DiSC® Myths—Busted

How much do you know about the DiSC^® Personality Test? When it comes to behavior assessment profiles, DiSC is simply unmatched. Participants complete a short survey, which then generates insightful results on their behavior. DiSC offers valuable information for your organization, yet misconceptions abound. Here are some DiSC assessment myths debunked.

Myth #1: You can’t use DiSC as part of your hiring process.
Truth: While DiSC shouldn’t be your sole decision-making tool, it can be helpful during the hiring process. DiSC provides insight into a candidate’s behavior and communication preferences, so it can help you find someone who fits nicely in your organization.

Myth #2: You must have special certification to use DiSC in training sessions.
Truth: Unless you’re outside North America, you can use DiSC without receiving certification. This makes DiSC highly accessible to organizations that would benefit from this tool.

Myth #3: DiSC is like other behavior assessments out there.
Truth: DiSC measures so much more. While other assessments label individuals in one of a handful of categories, DiSC identifies an individual’s primary—and secondary—style. So instead of simply identifying participants as having a “D,” “i,” “S,” or “C” style (for Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness, and Steadiness), DiSC notes their style as CD, Si, and so on. It’s a more layered approach to reflect that no individual has a “one-note” personality.

DiSC is differentiated even further by diving deeper into the intensity of each participant’s personality. With an individual’s results plotted as a dot on a graph like the one here, the location of the dot is very telling. Is your dot toward the edge of the circle? If so, then your personality is firmly in the identified style. Is your dot towards the center of the circle? In that case, you have those characteristics to a lesser degree.

Do you have questions? You can find common DISC questions and answers here.

To learn more, please email us at learn@corexcel.com.

By 1978, Marston’s book had been on the marketplace for 50 years but there was no easy way to make his words on paper work as a tool to change businesses. Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was a household name, being tossed around board rooms and conference rooms as “must have” training, but implementing MBTI practically requires a degree.

By this time, different industrial psychologists had worked with both concepts and tried to build different kinds of tools using Marston’s theory and Jung’s archetypes without much success. John Geier, PhD was the first to successfully operationalize the DiSC model in the form commercialized by Inscape Publishing.

Inscape Publishing offers the original DiSC© instrument, says Barry Davis. “Marston didn’t propose measuring it; he just proposed that the world consisted of these four psychological types and that we could make meaning of them and understand people better if we understand these generalized notions about how people function. Our original tool was called just the DiSC Personal Profile System. Then we created the DiSC Personal Profile Software, which was an electronic way to do DiSC.

Recently, Inscape Publishing changed the way it packaged its DiSC systems, literally. “We used to sell assessments. Four years ago, Inscape Publishing took everything it had learned about DiSC and organized it into a system called Everything DiSC® Facilitation System,” explains Barry Davis, Vice President of Product Development and Marketing at Inscape Publishing.

Introduced in early 2008, this product and approach mark yet another step forward in helping Training and Human Resource Managers successfully use DiSC in their companies.

“We have really moved from just selling assessments, to selling all of the tools that are useful in applying DiSC to a specific organization or training need. That is really a big change,” says Davis. “We still have PhD’s on our staff, psychologists, who develop the assessment and measuring part and the reports but we also have instructional designers, writers, video creatives, editors, web developers and marketing researchers. We have all of the functions under this roof.”

It hasn’t always been that way but one reason that Inscape’s Everything DiSC Application Library and the Everything DiSC Management system is doing so well and Inscape’s products are coming to market and succeeding. Another important reason is how Inscape actually develops its DiSC systems.

Inscape didn’t just create a validated instrument for measuring behavioral styles nor did it stop after developing a toolbox that helps trainers implement DiSC; the company took one more, giant step to ensure that the product they were selling really worked for the businesses buying it.

About five years ago, Inscape moved out of a purely lab environment and began to invest in gaining deep business knowledge in multiple verticals. “We have spent a lot of time and energy in developing relationships with our customers. Our customers invest their energy in helping us connect with their clients – the organizations and businesses,” explains Davis.

What Inscape learned is that there are three levels of customers and end users for their products. “There is the Inscape distributor – independent trainers and consultants. Then there is their client – usually a Training Manager in an organization or an HR person in an organization. The ultimate customer is the learner in the organization – the one who benefits and who is really the customer of everyone.”

Inscape works with closely with its customer base, actually field testing its instruments with their clients’ end users and getting feedback from the learners. “We are actively involved in three levels of feedback at every stage of development.”

“Inscape has an excellent management team, research that backs what they do and a connection to companies like mine,” says Sue Bowlby. Bowlby is President of Corexcel, a continuing education provider and Diamond Inscape Distributor whose mission is to provide programs and training materials that enhance the effectiveness of employees and the organizations they work for.

This inclusive approach to developing DiSC products has helped launch the Everything DiSC Application Library. Everything DiSC Management is the second piece. Davis calls it, “…the latest and greatest.” Inscape will add a third piece in 2009 and plans to publish one or two new pieces to the DiSC Application library every year.

This is the fourth in a series of four articles about the DiSC model, Everything DiSC Management, the history behind it all and how it applies. The first article is titled The Concept Behind DiSC – You do the Math and the second is titled Digging into DiSC History. The previous article, Putting DiSC® Management to Work, discusses the powerful Everything DiSC Management training program and its value in a slow economy.

“DiSC” and “Everything DiSC” are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Everything DiSC® Management is a well-tested, proven training system; there is no question about that. But how do end users make it work?

The process starts with managers learning what their own style is. Once they get a handle on how they like to interact and work, the next step is figuring out their employees’ styles then adapting their own style to meet the other person’s needs and get the work done.

Based on extensive and ongoing research, Everything DiSC Management uses online pre-work to create a personalized report for every manager. The six, one-hour training sessions include video, activities, and guided discussion are easy to use and make it convenient for organizations of any size to help managers recognize and address their employees’ diverse personality styles.

“By learning a straight-forward process, managers can develop skills to bring out the best in their employees,” said Jeff Sugerman, CEO of Inscape Publishing. “Participants learn the skills they need to increase employee engagement: directing and delegating, motivating, developing others, and how to work with their own managers.”

The robust program and the multi-modal approach to training makes it easy for anyone to deliver training that meets each user’s behavioral style. And it makes it easy for managers and supervisors to learn how to use DiSC quickly and effectively.

“Managing is one of the hardest things people can do,” says Sue Bowlby, President of Corexcel and a Diamond Distributor for Inscape Publishing. “Everything DiSC Management is the only product focused on managers, assessing their skills then working on their teams and their organizations.”

Inscape Publishing describes Everything DiSC Management as, “…classroom training that uses online pre-work, engaging facilitation and contemporary video to create a personalized learning experience” that focuses on five areas:

1. Introduction to Your Management Style: Participants discover how DiSC affects management style, including decision making and problem solving. Participants will also learn to identify others’ DiSC styles using behavioral cues.
2. Directing and Delegating: Managers discover their strengths and challenges when directing and delegating. And they learn how to adapt their behavior to manage people more effectively.
3. Creating a Motivating Environment: Participants discover how DiSC styles influence how people are motivated.
4. Developing Others: Managers learn how to provide resources, environments, and opportunities that support long-term professional growth, based on DiSC.
5. Working with Your Manager: Participants learn to influence and communicate effectively with their managers by meeting their DiSC needs and preferences.

Unlike other similar programs being sold under the DiSC name, Everything DiSC Management offers an in-depth and easily customizable training package made even more powerful by its modular design and online features. The facilitator’s kit includes a leader’s scripted seminar, a PowerPoint® presentation with embedded video, student handouts and more than 30 video vignettes that visually demonstrate the DiSC concepts.

Inscape Publishing was one of the first major publishing companies to begin using the Internet to deliver the training instruments and programs it developed for DiSC. It is features like these that make the Inscape instruments accessible, easier to customize and faster to implement.

In fact, the only hurdle that one power user mentioned had nothing to do with the training tools or learning the concepts. “The biggest hurdle is taking people outside their comfort zone. A lot of people’s fear of adjusting or modifying their behavior is that people on the other side of the desk are going to see it,” says Scott Messer, President of Sales Evolution.

Whether employees are selling, being asked to be more productive or just trying to get their work done more effectively, DiSC asks them to practice new behaviors. Messer offers this insight. “Inside your head, when you are doing something different, it seems like trying to sign your name with your opposite hand,” Messer smiles. “It really feels weird. So I ask people I train to practice in low risk situations, not to do it when there is money on the line. And that helps get people in the habit and more comfortable with it.”

Selling in DiSC in a Slow Economy

Organizations reported that an average of $1,202 (including staff salaries) was spent per learner on training. Instructor-led classroom training remains the dominant delivery method, used for 65% of all formal training, while self-study elearning now accounts for 20% of student hours. However, the lines are becoming blurred because what used to be pure instructor-led training now is typically a blend of classroom and online learning.

Training Magazine’s 2007 Industry Report, released in November of that year, found that the training budget grew to $58.5 billion in that year. However, the percentage of growth is down compared with 2005 to 2006, when training budgets increased 7 percent, compared with 6 percent from 2006 to 2007.

Training budgets were holding their own in 2007, but they weren’t growing. The economy in 2008 is even weaker, making so-called soft skills training one of the hardest types to sell. How do people who want to use Everything DiSC Management sell this training internally?

Barry Davis, Vice President of Product Development and Marketing for Inscape Publishing answered this question with some questions of his own. “In a soft economy, if you are running a business, how much do you value getting the most out of each employee? What is that worth to you? Is that going to make a difference to you?”

Davis says the whole idea is that you can get a little bit more out of each employee by training your managers. “That is what Everything DiSC Management trains them on — getting more out of employees, getting the best out of the employee. That is the value proposition.”

Davis acknowledges the current economic state but thinks of DiSC Management as an investment, not an expense. “I know the economy is tough. I know they would rather not spend money but this is a very small amount of money to spend to get more out of what we’ve got instead of hiring more people. I really think it is prudent management in a tough economy.”

Whether the economy is up or down, there is no doubt that the health of any business rests in the hands of its employees. In a down economy, productivity and quality become even more important. Companies spend billions of dollars annually to develop new products and services and to launch them into the marketplace.

Spending money on training, especially management and supervisory skills training is a small price to pay to improve productivity, enhance collaboration, reduce turnover and manage more effectively.

Inscape Publishing created Everything DiSC Management to make it easy for companies of all sizes to do just that.

This is the third in a series of four articles about the DiSC model, Everything DiSC Management, the history behind it all and how it applies. The first article is titled The Concept Behind DiSC – You do the Math and the second is titled Digging into DiSC History.

Sources:

Training Magazine 2007 Industry Report. Training Magazine, November/December 2007, 9-24.

“DiSC” and “Everything DiSC” are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The History Behind the DISC® Model

The most recent iteration of the behavioral styles concept is DiSC but the theory currently underpinning DiSC dates back to 1928. That was the year that William Molton Marston wrote a book called The Emotions of Normal People. In his book, Dr. Marston proposed a system of psychology that used the acronym of DiSC for the first time.

Marston’s idea was to prove brilliant but not many people actually remember that he was the father of the DiSC concept. One reason is that Marston was a Harvard trained psychologist working at Columbia University. He may have proposed the DiSC concept but, because it came out of academia, no one owned it.

Another reason Marston’s groundbreaking work in the area of human psychology is often neglected is because there was someone else working in the same field, at the same time Marston was.

Carl Jung developed, wrote about and created his theory about archetypes – early models of personality description. His research, which formed the basis for the Myers Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI), was published around the same time that Marston developed and wrote about DiSC. Jung was a well-known Swiss psychiatrist with much higher visibility than Marston but both made significant contributions to the area of study that would become known as psychometric research and the use of psychometrics relative to personality.

Jungian archetypes and Marston’s DiSC theory are the foundation on which just about every four quadrant model on the market today are based on, many of which don’t even carry the DiSC name.

Jung and Marston may be prominent scholars whose names are associated with DiSC theory but, surprisingly, they were not the first to develop this idea. In fact, the ideas behind four quadrant behavioral models had been around for centuries when these 20th century scholars did their groundbreaking work.

The First Physicians Are Fathers of DiSC Theory

It may be hard to believe but the original four quadrant behavioral model was first postulated in 3 BC, in Greece by the so-called “father of medicine,” Hippocrates.

Although Hippocrates applied most of his theory about the Four Temperaments to medicine, he also applied what he learned to peoples’ behaviors making this one of the oldest personality profiling systems.

It was another Greek physician, Claudius Galenus of Pergamum (AD 131-201), better known as Galen, who interpreted Hippocrates’ earlier ideas. Galen was chief physician to the Roman gladiators and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, among others.

Changing the name from Four Temperaments to Four Humours, Galen’s descriptions were still focused on human biology but also included some behavioral traits. Although the names are different, the characteristics Galen called out thousands of years ago are very much like those used in DiSC programs.

Sanguine – the personality of an individual with the temperament of blood, the season of spring (wet and hot), and the classical element of air. A person who is sanguine is generally light hearted, fun loving, a people person, loves to entertain, spontaneous and confident. However they can be arrogant, cocky, indulgent and impulsive, possibly acting on whims in an unpredictable fashion. (Influence)

Choleric corresponds to the fluid of yellow bile, the season of summer (dry and hot), and the element of fire. A person who is choleric is a doer and a leader. They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can be mean spirited, angry and suspicious and can also dominate people of other temperaments or behavioral styles. (Dominance)

Melancholic is the personality of an individual characterized by black bile. The temperament is associated with the season of fall (dry and cold) and the element earth. A melancholic is also often a perfectionist, being very particular about what they want and how they want it in some cases. Often kind and considerate, melancholics can be highly become overly preoccupied with the tragedy and cruelty in the world, thus becoming depressed. (Conscientious)

Phlegmatic – this person is calm and unemotional. Phlegmatic means “pertaining to phlegm”, corresponds to the season of winter (wet and cold), and connotes the element of water. Phlegmatics are consistent, relaxed, rational, curious, and observant, making them good administrators. Their shy personality can often make them lazy and resistant to change. (Steadiness)

Each of Galen’s words describing the four humours have altered with the passing of nearly two thousand years but the theory behind these concepts lives on in the work of some of the greatest scientists and behaviorists in the world from David Keirsey’s interpretation to British psychologist Hans Jurgen Eysenck personality inventory.

Unlike many training programs and instruments, where there are questions about validity, DiSC stands on solid ground of these researchers, academics and psychologists. When it comes to the concept of the four behavioral styles, you might say, it was validated by some of the most revered names in the history of the world.

This idea has truly stood the test of time. But it’s long history and the large number or scholars, philosophers and researchers who have worked on this concept created a problem in the today’s marketplace that was not easy to overcome. Just Google DiSC training and you will get more than 21 million results.

How did this simple concept of four behavioral styles, defined by Hippocrates and Galen, grow so large and confusing? To find out, we have to fast forward from ancient history to the 1970’s.

This is the second in a series of four articles about the DiSC model, Everything DiSC Management, the history behind it all and how it applies. The first article is titled The Concept Behind DiSC – You do the Math. The third article is titled Putting DiSC Management to Work.

“DiSC” and “Everything DiSC” are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

What manager hasn’t said to himself, at least once in his professional life, that his job would be so much easier if it weren’t for all the people he had to deal with?

Odds are there isn’t one person who manages employees who hasn’t uttered that phrase. But getting work done through other people is what most managers are paid to do.

What if you could get everything you need to understand, manage and motivate your team and your customers in one small box? What if the key to harnessing human nature was in a package the size of a disposable lighter?

Never going to happen?

Well, it has. It is called DiSC and it sounds more like the magic decoder ring you used to get out of a box of breakfast cereal or something you would wear on your wrist than a powerful management tool that can change the culture and productivity of a company.

What Is DiSC?

DiSC is an acronym for four behavioral styles that all human beings possess in varying degrees.

Dominance: People who have high scores in D like to be in control and are active problem solvers who like challenges. They are frequently described as driving, determined, forceful, enthusiastic, and persuasive but can also be described as aggressive, dictatorial, opinionated and overbearing.

Influence: Influencers persuade through talk and are often emotional. They are described as convincing, magnetic, enthusiastic and persuasive. Influencers need recognition and are seldom at a loss for words but don’t always check their facts.

Steadiness: Someone with a high S score likes routine, a steady pace and security. Strong team players, they stand behind their commitments. Calm, relaxed and patient, they often are reluctant to initiate. Sudden change can cause anxiety and result in withdrawal.

Conscientiousness: High C’s like accuracy, follow rules and standards, make decisions based on facts and like to do quality work. Precision is important. They want details and they need time to decide. Try to force an answer and they may simply go along for the ride or withdraw completely.

DiSC gives supervisors and managers a roadmap to these behavioral styles, providing insight into what each employee needs in his or her job – whether they want the facts or just the idea, whether they want to be part of a team or would rather work alone.

That’s the first surprise DiSC offers.

New DiSC-Based Sales and Management Applications

The second surprise is the new DiSC-based applications available for sales and management that provide integrated packages that contain everything a business needs to improve their sales results, unlock the skills of its employees, build powerful management teams and change the way business gets done.

Called the Everything DiSC© Application Library, with modules available now for Sales and Management, these training programs were created by one of the premier training companies in the world – Inscape Publishing.

Inscape Publishing is a leading provider of assessment-driven, classroom learning solutions and a company with more than 35 years experience working on and with DiSC. It says the Everything DiSC approach helps make employees, “…more effective, more productive and more satisfied.”

“Inscape’s research shows that personality diversity is independent of gender, age and ethnicity. While those traits are important, managers frequently overlook the personality styles of their employees,” says Jeff Sugerman, CEO of Inscape Publishing. “The most effective managers know how to read this diversity of style. Everything DiSC Management, the newest addition to the Everything DiSC Application Library, teaches managers how to identify and adapt to their employees’ diverse styles. Managers can use these insights to be more effective with each employee.”

“The trick in management is not to treat all your employees the same; DiSC Management is a very simple way to help managers understand how to look at every employee as an individual and how to treat him or her in a way that is going to be the most effective,” says Barry Davis, the Vice President of Product Development and Marketing at Inscape Publishing. “Everything DiSC Management is a very simple way to bring out the best in every employee.”

DiSC…Simple, Not Simplistic

Unlike some training programs or approaches, learning the concepts around DiSC is easy. Davis says the short learning curve and the power of the concept make DiSC one of the most important tools a business can buy. “Its power is in its simplicity. It works because it is simple but not simplistic. It is powerful. It something you really have to experience. DiSC works.”

Scott Messer agrees. Messer, who is the President of Sales Evolution in Broomall, Pennsylvania, has been using DiSC for sales training for eight years but he says it applies in every business situation. “Understanding your own, natural behavioral communication style, being able to recognize the style of the person you are speaking to and then adapting your natural style to theirs is a secret weapon,” says Messer. “It allows you to get past the person’s filters and past the alligators in the moat that other people cannot get past.”

Messer says if you do the math, you recognize immediately, how important it is to understand the behavioral style of the person who is sitting across the desk from you.

“If the population were divided equally into 25% DISC – Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness – 25% of the time you are perfectly attuned to the person you are speaking to,” Messer says that’s the good news. “The bad news is that 75% of the time, you are not. If you want a better result, you have to change your behavior.”

Messer and Sales Evolution are in good company. More than 135 Fortune 500 companies use Inscape DiSC products and more than a million people every year experience DISC. Companies are tapping employees’ potential and putting it to work in offices and businesses around the world. This is one training program that gets results.

Maybe it’s because the theory behind it is 2500 years old.

This is the first in a series of four articles about the DiSC model, Everything DiSC Management, the history behind it all and how it applies. Be sure to read the second article in this series, Digging into DiSC History.

“DiSC” and “Everything DiSC” are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.