Chapter 13. BalderDISC

This workshop corresponds with Chapter 6, “Behavior and Teams.”

The “wheel” (as described in Chapter 6) is an excellent tool for enhancing team communication on an agile project because the entire team can quickly and easily see who will naturally get along and who may conflict. Additionally, DISC reports are highly valuable because they contain a lot of detail about each individual. Many DISC reports include a comprehensive section that describes numerous characteristics of the individual, how best to communicate with the individual, and more.

DISC is highly accurate but should not be considered an exact science. Moreover, the reports can be lengthy. Therefore, creating a communication chart that summarizes each team member’s most appropriate characteristics and communication styles can be useful for each team member:

• To see the components of the report that individuals believe best depict who they are.

• To know how to most effectively communicate with each individual.

It is worth the time it takes for all members on an agile team to understand one another at a level deep enough to comprehend what makes them tick and how they will behave. This can enhance communication effectiveness and can often avoid conflicts that would have arisen during the project if the team had not gone through this exercise. Human conflict can be more costly to a project than defects in code.

Materials

Materials for this exercise include the following:

• Highlighter

• Index cards

• A set of cards you create for each player containing five voting cards that have the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (one number per card)

• Computer, spreadsheet (or word processor), and printer

• Detailed DISC report for each participant

Setup

Prior to starting this exercise, have every member of the team take a DISC assessment from a provider that provides a detailed DISC report describing the individual as well as a wheel. The free DISC provided in this book provides only a DISC graph. To perform this exercise, you must find a DISC provider (by searching the Internet) and request all participants take the DISC assessment and bring a printed report to the workshop.

During the workshop, all individuals review each section of their own reports and highlight the sentences that they believe most accurately reflect who they are and how best to communicate with them. This can be as much or as little of the report they feel is important for other team members to know what makes them tick and who they are.

Have each individual select the top four sentences they feel best depict who they are and are most important to share with the team. Next each individual should create one sentence that is not a true statement of who they are. They can either make up a lie or could take one of the statements in their report and say the opposite. For example, if the report indicates, “Flattery will always generate a positive reaction with him.” You might choose to say the opposite, “Do not try to use flattery to try to persuade him.” Write all four sentences on an index card (in any random order)—see Figure 13.1 for an example.

Figure 13.1 Example index card

Facilitation

Each person takes a turn by reading his or her cards containing five sentences (four truths about themselves and one lie). After someone reads a card, everyone else in the room votes by holding up a voting card containing the number they feel is the lie. The facilitator should say, “One, two, three, vote” for everyone in the room to hold up their guess at the same time to prevent unfairness.

Each player that guesses the correct lie scores one point. In the preceding example, every player holding up the number “4” would win one point. If no one in the room guesses the correct lie, the card reader gets two points. In the preceding example, if no one guessed a “4,” the reader would score two points. At the end of each round, have the reader tell the team his or her dominant DISC profile element. For example, Earl might say, “I am an “I.” Whoever has the most points after everyone has taken a turn reading wins the game.

This is a fun exercise that enables the team members to bond and get to know one another at a personal level.

Post-Exercise Discussion

This exercise can enable the team to more quickly move along the forming, storming, norming, performing stages as mentioned in Chapter 3, “Team Dynamics.” It can also help avoid conflicts that would occur without having a better understanding of each of the team members’ behavioral tendencies.

Allow open discussion to occur during the facilitation by the team members.

In the post-discussion, ask the team to quickly reassemble the room into four quadrants by the highest element of each individual’s DISC profiles—that is, have all the D’s sit in one section of the room, all the C’s in another, and so on. Point out the importance of the quadrants. That is, there will be natural conflicts that occur between the groups. D’s and C’s, for example, will conflict because the C’s might appear to the D’s to be overly quiet and take too long to ponder the details, whereas the D’s might appear to the C’s to be outspokenly rude and always want to skip the details and drive to a solution. Emphasize the importance of embracing the DISC to better accept others and understand why they behave the way they do. Encourage people to use the language of DISC in situations in which they feel conflicts are starting to arise.

Reinforce that the best teams comprise a blend of behavioral profiles. You want team members to consist of a combination of D’s, who will make quicker decisions and help drive the project; C’s, who will focus on the details as they analyze requirements, test, and write code; S’s, who will bring harmony to the team; and I’s, who will keep the communication going, optimism high, and energy flowing. It is healthy to have some team members optimistically viewing the project in a glass-is-half-full perspective, whereas others are continually concerned about the project’s status or level of quality. Therefore the best teams have a mix of behavioral profiles, which in turn tends to also result in natural conflict.

After the workshop is complete, it is recommended that the facilitator create a Team Communication Chart containing each team member’s highlighted sentences. This chart should not be limited to the four top elements that individuals selected to place on their index cards. This chart could be created in a spreadsheet or in a word processor. Either email the chart to all members of the team or post it on a wall in the project room.

Additionally, the team should create a team wheel. As an example, Figure 13.2 shows a team wheel if the team chose The Abelson Group as their DISC provider. Have all team members write their names or initials on the wheel corresponding to their adaptive/work behavior provided in their report. If any team member’s natural behavior is extremely different than their adaptive behavior, have them write their name or initials in a different color.

Figure 13.2 Example Team Wheel template

The Abelson DISC Behaviors Wheel is an adaptation of the Target Training International, LTD. Wheel and is a trademark of The Abelson Group™