How can you use each other’s differences to strengthen a shared culture?
That’s what Webamp set out to answer last Friday. So at 11 we shut the office at Vesterport and drove to Power Racing Gokart Akademi on an industrial estate in Herlev. Of course, we were going to try the challenging, winding track in Denmark’s only electric go-karts. But first came three hours of focused DISC workshop with coach Klaus Veile.
Before the course, every colleague, from student assistants to the CEO, had taken a DISC analysis, a profiling tool that describes how people behave in particular situations. Now it was time to understand the analyses better and, not least, to learn how to use them actively day to day.
Expectations for the workshop were high among my colleagues. Some hoped for more self-insight. Others for a better understanding of the people around them.
But everyone shared one expectation: we wanted to learn how to use each other’s differences and, in doing so, strengthen both teamwork and performance.
What is DISC?
DISC is an analysis tool for assessing personality, behaviour and motivation factors. The four letters stand for these broad personality types: dominance-seeking (D), influencing (I), stability-seeking (S) and competence-seeking (C).
Let’s take a concrete example of the four personality types from Danish film history, more precisely Erik Balling’s much-loved Olsen Gang films. The four adult main characters in the films are textbook examples of the four DISC personality types.
- Yvonne, the dominant D
Yvonne sees challenges and obstacles as things to be overcome, and she likes to control her surroundings to get the results she wants. She is brief and blunt when she communicates and often gives direct orders. - Benny, the influential I
Benny fundamentally trusts the world and the people around him, which he sees as friendly and favourable. He is optimistic and driven by social recognition. He is open to dialogue and aims for consensus wherever possible. - Kjeld, the stability-seeking S
Kjeld is motivated by stability and is the loyal, caring one in the group, who often puts his own needs last. He is the reliable, cooperative team player who is most comfortable with the familiar. So he easily gets tense when things become too unpredictable. - Egon, the competence-seeking C
Egon is the one who sees the whole picture. He is analytical, motivated by precision and hates sloppiness. He is extremely attentive to detail and overly critical of both himself and others when they fail to work within established rules and guidelines.
A shared plan despite our differences
The Olsen Gang’s plans usually go wrong. But is that because the members are so different?
No. It’s because none of the four members manages to adapt their communication and behaviour to the other members’ personality types.
A central point in DISC is that all four personality types are equal, precisely because a team needs all of them. Of course someone has to stand at the front, ready for battle. That’s where the Ds come in.
But a team also can’t do without analytical people who see the whole picture, and here the Cs are indispensable. In the same way, the reliable, steady Ss are the foundation of good collaboration, while the optimistic, outgoing Is are the glue that holds the group together.
The four main characters in the Olsen Gang haven’t understood that, and it trips up their plans.
Just like the Olsen Gang, Webamp is driven by a plan: to give a superb client experience and create transparency in a world that seems abstract and remote to many people.
But if that plan is to come true, our differences mustn’t work against each other.
On the contrary, our differences are what lay the foundation for a focused team effort. But that requires everyone to understand why and how other personality types act.
Many personalities, one team
‘Some people are noisy in the office. Others prefer a deafening silence, so they work best with a noise cancelling headset over their ears and their eyes fixed on the screen.’
That’s how we describe ourselves on Webamp’s careers page. And judging by the DISC analyses, it’s probably a very fitting description of the dynamic among the colleagues at Webamp. The team had Ds, Is, Ss and Cs.
Webamp has both outgoing, more impulsive personalities who work and thrive on the front line or in the line of fire, and more introverted, systematic employees who prefer stability or structure.
We probably don’t need a DISC analysis to work that out. We spend time together every day, and we know each other’s little quirks and differences. But we may not always be very good at understanding colleagues whose profiles differ from our own. And that was exactly what the DISC workshop was meant to teach us.
For example, it can be hard for the very direct, strong-willed D to adapt their behaviour to the considered, predictable S. Likewise, it can be hard for the analytical, organised C to relate to the chatty and sometimes impulsive I, who would rather have as many irons in the fire at once as possible.
But in a company where a shared culture and respect for the individual have to come together as one, that understanding is crucial. So, among other things, we learnt:
- to use concrete examples and get straight to the point when working with a D
- to invite dialogue and show appreciation when working with an I
- to show genuine interest and present things calmly when working with an S
- to be precise and well prepared when working with a C
Finally, everyone was encouraged to put their DISC analysis up by their workstation. That way we can always adapt our behaviour and communication to each other, for the good of the team and our goals.
After a successful workshop, Ds, Is, Ss and Cs alike headed for the go-kart track together, knowing that the answer to the question ‘can differences strengthen a shared culture?’ is a resounding yes!