Why Behavioral Science Belongs in the Workplace

Eric Kish
Eric Kish
Aug 8, 2017 · 3 min read
The Predictive Index, Myers Briggs Type Indicator, & DiSC Personality Test

There is an abundance of tools available to decode behavior, and I’ve had the privilege to be trained in a few of them.

One you’re probably familiar with is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®), making the theory of psychological types described by C.G Young understandable and useful. During my time at Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business, I was introduced to the MBTI by a former Green Berets Army Colonel who had served during the Vietnam War and is now a leadership coach. He told us how he was tested at West Point and how they had to carry his type on their uniforms under their name badge. I perfectly remember his type as it was exactly like mine — INTJ, or, Intuitive iNtrovert Thinker Judger. The test takes 45 minutes to complete and the result categorizes you as one of the 16 types, complete with a very nice story describing each type. It’s very educational, but when I tried to apply it in the workplace I found it difficult to implement in the workplace or in teams.

Some 10 years later, while a student at Stanford Business School, I was trained in the DiSC personality test. It was used to put us in teams and understand behavior preferences among team members using color codes. Later, I found out that The Predictive Index and DiSC where created around the same time and they have similar roots.

Both the DiSC assessment, or Personality Profile, and the PI Behavioral Assessment™ are based on the work of William Marston, author of the 1928 book The Emotions of Normal People. In his book, Marston theorized that the behavioral expression of emotions could be categorized into four types: Dominance, Inducement, Submission, and Compliance.

In the 1950s, Walter Clark and Arnold Daniels each created instruments designed to measure people across these four dimensions. Clark’s work started with the Activity Vector Analysis (AVA) and 10 years later he created the Self-Description — a forced-choice assessment similar to more modern versions of the DiSC assessment.

I came across The Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment 20 years ago as a candidate for a job. I was not particularly interested in the job as I was currently doing quite well already, but I went to the interview anyway and I was blown away by the recruitment process which included The Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment. The assessment took 5 minutes; there were no intrusive questions to answer and no uncomfortable multiple choices. It was simply a list of words in my native language that I was supposed to select.

From all this came an incredibly accurate description of my needs and motivations. Even more powerful was the readback my future boss provided me with, and his sharing of his own drives and preferences. The conversation evolved into an exploratory effort in understanding how he could set me up for success in line with my specific needs. He was somebody who truly cared about what would make me happy at work. I was so impressed that I asked as a condition for accepting the job that I be trained to become a Predictive Index Analyst.

Over the years, I’ve been able to compare these 3 tools. The Predictive Index is a clear winner, for me, in terms of implementation and the ability to use it to educate my management teams in methods of understanding and describing behavior.

​What finally tipped the scale was the simplicity in the test’s elegance. As busy executives, we need simple tools that anybody can understand and apply, covering our employees from hiring to retiring. We need quick results and a common language that managers can understand and easily apply in their day-to-day work. The Predictive Index is backed up by science, it is fast, straight forward, and provides concise and comprehensive insights. The Predictive Index is incredibly practical.

To learn more about how to apply behavioral science in your workplace, go to The Predictive Index™.

The Predictive Index™ is a Trademark of The Predictive Index Inc. All rights reserved.

Everything DiSC® is a Trademark and Copyright © 2000–2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. or related companies. All rights reserved.

MBTI® is a trademark of the Center for Applications of Psychological Type, Inc. for CPP, Inc.


Eric Kish is the author of Everyday Turnaround — The Science of Daily Business Transformation. This post was originally published here.

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