Creating a culture of DISC within your organization goes beyond simply having everyone take a DISC assessment. Imagine your entire company speaking a common communication language, where interactions occur with more empathy and understanding. In order to create a shift this wide scale, you need a plan that prioritizes collective buy-in and a realistic implementation strategy. What will it actually look like on a daily basis?
Imagine your team empowered to communicate effectively, collaborate smoothly and grow together. That’s what happens when you build a culture that speaks DISC. The goal is to have individuals, teams and leaders identify and interact well with all behavioral types.
Workplace unity comes alive when colleagues thrive on each other’s strengths. Collective effort is bound to follow when everyone shares a deeper understanding of their coworkers and teammates. When all employees are following the DISC strategy, there becomes less room for argumentative conflict and more likely the workplace turns into positive energy.
With that being said, incorporating DISC within your organization will look different for each individual and team, because, well, everyone is different. Let’s get down to business: what is the DISC model, and why does it matter?
If understanding people is high on your agenda, you'll love what DISC has to offer. But what exactly is it, and why should you care?
Behavioral analysis just got a whole lot simpler – thanks to the DISC model, we can now breakdown and decipher people’s behavioral work style and communication preferences, into tangible style classifications. It categorizes individuals based on four dimensions:
- Dominance (D): Individuals with a D style are direct, results-oriented, and driven to achieve their goals. Quick thinking is second nature to them; throw in a puzzle to solve, and they’re in their element.
- Influence (I): People with a high I style thrive on social interaction; they are enthusiastic and optimistic. Building a network, finding common ground, and convincing others to see things their way – that’s what they’re all about.
- Steadiness (S): Those with an S style value stability, teamwork, and helping others. From actively tuning in to lending a willing hand, these stand-up individuals do more than just play nice – they truly show up for the people around them.
- Conscientiousness (C): Individuals who tend towards the C style value accuracy, precision, and high standards. methodical in their approach, they meticulously examine every detail, leveraging their instincts to pinpoint potential problems.
Even though we all have variations of the four styles in us, the DISC model helps pin down our natural inclinations, making it clearer how we’ll behave in various settings. Getting team communication right hinges on understanding each other, and that insight is invaluable. Companies that have implemented DISC organization wide enjoy and rely on this very advantage.
Why should businesses consider creating a culture of DISC within their organizations?
With DISC principles at the forefront, you can cultivate a positive company culture that resonates throughout your organization.
The numbers don’t lie: scientific investigations right at the forefront of innovative HR strategies is Quantum Workplace – the place where forward-thinking companies are built from the ground up by their own people. The data shows a positive company culture drives employee engagement, plain and simple. Company pride runs deep as it’s more than just a job to them. Positive emotions start to build when we feel like we belong at work, leading to stronger bonds with our colleagues and a reduced risk of turnover.
And with 40% of employees reporting that they are thinking about leaving their jobs in the next 3-6 months, now’s the time to evaluate your company’s work environment and find opportunities for positive changes that could save you thousands in hiring and training new employees. However, incorporating DISC into an established environment isn’t an overnight fix – it requires careful planning and implementation. So how do we start?
Steps To Create a Culture of DISC within Your Organization:
There’s good news - creating this type of positive cultural shift doesn’t require throwing out everything you do and starting from scratch. There are many simple ways that companies can start the process of incorporating DISC into their organization's culture.
Start by Understanding the “Why”
Before starting any initiative, communicate with your teams to clearly explain why you think DISC would be valuable to individuals and to the organization as a whole. Get buy-in by ensuring leaders and managers understand the significance and are on-board. Teams perform best when leaders have confidence in what they are presenting, so take the assessment yourself if you haven’t already.
Integrate DISC into Hiring
Consider using DISC assessments during the hiring process to evaluate how potential candidates would fit within the existing team, rather than if their DISC style is a perfect match. Think of your team as a puzzle – the more diverse the pieces, the more interesting and dynamic the finished product will be. According to a team problem solving study, cognitively diverse teams have proven to be more successful when people approach problem-solving in their own behavioral way as it results in better solutions for the team overall.
Provide DISC Training:
Providing your staff with opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of their own DISC styles along with that of their teammates can be facilitated in training sessions, coaching programs, or even workshops. To really leverage team strengths, it’s essential to recognize how each individual DISC profiles mesh – or clash – in a collaborative environment.
Intensify group harmony by analyzing conversations that simply fell flat and revamping your methods to build candid connections built on understanding your strengths and imperfections alike. Resources permitting, you could either create a customized program or call in some outside reinforcements to get the job done.
Encourage DISC Application:
To help team members put what they have learned into practice create opportunities to implement these newly developed skills by incorporating team-building exercises, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Model is one of the leading team development frameworks on the market. By incorporating the model, team members can begin to apply DISC principles in their daily interactions, it will start to become a natural part of how they communicate and collaborate.
Don’t Stop There. Use Data to Fine-tune and Make Adjustments
Think this is a one-and-done? Absolutely not. As humans our preferences can ebb and flow as we grow in our roles, add responsibilities, or team members, so create a culture of DISC within your organization by using data to track progress.
Some questions you might ask yourself – Are teams communicating better? Has conflict decreased or become more productive? Is employee morale increasing?
Team performance can be enhanced when you assess the team’s performance profile with the team assessment report. That’s when you’ll see the broader team picture, and understand how each person and team plays off others.
FAQs about Create a culture of DISC within your organization
What is DISC culture?
A DISC culture is one where employees and leaders use DISC to:
- Initiate self-reflection - it helps individuals pinpoint their behavioral talents and areas that require extra attention.
- Appreciate and value the diverse perspectives of their colleagues, even those who have completely different views and approaches than them.
- Build rock-solid relationships, manage tricky disputes, and collaboratively move in the same direction, folks need to optimize their communication style.
Imagine walking into an office where collaboration, innovation, and camaraderie thrive - that's what a rich organizational culture looks like.
An organization’s culture isn’t something dictated from a job description; but is more about shared values, how people treat one another and their clients, what behaviors are rewarded, and how problems get addressed.
Some factors that contribute to creating a company's culture are the physical workspace (open concept, assigned desks, etc.), the mission and values as a company, the rituals, traditions, language (do people feel comfortable voicing their opinion?), and stories within the workplace all influence company culture.
From HR industry groups, like the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) beams with expertise. Culture serves as the DNA of a community At its core, an organization's culture is created from its collective values, communication and support of those values and how people support those values with their behaviors.
What is the DISC model in the workplace?
The DISC model is used within the workplace to identify an employee's natural behavioral style, or the style they are most likely to default to when they are under stress, pressure, or have just started a new role. With the insights of the DISC model, leaders can better select the best candidate for the job, leveraging their innate behavioral tendencies to match the needs of the job.
When individuals learn to recognize not only their own styles and how they interact within various settings they learn strategies that work with the other styles, making for an environment with improve conflict situations and influence higher performance. Whether you're a higher-level executive or an entry-level staff member, grasping your own communication style and behavioral tendencies - not to mention those of your colleagues - is essential, and the DISC model is a trusted guide to help you do just that.
Can DISC take your management skills to the next level?
According to recent research conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review, company culture is a huge deciding factor that influences employee retention and was proven to be more than ten times more significant than compensation. Additionally, a separate study from BioMed Central, revealed a strong link between high-pressure organizations (which by default tend to not have great communication and culture overall) and employees seeking medical help. It found that employees who worked in high-pressure jobs used healthcare services at a rate that was 50% higher than their counterparts who were employed in positions that were deemed “not high-pressure."
By understanding employees' communication and behavioral styles, managers can create more cohesive teams, communicate information in a way that people will be most receptive to hearing it, delegate tasks in a way that sets employees up for success (because they love doing it), provide more tailored support and ultimately contribute to creating an overall improved workplace morale.
Conclusion
Creating a culture of DISC within your organization is more than a trend. When properly implemented and wholeheartedly embraced, DISC becomes a part of everyday language, fostering a more respectful, collaborative, and successful environment.
