Case Study: Using Everything DiSC Management to Build Better Relationships
The Goal:
In large organizations “people problems” often eat up too much productive time. Everything DiSC Management helps managers understand that these issues are often reduced just by understanding differences in personal style and adjusting accordingly.
- One of the 100 largest law firms in the United States
- Over 1,000 employees
The Challenge:
The HR team was dedicated to supporting hundreds of lawyers who had high expectations for stellar team performance that was essential to the firms success. Teams needed to understand how to work better together to meet these expectations. Team membership varies at this firm depending on the project, so any skills learned needed to be transferrable to other situations and other people.
The Solution:
Human Resources decided to start training a pilot group of their own staff. The HR team, who are all managers, took the Everything DiSC Management Profile. Some members of the HR Team had been exposed to DiSC® previously and some had not. The half-day session was meant as a test of two things:
- Would the program be accepted by other work groups?
- Would it give employees a tool to help them work better with others?
If this training met these goals, the next step would be another pilot group of managers from various departments.
The HR team overwhelmingly felt the program was what they were looking for but decided to test it further. Another next pilot group was selected and this group of managers participated in the Everything DiSC Management program as well. The managers agreed with the HR team that this program would benefit all managers and supervisors and would help them work better with their direct reports, building stronger relationships that would increase productivity and overall team effectiveness.
The Results:
While listening to the managers, it became obvious that too much of the workday was spent solving “people problems” instead doing real w
ork. As the managers were exposed to Everything DiSC Management, they could see that many of the “people problems” they encountered daily, were simply differences in style and approach. The managers found the video examples from the facilitation materials, offered practical advice. The visual examples showing how to address people of different styles were very helpful.
The first two phases of the pilot were successful. The next step was to offer the Everything DiSC Management Program to a group of supervisors. The response was again overwhelmingly positive. One participant commented, “This was the best training session I’ve had since I became a supervisor.” After each training session, participants were asked to respond to a survey about their experience. When asked if Everything DiSC Management was relevant and enhanced their learning, 100 percent of the participants in the class strongly agreed.
Given the successful pilot and the goal to offer this training to everyone, the client purchased the facilitation kits for Everything DiSC Management and Workplace so they could offer it to everyone in the organization. The roll out proved to create a culture of collaboration and respect for the different skills found in this workplace. The MyEverythingDiSC personal portal which provided access to Comparison Reports was a significant part of the overall success. Because teams changed based on projects, people could quickly connect with a new project partner through their personal portal, inviting them into a one to one comparison. A person could look at “how to work on a project” (for example) with their new project member just before meeting with them, and get practical insights they could apply right away. As people understood each other, collaboration increased and business goals followed.
