55
Chapter 7
The Communication
Preferences of
Homo sapiens
Eliza’s rst order of business was to have each mem-
ber of her sales and customer service teams undergo
a DISC behavioral assessment—an online quiz that
determines what type of behavioral style people have.
She selected a DISC assessment that she knew was
well regarded and easy to understand, and started with
her sales and customer service teams because they
seemed to be having the most difculty at the moment.
She would have Kirby take the assessment, since he
was part of her senior management group, but she
decided not to include his production team at this point
because she didn’t see a great number of challenges to
address on the manufacturing side of the house. Plus,
56 ◾ Transforming Teams
she wanted to limit the group to a manageable number
of people.
Eliza got from a colleague the name of a business
coach who agreed to administer and debrief the DISC
behavioral assessment. She met with him and gave him
a summary of the challenges she was facing, along with
a description of what Claire, Dave, and Kirby were like.
Eliza invited Claire and her seven customer service
representatives, Dave and his nine sales representatives,
and Kirby to take the online DISC assessment. She her-
self also took the assessment.
The following week, the business coach arrived to
conduct a workshop on DISC and to facilitate a group
debrief of the assessment reports. Claire had prearranged
to have a temp brought in to handle the phones during
the two-hour session so that everyone who took the
assessment could attend.
When the participants had gathered, Eliza welcomed
them to the meeting and explained that its purpose was
to help everyone better understand their own behav-
ioral style and to teach them to begin to recognize the
behavioral styles of those with whom they work.
She related her own experience of having taken the
DISC assessment in graduate school and the profound
impact it had had on her. She was optimistic that it
would have the same impact on the group as well.
“The hope,” she said, “is for you to understand your
strengths and weaknesses and, like the badger and the
coyote, begin to appreciate the strengths and limitations
of those who are not like you so that you can learn to
collaborate more effectively.” Eliza noticed some of the
The Communication Preferences of Homo sapiens ◾ 57
participants looking at each other as if to say, “The bad-
ger and the coyote?” So she took a moment to tell the
story of how these two animals coexist in the wild.
Turning to their invited guest, she said, “And now
I’m going to hand things over to Charles Henry, who
can explain better why we bother with DISC behavioral
styles in the rst place.”
Charles Henry, a man in his mid-50s with a broad
smile and a welcoming and animated expression, stood
and said, “Thanks, Eliza. Welcome everyone! Like Eliza,
I have three goals for today: First, I want you to know
yourself better. I am hoping this will be a time of great
self-discovery for you. Second, my goal is to help you
58 ◾ Transforming Teams
begin to recognize the behavioral styles of others. I
want you to be able to see other people through a dif-
ferent lens going forward—a lens of behavioral style.
And third, I want you to start learning how to ‘ex’ to
be more like others around you.
“So let me start by asking you, why do you think this
is important? Why do we care about behavioral style?”
Participants looked around and shrugged their
shoulders. They didn’t seem ready to talk yet. Their
silence continued for an awkward moment before one
of the sales reps volunteered an answer.
“So that we can work better together? Like Eliza’s fox
and badger?”
Dave jumped in, “Hey, hey! It’s coyote and badger!
Don’t get my animal mixed up!” The group laughed.
Charles nodded enthusiastically and said, “Exactly!
So that we can work better together, just like those
animals. Now, let me ask you this, what do you think
keeps us from working better together?”
“How we communicate?” suggested a customer ser-
vice rep.
“Sure,” said Charles, “communication is essential to
working together, right? But what about communica-
tion? I mean, we all can read, write, and speak. What
more do we need?”
Silence.
“Any ideas?” Charles pressed.
Silence.
“Okay, let me give you a little background. Did you
know that philosophers, religious leaders, scientists,
teachers—really smart people—for thousands and
The Communication Preferences of Homo sapiens ◾ 59
thousands of years, have been trying to decipher behav-
ioral style? Four hundred years before Christ, the ancient
Greek physician Hippocrates tried to categorize people
based on the environmental and climate conditions in
which they were raised. Those from mountainous areas
were categorized as savage and ferocious, while those
from low-lying places were considered emotional and
short-fused. In total, Hippocrates identied four basic
temperaments that were rooted in terms of behavioral
styles—sanguine, melancholic, choleric, and phlegmatic.
“The ancient physician Galen categorized people in
terms of bodily uid—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and
phlegm. Gross, I know, but I guess in those days peo-
ple spent a lot of time thinking about bodily uids.
“Even the ancient Chinese got into the act by clas-
sifying people in terms of the elements of earth, wind,
re, or water. For thousands of years we humans have
been working on this. My question to you is, why?”
Ancient Chinese Elements
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