“Adults Get It!”
When Carol Linden, a long time practitioner of using Interaction Styles in her training and development role submitted her InterStrength™ Interaction Styles certification requirements for review, she share the following comments with us…
I love the Interaction Styles model. Adults “get it.” They get it right away. They see themselves. They see others they’ve worked with. You don’t have to “sell” this model. Its “face value” is very high. People see it is real and it is describing something real in the world.
In my mind, I wondered what it was about being an adult that was important. Of course, most of Carol’s work was inside a high tech company where the adults were not necessarily interested in the people-side of things. But Interaction Style differences helped them improve their communication and their relationships and it was relevant to working in teams.
Many times she and I have discussed how challenging it is when an organizational client asks for the MBTI® and wants to give you only an hour or maybe two to work your magic. Carol has shared with me just how she manages that situation by asking the results they want and what problems they want solved. Then she says something like, ‘I can help you with that using a model called Interaction Styles and it relates to the 16 personality types’. Then, in the 1-2 hours, she helps them explore key aspects of differences in communication that they can notice right away. Then they can learn to shift how they are interpreting the communications of others and ways they can shift their own communication to be better understood.
Ideally, she and I both would prefer to have a whole day or at least a half-day workshop to really get into a deeper understanding of the Interaction Style patterns and how those show up in team communication issues.
I have found that starting with the Interaction Style lens bypasses most of the objections people have to personality typing. They often think it will put them in a box, or that these differences are made up and not really true. Once they can see that the Interaction Style patterns and Dynamics really are at play in their communications, you can go on and add some deeper understanding of Essential Motivators or even Cognitive Dynamics.
Early this year, I received an email from Jennifer Gordon, Public Works Operations Manager, City of Kenmore, Washington. She was asking for someone to continue the workshops. She graciously gave me permission to share her comments…
"I work for the City of Kenmore in Washington State…we have been using your Temperaments and Interaction Styles training for several years and it has been extremely beneficial for our organization,...For me personally, it is the one communications training that has truly made a difference and actually improved relationships where understanding one another had been challenging. Honestly, it has been life changing for me, so thank you!!"
It was my pleasure to provide workshops virtually for their whole staff. The City Manager stayed on after our last session and told us how helpful it was and how they will continue to use the lenses and talk about them. Interaction Styles really makes a big difference in a lasting way even though it is quick and easy to understand.
If you are interested in learning more about Interaction Styles, I hope you can join us for the upcoming Certification training. This is a highly experiential, community-based online course that many take just for their personal development as well as for learning to facilitate discovery and practice sessions.
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