September 18, 2019

Powers Objective Personality Typing (POPT)

Dave and Shan Powers have a business they call Objective Personality in which they've taken some of the ideas of Carl Jung, sprinkled them liberally with more ideas from Tony Robbins, mixed and churned a bit, and now they're sharing them with the world on YouTube. (You can also pay to dig in even deeper with regular classes.)

I think their ideas are brilliant and they're helping me understand the people in my life, and myself, better. So I've been trying to gather in their ideas, organize them in some way, and I'm hoping at some point the pieces will start to click together and I'll grok what they're talking about. I feel like I pretty much understand the content from 7 years ago. But in the past year, they've been presenting far more refined and organized definitions, concepts, and relationships and that's what I'm still trying to connect more fully with.

So, this page is basically a place for me to sort and organize ideas. ... and if I do it right, I'll include links so that I can easily go back and dig deeper into an idea.



We're all oriented along two axes. On one axis is Tribe vs. Self. On the other is Chaos vs. Control.

Single Deciders - De/Di - Tribe vs. Self

We all have to deal with ourself and we all have to deal with the tribe (other people). But for some people, tribe or self is kind of a key issue, whereas for others, they're fairly balanced in understanding the importance of doing things for self vs. doing things for the tribe -- doing things for personal identity and personal values vs. doing things for validation from others and securing your place among others.

When either tribe or self looms rather large in your life, then you're a single decider. You have two functions that are deciders, but one is like a well-used muscle and very strong, while the other is avoided and therefore weak and atrophied.

Single deciders are double observers. That means that when it comes to issues of  chaos vs. control, one is valued or more important to the other, but actually the two are fairly well balanced, especially when compared to the difference between the value of tribe vs. the value of self.

IxxP, ExxJ: Single Deciders/Double Observers

Single Observers - Oe/Oi - Chaos vs. Control 

We all have to deal with chaos (gathering in/consuming new stuff/things, variety) and control (organizing, building systems/models/rules). But for some people, consuming/chaos vs. control is kind of a key issue, whereas for others, these two sides of a coin are fairly balanced.

When either chaos/consuming or control looms rather  large in your life, then you're  a single observer. You have two functions that are observers, but one is like a well-used muscle and very  strong, while the other is avoided and therefore weak and atrophied.

Single observers are double  deciders. That means that when it comes to issues of tribe vs. self, one is valued or more important than the other, but actually the two are fairly well balanced, especially when compared to the difference between the value of chaos/consuming vs. control.



Single Deciders - either ExxJ (Tribe) or IxxP (Self)

Once you figure out if you, or another person, is a single decider or a single observer, the next step is to figure out which end of that axis they're putting most of their ducks behind -- where are they putting their energy -- what's driving them most predominantly to behave the way that they do and think the way that they think?

Extroverted Deciders = De = Te/Fe (Tribe)

Te: Want things to work well for the tribe. Take responsibility to do things well for the tribe. Can jump quickly from idea to idea. Adhering to the reasons/rules of the tribe.

Masculine Te: Pushes on the tribe (to perform?)
Feminine Te: Let's the tribe push on them (to perform?)

Fe: Want the members of the tribe to love what they do. Take responsibility for the emotions/happiness of the tribe. Can jump quickly from emotion to emotion.

Masculine Fe: Pushes on the tribe (to get along?)
Feminine Fe: Let's the tribe push on them (to conform?)

Introverted  Deciders = Di = Ti/Fi (Self)

Ti: Their reasons are most important. Want things to work well for themselves.

Masculine Ti:
Feminine Ti:

Fi: Their personal feelings and values are most important.

Masculine Fi:
Feminine Fi:

Single Observers - either ExxP (Gather/Variety) or IxxJ (Consistency/Organize)

Extroverted Observers = Oe = Se/Ne (Gather/Variety)

Se:

Masculine Se:
Feminine Se:

Ne:

Masculine Ne:
Feminine Ne:

Introverted Observers = Oi = Si/Ni (Consistency/Organize)

Si:

Masculine Si:
Feminine Si:

Ni:

Masculine Ni:
Feminine Si: