What Does the Small "i" In DiSC® Mean?
One
DiSC related
question I get on a regular basis is; "Why does DiSC have a small "i"?
DISC model bases profiles or tests, assessments, surveys, etc... go
by many different names and are published by several different
companies. These D.I.S.C. based products go by such names as the
DiSC Classic®
disc profile,
personal
profile system, disc test, disc assessment, disc personality
profile, disc report, and DISC survey and variations of these, but
to name a few. DISC has been referred to as a test, profile,
assessment, survey, report, inventory, behavioral assessment,
personality test and much, much more. As you can see at times it is
spelled DISC, D.I.S.C., disc and probably the most common way
DiSC®. It is this last version of the profile that has caused many
questions and much debate over the years around why there is a small
“i” used. Is it that “influence” is less important, less powerful
or less significant than the “D” for “Dominance”, or the “S” for
“Steadiness” or “Stability” or the “C” for “Consciousness”,
Cautiousness”, “Compliant” or “Compliance”? Well, the truth of the
matter is no, that is not the case. There is no deep dark research
based reason for the small “i”. And no, certification or advanced
training is not required to be a keeper of the secret or the “i”.
Here is the story of
how the DISC got its “i”. Once upon a time, a along, long time ago
before Inscape Publishing (the largest publisher of DISC based
products and the only publisher of the DiSC profile) became Inscape
Publishing, even before it was Carlson Learning Company; back when
it was a same company called Performax a funny thing happened. One
day this small organization had placed an order for their original
printing of the DISC Personal Profile System® and when they got
their assessment booklets back from the printer there was a typo. A
small little typo. A typo the size of an "i". Yes, that is right,
the printer did not capitalize the “I” in DISC. Now since
Inscape—Carlson Learning Company—Performax was capable of utilizing of the best
of behavioral styles, I am not speaking of the D, I, S, nor C, but
rather the behavioral style of flexible/adaptive, they decided to
copyright “DiSC” and make it their own . So that is how some versions
of
DISC got their small “i”. Now when you see the small “i” version
of the DISC profile you know it either was published by Inscape
Publishing, one of its ancestors, or it is in violation copyright
laws.
So how can this be?
How can so many different assessments and tools for personality and
behavior types from multiple companies and publishers all claim to
be the “DISC”? Well, William Marston, the originator of the DISC
model never copyrighted the acronym of his four primary personality
behavioral types or temperaments, oops.
Bases on our research
all the various models of
DISC are based on Marston’s 1928 work.
Some have added to it, some have borrowed from it. So give Marston
his credit and some actually by-pass Marston and give Jung credit
for the DISC model. However it is true based on our research that
Marston was influence by Jung, as he was my many others in his
field.
And so that is how
the DiSC got its "i".
Please feel free to
contact us with any feedback, questions, concerns or thoughts you
may have on this topic.
John C Goodman, MSOD,
MSW,
President-Center for Internal Change, Inc
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