The “Essential Guide” series is a library of publications available through Team Focus.   The series consists of:

“Psychological Type - Understanding yourself and others" published 2006

Anyone who shows an interest in people will be struck by the incredible array of individual differences – in style, in motives and interests.  Every parent marvels at the apparently inexplicable differences between their children – even in identical twins!  Every good teacher learns how to adapt their style and methods in order to coax one pupil, challenge another or give practical demonstrations to a third.  Every couple needs to learn to predict and adapt to their partner who can continue to surprise and intrigue them after years of living together. 

This guide introduces you to an approach to personality based on the work of Carl Jung, the distinguished Swiss thinker, philosopher and psychologist.  His theory of Psychological Types has become increasingly popular to help people understand themselves and others.  It is a model that sharpens people’s perception of differences and provides a language for describing different styles and individual preferences that is positive and useful. 

“Learning Styles using Psychological Type - Using the Learning Styles Indicator” published 2007

Never before has learning been so important to us and to our civilisation.  We live in a society that is producing unprecedented amounts of information.  It is estimated that the total amount of information available doubles every 5 years.  It is salutary to reflect that there has been more information available in the last 30 years than in the whole of the preceding thousands.  In this information age, understanding how we learn best must be a priority.

There are some aspects of learning, which are universal.  For instance, there is always input in the form of information (used in the loosest sense to include all kinds of visual, aural, kinaesthetic and emotional experiences) which needs to be organised, classified and remembered. In terms of output, all learning involves change in the learner who will have acquired more knowledge, new skills and behaviours or new capabilities to act – although we may not always see the evidence of this.

However, one aspect of learning that has received too little attention is the universal and blatantly obvious fact that people differ in the way they learn.  Our multitude of contacts and relationships cannot fail to convince us that people differ in a whole host of ways.  However, our increasing knowledge of these differences from psychology and personality research has not yet contributed sufficiently to the learning and education process.  This workbook brings individual differences in Learning Styles to the attention of educators so that we can better address this crucial issue. 

“Psychological Type at at Work - Understanding yourself and others at Work” to be published 2008

A volume, within this series, called “The Essential Guide to Type” gives an introduction to individual differences based on Jung's theory of Psychological Type.  This volume “The Essential Guide to Type at Work” gives more detail on how these differences play themselves out in the workplace.  There is no doubt that the array of differences are not only noticeable in our everyday lives but that they have the potential for dramatically affecting our performance – either because of our style and preferences which may not fit the needs of the immediate situation or because these differences affect the way we build and destroy our working relationships.  This latter point can be viewed as the single most important element for improving success at work – we all know that companies say “our most important asset is our people” but what they really mean is “our most important asset is how our people work together”.  This guide helps in creating better working relationships by providing ideas and feedback to individuals about their motivations and what they expect from their job, their working style and how this fits their working environment and their relational style and how they might be seen by others.  This leads to a better understanding of their key strengths and areas that may need developing which can then lead them to exploring career options and being more proactive in managing their career.

These guides are available through Team Focus, call: +44 (0)1628 637338:

“Psychological Type - Understanding yourself and others" @ £16.95 +p&p.

“Learning Styles using Psychological Type - Using the Learning Styles Indicator” @ £12.95+p&p.

“Psychological Type at at Work - Understanding yourself and others at Work" cost to be confirmed