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| DiSC Indra Now Available Without Special Training |
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View Sample Reports
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| Aristotle's System |
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New Energy System Based on Ancient Insights |
| Assessing Energy Cost |
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We can adapt our behavior to situations and roles but at what cost? Will we be able to replenish the energy we use? When does how much become too much? How does using energy in adapting affect world class performance? These are all questions we can ask and answer using the DISC-in-the-Round approach.
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| Energy Cost and World Class Performance
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The Gallup Organization has done much to increase our awareness of the necessary conditions for "world class performance". We can use the energy system of the CircumDISC model to understand the importance of job fit to world class performance. Clearly, if a person is using a lot of energy to adapt to the behaviors required by a role or position because the required behaviors are beyond the comfortable range of motion for the person, then they have less energy available to use in achieving world class performance. This is an important insight at the individual level for coaching and career guidance. For example, I am unlikely to ever be a "world class facilitator" but I might be able to be a "world class researcher" simply because one of these roles is a good fit and the other costs lots of energy for me to adapt my natural style to meet the behavioral requirements of the role.
In addition, one role is more likely to be depleting while the other will be renewing. I have learned that when I am facilitating I become depleted after a few hours, whereas I can do research and development 16 hours a day, day after day and become energized by my efforts rather than depleted. This seems to be a common experience when people have good fit-they are likely to spend more time in what Csikszentmihalyi calls "flow".
As we revisit job fit, exploring the conditions that result in the best fit, we can see how it results from an alignment of many factors. Not only do we need to have the necessary abilities to fulfill the job requirements in order to meet performance requirements, we also need to have a good fit with our natural behavioral style and the behavioral requirements of the role. Plus, if we also have interests that match the environment, we are likely to have high satisfaction as well as engagement and retention. The Personal Profile and Role Behavior Analysis in DiSC PPSS are two tools that we can use to assess job fit and explore adaptive solutions. You can learn more about this in our next webinar.
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How Values Shape Behavior |
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We also choose to modify our behavior based on our values. For example, my natural "home" is in Detach or the "Resolute" style yet I believe strongly that providing emotional support to people I care about in both my personal and professional life is important. So often I will choose to spend time interacting with people in social environments even t hough my more natural response is would be to spend time alone pursuing intellectual or artistic activities. I also belong to a membership studio (a new concept-like a gym) where I can go and work on my jewelry projects in the same space in which others are working. I also have a home studio where I have lots of resources for making jewelry. Some days I choose to go to the membership studio even though I have everything I need at home just because I believe it is important to support the community of artists we are building in my neck of the woods.
In what ways do you modify your behavior because you believe it is important to do something that is not necessarily natural or comfortable for you? How much energy does it cost? Do you think it is worth it? Do you need to remind yourself why you are adapting so that you do not feel resentful about how much energy it costs?
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Pamela Cole
PsychTech Inc. |
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Greetings!
Special training in DiSC Indra was thought to be necessary when the product was first released because Indra used both a new approach to the DiSC model and to the assessment process. Since that time, we've had a chance to build experience with explaining the circumplex DiSC Indra model in a way that makes it simple to understand. As a result, Inscape Publishing has decided to make the Indra product line available without additional training to anyone with an EPIC account. You can use the links below to learn more about how to use the information in the individual, dyad and group Indra reports.
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Why I Love DISC-in-the-Round |
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Five years after the launch of DiSC Indra, I find the DISC-in the Round approach even more valuable and exciting to practice. Why? Because it is a complete energy system that makes sense to people. Whether we are talking about DISC Indra or the new Everything DiSC application library, the circumplex approach makes DISC even more intuitive than before. DISC-in-the-Round (or CircumDISC as I like to call it) is a complete energy system closer to what Marston meant when he talked about the "increasing or decreasing" energy of Antagonism or Alliance. We can see the roots of the DISC-in-the-Round approach in the Aristotelian view of the energies of fire, earth, water and air. Aristotle used this circular model to explain temperament as well as how the seasons change. Check out some of the links below to learn more about this approach.
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 Ancient Roots of DISC
I have been researching the historical roots of DISC for the past 10 years and have created a timeline of the development of the four factor model that we currently call DISC from its earliest occurrence in Ancient Greece. Empedocles seems to be the first to articulate the complete model and was quickly followed by Aristotle and Hippocrates. By 100 CE, Galenwas able to compile all the previous work into the theory of the "temperaments" and his compilation remained in place for the next 1500 years as a primary system for understanding people, health and life cycles.
One of the significant aspects of Galen's temperament model was how it explained the cycle of energy and movement within the system.
The underlying dynamics of the Aristotelian system described by Galen were characterized by the states of hot and cold and wet and dry. These dimensions are similar to the Control (hot-cold) Dimension and Affiliation Dimension (Wet-Dry) in DiSC Indra. The designations hot-cold and wet-dry refer to energy states rather than actually physical conditions. Aristotle described the energy state of Hot as high energy, separating and differentiating, agent of change, expansive, and outward-directed. Cold was described as low energy, bringing different things together, stable, steadfast, enduring, absorbed and inward-directed. Wet was described as fluid, flexible, mixing, joining, relating, seeing connections, receptive and adaptive. Dry was described as defining its own shape and boundaries, making distinctions, concrete, grounded, going in its own direction.
The underlying dimensions of Hot-Cold and Wet-Dry combine to form the four states of Fire, Air, Water and Earth, the four temperaments Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic, and Melancholic and the four seasons--summer, spring, winter and fall. The transition from one state to another occurs by the increasing of one condition and the decreasing of another. For example, we move to summer which is hot and dry from spring which is warm and wet by the increasing of dryness and the decreasing of wetness. Then we move from summer to fall which is cool and dry by the decrease of hot and the increase of cold. This same process works as we move from Detach to Affiliate or from Control to Adapt. |
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Range of Motion and Energy Cost |
We can understand our own energy system by thinking about our "range of motion" on the CircumDISC Map. Each of us has a preferred position or "psychological home" from which we move in what can be called a "range of motion". This range of motion represents the arc of degrees on the map through which we can move comfortably without too much energy loss. Most people have about 60-75 degree range on the map within which they can move comfortably without it costing too much energy. My psychological home is "Resolute" on the DiSC Indra Map. I can move comfortably to either "Demanding" or "Matter-of-Fact". Moving beyond that range, either to the North or South on the Map, starts requiring higher amounts of energy for a "change of state", either toward Control or toward Adapt from my natural "home" of Detach.
In addition to our natural "range of motion", we also have a lot of learned, adaptive behavior which we use in particular roles based on the perceived expectations for that role. We can look at this adaptive role-based behavior and also assess the energy cost. A lot of my work is in the role of facilitator, coach and consultant which requires behavior that is about 180 degrees from my "psychological home". It requires using the behaviors that are characterized by Affiliate more than by Detach and consequently costs me a lot of energy.
Understanding our personal energy system is especially important today, given the pace of our lives and the demands on our time and energy. Many of us live full, fast-paced lives and we may not be able to replenish the energy that we use in adapting to various situations and roles. Understanding the energy cost involved in adapting and developing new approaches that result in a more sustainable life is critical to our wellbeing. The CircumDISC approach provides resources for doing this important work. |
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Marston's Energy Model |
Marston described an energy system very similar to Aristotle's model in his two books, Emotions of Normal People and Integrative Psychology. Marston talked about two energies of Alliance and Antagonism that shape our responses, a description that is very similar to Empedocles two forces of Love and Strife.
 Marston described the interaction of the increasing and decreasing of the two states of Alliance and Antagonism as forming four distinct responses: Dominance, Inducement, Submission and Compliance. He also said that there were many variations from those "pure" states which represented gradiations of the energy states. He explained in Integrative Psychology, "Just how many steps are distinguishable in this increase-decrease series, we do not as yet know. There are probably a definitely ascertainable number of distinguishable gradations, as there are in the colour series."
Marston then used a colour system published in 1905 by Munsell as an analogy to explain the subtleties in range from one primary color to another as representing all the other possible combinations. Marston was making an analogy to show that the eye can probably see more gradiation of color than the brain can differentiate and name. Just as there are subtle differences in personality types (styles) that yield many possible variations but we are probably only able to observe and differentiate about 16 different styles. These 16 styles are made more easily recognizable by understanding them as increasing or decreasing amounts of two underlying dimensions. In Marston's model the dimensions were Alliance and Antagonism. In DiSC Indra, the dimensions are Control and Affiliation.  This example was meant to be an analogy not to assign specific color values to Dominance, Inducement, Submission and Compliance. The color assignments are probably arbitrary so we can use any colors that make sense for representing the four combinations of the energies of Alliance and Antagonism or the energies of Control and Affiliation. | |
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You can learn more about the resources avaiable for DiSC Indra applications and the DISC-in-the-Round Approach to Managing Strengths by contacting info@psychtech.com. Check out additional practitioner resources including recordings of webinars at PPSSDISC Website. The next two webinars will be on applications of the Role Behavior Analysis. More webinars are scheduled for Indra applications.
Sincerely,
Pamela
Pamela Cole
PsychTech, Inc.
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