As a facilitator, one of your most important jobs is to ensure that what is learnt in the classroom sticks and can be applied in real situations throughout the workplace.
It has been proven that the DiSC model is memorable and learners can easily apply their knowledge in their workplace and everyday lives. To ensure the DiSC principles achieve their full potential, the key is to give people responsibility to adapt their own behaviour and encourage DiSC to be used in daily interactions – freely, without judgement.
Here are our seven top tips to help participants immediately apply Everything DiSC, keep DiSC alive throughout the organisation and make sure the learning not only sticks, but continues to be used and deepened.
Tip 1 – MyEverythingDiSC (A free resource)
Everyone who completes an Everything DiSC profile has access to the free online learning resource – MyEverythingDiSC.com, which helps bridge classroom learning with real world applications. Learners can access their DiSC profile, podcasts, interaction preferences and learn how their DiSC style impacts workplace relationships and productivity – all through the EPIC system.
MyEverythingDiSC.com also provides access to free comparison reports, where individuals can compare their own style with those of work colleagues, to help improve communication and productivity.
Make sure everyone knows about this valuable resource by including it on your company intranet site, internal social media groups or by adding a poster to your staff breakout area. Encourage employees to share their DiSC profiles to improve workplace performance.
Tip 2 – Meetings
Encourage everyone to use Everything DiSC in meetings wherever possible. Team meetings are a great place to share examples of where DiSC has already been useful or to suggest opportunities to use it in the future.
Everything DiSC is also great if you are starting a new project. Why not revisit your DiSC profiles so everyone knows the strengths and weaknesses of the team, right from the start?
Generate an Everything DiSC Facilitator report to identify the whole team’s Everything DiSC styles and help everyone in the team understand the styles of their colleagues, how to adapt and how to work better together as one cohesive team.
This is really helpful if the current team is particularly dominant in one DiSC style. If this is the case, discuss what issues could arise because of this. Commit to strategies to encourage and maximise diversity of behaviour and opinion and encourage healthy productive conflict.
These strategies encourage a culture which supports collaboration, clear open communication, honesty and means people don’t feel pressured to conform to a particular style.
Tip 3 – Onboarding
Many organisations use Everything DiSC as part of their recruitment process and assessment; making it part of the onboarding session is a logical next step.
Why not integrate a DiSC profile into the induction process or as part of a development process for graduate or apprenticeship programmes?
You can discuss their individual profile with them so they fully understand the Everything DiSC model and their own DiSC style which will help them recognise their workplace preference and priorities, what motivates them and what stresses them out or demotivates them.
This insight enables a rich conversation between line manager and employee, helping their relationship progress on the right track from day one.
The next stage would be to bring the rest of the team together and share profiles, helping them understand their new colleague and vice versa at a much deeper level, and helping to build vulnerability based trust.
Tip 4 – Profiles for the whole workforce
Unlike other psychometric profiles, Everything DiSC has been designed specifically for the workplace and a variety of profiles have been developed to fit specific populations, such as:
- Leaders
- Managers
- Sales teams
If individuals started their DiSC journey by completing a DiSC Workplace profile, but are in a specific role, they may benefit from completing an Everything DiSC Management, Everything DiSC Work of Leaders or Everything DiSC Sales profile. They won’t have to complete questions they have already answered, because their existing profile data is used.
Tip 5 – Appraisals and reviews
DiSC can also be used for individual performance monitoring – from appraisals to 1-2-1 coaching and mentoring.
DiSC is a brilliant tool to help managers give motivational, rather than judgemental, constructive feedback to improve self-awareness and performance. For example “John you have ensured that we have achieved the latest ISO accreditation. I can see you really tapped into your ‘C’ DiSC style throughout the process and attention to detail you provided was exceptional, well done.”
It can be useful to review the line manager’s profile at the same time, to help initiate productive discussions and reciprocal feedback.
As part of a leaders’ reviews, an Everything DiSC 363 profile provides a complete 360 degree review, with the addition of action points and constructive feedback for instant results.
A team review 12 months after the initial DiSC training will analyse what improvements can be attributed to the original activity and help develop a learning plan for future actions.
Tip 6 – Conflict
The CBI estimates that ‘conflict costs UK businesses £33 billion per year and time lost equates to 60 million hours every week.’
Every organisation experiences some form of conflict, but learning to manage conflict situations and make them more productive is a huge competitive advantage.
Two of the main causes of conflict can be attributed to poor communication and differences in personalities or the way we see the world.
The Everything DiSC Productive Conflict profile addresses both of these issues. In addition to learning about your own thoughts and behaviours of how you would typically react to conflict, your unique DiSC profile will help you understand other people’s DiSC personality styles and how they may differ from your own.
You will gain the opportunity to differentiate between good and bad conflict scenarios and to become better equipped to motivate and engage your team in productive conflict, instead of shying away from it.
The DiSC profiles can also be used during arbitration sessions or grievance issues, to help individuals understand the situation and help resolve the conflict more quickly and amicably.
Tip 7 – Quick wins
There are lots of quick and easy ways to keep DiSC alive. Try these for starters:
- Add your DiSC style to the bottom of your email signature – it’s quick and easy to do
- Complete an Everything DiSC style guide and pin it to your workspace so everyone’s aware of your style and how to effectively work with you
- Stimulate discussion by building a DiSC activity into a team meeting every month or two
- Introduce a group exercise at your next staff conferenc
- Carry out role plays for someone in a different DiSC style to yours to see how it feels in their shoes
- Introduce a quiz around aspects of DiSC styles/behaviour
If you were Everything DiSC certified through The Fruitful Toolbox, there’s a whole raft of activity ideas in our Members’ Area for you to use – from videos to share with your team, to DiSC card exercises and plenty more besides.
If you would like more information on how you can use DiSC please get in touch.
