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Communication strategy based on personality styles

As a consultant, I worked for many companies; I visited many customers. After the first icebreakers, I often started to hear “In this team, we have a communication problem”. Even if you leave aside potential source of difficulties as teams which are working remotely or cultural differences, human nature is prone to create communication gaps.

The disc model

Even with a lot of good will, it is not an easy task to close the gap separating birds of different feathers. The human brain is made to push people to gather with people of the same kind. Our mirror cells are inviting us to mimic behaviour and to be comfortable with people similar to us. But you can not lead a ship with only captains or only sailors. You need diversity to manage a successful endeavour and companies need people of different talent. How to prevent these difference in personalities to impair your communication.

MeWe animals

The first step is to recognise the differences and to adapt to the style of communication of the person you are interacting with. Amongst many frameworks, the simplest I found to help people understand the model of communication is the DISC model. The leadership wheel and the 4 quadrant model are two similar useful variations. The concept is similar: people belong to one of the 4 groups. Each group has its own motivators and its own ways of communicating.

I am using these models for 15 years with great benefits. I recently discovered a serious card game allowing to introduce the model in a short amount of time and in a fun way. On Friday 1st March, I organised a workshop in Brussels at Alliance Merode to introduce the model and the serious game to new people. Now the game is being translated in Dutch and French to facilitate its deployment in Belgium and French companies.

Call me to organize a workshop at your place based on the MeWe cards, there is a lot to discover into this serious game.

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A great evening with Moving motivators on Friday 18th January 2019

The workshop at Alliance Merode

For this meet-up, Corentin and I wanted to introduce a tool that we love: the moving motivators cards. We also introduced the feedback wall, another tool of Maangement 3.0 to collect the feedback of a group.

Discover and share

The participants were surprised to discover themselves and their personal motivational drivers using the moving motivators cards. This serious game is coming from Management 3.0 from Jurgen Appelo. With only 10 cards you are invited to rank from the most important. I often see people surprised to see the result. It is a very effective tool for introspection. I recommend to use it when you want to lead a choice or a change with the idea to improve your well-being.

And share more

Two by two the participants introduced themselves to the other describing their personal interpretation of the motivation cards.

In the second phase of the workshop, we proposed the participant to select a situation (the company they belong, a project in which they participate) to rank how much this situation allows them to realise their motivations in life. With the help of Corentin we helped each participant to understand how to influence the situation by introducing a change.

The participant collected their feedback during the workshop on sticky notes with a smiley:
🙂 an elements they liked
🙁 something they recommend not to do
😐 and proposal for experiments

Dinner at Alliance Merode

In the end of the workshop the participant shared a dinner and some beers to foster networking .

Aurore, the cook at Alliance Merode prepared a vegan Korean dinner: Bibimbap. Charlot and Aurore the owners of the restaurant have a fine selection of beer that they offer for degustation.