Mixing Introversion and Group Projects

Posted September 24, 2015 by Tara Pealer

I come from a family of extroverts. They’re loud, they’re fun, and they’re friendly. They’ll stop to talk to you on the street. They’ll have a conversation on the train with a stranger. They’ll do their best to make you feel included.

I’m an introvert. (Buzzfeed keeps insisting that I’m an ambivert. But it also once sorted me into Ravenclaw when I’m Pottermore sorted as a Hufflepuff, and huffle-proud of it. So I question the legitimacy of their quizzes.) I don’t believe that you should ever talk to someone on the train, unless you know them. I know that the tried and true New Englander way to say hello to someone on the street is to barely make eye contact and keep walking as you say “Hi-How-Are-You-I’m-Good.”

Of course, I’m not alone in this in the library profession. A majority of LIS people are introverted as well, though there are a good deal of extroverts who are wonderful to be around. In my 401 Foundations class, we discussed how the Myers-Briggs test can be used to identify and understand people’s skills in the workplace, or even in group projects. (And, at Simmons, there are a lot of group projects.)

The thing about being an introvert in an introverted profession is that it’s important to know what skill sets you have and what difficulties you struggle with when it comes to people. It means that you have to consciously build strategies for working with other people, who, like you, may be unwilling to be the first person to reach out. The library profession is about building connections, networking, and working with others, from the organization you work in to the larger LIS professional community. The Simmons LIS program, I’ve found, does amazing work to make sure that students and alumni have the tools and the knowledge to participate in this structure.

I’m INFP, which, according to several free tests, means I love puppies and kittens and being emotionally and actively optimistic about everything. (They use the phrase ‘rose-colored glasses’, but we all know what they mean, right?) It means that when I say, during group work, “We’ve got this, it’ll be great!” I mean it. However, rose colored glasses also can mean that I’m not willing to acknowledge what difficulties are actually going to be a problem.

Another issue, of course, is that it’s hard for introverts to reach out and use the tools Simmons makes available, but the first step is the most important. So maybe it’s making a horrible introductory pun, or maybe it’s complimenting the other person on something they’re wearing. The important part of developing a group dynamic, for me, is putting myself out there.

It’s something I do my best to work on. I’ll try to be the first one to reach out to my group partners, or if the classroom is too quiet, I’ll turn and say something to someone. However, as initially painful (joking) those first thirty seconds are, I always find it worthwhile. Because being introverted doesn’t mean I don’t like making connections, and it definitely doesn’t mean I’m not going to bring up that Doctor Who shirt I saw you wear the other day.