One of my technology transfer departments recently went through a day-long session where we discussed our current status and our future goals while examining how we work together as a team. It was a rather interesting view on the office, and so I wanted to talk a bit about the method that was used and its results. There is definitely something useful for everyone. The meat of our activity was centered around a personality test using the DISC assessment system. The letters of DISC stand for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. Most people have a large variation among the personality traits, and usually one of them is dominant over the others.

People with High Dominance ("High D") are the types of people who prefer to be given very challenging tasks, set loose, and left to work hard on their own. High D people are great at getting things done, but they are generally only good at it when they are allowed to do things their own way.

Someone with High Influencing ("High I") is a good people person and gets most of their enjoyment out of pulling people together to successfully complete a task. If you need someone to pull a group together and get a job done, a High I is the type of person you want. However, if things are behind schedule and need some strong discipline, the people-pleasing nature of the High I might get in the way.

For the Steadiness crowd ("High S"), the status quo is the best way to get things done. They are good at maintaining stability, and they prefer things to remain stable around them. This can make a High S have real problems with change, but they are also usually very laid back.

In a person with a high Compliance ("High C"), rules, polices, and procedures are what's important. They are often perfectionists who thrive on independence once given a task. While a High C will probably get a job done right on the first try, their adherence to rules can make things challenging if you need them to be creative.

It was interesting to see the mix of personality styles in our work environment because of how it might impact how people interpret our own words and actions. One person's forcefulness is another person's focus on getting the job done. One person's friendly questions about someone's personal life is another person's unwelcome personal questions.

There are two key concepts that I think can be taken from a DISC assessment - knowing your own behavioral traits and knowing how to communicate with other types of people. A lot of groups offer websites where you can take a DISC assessment online for money or sometimes for free. This will tell you which part of DISC is high for you, but you then need to know how to deal with others. This is where the most useful part of the day came for me as the facilitator talked about "flexing strategies" for each type.

A "flexing strategy" when dealing with others utilizes your own strengths while also talking to the other types in ways that they prefer to be treated. Since you're already good in your High trait, you need to make an effort towards the other personality styles. For example, as a High I, a person needs to spend a little less time talking, use facts to support decisions, and acknowledge the ideas that other people have. A High D on the other hand needs to ask others for their opinions, let others take over, and ask others about how their lives are going.

In an organization, an IT manager can use DISC to help improve the ways in which they deal with other people. In many settings, IT people have a reputation of being insensitive, arrogant, and other negative adjectives. I have spent a lot of work and effort to make sure that I keep the positive relationship I started in my current position. If as an IT professional you can know where your dominant DISC trait is, you can take steps to reduce the impact of your weaknesses. This might be an interesting thing to examine further when I have my class in change management next fall.