The song goes, “God didn’t make the little green apples…” Well, it turns out, she did…and not just the green ones, but the red ones, and the pink ones, and even more from where they came from…

I recently learned that if you ate a different type of apple every day, it would take you three decades to taste every variety. That’s a lot of apples! My supermarket experience offers me only a limited variety of apples – possibly three or four different types over the seasons. Apparently, the greater apple-world has apples that go beyond the sweet and tart of which we’ve become accustomed. There are ones that are spicy, ones that have a chocolate-finish after eating them, ones that taste like pears – the list goes on and on. I’m curious to find these other types and taste them! I hear there’s a farm somewhere in Vermont that has them. I’ll be checking it out.

This new variety-of-apples-awareness-notion got me thinking about myself, the variety of people I interact with every day – at work, at home, or otherwise – and personality and work-style assessments (like Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - MBTI, and Everything DiSC) that help us understand each other in more deep and meaningful ways.

The results that assessments provide help us understand our preferences about how we gain energy, take in information, make decisions, and orient ourselves in the world. I use assessments when working with individuals and teams and find, for the most part, the information about individuals’ and teams’ preferences and types is received well and with enthusiasm. The conversations around self-discoveries of strengths and blind-spots generate spirited exchange and, quite often, surprise and laughter. I encourage continuing the conversations to keep the learning alive and use it to explore new ways of thinking, working, and engaging in relationships. Most participants leave the workshops wanting to share their learning experiences with their family and friends, and have them take the assessment, too!

We, of the assessment-world, know that there’s more, much more to it, that there's a depth of variety that is often the key to the richness in each of us.

As we dig deeper into the results that MBTI or DiSC provide and unpack their potential, the tools provide road maps to whole human development. We are not solely defined by our dominant or preferred functioning. Each of us has access to ALL types or strengths within the assessment dichotomies. In fact, we not only have access to them, they inherently live within us below the surface. Our opportunity is to be open to new experiences, stretching ourselves to try new ways of thinking and being that will develop those strengths that are waiting to emerge and thrive. Imagine the possibility if each of us were to fully access and taste the abundance and variety of agile learning, leading, doing, being, and relating that is right there for the taking!

You and I have what it takes to continue to stretch ourselves in abundant and bountiful ways. What it might take is to be fully open to opportunities that will enable us to shift away from our comfortable, well-practiced ways of being, and to tap into all the types and preferences that are within our reach. It will take developing a "taste" for something new.

What potential do you want to explore and develop within yourself, your team, and your relationships? What might be untapped? How might you stretch and grow? I welcome hearing how you'd like to increase abundance in your life.

Renee Charney, President and Founder of Charney Coaching & Consulting LLC, contributes by helping others grow, learn, adapt, and lead drawing from over 25 years of corporate experience in coaching, learning, leadership, and organizational development and effectiveness. Setting her intention on developing leaders and their teams, Renee's contribution includes coaching and facilitating for individual and team growth, and leading initiatives that influence ongoing adaptive growth, development, and change. She is currently a doctoral candidate at Antioch University's Graduate School of Leadership and Change and has presented internationally on topics that include adaptive, individual, and organizational leadership and learning. Renee has been privileged to contribute to the development of both leaders and teams from around the globe including those from Brazil, Spain, Singapore, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Czech Republic, Australia, South Africa, and the United States.

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