great Advantage

Using MBTI to Great Advantage – Perceiving

by Ron Potter January 5, 2015

Using MBTI to Great Advantage is a blog series in which I’ll do an overview of each of the four Myers-Briggs (MBTI) functions and then in subsequent blogs will dig into each one in more depth with some practical applications for creating better dynamics and better decisions making. Click here to read the Series Introduction.

Perceiving (Attending) Overview: Sensing vs iNtuition

We looked at an overview of our Energizing function in the last Myers-Briggs (MBTI) blog. Now let’s look at the Perceiving function.

For many years the MBTI referred to this function as your attending function, “What do you pay attention to? or What is your preferred source of information?” However, more recently they have gone back to Carl Jung’s (MBTI is based on Jung’s original analytical psychology work studying healthy personality types) original description of perceiving, “Through what lens do you perceive the world around you?”

Also note that was not a typo when I identified the second function as iNtuition. Myers and Briggs had already used the “I” indicator for the introverts so chose to use the “N” indicator for intuition. On this function your natural preference will be either an S or and N.

If you happen to be a more natural “sensing” type, you will tend to “pay attention to” facts, figures, what’s in the present, the immediate problem and what’s “real”. This is how you “perceive” the world around you.

If you happen to be a more natural “iNtuitive” type, you will pay attention to the possibilities, how might this play out in the future, what are the implications of the issue we’re dealing with? And maybe more importantly, does this fit into the world as “I believe it should be?”

Decision Making Function. This function is the first “decision making” function. It identifies where and how we gather our information, what information we gather and pay attention to and what information we tend to put more stock in when it comes to making our decisions (which will be the next function we discuss). We all have what is known as confirmation bias (the book Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization by Edward Hess is a good source of understanding) where we tend to look at and accept only data that agrees with our beliefs of how things work (or should work). Understanding your Perceiving function and balancing it with a great team (this one is difficult to balance within us personally so it takes a trusted team to provide the balance) is incredibility valuable to you personally, the team and the company.

Hidden cause of confusion. Like Extraverted and Introverted preferences (previous blog overview) this function is a hidden cause for much team confusion and misunderstanding. Because we use our preferred function to ask and answer questions, if we’re not clear as a team one person may be asking a Sensing question “What is the impact of only hitting 87% of our goal this month?” while someone provides an iNtuitive response “There is no impact at all because the entire market is going to shift over the next three years.” This is like two ships passing in the night. Teams must be disciplined about aligning Sensing and iNtuitive questions with Sensing and iNtuitive answers.

Therefore, the same three rules apply to working more effectively: Balance, Balance, Balance. What I’ve discovered in business is that good leaders have often figured out their need for balance on this one to run a business effectively because if you let this one get out of balance for too long, you will lose the business. It’s great to create balance in the other three functions. It’s critical that you balance this one if you’re running a business.

So remember the three rules:

Balance
Balance
Balance

You can’t be sure of what you’re learning or need to learn unless you balance this function.

Share with us some of your balancing act stories.

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