Author: uku

As we all experienced first-hand now, we live in rapidly-changing and challenging times and workplaces. Some even call today the “era of always-on transformation.” I’m not sure about you, but to us “always on transformation” sounds exhausting! And it IS exhausting for most people. According to Bersin by Deloitte’s 2018 “Meet the Modern Learner” report, people working in today’s modern workplace are overwhelmed, exhausted, and distracted.

Here are a few facts that stood out to us:

• More than 80% of all companies rate their businesses as “highly complex” or “complex” for employees.
• Yet, fewer than 16% of those companies have a program to “simplify work” or help employees deal with stress.
• Today there is a growing population (40% of the population!) who believe it is impossible to succeed at work and have a balanced family life.

Beyond Deloitte’s report, Gallup’s recent State of the Global Workplace report highlights a very serious global engagement problem…fewer than 15% of the global workforce is actively engaged.

You see, the very same, rapidly-changing workplace that is draining people of their precious energy, requires more now than ever before from those same people. As the global workforce becomes more VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), it’s the people of an organization that fuels success and drives competitive advantage. As such, there has been a shift in perception around organizational culture, from nice-to-have to need-to-have. As quoted by Gary Vaynerchuk, “The most important thing for your speed, your company, and your service is your internal culture.”

But if we know anything about culture, we know it means very different things to different organizations. Culture, like almost anything else, is not one-size-fits-all. For some organizations, it’s “how we do things around here.” Others place a robust framework around a culture that articulates corporate values and behavioral policies. Still more, an unwritten behavioral code is learned over time. While the way we define and shape culture has infinite approaches, we know that there are three unifying characteristics of culture today:

1. Culture is unique to each organization
2. It is a critical driver of success
3. It’s one of the hardest things to change. Period.

So what do we do? If culture is critically important to an organization’s future success, yet one of the hardest things to change, how do we rally people and organizations to make the leap toward better? How do we enable organizations to make true cultural transformation possible?

True cultural transformation does not just happen on its own. It’s the collection of thousands of moments, interactions, and choices made by each individual that builds the dynamic nature of culture. True transformation is an ongoing effort that takes not just Human Resources, not just the leaders of an organization, but each and every individual of an organization making a conscious effort toward positively contributing to their culture. True cultural transformation, while ultimately the responsibility of an organization, needs a catalyst.

We believe DiSC can be that catalyst.

Today, we are thrilled to formally share the Everything DiSC promise with all of you our manifesto video titled, DiSCOVER THE POWER OF WE™.  While we are proud of this video, we are even more proud of the millions of lives DiSC has impacted and the thousands of organizational cultures our solutions have helped start down the path from personalized insight to culture change. If you love this video as much as we do, share it with your friends! Because now more than ever, it’s time we empower all PEOPLE to engage, connect and thrive in today’s modern workplace.

This blog content belongs to Everything DiSC, a Wiley brand.

Whether you have used EPIC platform for many years, or you have started just recently – you might not be aware of these 3 great functions that can add value to your respondent journey with DiSC while also saving admin time for you.

1. Create Sample Reports from your own EPIC account – Great for getting sample DiSC profiles with your customization for any marketing or sales situation

Instructions:

Go to Create Sample Reports and choose the report you need. Once generated, download or email the report.

From the next page select the profile that you need and follow the instructions until you are able to download or view your freshly created sample report.

2. Resend Login Information – Great for sending access codes emails again to those who are late or for some reason haven’t received the first email

Instructions:

Go to Resend Login Info in EPIC homepage, click Search and then choose to which pending respondent you wish to resend the access code email. Confirm the action and the email has been resent.

3. View Report function – Great for deciding if the respondents get their result straight-away or not

Instructions:

On the last page of Create a New Report, under Add Respondents box you will see the View Report option. Choose Yes if you would like respondents to get the profile, or No, if not:

Generally, we recommend not to give respondents their results before they can get feedback from a certified DiSC user or trainer. However, in certain situations (recruitment, or to someone with previous DiSC experience) it might be needed to give results straight away.

It’s not exactly a revolutionary idea that positive, healthy relationships are essential to a happy life. We are all, on some level, aware of this. However, as human beings we often unintentionally prioritize life’s everyday demands over these relationships. But what impact does this have on our health and happiness? In his TED Talk, Dr. Robert Waldinger offers a glimpse into this answer as he shares key insights from the longest-running study on adult development created by researchers at Harvard University.

The study first began 75 years ago (!) and continues to this day. Waldinger, the fourth director of this study, outlines the origin of the study and how its initial participants were selected. Of the original 724 participants, about 60 are still alive, most of them in their 90s. You can learn more about the Harvard St­udy of Adult Development here.

Through interviews, medical records, bloodwork, and other research, the key insight from the longest and most intensive study on human wellbeing is this:

“Good relationships keep us happier and healthier … period.”

Something interesting to note is that these relationships can seemingly come in any form, so long as they are positive and impactful. Familial, romantic, platonic, or community-based relationships all help keep our minds and bodies healthy. Whether it’s being with friends, coworkers, or neighbors, you will benefit from meaningful interpersonal connections.

Waldinger’s TED Talk caught our attention because in Everything DiSC®, we truly believe in the power of good relationships. We know that workplace relationships (whether they bring us joy or distress) form the environment we work in, which can have a profound impact on our overall satisfaction and performance.

Having the tools and knowledge to uncover insights like, “What motivates me?” and “What causes me stress?” gives people the ability to reflect and adapt to the communication needs of those around them. When we approach our interactions with the other person’s needs in mind, we start to build a stronger foundation for our relationships. It’s from this foundation that we can create deeper, more meaningful bonds.

“Over these 75 years, our study has shown that the people who fared the best were the people who leaned into relationships with family, with friends, with community,” says Waldinger. “What might leaning into relationships even look like? Well, the possibilities are practically endless.”

We’re proud that DiSC transforms the lives of people— both in the workplace and in their personal development. We understand that people who know how to sustain good relationships are happier and healthier, which ultimately adds to the value they give back to their organization. This creates a wonderful cycle that promotes positive cultural shifts and overall wellbeing in the workplace.

We echo Waldinger’s closing remark, “The good life is built with good relationships.” And with the right tools, those who once faced challenges building good relationships are now able to take an entirely new approach toward creating meaningful bonds with others.

This blog content belongs to Everything DiSC, a Wiley brand.

Are you using DiSC® card games yet?

We want to bring your attention to the fact that there are three different DiSC card decks that you can use for several games, activities and exercises.

We highly recommend using these for creating a more interactive learning experience and for strengthening participants’ DiSC knowledge.

Here are the 3 different card decks which you can purchase from us:

1) DiSC® Dialogue card game

The DiSC® Dialogue is an entertaining card game that introduces learners to DiSC® and increases training effectiveness. You can play this game in five different ways (the rulebook comes with the package).

2) DiSC® Matrix card game

The DiSC® Matrix cards were developed as an exercise to challenge people to think about the differences between the four dimensions of DiSC. Through game and discussion, these cards enable us to go in-depth with DiSC. They are also meant to be used as a reinforcement of DiSC knowledge.

3) DiSC Group Culture card game

This game is meant to be played by groups, mostly real teams, who already have a basic knowledge of DiSC. The game goes together with the DiSC Group Culture Report.

You can purchase the digital version of all these DiSC card games in English for 95 EUR. The files come fully designed, ready to print and with instructions where you can read more about the rules of the game. Please contact us if you want to order the DIY card files of these games in English or ask for availability in other languages.

What are the steps to prepare for your DiSC training or feedback session?

Whether you’re conducting your first DiSC training/feedback session or your 10th, we hope this checklist proves useful.

Please offer any suggestions you have for improving it. We know that you’re the real experts.

1 month before

– Know and review your objectives

Review your objectives with your client or your manager if you are using DiSC® internally within your organization.

What is the goal of this DiSC session? What are the problems that this training should relieve? What do you and the client want the participants to get out of this training?

– Choose the right product

DiSC is not just one profile. Determine which product best meets your needs. DiSC Classic or the new generation Everything DiSC? Is it the general Workplace profile or would the Management profile be a better choice?

Not sure which DiSC product to use? Review the options here.

– Learn about your participants

You’ll be better prepared if you know the group you’ll be working with. These questions can help.

• How does the group leader feel about the development program?
• Are the participants familiar with DiSC or other types of personality assessments?
• Would someone prefer the assessment in a language other than the local language? In case you use the newer generation DiSC tools, make sure that the profile you use is available in the language you need.
• Do the participants already know each other well? What’s their position/level?
• Are they experiencing or have they recently gone through any big changes? Will any big announcements be made to the group shortly before the training?

– Learn about your training space

• What will your training space look like? (If there’s no natural light you might want to schedule more frequent breaks. If possible, request a room where people can sit in groups)
• Do you need to reserve any additional equipment for the room, such as a projector, microphone or speakers?
• Will it be needed for the room to be set up differently? Who will move the chairs and tables? Is there maintenance, technical or emergency contact?
• Can you get into the room early? How early?
• Will there be snacks and coffee/tea/water offered in the room? Will lunch be served in the same premises?

– Make training decisions

• Determine if you want the participants to be able to see their profiles before the training. You can edit that option in EPIC. (You might want to give more background on DiSC model before they see their results, or you might want to use some ice-breaker first that has them guessing their results.)
• Decide what you will do if someone doesn’t complete their profile before your cut-off date. (Doesn’t happen often, but it is always a good idea to be prepared.)
• In case you use Everything DiSC, decide if you want to give the participants access to a follow-up learning platform MyEverythingDiSC.com.

3 weeks before

Now is the time to place your orders, prepare your participants, and set the stage for a great session.

– Place your orders

• Order individual profiles and group reports
• Include a facilitation kit if you don’t own one and want access to videos and other training support materials

– Prepare your participants

Participants might be excited or anxious about taking the DiSC profile. You can reduce most of the anxiety if you communicate well and prepare them for what to expect.

• Send out profile access codes to the participants from your EPIC account.
• Customize your email message in EPIC. We always recommend adding your own message to the email with the profile link. We advise adding something like that:

Ready to discover your DiSC^® style? Settle in and take the assessment. This isn’t a test. There are no right or wrong answers. Don’t overthink it—trust your response. Answer based on your perceptions of yourself, not someone else’s.

This usually takes about 15-20 minutes.

We look forward to working with you on how DiSC can be used as a tool for dialogue and can help improve communication both personally and professionally.

• Schedule automatic reminder emails in EPIC so that those who haven’t completed the assessment 1 week prior to the event, would get a reminder.
• Ask participants to do any pre-work or whatever you know will improve their experience.
• A separate reminder email might include reminders about the day, time, and location of training.

1 week before

– Make sure you’re prepared

• Verify that all participants have completed the profile.
• Run group reports, facilitator reports, or Comparison Reports from your EPIC account as needed.
• Review participants’ profiles and prepare in mind their questions.
• Plan to use some of those tips for facilitating DiSC.
• Send profile reports to print. If you created a group, facilitator or team view report, consider having the group poster blown up for display on the wall.
• Review the facilitation kit or other training materials you’re using. Make tweaks as needed for time constraints or audience needs.

3 days before

Reduce your chances of something going wrong at the last minute by following these steps.

– Review and test

• Review your notes and training plan. Review desired outcomes and what to expect with your client.
• Prepare and print a training evaluation and feedback form (great for getting references).
• Double-check on the room. (Is it scheduled? Does it have enough space? Does it have the right equipment? Has anyone tested that equipment?)

Day(s) of training

• Arrive early and set up your materials.
• Welcome participants as they arrive.
• Introduce yourself and the goals of the session.
• Ask for cell phones to be turned off or for the group to agree to a few ground rules. Point out locations of restrooms, when breaks will be scheduled, etc.
• Follow your notes, presentation or facilitation kit, and improvise when necessary.
• Watch your pacing, tone, and audience responses. Is everyone engaged? Is everyone learning? Adapt your style or content as needed.
• Remember to use some of those tips for facilitating DiSC.
• Take notes on anything you want to follow up on.
• Afterward, review how well it went and write notes on how to improve for your next training.

1 week after

• Review your notes and the feedback/evaluation received.
• Send a reminder about MyEverythingDisc.com and motivate them to create free DiSC Comparison reports with each other. This can be a great way to keep DiSC alive in an organization long after the training.
• Offer a follow-up session/program in six months/1-2 years from now.

Thank you for some of the ideas https://www.discprofiles.com/blog/2015/01/everything-disc-facilitation-checklist/

Although DiSC® profiles are specifically designed to be easily interpreted and understood, a good, certified DiSC facilitator can help maximize the learning and get more value out from the profiles.

The skill and expertise of the person interpreting and applying the results of DiSC are as critical as the tool itself. Repairing a car often requires sophisticated diagnostic equipment. But having tools for that is not enough. An expert mechanic is needed to translate the information, create meaning, and take action that results in a positive outcome. The same is true with DiSC.

Here are 5 tips that will help you get the best out of your DiSC session:

1. Always introduce the DiSC Cornerstone Principles and reinforce them at every opportunity

• All DiSC styles and priorities are equally valuable, and everyone is a blend of all styles
• The goal of DiSC isn’t to put people to boxes. Actually, it’s the opposite – to get them out of their box and increase their behavioral amplitude
• Your DiSC style is mostly inborn but is also influenced by other factors such as life experiences, education and maturity
• Understanding yourself better is the first step to becoming more effective when working with others
• Learning about other people’s DiSC styles can help you understand their priorities and how they may differ from your own
• You can improve the quality of your life by using DiSC to build more effective relationships in your workplace, with your clients, and in your personal life

2. Review the profiles of the participants in advance

This will help you to understand how the participants may prefer to receive information and allow you to adjust your delivery style accordingly. Reviewing the results helps also to be prepared for questions that may arise during the session.

If you work with teams, create free Team View Reports and generate a Group Culture Report to get an overview of the collective styles and how they work together.

3. Make use of additional tools

If a respondent struggles to identify with the profile results (it generally happens rarely), refer to the Supplement for Facilitators in Everything DiSC profiles or Graph I and II page in DiSC Classic profiles.

Supplement for Facilitators report will give you more information about the respondent. The umbrella graph is particularly helpful to identify DiSC styles that may not be fully explored within the report.

In this example, a respondent has returned a D (Dominance) preference based on the algorithm’s interpretation of their answers to the self-assessment. However, the main report does not reflect the fact that they also have high scores on the CS/SC areas. Exploring this with the respondent will help them understand their results and feel more comfortable with the analysis.

The Supplement will also help you discuss those priorities that may have been scored highly but are not the natural priorities associated with the style. In this example, the need for Stability is not a usual fit with the D style, but is clearly important to this person and may drive aspects of their behavior.

With DiSC Classic, you can similarly get more background information from the last page in the profile and analyze Graph I and Graph II and the meaning behind them.

4. Save yourself time and take a step up by using a DiSC Facilitation Kit

These resources provide you with everything you need to run a workshop or coaching session.

Includes three 90-minute modules, fully-scripted facilitation with engaging activities, and workplace-focused video that features DiSC® styles in real work situations

You don’t need to follow this ready-made training program word by word, but it will certainly save you time in preparing a tailored workshop for your own audience.

5. Ways to encourage participation and improve your own facilitation skills

• Frame it up. Plan opening comments carefully to communicate session goals and explain what you want to accomplish. People are more willing to open up and learn when they know the goals.
• Get people talking. Start with an easy, safe question. Even beginning with casual introductions makes participants more likely to participate later.
• Summarize frequently. Think of this as jumping to the “big picture”: remind people what the goals and scope of the discussion are, make connections and point out common themes, summarize information and how it will be used.
• Ask questions that can be answered with yes or no, single words, or short phrases when you want to slow discussion and regain control.
• Know when to stop. Bring the discussion to a close at an appropriate time – when you’ve reached your goal or when the discussion is no longer fruitful. Thank the group for their valuable input.

Whether you have used EPIC platform for many years, or you have started out recently – you might not be aware of these 2 great functions that can add value in your respondent’s journey with DiSC while also saving admin time for you.

1. Adding Custom Email Messages while sending out access code emails – Great for better respondent journey and quicker completion of the questionnaire

EPIC allows you to save several email templates. These can be used for sending out access codes or reminding participants to complete their profiles.

Once stored in the library, the messages can be inserted into emails anytime EPIC provides you with an option to insert Custom Email Messages.

Instructions:

Go to Personal Options / Manage Custom Messages

EPIC will display the custom message folders and messages you already have stored.

Click Create a new message and you’ll see a screen like this.

1. Give your custom email message a title.
2. Select a folder in which to store the new message (you can create a new folder for that).
3. In the text editing area, enter the text you want to include in your message.
4. Press the Save button to complete the process.

On the image above you can see a sample text we usually recommend adding to the access code email in order for the respondents to be prepared better.

After this is done, you can always choose this template when you send out assessment links. For that click OK on the final notification message before sending out the email:

On the next page find the saved template under Custom Messages and click Select. The message is now added to the email and you can click Send.

2. Import Respondent details from Excel file – Great for a faster process of sending out the assessments

If you are sending out 5 or more new assessments, then you can save a lot of time by importing respondents’ data directly from an Excel file. It is quicker to add all the respondents to Excel and upload it to EPIC rather than adding the respondents one by one.

Instructions:

Download the template and fill it in with your respondents’ data. In column C, choose if you want respondents to get their results after completing the assessment or not. Save the Excel file and then upload it by clicking on the Upload button as shown above.

For filling in the Excel, just follow the instructions on the downloadable import template.

If you haven’t used these moves in EPIC before, then we hope that you can try these out soon and find them useful. Feel free to ask us, if you need any further guidance!

Sales objections are the reasons why your prospects can’t or won’t buy your service. Some prospects will tell you they don’t need your service. Others will think they don’t trust your company. Maybe they don’t have room for your service in their budget.

Prospects don’t come around easily so you can’t afford to give up on a potential sale so quickly.

It’s your job to reframe the perspective of your potential customer.

What is great about any objection is that it gives you a critical insight into the exact pain point you need to overcome. In addition, the objection often reveals something about the person’s DiSC style. The nature of their objection and how it’s communicated contains important information, helping you to tailor your response accordingly.

There are almost always ways to address your prospect’s concerns if you approach the objection in the right way.

We will bring you just a few of the most common objections that you might come across while selling your DiSC-based services.

Need

If the prospect thinks they don’t need your service or this product, you should try to reframe the conversation and change their perspective if you still think you can add value for them. DiSC profiles have very wide application opportunities, so it can add value to many different programs and create a much more personalized training experience no matter the topic.

You will definitely come across a situation where a prospect tells you “I’ve already done DiSC, what else do you have?”. It’s important to explain that DiSC is not just one profile as there are many different DiSC tools and applications.

Or you can always ask back “But how are you using DiSC and the knowledge that you got from your last experience?”. Most with already some prior experience with DiSC would greatly benefit from a follow-up DiSC-based training to refresh and deepen the knowledge, and most of all – rehearse their behavioral adaptation.

Price

The budget doesn’t have to be a deal-breaker.

If the prospect says “It is too expensive” then you should talk about the added value DiSC profiles could offer their business. It’s about convincing the prospect not to see it as a cost, but rather as an investment in their people.

You could point at the reasons why to believe in DiSC – the foundation of research, transformational learning and global trust and scale of it (2 million learners every year experience DiSC). Also, it’s always great to refer to existing customers who have benefited from DiSC.

If the prospect says, “I can find a cheaper alternative” you could ask: “If price were not an issue on this, is this solution something you would move forward with today?” It’s important to remind that cheaper in most cases does not mean better, so ask the prospect if they have considered if the alternative solution is:

• A) researched, validated and normed in your local culture?
• B) a diagnostics tool (a lot of beautiful numbers with little impact and help in long term) or a development tool (focused on developing people and helping them to implement this knowledge in their workplaces)?
• C) a one-time assessment tool or a true catalyst for cultural transformation?

Time

This objection will test your sales skills, especially on the phone. Your relationship management and conversational prowess is vital.

• If the prospect says, “I’m not interested now, but maybe next year” then you could ask “What will change by next year?”.
• If the prospect says, “I need to think about it” or “I need more time” you could ask back “What is your specific concern about making this decision?” and “What’s stopping this from moving forward?”. Maybe there is something more you could do (materials to send or joining the meeting with decision-makers).

Competition

If the prospect says, “I’m already using [competitor tool]”, the good news is it means they have a need for such solutions. Now it’s your job to prove your service is a better option.

You could reply with “I’m glad you’re already working with a provider-because I’m confident we can help you with [goal 1] and [goal 2] even more than your current provider. Why did you choose their service? What is working well? What isn’t?

When the prospect is reluctant to switch, you need to show them the benefits and highlight what that means for their business.

Trust

If you’re a new company and the prospect thinks, “Your company is much smaller than [competitor]/I’ve never heard of your company”, make sure you have some testimonials ready. Buyers want to see a solid track record. Your passion for the service and helping the client is just as important.

You could answer: “We’re a [type of company] that helps [target audience] do [outcome], and DiSC so far helped [customer 1], [customer 2], and [customer 3] exceed their [another outcome].”

Overcoming sales objections isn’t impossible. In fact, sales objections open up doors to understanding your prospect more and the more you learn about a prospect, the easier it is for you to build trust and show them that your service is there to help them.

Of course, preparing for sales objections does not replace what is central to selling – one’s true enthusiasm and a thorough understanding of the solution, but it does provide a definite advantage in sales.

What kind of DiSC sales objections have you faced? How did you overcome them?

Source: text is based on Overcoming objections in sales by Pipedrive.

True cultural transformation, while ultimately the responsibility of an organization, needs a catalyst. We believe Everything DiSC® can be that catalyst. We are thrilled to share the Everything DiSC promise with all of you in the premiere of our manifesto video, DiSCOVER THE POWER OF WE™.

Certified users are free to use this video for promotional purposes.

Our workplaces are undergoing change at an unprecedented rate. We’re living in a new era of automation, disruption, and innovation, and it can be difficult to keep up. However, amid uncertainty and change, employers need to pay attention to their most valuable resource: their people.