DISC history and background

1920’s DISC introduced by William Martson.

444 B.C. Hippocrates came up with the most common personality styles by studying cadavers and looking at bodily fluids that may impact styles. This is where we get choleric, sanguine, phalgmatic, and melancholy from.

Martson created Wonder Woman and lie detector test (systolic blood pressure). William Martson never created the assessment; he focused on normal human behavior. Assessments are a science in and of themselves. Cronbach’s Alpha test passed to achieve scientifically validity. Not every assessment you take is validated. Until it’s been validated and tested the results are unreliable.

DISC assessment is the tip of the iceberg. You need to learn how to apply it to these other areas. They material we have is one of the biggest differentiators between us and everyone else. 93% of fortune 500 companies use assessments. Scale of outgoing and reserved changes from environment to environment. Outgoing looks different in different cultures. DISC is values neutral. Has nothing to do with us being good or bad people. We may do things differently based on our values, but that doesn’t impact our personality style. Be aware of when viewing people that we may be viewing them in their environmental state like at a networking event.

D – How we respond to challenges, I – How much you like to talk or listen, S – How do you respond to predictiveness in your environment, Do you prefer change or sameness. C – How we respond to rules or procedures. Do things your own way or the “right” way.

Personality Quotient (PQ) – Understand yourself, others, and adapt. Some understand, but don’t adapt. Begins by understanding and becoming aware of our own tendencies. Go from treating others the way we want to be treated to the way they naturally want to be treated. 85% of success in workplace comes from people skills.