DiSC Training Exercise Using the DiSC In-Depth Cards

Test your training participants' knowledge of DiSC in a fun, interactive way!

The DiSC In-Depth Cards were developed as an exercise to challenge people to think about the differences between the four Dimensions of DiSC.

The activity takes 40-60 minutes, including debriefing of correct answers using the PowerPoint file provided.

View more DiSC Training Exercises.

DiSC Training Exercise: Design a T-Shirt

DiSC is a powerful tool for improving communication within teams. Here's an interactive exercise to try in your next DiSC training session.

Ask participants to meet in their primary style groups and have them design a T-shirt that represents their DiSC style. Have the groups explain their T-shirts and provide 3 dos and 3 don’ts on how to best communicate with their behavioral style.

Click to view more DiSC Training Exercises.

DiSC Training Exercise: Teambuilding With QuikDiSC

The focus of this DiSC training exercise is to celebrate past achievements of a team. 

Have each training participant choose a QuikDiSC Card that represents a strength. Have participants explain how that strength has contributed to the team’s success.

DiSC Training Exercise: Adapting Your Management Style

Here's an effective role-playing exercise that helps managers learn to adapt their management style to meet the needs of employees.

DiSC Training Materials

• Everything DiSC Management Profile - one per participant
• Everything DiSC Management Interaction Guides

DiSC Training Pre-Work
Have each participant complete their Everything DiSC® Management Profile prior to the training, and let them know they’ll receive their report during the training session. **When assigning access codes in your EPIC Account, make sure your participants cannot view their reports upon completion.

Setup The Training Exercise

DiSC Training Exercise: Everything DiSC Comparison Reports

If you're currently using Everything DiSC Profiles (Workplace, Management, Sales, 363 for Leaders), you have a powerful follow up tool at your fingertips: Everything DiSC Comparison Reports

The research-validated 11-page Comparison Reports help build better relationships and make DiSC training stick. Create these follow-up reports for any two Everything DiSC Profile participants to illustrate their similarities and differences.

You may run an unlimited number of Everything DiSC Comparison Reports for FREE within your EPIC Account.

Tips & ideas for using the Everything DiSC Comparison Reports to keep DiSC training alive:

• After they’ve been introduced to DiSC, pair participants up and email them their Everything DiSC Comparison Reports
• Ask the pairs to have a discussion about what resonated with them and what didn’t
• Also have them discuss how they can each adapt their styles to better meet the other person's needs
• Repeat this process every 2-4 weeks with different pairs
  

Click to learn more about the Everything DiSC Comparison Reports and to view samples.

DiSC Training Exercise: A Day in the Life

In this DiSC training activity each style will describe what it's like to be a high D, i, S, or C. Ask participants to meet in their primary style groups, and have each group create a poster that depicts a "day in the life of" a D, i, S, or C.

You may want to set the ground rules for the activity:

• This is a learning activity for all DiSC styles
• Please use respectful language that allows people to grow & learn
• Be mindful that style is based on preference
• Refrain from opinion and be objective in your learning and teach-backs
• Resist the temptation to label or pigeon-hole

Give the groups 8 minutes to create their posters. When time is up, ask participants to stand as a group with their poster. Ask which group would like to go first. Give each group 7-9 minutes to present their poster. Then ask each group:

• How can other styles learn to better relate to you?
• How are you misunderstood?
• What are your fears?
• What is the value that you bring to a team?
• What do you have to beware of with overusing your strengths?

Finally, ask the other groups to share what they value and appreciate about this group.
Click to view additional DiSC training exercises.

DiSC Training Exercise: Modifying Behaviors

Here are a few DiSC training exercises you can incorporate into your next DiSC session to teach skills for modifying behaviors.

Bring a stranger into the the classroom and have participants ask the stranger questions until they can guess that person’s highest behavioral tendency. The point made in this exercise is that you must be able to recognize behavioral tendencies before you can adapt to them.

Pair up high Ds, is, Ss, and Cs and have them sell a product or idea to their opposite behavioral tendency. Have the participants deliver their presentation in a small group or in front of the entire room and discuss options for modifying behaviors to meet the other person's needs.

Use the DiSC Sales Action Planner, which helps you determine someone’s behavioral style. The action planner gives you suggestions for adapting your behavior to open the call, make the presentation, negotiate, close the sale and maintain positive client relationships.

DiSC Training Exercise: Creating a Group Map

Here's another great DiSC training exercise you can incorporate into your next session.

If you use the DiSC Classic Paper Profile or the Online DiSC Classic 2.0 Profile, create a poster using handout 4-2 from the Everything DiSC Classic Facilitation System.

If you use the Everything DiSC Application Library Profiles, create the Poster Template from the Support Materials Folder on your USB drive.

Have each DiSC participant write their name on a sticky dot and place it where they're located on the DiSC map. This will provide a great visual of what the group’s DiSC styles are.

By looking at the DiSC Group Map, everyone can see that:

1. We all fall on different places of the DiSC map. Throughout your DiSC session you can teach participants how to adapt their natural style to meet the needs of others.
2. Even though some participants might be the same D, i, S or C style, we fall in different areas of the map. This really demonstrates that not all D’s are alike, not all i’s are alike, not all S’s are alike, and not all C’s are alike. There is diversity, even within the styles.
3. Learning more about DiSC will help participants learn how to work with people who have a variety of styles and preferences.
   

DiSC Training Exercise: Car Activity

Here is a simple, yet effective DiSC training exercise you can incorporate into your next session that will open up a dialogue about the unique characteristics of each of the DiSC behavioral styles.

DiSC Car Training Activity

1. Divide participants into 4 groups and provide a flip chart for each group.
2. Ask the first group to write 3 adjectives that describe high "D" behavior. Ask the second group to write 3 adjectives that describe high "i" behavior, etc.
3. Ask each group to determine the kind of car each behavioral style would buy if money were no object.
4. Ask each group what color they would choose.
5. Ask the groups what their bumper sticker would say.

DiSC Exercises

I had an interesting call with a client a couple of weeks ago about DiSC exercises and training tools. She was preparing to do a teambuilding session with a group of high level managers in a well-known construction company. She explained to me that she had been struggling with this group because collectively, they could not come up with a single idea that everyone agreed on. Each individual believed that his or her idea was best and no one was interested in compromise. While I was 99% sure that I already knew the answer, I asked her what the group culture was. Not surprisingly, she told me the 100% of the group had a primary or secondary D. We started to discuss some options for exercises that this group would open communication lines. We settled on two main exercises and I have attached instructions for each of them.

• QuikDiSC Exercise
• DiSC Sales Action Planner Exercise

One of my favorite things about DiSC is its versatility. You can create your own exercises or mold existing ones to suit your needs, and it’s helpful in essentially any situation.

For more information, please visit our website at http://www.resourcesunlimited.com/ or call us at 515.278.1292.

The DiSC Experts at Resources Unlimited

Close More Sales Using a DiSC-Based Approach

Resources Unlimited President, Barbara Stennes, attended ASTD with Inscape Publishing in June to help promote Inscape's newest training programs, idXready. The feedback they received was amazing. Visitors to the booth were impressed by the outstanding quality of the materials, the contemporary video, and the fact that the training program is ready for DiSC trainers to use immediately.

Using DiSC to identify and adapt to the differences in customers can help reduce the likelihood of miscommunication and lost sales, and can help your salesforce develop positive relationships with all types of customers.

DiSC-Powered Selling from Inscape Publishing is the newest and most innovative DiSC sales training program on the market. DiSC-Powered Selling helps participants understand their own selling tendencies and their customers’ needs so they can adapt when needed for better results.

DiSC-Powered Selling integrates and synchronizes all aspects of the DiSC learning experience, from participant pre-work to individualized workbooks; from video embedded right into PowerPoint to proven learning activities.

Visit the Resources Unlimited site for information on DiSC-Powered Selling.

DiSC Phone Coaching Sessions

Our personalized DiSC phone coaching sessions are customized to address your specific organizational objectives. One-on-one DiSC phone coaching will provide you with the assistance you need to design an effective DiSC training program, and will strengthen your investment in DiSC learning assessments.

DiSC phone coaching will give you the opportunity to speak one-on-one with one of our DiSC Certified Master Trainers with 20+ years of DiSC training experience.

DiSC phone coaching is available in one-hour sessions.

Whether you are a first-time user of DiSC learning assessments and need more in-depth information to learn how to interpret your results and incorporate the DiSC profile into your organization, or a DiSC trainer looking for additional DiSC activities, our DiSC Master Trainers will give you the information and confidence you need to achieve your organization’s learning objectives.

Our DiSC clients use DiSC phone coaching to take advantage of:

• A professional opinion to learn the best way to achieve your training goals
• A sounding board for your training ideas, which will ensure you are using the most effective DiSC exercises
• An experienced trainer to coach you during and after your purchase of DiSC assessments to ensure you use them most effectively

After your DiSC phone coaching session you'll feel better prepared to integrate DiSC learning assessments into your organization, and will have the information necessary to carry out your next steps.

Call 515.278.1292 for DiSC phone coaching information.

2 Ways to Learn About DiSC Profiles and DiSC Training

We're hosting two virtual opportunities to learn more about the DiSC Profile in February!

A Taste of DiSC - An Introduction to the DiSC Profile

Join DiSC Certified Master Trainer, Linda Houts, as she discusses the key features of the DiSC Online Profile and shows you how this valuable tool will dramatically enhance employee and team performance in your organization.

As a participant, you will learn:

• How to interpret your DiSC profile results
• How to understand each of the 4 DiSC dimensions
• How DiSC was developed
• DiSC research and validity
• How to easily administer DiSC profiles to your entire organization

Plus, you'll receive 1 free DiSC 2.0 profile to use yourself or send to a friend!

Date: Thursday, February 22
Time: 2 PM EST, 1 PM CST, 12 PM MST, 11 AM PST
Cost: Complimentary

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DiSConference Call for DiSC Trainers

Join DiSC Certified Master Trainer, Judy Zitzloff, for a highly interactive session where you can share your ideas and ask questions of our Master DiSC Trainer and other DiSC Trainers.

As a participant, you will:

• Discover imaginative new ways other DiSC trainers are using the DiSC Profile
• Hear about the latest DiSC products, including the DiSC Group Culture Report, International Translations of the Online DiSC Profile, Everything DiSC Facilitation System, and EPIC
• Learn new interactive DiSC exercises you can use in your training sessions
• Discover creative new ideas for follow-up DiSC sessions
• Learn how to shorten your training sessions by using blended learning that incorporates the DiSC online training courses
• Learn how to handle questions from your participants
• Q & A

Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Time: 2:00 pm Eastern Standard (1:00 pm Central 12:00 pm Mountain 11:00 am Pacific)
Cost: Complimentary

DiSC Training Exercise from Linda Houts

Linda Houts, Certified DiSC Master Trainer hosted last Thursday's A Taste of DiSC teleseminar. After walking attendees through their DiSC report, Linda offered the following DiSC Training Exercise:

Exercises using the Intensity Index

I am often asked how to keep the understandings and insights from a DiSC session fresh and useful in the day-to-day setting. It is important that employees get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and DiSC language helps with that. These exercises can be used in a one-on-one or group/team setting. They can also be used during the first ten minutes of a staff meeting if your objective is team building or developing more camaraderie. I am going to give you 2 different exercises that use the Intensity Index. Please turn to pages 5-9 (in the DiSC Classic 2.0) while I describe a couple of activities you can use.

Activity 1. Remember that page 5 is the index itself and pages 6-9 describe those words or phrases that are highlighted in each style category. Chose 2 words from each style or focus on your highest style depending on how much time you want to allow. Talk with others about how those strengths contribute to your success as a manager/team member/ or job specific. The second step is to discuss overuses for those same words. Overuses are when we allow it to become a weakness or liability. When has this same behavior gotten you into trouble with others?

This activity is described in the Everything DiSC Facilitation System for any of you who have it or are looking for a great program for understanding all the styles also with many applications.

Activity 2. Back to page 5. Focus on your situation – business/department goals, teamwork, managing others etc. Look at all the words in the Intensity Index across all styles. What behaviors are important to success in the focus you chose? Discuss with others how that behavior is important. Also discuss what it would take for you to adapt to that behavior. What stretches (do more of) will you need to make as well as what possible ways might you need to redirect do less of) your behavior? This is a particularly helpful discussion to help teams and managers identify what behaviors are needed for success given the business and departmental goals. The discussion is the most important part of this activity. Openness is fostered.

Questions? Call us at 800.278.1292 or visit www.ResourcesUnlimited.com

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Featured DiSC Training Exercise with QuikDiSC Cards

Appreciating Strengths Exercise: Refer to Insight Module 5-2 in the Everything DiSC Facilitation System

When to use this exercise: At the end of a DiSC Training Session or in a follow-up session.

Purpose of the Exercise: To provide DiSC-based feedback between workshop participants. This exercise gives the learners an opportunity to learn what DiSC behaviors they have displayed during the training. This exercise is particularly valuable because it enables participants to learn whether others perceive their DiSC style to be similar to one’s own self-perception.

Directions:

1. Place one deck of QuikDiSC cards in the center of each table group (face up).
2. Ask each participant to select one card for each participant at the table. The card selected for each participant describes the behavior exhibited by that participant during the training session. (For example, “expressive.”)
3. Each participant at the table explains why the selected card (e.g., “expressive”) represents the person.

More about the QuikDiSC Cards: Visit http://www.resourcesunlimited.com/shop/QuikDiSC.asp

Questions for DiSC Trainers:

• Have you used this exercise in your DiSC Training session?
• Did you modify any part of the exercise?
• How would you modify this exercise for a particular group?

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DiSC Training Tips: Opening Exercises Before Participants Complete DiSC

7 ideas for Introductions and Opening Exercises Before Your Participants Complete the DiSC Profile:

1. Have participants write the name of a friend or coworker. Ask them why the two of them are compatible.
2. Have participants write the name of a person with whom they have difficulty communicating. Ask: "What types of friction do you experience?" Later on they can pull it out again and apply what they’ve learned.
3. Use the QuikDiSC Card Game as an ice-breaker.
4. Using the Whiteboard, have participants use adjectives to describe one person who scribes
5. Have your group think about the group's mission. What is this person’s contribution to the mission? The group provides these adjectives, not the person they’re describing.
6. Focus on the value of diversity in teams.
7. Have participants capture their unique contribution to the group and draw a picture of what they are doing.

What methods do you use in your DiSC training sessions?

Questions? Call us at 800.278.1292 or visit www.ResourcesUnlimited.com

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Do TV Characters have a DiSC Behavioral Style?

I asked the question around our office today: do TV characters have DiSC behavioral styles? It was a unanimous "yes" throughout our office. I think writers mirror characters after real people. Linda Houts, one of our Master DiSC Trainers also had a good point: she says that "writers create characters from what they unconsciously understand about behavior."

I know Grey's Anatomy is currently a popular show (I watch it occasionally, when I just happen to come across it), so I took a guess at each of the characters' DiSC style. Here is my best guess:

George- S
Meredith- D and/or i
Isobel- S and/or C
Christina- D
Miranda- D
Alex- iD

This could easily be used in your next DiSC Training session. Simply record a clip from your favorite TV show and have your participants guess the characters' behavioral style. Use the DiSC People Reading Cards to help your participants determine whether the character perceives their environment as favorable or unfavorable, and if the character sees themself as more powerful as the environment. For more training ideas, please call us at 800.278.1292.

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DiSC Humor

Getting on a busy elevator…

• The D walks up, gets on the elevator, and pushes the button that closes the door.
• The i lets others in, says “Always room for one more,” and “Come in, you’re going to be late; we’ll wait for you!”
• The S will wait in line, moving from one line to another, unable to make adecision.
• The C will get on the elevator. If it’s crowded, the C will count the number ofpeople and, if the number is over the limit, will make someone get off.

Shopping for groceries…

• The D is the impulse shopper. No list.
• The i tells you where everything is in the store, whether you ask or not.
• The S is prepared, has a list, and gets it done efficiently.
• The C wouldn’t think of going shopping without coupons and a calculator.
  

On the golf course…

• The D frequently drives through groups of golfers.
• The i spends more time in the clubhouse talking than on the course.
• The S plays golf the same day, the same time, the same place, using the same clubs.
• The C keeps score, plays strictly by the rules, and cleans his or her clubs a lot.
  

Hanging wallpaper…

• The D says, “Come over Saturday and help me wallpaper. And bring the paste.” The D then starts in the middle of the living room. The patterns don’t match. The D says, “So what? That’s what drapes and pictures are for.”
• The i has the wallpaper in the closet with the paste. It’s on the list of things to do. The i never gets around to it.
• The S has to find a pattern that everyone likes before even beginning to think about hanging it.
• The C starts in a closet or in the garage to be sure the pattern is going to match. The C then gets it exactly right before starting on the living room.

Learn your DiSC Behavior by taking the DiSC Classic 2.0 Online Profile or call us at 800.278.1292.

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