Emergenetics Associates: Conduct a Symphony Using Spectrum Reports
I often find that Emergenetics® practitioners aren’t fully aware of the value of the spectrum reports. Sometimes, facilitators can be a bit intimidated by these data-rich resources – maybe you’re one of them!
Once Associates have a robust understanding of spectrums, however, they unlock actionable information to more easily customize content, and reveal tendencies about a group or team and maximize their impact. Consider this analogy: Just like musicians bring songs to life from sheet music, facilitators create engaging programming from evaluating spectrum reports.
Get a Refresher on the Available Spectrum Reports
Let’s review the four available reports:
1. Spectrum Report – Details the comprehensive Thinking and Behavioral preferences of participants, including percentiles, percentages and composite scores. The data is organized by Profile type.
2. Expressiveness Spectrum – Arranges the participants according to their preference for Expressiveness, beginning with first-third.
3. Assertiveness Spectrum – Groups participants according to their preference for Assertiveness, beginning with first-third.
4. Flexibility Spectrum – Lists participants according to their preference for Flexibility, beginning with first-third.
Four-Part Harmony: 4 Applications of the Spectrum Reports
1. Form and inform workshop groupings
Let’s start by considering the way most facilitators use the data: to prepare for workshops. Associates are introduced to spectrums in Certification as the reports form the basis for the activities in Emergenetics’ essential workshops. If you are only using the tools to establish groupings for the Meeting of the Minds, however, you’re missing out!
The reports provide more in-depth information to get to know participants as well as inform planning. For example, maybe a cohort is missing one of the six Profile Groups. Facilitators may choose to spend a little more time discussing this group and their tendencies to boost understanding. Additionally, the reports can be used to identify additional training strategies for teams based on their cognitive diversity.
2. Coach managers
Spectrums are useful tools for supervisors, especially those who are newly appointed as they make the transition to leadership. Empower managers with self-awareness by reviewing their personal data and discussing where they fall on the scale of Abstract versus Concrete thinking and Divergent versus Convergent thinking. Also known as composite scores, the numbers can be useful in identifying a supervisor’s tendencies and potential blind spots.
Want to go a step further? Build a Spectrum Report that includes the Profiles of the manager’s direct reports, if they’re available. With a team-wide view, Associates can gain insight into potential coaching opportunities for a leader as well as share how they can better motivate, support and engage each staff member based on individual preferences.
3. Facilitate individual or small group professional development
Spectrum reports can be helpful in any conversation with employees. Apply the reports to:
- Create understanding between coworkers who frequently experience disconnects
- Advise a staff member on their goals by discussing opportunities to utilize their preferences to achieve them
- Help the team get to know a new hire and set them up for success
- Identify where a colleague may need to “flex” as part of a professional development objective
- Assess coworkers’ preferences to improve cross-functional collaboration
Remember: The spectrums illuminate more information about someone’s Profile, so you can use the data to support employee growth and development. Be sure to use the Language of Grace when engaging in constructive dialogue.
4. Pinpoint departmental challenges
When a team experiences pain points like miscommunication, a lack of collaboration or low levels of engagement, it can be challenging to understand why there are disconnects and what the underlying causes may be. Spectrum reports can be helpful in revealing the nuances within a group and the inherent dynamics that may be at play.
The first step is to generate a Thinking Spectrum report that includes each employee in the department or team. Pay close attention to the Report Summary section, which indicates the group’s preferences and percentiles. The summary offers a holistic picture of the entire team’s orientation toward Thinking and Behaving. Then, bring your attention to any outliers. If you are a visual learner, consider creating a Living Spectrum by plotting participants based on their composite scores. With the data in hand, review it with the following questions in mind:
- How many outliers are there?
- What are the differences in Profile types?
- What are the preferences of the leader(s) vs those of contributors?
- What, if any, conclusions can be drawn from the data?
Using data-driven insights can create a picture of what may be happening, providing you with potential methods to help alleviate the departmental challenge.
If this blog has you thinking about how you can make better use of the spectrums, I encourage you to learn about our egElectives course: The Music of Emergenetics. The class will help to strengthen your comprehension of different tools at your fingertips to better coach and train your participants, allowing you to conduct a beautiful symphony of self-aware and high-performing participants.
Explore egElectives or fill out the form below to speak directly with one of our team members!
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