There are so many different ways to go about helping business owners understand the concept of personality dynamics in the workplace. For the purpose of this article I’ve chosen to look at vegetarians in context of team building.

On the surface there would appear to be one prevailing view on vegetarianism. This places all vegetarians on one team, right?

Wrong.

Apparently not all vegetarians are created equal. For instance the most traditional form of vegetarianism is called ‘vegan’. These individuals only consume vegetable matter.

A second group of vegetarians is known as lacto-vegetarians because they will also consume milk products in their diet along with vegetables, but devoid of meat.

Yet another group of vegetarians are known as ovo-vegetarians and they will include poultry eggs in their diet along with vegetables, but again – no meat.

Then there are laco-ovo-vegetarians. As you might suspect they consume milk, eggs and vegetables, but no meat.

Stay with me, there is two more vegetarian types left.

Another form of vegetarian is Pescetarians. These individuals will add fish to their list of acceptable foods. Of course by doing this they are often viewed as non-vegetarians.

Finally there are vegetarian sympathizers. These individuals may eat a mostly vegetarian diet, but have no problem consuming meat from time to time.

To someone who is not a vegetarian it can appear that there is little difference among the majority of these vegetarian ideals, yet those who are vegetarians know the difference and will defend their point of view.

All right, now think about the differences in vegetarians with the differences in your business. In team building you have to help each member learn to work with other members of the team. There is no way you will find a complete team that looks at everything the exact same way. In fact, if you did find a group of workers that held identical views on everything you would likely discover this to be a liability and not an asset.

Diversity among the team helps drive certain strengths to offset certain weaknesses on the team. When divergent personalities work together it brings about a certain dynamic that may be hard to duplicate with similar temperaments.

This article is not intended to single out vegetarians. The truth is I could have chosen various types of sports players or members in a quilting bee. The point remains the same, your team will not always agree on what needs to be done, which is why they have a team leader to help guide them in a definitive direction.

Explore the weaknesses of your team and find ways to allow their strengths to find a mutually beneficial vent. Your team member will be happier and your business will benefit from diversity.