subject: Disc And Team Building [print this page] There are many ways to promote camaraderie and morale amongst employees. Many corporations send their people on team building retreats, where they walk on fire, swing from ropes, and scale insurmountable obstacles. The business impact of these retreats, in terms of morale, teamwork, and engagement, is difficult to measure, but the benefits presumably outweigh the costs, or managers wouldn"t continue to invest time and money in them.
The DiSC teambuilding report is another popular such tool. Using this report, individual team members first take a DiSC test, which describes their personality type and behavior styles, and also provides individual coaching and feedback. More importantly, in terms of team building, the report also teaches the person to recognize different personality types and provides general guidelines for dealing with them.
For example, suppose Richard takes a DiSC assessment and learns that his personality type is S (which stands for "steadiness"). Richard"s personalized report will describe what it means to be an S, what Richard can expect from D, i, and C people, and how Richard can adapt his approach for more constructive interactions with them.
Another way to enhance DiSC team work is to create a group report, which creates a map of the DiSC style of every team member. This map can be used an element in team training, or during one-on-one coaching and feedback to specific individuals. In either case, looking at a map of the entire team"s personality style makes it very clear why some team members get along harmoniously, whilst other team members create friction and conflict.
In fact, for these cases, the manager might even create a comparison report between, say, Richard and Thomas. If Richard is a high S ("steadiness") and Thomas is a high D ("dominance"), their personalities are almost diametrically opposed, and they probably disagree about a lot of things and easily get frustrated with each other. A one-on-one comparison report would give Richard specific, personalized advice on how to work better with Thomas, and it would give Thomas specific, personalized advice on how to work better with Richard.
Because of these various tools and reports, DiSC is an excellent team building methodology.
