What can we do to integrate different cultural perspectives into effective team problem-solving? Effective team problem-solving demands more than just technical expertise or individual brilliance. It requires an understanding of different cultural perspectives and an ability to integrate these into a cohesive, functional whole. New Zealand, with its unique blend of cultures, has an opportunity…
They say a picture paints a thousand words. They also say that human behaviour is complex. Fortunately, Human Synergistics International has a model that paints a picture of human behaviour. It is called a Circumplex. The Circumplex is a visual model of humans’ thinking and behaviour styles. It is used to help individuals, managers, leaders,…
Amanda had always been fiercely independent. She prided herself on being self-reliant and self-sufficient. She had built a successful business from the ground up, and she was always looking for new opportunities to expand it further. But there was a problem. Amanda had trouble relating to others. She struggled to connect with people on a…
Peter had always been an ambitious individual. He was a high-performing manager at a reputable company, and he was always seeking to improve the way things were done. One day, he had an idea to harness the power of his team’s ideas to achieve even better performance. He knew that if he could get his…
Amanda had always been fiercely independent. She started her small business from scratch and worked hard to make it successful. However, as the business grew, Amanda realized that she needed to collaborate with others to expand further. She struggled with the idea of relying on others and found it hard to trust anyone else with…
Loraine was a high achiever and a perfectionist who had always taken her work very seriously. However, she had a reputation for not taking criticism well, which often made it difficult for her to collaborate effectively with others. Loraine recognised that she had conflicting needs. On one hand, she wanted to improve herself and to…
Trevor had always been a successful businessman but had difficulty letting go of control. He believed that to have great decisions happening in the business, he needed to keep control of the decision-making. But as he began to recognise the importance of his employees’ input, he realised he needed to find a different way. Trevor…
Amanda had always been a determined woman. She had started her own small business from scratch, and it had grown to become a successful enterprise. But as the years passed, she found herself feeling more and more disconnected from the people around her. She had become so focused on her work that she had forgotten…
How can we combine the research on adult development with existing world-class tools to measure mindset and accelerate the journey towards great leadership? A leader’s mindset plays a huge role in their leadership development. We know that different levels of mindset elicit different types of behaviours. For example, a person with a fixed mindset will…
Have you ever wondered why we often find it so hard to change mindset? Consider the common phrase, ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’… Now think about a recent example where you attempted to make a change in your behaviour at work, or at home, but inevitably fell back into old habits… Why…
If daring is the key to great leadership, and vulnerability is the key to being daring, then how can we combine the research on vulnerability with existing world-class tools to measure our journey towards becoming a great leader? The picture below shows the before and after of one of my clients. It shows a shift from…
Human Synergistics International is a global leader in helping organisations to support their people and improve their performance through a focus on culture change, leadership development, and team building. The results of their surveys are displayed on the Circumplex, a graphical representation that breaks down the factors underlying performance into 12 ways or “styles” of thinking,…
The Group Styles Inventory (GSI) is the only research-based tool that provides a valid and reliable measure of how people in groups interact with each other and work as a team to solve problems. Extensively researched and internationally proven, this assessment provides group members with a ‘safe’ way to talk about their behaviour and how…
The Desert Situation “It is approximately 10 o’clock in the morning on a mid-August day and you have just crash-landed in the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States.” Your task is to rank 15 items salvaged from the plane in the order of their importance to your team’s survival. Set in an unfamiliar location,…
Life Styles Inventory™ Research and development by Robert A. Cooke, Ph.D. and J. Clayton Lafferty, Ph.D. The Life Styles Inventory™ (LSI) is an organisational tool that uses both self-assessment and colleague feedback to identify individual thinking and behavioural styles. By providing insights into strengths and areas for development, it empowers people to embark on their own journeys to…
Team breakthroughs require a combination of skill and expertise, constructive interpersonal behaviour and rational thinking. The size of your breakthrough depends on the quality of the decision, multiplied by the degree to which the decision is accepted by those who must implement it. Quality and Acceptance are brought about through consensus decision-making. Skill and expertise…
What is culture? ‘Culture’ is a term that has become an important part of any organisation’s vocabulary and a defining characteristic when talking about the organisation to both employees and customers. However, what it really means, how it works, and the impact it has on performance are often misunderstood. At Human Synergistics International, they define “culture”…
The Life Styles Inventory™ (LSI) is one of the Human Synergistics International tools for individuals. It is actually two tools: The first is Life Styles Inventory™ (LSI 1). This tool provides participants with the answer to the question “How do I think I think?” The second is Life Styles Inventory™ (LSI 2). This tool provides participants…
