Brent Labour Whip, Steve Crabb, is trying hard to improve 2-way communication with his Labour Group colleagues, with limited success.
A recent survey of the 49 strong group achieved only 27 responses.
Of the 27 most felt the length of Labour Group meetings and content was about right but wanted more financial debate and data that would help them measure the Council's performance standards.
Ahead of the Labour Group Away Day, that will include a personality assessment, ('how our character, our outlook and our lived experience, shape the way we work individually and as part of a team;) the survey found only 8 members had not undertaken any personality questionnaire and 11 had completed the Myers Brigg test LINK.
The Brent Labour Group are being asked to take a controversial personal traits test ahead of a Group Awayday by the Labour Chief Whip Steve Crabb. It appears to be part of his bid to make this administration's Labour Group the 'most united Labour Group in the history of Brent Council.' (1)
Each councillor is asked to answer a battery of questions that Crabb suggests will enable them to better know themselves and others in the way they approach tasks, and thus work more effectively within the Group. Crabb who is a qualified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator practioner will analyse the answers and place each councillor in one of 16 categories.
What happens to this result?
Crabb's entry on the Council's Register of Interests includes 'Independent Consultant, SC Consulting'. His Myers-Brigg work is done voluntarily and not connected with the consultancy.
The video below summarises well the critique of the method which has become part of a multi-million industry used by many corporations.
As an education student in the 1970s I came across this test and many other psyschological tests which were fascinating at first, obsessed as we humans are with finding out about ourselves. However, the novelty soon wore off in the face of a critique from sociologists who saw the tests as masking the real differences between people that were often of a philosophical or political nature.
Treating the Labour Group as if it is some kind of corporation feeds into what appears to be the managerialist approach of Labour in Brent. If the Labour Group unites as a team, and understands and value each other, political differences will somehow disappear.
There is a common belief that if we only understand each and and communicate effectively we will all be 'nice' and will end up agreeing. On the contrary, effective communication may mean differences are clearer. (For example on affordable housing!)
Given the very limited role of backbench Labour councillors in terms of policy making and strategy alongside the highly controlling current leadership, this is worrying. Genuine debate on conflicting ideas can lead to progress.
I am not sure what some of the more grounded Labour councillors will make of the MBTI but certainly they need to be asking questions about how the results will be used, who will have access to them, and whether the Group time devoted to it could be better used to address the very many issues confronting the council and its residents.
For those who would like to know more I list some references below. Some advocates of MBTI will argue that the tests have been refined since publication of the video so perhaps the best introduction is a recent article in the Independent:
(1) Following Wembley Matters coverage of appointments and election to council roles at the Labour Group AGM after the local elections, newly appointed Chief Whip, Steve Crabb, wrote to all the Labour councillors expressing his disappointment that there had been a leak. He went on express the hope that the leak was not from a member of the Labour Group: 'I want us to be remembered as the most united Labour Group in the history of Brent Council. Let's work together to make sure the first leak is the last.'
