Sometimes, we find it helpful to incorporate various assessment and development tools as part of our process when working with individuals and teams. Such tools can create a platform for discussion, paving the way for deeper and more meaningful exchanges.  On an individual level, certain tools can enhance self/other awareness necessary for bringing about lasting change.
 
For example, when working with teams who are experiencing all too frequent conflict, we often suggest one of several team tools. Typically, conflicts arise when people either take things personally, or assume someone’s behaviour was driven by negative intentions.

Often, the truth is, many conflicts are a result of differences in work approach or personality.  Diagnostic and assessment tools can help team members better understand their own and others’ natural preferences, and through this understanding, they can begin to appreciate how their differences, when appropriately leveraged, can actually be quite beneficial and complementary. We believe that learning as much as possible about our own work approach, as well as our innate preferences is part of what it takes to achieve real personal growth, develop as a team, and resolve conflicts with greater ease.
Some of the instruments with which we work are:

HumanTelligence Self /Team Assessment

If you’re looking for a robust, comprehensive and fast assessment tool to measure behaviours, motivators, and ideal work environment— for an individual OR a group, HT is among the best I’ve seen. There are a myriad of ways you can analyse the data, even going so far as to define your target team culture and examine what it will take to get their based upon who’s on your team.
It’s quick to complete (about 12 min.) yielding near immediate results that are straightforward, insightful and very very accurate. It is also extremely affordable. You’ll want to check out this integrated, cloud-based platform that leverages both AI and talent analytics to better understand individuals, teams, the culture, talent fit, suitability for remote work, and more...

Click here for your free assessment summary report

MBTI (Myers Briggs Typology Indicator): 

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assessment is the most widely used personality assessment in the world. With a proven record of reliability spanning more than 50 years, it offers a foundation for understanding individual differences and applying that understanding to the ways people think, communicate, and interact. Versatile and dependable, the MBTI tool sets the stage for lifelong learning and development.

The MBTI assessment is used to develop individuals, teams, and organizations to meet today’s challenges in such areas as communication, team building, leadership, and career management. Individuals and organizations, including many Fortune 500 companies, use more than 2 million assessments worldwide each year. Form M of the instrument has 93 items and provides the basic MBTI four-letter type, while Form Q has 144 items and provides not only the four-letter type but also results for 20 facets of that type. www.skillsone.com

Lumina Spark enables you to get a holistic understanding of your full personality, providing a truly unique “portrait” of who you are at your core. Through the lens this tool provides, you can build even greater self-awareness in a way that will reveal your hidden potential, enable you to cope better under pressure, and discover practical new ways to improve your communication, teamwork, leadership and more. Find your spark, and in doing so, increase your potential!

Patrick Lencione’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team Assessment…

is based on Lencione’s book ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’.  It is one of the best tools out there for providing the foundation for looking at how managers and leaders can make their teams more collaborative and successful.   I typically recommend this approach when the objective is to address intra-team dysfunction and leverage team potential.  The key benefits of this tool include the following:

•    Quick diagnosis of team strengths and weaknesses
•    Provides platform for open and honest discussion of real-time issues
•    Simplifies and clarifies the impact of trust on achieving results
•    Results in greater understanding of team dynamics leading to improved team effectiveness and overall success.

Hay Group Influence Strategies, Organizational Climate and Managerial Styles

Influence Strategies Exercise:  Since we do not work in a vacuum, our success depends, in large part, on our ability to influence.  Using a brief assessment tool followed by an in-depth exercise, we help you learn more about your own strategies based on a model of 9 influence strategies through:
•    Identifying how you apply influence strategies from your own perspective as well as from that of others
•    Understanding how each of the 9 influence strategies works and exploring how you personally draw upon each one in various situations
•    Defining specific ways to improve how you apply key influence strategies
•    Planning how to maximize your use of the various strategies
Organizational Climate relates to what it feels like to be part of your workplace—is it enjoyable? Stimulating? Oppressive?  Motivating?  Naturally, how one feels at work impacts performance. 

Although connected, climate differs from “culture” in that, while climate is about perceptions and attitudes (that can be turned around rather quickly), culture is more deeply entrenched because it has formed and spread throughout the organization over time based upon underlying/shared beliefs, values, behavioral norms, traditions etc.
Hay Group has identified 6 specific ways to improve an organization’s “climate”.  Our approach is to help teams understand their current climate both from the perspective of what team members are experiencing as well as the climate they are (maybe inadvertently) creating.  Armed with a clearer understanding of both, we can then identify specific actions that, if undertaken, will effectively help to “move the needle” toward the type of climate you seek.

Korn Ferry Resilience Factors: 

Today, things are in a constant state of flux, which can prove challenging when it’s never-ending. Unfortunately, it’s not likely to change.   One thing that helps us is learning to be resilient so that we can:
•    Prevent situations from throwing us off course
•    View new situations from the perspective of potential rather than predicaments
•    Navigate more neutrally through the daily ups and downs
•    Let go of past adversities

With Korn Ferry’s 7 resilience factors as the foundation, we can help you pinpoint what helps you “go with the flow” and what tends to bog you down.  These 7 factors make the topic of resilience more accessible and concrete, so that you can actually not only strengthen your tolerance for resilience but actually learn to embrace and enjoy surprises and challenges with a more holistic perspective.