16Personalities vs. Personal User Guide: from personality test to collaboration
Compare 16Personalities and Personal User Guide on models, results, team features and costs, with graphics and data from 2,705 profiles and 24 teams.
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Blog about personality and collaboration
Your colleague wants a written plan, while you prefer to get started straight away. In a meeting, one person thinks aloud and another takes time to form an answer. These differences show up every working day. The Personal User Guide blog explores personality, communication and collaboration. The articles help you describe your own working style and recognise the preferences you see in others. That gives you a starting point for discussing what each of you needs to work well together.
The Big Five provide the basis for many of the articles. You will find explanations of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional sensitivity, with examples from everyday work. If you want to create a personal user manual, our guides explain how to describe your preferences around feedback, concentration, planning and workload. We also compare personality models such as the Big Five, MBTI and DISC. Our research articles examine patterns in personality profiles and differences within teams, explaining the data and what the findings mean.
Choose a topic that matters to your team. You might be welcoming a colleague, handing over a task or preparing for a difficult conversation. The collaboration articles offer examples of questions and working agreements suited to those situations. You can also browse personality comparisons, discussions of external publications and explanations of Personal User Guide features. Start with the basics or go straight to a familiar challenge at work. Bring an example to your next meeting and discuss which agreement you would like to try together.
How to negotiate with a reasonable person: connect interests without delaying the decision
A reasonable person sees several interests and looks for a workable outcome. Use that mediation without leaving boundaries, ownership, or decisions vague.
Read articleWhat Slab gets right about personal user manuals at work
Slab treats a personal user manual as shared work knowledge. Here is how to make preferences concrete without turning the document into a rulebook.
Read articleForbes makes the case for personal user manuals in onboarding
Shaun Arora presents personal user manuals as a low-cost way to improve onboarding. Here is how to turn that hypothesis into a safe, measurable practice.
Read articleNeuroticism in the Big Five: undisturbable, relaxed or sensitive?
What neuroticism measures, what 2,704 profiles reveal and how undisturbable, relaxed and sensitive people can collaborate better.
Read articleMaking strategy with a progressive person: think big, choose deliberately
A progressive person sees possibilities beyond the existing frame. Give imagination room and still end with a strategy you can genuinely test.
Read articleHandling incidents with an undisturbable person: stay calm, make urgency visible
An undisturbable person stays clear-headed as pressure rises. Use that calm without underestimating impact, urgency, or early warning signs.
Read articleDiscussing workload with a relaxed person: stay calm, make limits visible
A relaxed person notices tension and usually recovers quickly. Discuss workload without exaggerating it or missing signals and limits.
Read articleAgreeableness in the Big Five: competitive, reasonable or compassionate?
What agreeableness measures, what 2,704 profiles reveal and how competitive, reasonable and compassionate people can collaborate better.
Read articleOnboarding a new colleague with a merry person: welcome and direction
A merry person makes connection easy. Combine a warm welcome with clear direction and independence.
Read articleSolving problems with a curious person: explore broadly, choose clearly
A curious person connects new ideas to what works. Explore several explanations and still make an actionable choice on time.
Read articleWhy Ray Dalio compares personality to Lego
In 53 seconds, Ray Dalio explains why knowing yourself and others matters. His Lego metaphor becomes practical through Big Five data and work agreements.
Read articleGiving feedback by personality: adapt your delivery without stereotyping
Adapt the format and timing of feedback to Big Five preferences, without watering down the message or reducing people to their personality.
Read articleSetting priorities with a focused person: sharp without tunnel vision
A focused person protects results, quality, and deadlines. Change priorities without losing progress, overview, or room to decide.
Read articleWriting a Manager README: an honest example and useful questions
Write a manager README that makes expectations, working style and pitfalls visible, without turning it into a one-sided list of demands.
Read articleBig Five vs. MBTI and DISC: which personality model should you choose?
A clear-eyed comparison of Big Five, MBTI and DISC: what each model measures, how strong the evidence is and which model fits your goal.
Read articleIntroducing change with a conventional person: innovating with evidence
A conventional person protects what is proven to work and wants to know what problem a change solves. Here’s how to test something new without losing stability and trust.
Read articleThe Big Five Explained: What the Five Personality Dimensions Mean
A clear explanation of the five Big Five dimensions, how to read a score, and how to translate personality differences into better work agreements.
Read articleRidley Scott and Jacob Elordi: pace and trust
On The Dog Stars, Ridley Scott provides direction and Jacob Elordi gets room to act. Their guides show how pace and trust can work together.
Read articleOpenness in the Big Five: conventional, curious or progressive?
What openness measures, what 2,704 profiles reveal, and how conventional, curious and progressive people can work better together.
Read articleHow to make decisions with a competitive person: rigour without a fight
A competitive person asks sharp questions and defends interests directly. Use that challenge without turning every decision into a contest.
Read articleExtraversion in the Big Five: quiet, merry or dominant?
What extraversion measures, what 2,704 profiles reveal, and how quiet, merry and dominant people can work better together.
Read articleHow to give feedback to a sensitive person: clarity without extra tension
A sensitive person notices tension early and may feel feedback strongly. Stay honest, predictable, and specific without weakening the message.
Read articleShakira and Howard G. Buffett: from attention to action
Shakira and Howard G. Buffett are rebuilding ten schools together in Chocó. Their profiles show why this unexpected partnership could work.
Read articleHow to share work with a compassionate person: helpful without overload
A compassionate person likes to help and preserve harmony. Make willingness and boundaries visible before a friendly yes leads to overload.
Read articleConscientiousness in the Big Five: flexible, methodical or focused?
What conscientiousness measures, what 2,704 profiles reveal, and how flexible, methodical and focused people can work better together.
Read articleHow to run meetings with a quiet person: silence and influence
A quiet person is not less engaged, but often processes internally first. Give silence, speech, and writing real influence in meetings.
Read articlePresenting with a dominant person: energy and direction
A dominant person brings pace, connection, and enthusiasm to a presentation. Here’s how to harness that energy without losing sight of roles, nuance, or commitments.
Read articleHanding over work to a methodical person: clarity without locking it down
A methodical person likes to work prepared and with a recognizable sequence. Here’s how to transfer results, context, and dependencies without taking away ownership.
Read articleGap view: compare two personal user manuals
Gap view helps team leaders and coaches compare two personal user manuals and zoom in on collaboration. Try it with celebrities.
Read articleHow to plan projects with a flexible person: room and results
A flexible person does not work without a plan, but with room to move. Learn how to set goals, deadlines, and replanning moments that suit three different working styles.
Read articleWhat 24 teams reveal about team diversity
An analysis of 24 teams and 190 team members: where differences are greatest, where colleagues resemble each other, and which agreements help.
Read articleWhy Tom Haak sees the personal user guide as an HR trend
Tom Haak and Natal Dank explain why a personal user guide speeds up collaboration. Platform data shows why the idea is still relevant.
Read articleWhat 2,705 personality profiles reveal about collaboration
An analysis of 2,705 profiles: which recognisable preferences occur often, where differences are greatest, and what teams can do with those insights.
Read articleThe most common personality profiles and the rarest
Which combinations of recognisable anchor words occur most often in 2,705 profiles? A privacy-safe analysis that does not reduce people to fixed types.
Read articleHow to create a personal user manual, with examples
A practical guide to writing your personal user manual or manual of me, including questions, examples, and common mistakes.
Read articleMessi and Yamal: two ways to be the best
On Sunday they face each other in the World Cup final. But how would they work together as colleagues? Two profiles side by side, and five agreements that would make the difference.
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