The May 6 IFMA Greater New York Chapter event, "How Personality Impacts Work Effectiveness" was held at the historic N.Y. Academy of Medicine Library, at the northern edge of Fifth Avenue's "Museum Mile." The attendees were treated to a tour of the facility, which also included a visit to the extraordinary "Rare Books" room. Here, we were able to see and handle a very small cross section of the thousands of the cataloged medical papers and books, many of which were hundreds of years old and pre-dated the printing press process (hand written on parchment). Both the excellent condition of these preserved printings, as well as the details of the anatomical drawings were literally astounding. Now it was time to meet Mary Speed-Perri, our guest presenter. The title of the evening's program had stimulated my curiosity, though I hadn't a clue as to how the program would distill this somewhat vast subject. "Have you ever wondered how people take in information, where they get their energy, or how they make decisions," declared the event invitation. Certainly most of us have. Yet again, how was this going to tie in and match up with the program's title? Perri skillfully directed a highly interactive, focused and enjoyable program, providing us a clear vision of how personality impacts work effectiveness, especially with regard to communication during change and project work. Perri, a former facility manager for over 20 years, has utilized a well know personality assessment tool (The Myers Brigg Type Indicator) to illustrate how different personality types prefer to take in information, explain where we source our energy, and how we prefer to receive and give information while communicating with others. The MBTI identifies our preferences among four dichotomies: * Extraversion or Introversion * Sensing or Intuition * Thinking or Feeling * Judging or Perceiving All people utilize and embody all of the above processes, yet clearly have preferences and tendencies to use one side more than the other. Working with this type of proven indicator, we can understand ourselves and others, in order to develop the ability to flex and adapt, enhance our communication, and effectively manage teams, groups and change. In addition to the formal presentation, Perri had us actively work in groups to experience some of the concepts that were being discussed. Personality preferences were evident, even when one of the "round table" exercises was planning a "perfect weekend!" It became clear as our "round table" group discussions and experiences proceeded, that utilizing awareness of the different personality characteristics which the MBTI reveals, helps to create a common language in which to understand ourselves and others, and can de-personalize potential conflicts and misunderstandings. The distillation of all this yielding that: being aware of our own as well as other personalities and communication preferences during work projects and changes, provides meaningful help in aligning people with job goals, achieving team building, as well as bringing success to the overall business strategy of an organization. We would like to once again thank Mary Speed-Perri for her most interesting presentation. Mary earned her MBA in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Baruch College, CUNY and is a Certified Trainer. Michael Moskowitz of Gateway Chauffeured Services, is an IFMA GNY PR committee member