Taking into consideration the recent results of my management assessment and what the audience can see in this footage of the NeXT start up team, I would assess with high confidence that I wouldn't necessarily be an ideal fit. Not so much because of the skill set involved, but mainly from having an idea of how I "tick", particularly with the added insight of my Management Assessment.
NeXT, to start off with, would have been week outside my preferred organizational environment. By the assessment, I would ideally thrive best in a dynamic large organization, that is, one that has a good amount of changing activity but already possesses considerable size, resources, and infrastructure. In short, I would have novelty but still have a much higher likelihood of underlying stability. A fledgling start-up such as NeXT would indeed by dynamic...very dynamic. As the documentary showed, in a relatively short time span the team had gone from dreaming up the grand vision to sorting out the details of engineering and revenue stream. But that small, scrappy team environment wouldn't have a great deal of stability. Indeed, later in the video the team could be seen discussing where they could make cuts in their spending, to include presenting an old tactic of having the workers bring in their own computers. They were clearly in something of a crisis situation, and from first hand experience I would say it's stressful enough to consider such things in a big organization. I couldn't even imagine doing the same thing in a company that was, for all intents and purposes, still building up momentum and stability.
There would also be the question of the work environment, to include the pacing and the type of people. Jobs, of course, presented a very constant commanding and directive presence unto himself, a very strong personality. There also seemed to be a vibe about the conversations in that members of the group looked highly driven and were reaching far for their goals. I didn't get the sense that anyone in these meetings were particularly relaxed or otherwise. I also got the sense they were dealing with a rather challenging environment and a short time table, given the metrics they were trying to meet for price and power delivered in time for the university buying season. Much of these environmental dynamics also run contrary to what the assessment considered to be my optimum environment. As debriefed to me, my goal setting style tends to be very conservative, and while I do have an inner drive I'm not at the extreme where I have a desire to be at the very top of things. Thus, being in a group full of driven or more Type A personalities would eventually become exhausting. Besides that, I was also assessed as the type of person who tends to be less assertive and I tend to seek out additional advice. Additionally, any goals and challenge for me would be best tackled over the long term rather than under the auspices of meeting a certain target on a compressed timetable, which I think is the kind of situation NeXT found themselves in.
This is not to say such an environment would be impossible for me to work with. My overall management style, while still leaning towards the introverted logistical style, was measured as being very close to the center of the four different styles that could be assessed, which I was told meant I could potentially communicate with people from all the other styles and better see things from their perspective than someone who was a polar opposite. Speaking from personal experience, I can certainly understand the trend where I only have a small circle of close friends but wherever I go I seem to get along with most everybody.
Overall though, given the assessment placed me closer to the extreme opposite of the optimum organization type spectrum from that of a start up company, and given that the mismatches outweigh any matches or potential workarounds, I'm inclined to leave the work of outfits like NeXT to the innovative types that are more likely to thrive in such environments.
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