Feel the Power

Hardly an original thought but a) I needed to start posting again since the link from the Birkman site has caught me at a time when I was heavily engaged elsewhere and I am really embarrassed how many people have come and found nothing current and b) it is so true. And this is the thought:

People need time - and context - to really get their Birkman

I was struck by this anew when running some in-house training for the UK Charity for whom I am currently working. The organisation has been using Birkman for 8 years, the people who attended have all had multiple one-to-one sessions on their own profiles and attended at least two or three group or team workshops. They weren't meant to be learning anything new about themselves, simply learning how to facilitate workshops. They are all highly intelligent people. And yet...

We put them "on the Grid" (I am assuming we have all done this some time or other - laid out a Grid on the floor and then charted a teams' movements around the floor from Interests t0 Usual to Needs/Stress. If you haven't, try it. Some people are more kinesthetic anyway, so need this approach, but everyone sees and feels stuff on the Grid...).

Maybe it was because they weren't under any pressure to learn something about themselves. I have no idea. But when we did the "what did I learn today" wrap at the end of the session, they ALL said things like "you know, I don't think I have ever really understood all that stuff about the difference between Usual and Needs" or "I think I really got what it means for me for the first time" and so on.

Shouldn't really be surprised - Sarah and I always find that lights still go on with regard to our own profiles when we work with others, let alone when we attend BI training or conferences. But write it on your mirror, where you will see it at the beginning and end of the day:

Never assume that, just because they got something life changing, they have got it all - yet!