General - Monday, November 22, 2010 12:07 - 3 Comments

Triperspectivalism: Drilling Down

After speaking at the Soma 201 training this last week I thought I’d post up some notes with hopes that it will help leadership teams applying TriP.

The Danger of Overgeneralizing

Using TriP as a kind of quick profiling of personalities is not really helpful or healthy. The danger in any DISC or Meyers Brigg type of assessment is that it leaves out what can not be discerned on paper (e.g., human interaction through relationships in community, the work of discernment by way of the Holy Spirit, past performance, passions and aspirations). Making statements like, “oh, this person’s a priest, so they can’t…” or “they’re a king and we really need a…” is going to slow you down in the long run because (as we’ll see below) there are variances to consider within their perspective that may allow them to be a great fit for a role you wouldn’t have initially considered.

Also, I’ve heard of churches use the TriP language to all but shun one of the perspectives because they thought they knew what “type” of person was needed. This betrays the point of TriP, which is to see each perspective relying upon and informing the others. God is the only one who is omniperspectival. We need each perspective to help us develop in our own area of weakness. Additionally, as you mature you move closer to the center of the PPK triangle since you’re growing in Christlikeness by listening and applying truth from other perspectives.

Ok, enough of the warning label. Continue…