One of the cornerstone principles of Everything DiSC is that everyone is a blend of all four styles. The comprehensive profile produced after taking the self-assessment uses a dot to visualise someone's style. This dot can fall into one of the four core styles (i.e. D,i, S or C) or it may fall into one the segments which represent a blend of two styles (e.g. DC or iS).
Our earlier blog post explains the position of the dot in more detail - What does the dot in an Everything DiSC assessment tell you?
However, the picture is often more complex than it may originally appear. When reading the profile, some people may feel that the fuller picture is missing and they resonate with some of the tendencies usually linked to other styles. A competent facilitator will be ready to explore this in more detail to help someone how all of the styles may have an impact on the way in which they may behave.
To help inform this level of discussion, each Everything DiSC also includes a Supplement for Facilitators. This supplement provides a more in-depth interpretation of the results beyond the simple snapshot of the dot and shading.
The Supplement shows an umbrella graph representing the scores against all eight of the subscales. The example below shows that Alex's style has been returned as a Si. A proprietary algorithm has been used to calculate this based on the way in which Alex answered the questions in the self-assessment. However, it may be that Alex also recognises some of the tendencies and preferences associated with a D style. This may not be reflected in his main report. The umbrella graph can be used to explain this! The raw data shows that he has indeed responded positively to questions related to the D style and it is very likely that some of these behavioural preferences will be natural to him. You can see that there is also a small spike towards the C area - meaning that he may also feel that some C tendencies may resonate with him. So, although the algorithm has correctly assessed his preference as a-Si style, it makes perfect sense that he may feel some connection to the D and the C styles as well.
Further information to support this is also shown in the Unexpected Items area of this supplement. These show items that may not be correlated to Alex's Si style but which have been answered consistently throughout the self-assessment. For example, Alex mentioned that 'Inefficiencies bother me' five times (shown in brackets). This is not a response usually associated with someone with a Si style but is absolutely something with which Alex agrees. Now you can see why there may be that small spike towards the C style!
The words around the outside of the DiSC map show Priorities. These are the areas where Alex tends to focus his energy.
In this example, Alex has five priorities: the three typically associated wth the Si style (Enthusiasm, Collaboration and Support) as well as two extra priorities (Action and Accuracy) as indicated by the striped area. The bar graph shows Alex's scores for all of the priorities and it was these scores that were used to identify the additional priorities of Action and Accuracy. The higher these graphs are the more likely it is that Alex will focus his energy on these areas. One thing to note is that the three priorities associated with a particular style will always be reported irrespective of their scores on the graph and that it is possible for a respondent to have up to 5 priorities. Having 5 priorities is no better than having 3!
This one-page supplement is incredibly useful to fill in the gaps in someone's profile. Facilitators can use this to dive deeper and have a dialogue around the bigger picture that may not be immediately evident in the main report. It can really help in situations where there may be resistance, misunderstanding or confusion.
If you have any unanswered questions about the Supplement for Facilitators or anything contained within the Everything DiSC suite of profiles, do get in touch. We are always happy to help!