CYGNA: Understand your co-author(s) & yourself with MBTI

Reports on our 23rd CYGNA meeting with a certified MBTI trainer

The name CYGNA comes from the female version of the Greek word for SWAN (Supporting Women in Academia Network). The main objective of the group is to promote interaction among female academics based in the London area and to provide a forum for learning, support, and networking. We typically hold five meetings a year with a mix of presentations and informal discussions. We also maintain a readings and inspirations section for female academics and have a Twitter hashtag #cygna_london. If you’d like to join the CYGNA network, just drop me an email

23rd meeting 23 November (ESCP Europe)

Organised by Argyro Avgoustaki, ESCP Europe

The 23rd meeting at the 23rd of November of 2018, what a nice coincidence! As usual we had a mix of old-timers and new members. The latter included my Middlesex colleague Lilian Miles [first on the left], Sylvie Chevrier [4th from left] from UPEM (Universite Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallee) who is on sabbatical at Royal Holloway and Aurelie Cnop [1st on the right] PhD student at LSE. We also had the honour of welcoming two professional staff members at ESCP: Anna Devivo [3rd from left] and Katia Barr [6th from right].

We were treated to a wonderful session entitled: Understand your co-author(s) and yourself with MBTI by certified MBTI trainer Veronique Tran (ESCP Paris). Although I have been a fan of MBTI for 15 years, I still learned a lot of new things.

Veronique's presentation can be downloaded in two parts here: Intro to MBTI for CYGNA and Each person confirms their preferences. The quickest way to get a feel for your type is to do the personality test at 16 personalities: https://www.16personalities.com/. For an application of MBTI types in a company setting, see the HBR article: Putting your Company's Whole Brain to Work. Finally, here are some animated videos explaining MBTI types (N-types only at this stage)

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