Innies and Outties in the Workplace

Personality dynamics cause stress at some point in all workplaces.  Throw in the hectic pace of a medical practice, the high stakes decision making, and typically wide ranging backgrounds of staff, and stress is a given.  That is why I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles on human interaction and social science to share with clients.

With that in mind, the February 6, 2012 edition of TIME magazine has an interesting article authored by Bryan Walsh titled “The Upside of Being an Introvert (and why extroverts are overrated).”  In the article Mr. Walsh explains how introverts and extroverts are different, why both are important to a business and have a role in organizational structure, and finally how introverts deal with their condition in an increasingly extroverted world.

Introverts, he explains, have energy drained from them during social interaction.  Their sensitivity to stimuli makes them expend energy as they try to isolate and protect themselves from the over-stimulation of social interaction.  Extroverts, however, receive energy from these social interactions because they are naturally less sensitive and therefore crave the stimulation.  And he cites laboratory studies where researchers measure brain activity to support the thesis.

This isn’t new, of course.  I seem to remember years back in a college sociology class learning somewhat the same thing.  But I think the new nuance, as least for me, is the article’s explanation of how “innies” and “outies” (as the article refers to introverts and extroverts at one point) function in the world and function outside their natural state.

Mr. Walsh presents to the reader Harvard’s Brian Little ( “research psychologist …superstar academic lecturer…and serious introvert”)  drawing upon Mr. Little’s academic work and introversion.

“…he [Little] pushes through the constraints of his temperament because the social value of lecturing and speaking—of truly connecting with his students —trumps the discomfort his introversion can cause him.  Little calls this phenomenon Free Trait Theory: the idea that while we have certain fixed bits of personality, we can act out of character in the service of core personal goals.  The key, he explains, is balancing three equal but very different identities.  There’s our mostly inborn personality, the one that wants us to be introverted or extroverted; that’s the biogenic identify.  There are the expectations of our culture, family and religion–the sociogenic identity.  And then are our personal desires and our sense of what matters—the ideogenic identity.”

Who do you think in your office is an introvert or extrovert.  And don’t confuse shyness in introversion, they are different things.  Mr. Walsh includes 20-question quiz where readers can assess their intro/extro tendencies.  The quiz is excerpted from the book , Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain, Crown Publishers. The quiz can be accessed here: Quiz