I mentioned this on one of the threads and was asked for more info, so here goes. This is a synopsis of the four different kinds of personality types that I learned about when I took my personal development classes. They go by different names depending on the type of class you take, but I took my classes from Brian Klemmer and Assoc. at http://www.klemmer.com/workshop/cw.asp and this is what they taught:

The four basic personality types are Controller, Promoter, Supporter, and Analyst. I believe we each have ALL 4 types in our make-up, but usually have a “bent” towards one type. The best and most balanced, of course, would be to have equal parts of each, and I believe as we learn more about each type, we can integrate the good parts of each into who we are. This then helps us to understand where others are coming from and communicate with them more effectively. I believe satan loves to take the differences in our personalities and cause us to use them against each other. As we learn more about how we think, and how others think, we can eliminate many of our differences, which stem from a lack of understanding and communication. I don’t believe it is a lack of LOVE for each other, but a lack of how differently we all think and process information.

Ok, so with that said, here is an example of the four personality types – Controller, Promoter, Supporter and Analyst, played out in the setting of the “church picnic”.
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One day at church, Promoter gets a great idea! “I know what we should do!!”, he thinks, “let’s have a church picnic!! It will be great! We can invite everyone, and have lots of food and games, and bouncy houses for the kids, possibly bring in a swimming pool, give out prizes, hire a hot-air balloon for hot-air balloon rides, have a pie eating contest, invite the media for maximum coverage, and have the time of our lives! Oh, and everyone bring a funny hat!! Yay, what about it everyone!!”

People at church seem open to the idea, although concerned about how all that will get done. Controller says “Excellent… (think Mr. Burns on the Simpsons) well, if this thing is going to work, then someone needs to be in charge and make sure it’s done right, and that someone is me! Ok, I will be passing out everyone’s duties for the picnic. Everything needs to be cleared through me, I want constant updates of your progress, and under no circumstances do you make any changes unless I ok them. The media will be here, people, and we need to look good so we can get new visitors to the church.”

Analyst thinks, “how are we ever going to afford this? I do the church books and this is not in the budget! I need to run some numbers to see what we can and can’t do. We really need to think about this, folks. Is this the best use of our money here? Let’s set up 10 or so meetings to discuss, discuss again, and then again discuss what we are doing and how much it will cost. We will make our decision, hopefully before the end of summer.”

Supporter is upset, because she feels that this may bring division to the group, so she comforts everyone and tells them all what a great job they are doing, and offers to watch all the kids during all the meetings, and bring all the snacks for all the adults and all the kids so everyone will feel good and all get along!

The decisions slowly get made. Promoter is ready to go, and can’t understand why the date is not scheduled yet. Controller is making lists and deciding for everyone what they are best at, whether they think so or not. Analyst is upset because 7 of his meetings have been canceled, and now he must finally make the budget decisions with so little information, so the supplies can be bought. Supporter has volunteered for every committee and has made all the posters and advertisements – oh, and watched everyone’s kids while doing it.

The picnic day finally arrives, while it’s still summer! Controller is “in charge” and organized! She has her lists, and has called and written letters to each “committee head” making sure they know exactly what their duties are and what is expected of them. The media is there and covering the event, and Controller is giving the interview.

Analyst is collecting receipts from all committee heads making sure they didn’t go over budget. He has the calculator with him, and is so stressed each time he adds a new receipt because there just wasn’t time, nor enough meetings to make sure the numbers will all work out in the end. He let everyone know, by the way, that hot-air balloon rides were out of the question, and regular helium balloons for the kids were substituted. The swimming pool also got “axed” and replaced with a Mr. Squiggle Hose.

Supporter is asleep in the potato salad as she stayed up all night making 20 gallons of it to make sure everyone had some, and no one was left out. She also was afraid some people might forget to bring their “funny hat”, so she made a dozen extra “extra funny” ones, again, so no one would be left out. She also had a slumber party for all the kids of the committee members last night so they could get their work done. She also wrote and glittered hand-made thank-you notes for each committee member so they would know how much they were appreciated. (she also fights off slight feelings of bitterness that threaten to overtake her in the middle of the night).

Promoter is no where to be found. He totally spaced the picnic, and went to Cabo with his friends.

The End.

Diane, I love it! This was great! Yes, I can see myself as mainly a supporter, but also a bit of analysist as well.

Good job!! I know that the others will enjoy this as well.

LOLOL...LOVE IT....Lisaleenie, I'm your opposite...not a bit of analyst in me or supporter, but I definitely am Controller and Promoter.

One Christmas I had all my inlaws and my extended and close family over for Christmas dinner...probably 30 people many with VERY strong personalities. I thought it would be fun to pass out wrapped soap with themes.....I know..sounds weird...but each soap was to represent each person's personality type...I searched high and low and spent a ton of money on soap that identified each person's personality and then had each person one by one open their soap. There was one 'rooster' soap....indicating the person who I thought had the most controlling 'rooster' 'cock on the walk' personality.....and it was so funny because everyone knew that one person was going to get the rooster soap but no one knew who and there were MANY candidates....LOL. I don't even know how much I paid for all the soap (as I am no analyst) and although I freely admitted I was a candidate for the rooster soap, there were several who were more roosterish than me ;0)..hee hee

Anyway..that just brought that memory to mind and what fun it was.

That is a great post, Diane. Hope everyone enjoys it and sees themselves in it.

Diane, did you make up that story?! What a hoot! I love it!!!!!!

Hmm, I'm DEFINITELY not an analyst. And I try to veer away from being "in charge". I think I'm mainly a mix of promoter and supporter. What do you think?

LOL, yes TN and Char, I agree with you both! You are two little cute peas in the pod! (And yes, I did make up the story - from experiences and discussions we had in the classes I took)

I thought of some things I wanted to add to my post from last night. First off, being that I am making FUN of the personalities above - but do not want to insult anyone (see, that's the Supporter in me!).

I believe all the personalities are God given and are each WONDERFUL!!

The Promoter has the vision and personality to help others see his way and follow him!

The Controller helps keep things organized and is the detail-oriented person who makes sure nothing is left out and all is completed to the best of everyone's ability!

The Analyst helps us to stop and think before making rash decisions. They help us to see the consequences of our actions beforehand!

The Supporter truly has God's heart. They make people feel loved and "supported". They listen and offer to help - even to their own detriment.

So, in my opinion, how does Jesus fit into these?

Jesus as Promoter says: Come and follow me!

Jesus as Controller says: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.

Jesus as the Analyst tells us to Count the Cost of following Him.

Jesus as the Supporter loves us SO MUCH that He willingly laid down His life for us!

AMEN!! Who is like our LORD??

I found this link by Brian Klemmer, the one who's classes I have taken, about how to identify the personality type of your child, and how to best work with that type!

Here's the link:

http://singlemindedwomen.com/single-moms/helping-single-moms-decode-their-child%E2%80%99s-personality-style/

I read a few books on this years ago and really got into it for a while. Then I went to supervisors' training at work in 2005, and went over it again; except they called the analyst the detailer, and the comforter the comrade. I came out comrade. Out of the 24 people in the class, there was only one other comrade, and I questioned his test results out loud, since I knew him from work!

There do not seem to be alot of comrades where I work, which explains so much. However, since I like analysis, I can do the spec'ing, coding and testing all right, however, I am NOT detail oriented, unless the topic at hand REALLY interests me.

I had to laugh at Dee's story. It reminded me of a white elephant exchange we had in my department (years ago). We were all accountants. One of our female co-workers was absent. So as to not leave her out, one of the guys volunteered to fill in for her. It was so comical to hear him imitating her. He had her pegged down to the "penny". It was hilarious, but he managed to get her just what she would have wanted had she been there.