Never Say Never – Personality Dimensions Pandemic Pastimes

By now, many of you will already know Susan Patterson, the author of this week’s contribution to Personality Dimensions® Pandemic Pastimes with Master Trainers, from her work in creating Virtually Everything – A Building Blocks Companion Guide. A lot changed between when she first began to dip into the virtual world of training and when Virtually Everything was published, so much so that when we asked her about writing the adjunct piece to Building Blocks – which became known as Virtually Everything because that’s how we kept referring to it in the office – she quickly responded with her delightful sense of humour and threatened to send me glitter pens since I’m woefully unprepared in that area it would seem (I didn’t even know they existed until then)! Enjoy Susan’s recollection of her response to the pandemic and how it has, and continues to, changed her Personality Dimensions® presentations.

Yours from the back office,

Denise Hughes

Never say Never

COVID hit and face to face workshops and training sessions got cancelled. I waited – certainly there would be some notice if this was a serious thing. Workshops and Training Online – Never – this will not be a thing.

The World told me a different story, and before I knew it I was online having my first Personality Dimensions® event. It was not hard. I was surprised. Is there a chance you will make some errors? Absolutely. Don’t sweat it, all online platforms have many tutorials to learn how to do it. And our Colleagues and Clients shared ideas because we are all learning.

Now I have to smile to myself, by saying Never, I would have cheated myself out of this experience. Personality Dimensions® is adaptable equally in a virtual setting as it is in a face-to-face setting. And wow what a Virtual experience it has been – I have met amazing people, some who would never have had the opportunity to take this Learning if not for online training. With a bit of tweaking and adjusting the materials we have,
it has been truly successful.

Saying Never sets up resistance, challenges and closes doors. Most of us are proficient with Personality Dimensions® face-to-face, and we will have in-person workshops and training again. It might not look the same. Our new reality is Change and different experiences.

So why not offer both? Reinvent your practise. Take advantage of the number of great new resource available to make Personality Dimensions® work with both venues.

With this experience, I have to say I will never work off-line again … well, never say never….

Susan Patterson is a Personality Dimensions ® Master Trainer and Author of Virtually Everything – A Building Blocks Companion Guide. She is the owner of SPG Consulting and can be contacted through SPGConsultingGroup.com.

Still More Personality Dimensions Pandemic Pastimes

Many of you will recognize the name of the author of this week’s instalment of Personality Dimensions® Pandemic Pastimes with Master Trainers: Sandra Summerhayes. Sandra has put her Resourceful Orange to good use, helping many facilitators over the hump of embracing the world of training Personality Dimensions® virtually. She not only offered the Delivering Personality Dimensions® in a Virtual World training, but has worked with us on updating many resources and Toolkits to include virtual applications. I think she was a little surprised when we spoke over a year ago, and I asked if she could come up with a training program that would launch a month later – and at that moment her summer plans were changed! I hope you will take Sandra up on her challenge to share with all of us what your biggest takeaway was from the COVID-era.

Yours from the back office…

Denise Hughes

Has COVID Impacted Your Business?

COVID-19 was the end of my business…or so I thought. As an Extraverted Authentic Blue–Resourceful Orange, the lack of interaction with people left me wallowing in self-pity and self-doubt… for about 3 weeks. Then my Resourceful Orange took over, and I decided to learn everything there was to know about virtual training using Zoom – a platform I had never used before. People came together and shared their knowledge and expertise freely to help everyone transition to this new reality we were facing. I went from knowing virtually nothing (pun intended) about Zoom to teaching others how to use it. My biggest takeaway was the understanding that almost anything one can facilitate in person, one can facilitate virtually. Delivering Personality Dimensions® in a Virtual World training and so much more stemmed from that.

What is your biggest takeaway this year? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Sandra is the founder of Sandra Summerhayes & Associates Professional Training Group. She is a Personality Dimensions® Master Trainer in addition to being a facilitator, human resource specialist, employment counsellor, and laughter leader. Find out more about what Sandra is up to on her website, https://sandrasummerhayes.com.

Personality Dimensions® Statistics

It’s that time of year again… time to pull the PD Stats Robot (patent still pending) out of its work cube to report on this past year’s Personality Dimensions® statistics. With so many of us working from home, there has been a significant increase in the number of facilitators making the move to PD-Online. In fact, so many of you are using it now that the PD Stats Robot is on secondment with CLSRassessments.com to help keep things moving along smoothly.

The staff at CLSR Inc. would like to thank all of the Certified Trainers who took the time to send in their workshop statistics over the past year. Collecting workshop statistics allows us to do further research on the reliability and validity of Personality Dimensions®. If you look at the Primary Colour Breakdowns over the past 16 years, you will notice very little change with them over time; In fact, there was a less than 1% variance with two of the Dimensions over the past few years. That’s some pretty good reliability scores! Full statistics for the Canadian market, including this year’s, are published every year in July and are posted at: http://www.personalitydimensions.com/published-statistics

Remember, every time you conduct an Introductory or Application Session, even if you had your clients take the assessment online, that you keep track of your participants’ Primary Colour Preference, and Introversion/Extraversion preference. You can find a form on the USB included with your Building Blocks/Manual to do this. Statistics can then be faxed to 905-760-0113, or emailed to stats@clsr.ca. You can also submit your statistics through the web at: http://www.personalitydimensions.com/submit-your-statistics.

The PD Stats Robot is an amazing piece of computing technology, and a surprisingly good pastry chef, but can only work with the information that it receives. Please remember to submit your statistics even if you are administering Personality Dimensions® Online. Remember that the assessment component isn’t the final word on an individual’s primary colour, especially if scores are close; clarification also comes from the Brightening Group exercises in a workshop.

Until next year, on behalf of the PD Stats Robot (patent still pending), stay positive and keep those numbers coming.

Even More Personality Dimensions Pandemic Pastimes

Next in our series of Personality Dimensions® Pandemic Pastimes with Master Trainers is Michael Tudor and Larry Konyu. I remember very well the concerns that were expressed by a lot of trainers about how well Personality Dimensions® would work online and Michael and Larry were no exception, as their note will tell you.

And yet, just today, I got some program evaluations from them for their most recent Level I training, done virtually, of course, and here’s a bit of what they shared with me. ‘Again, it is amazing how this works online… We had some difficulty ending on time because of all the stories/anecdotes. So much fun. Doesn’t seem like work.

Here, in their own words, The Virtue of Going Virtual with Personality Dimensions® Virtuously (I think they had some fun with that!).

Yours from the back office…

Denise Hughes

A little more than a year ago, we were reluctant to take Personality Dimensions online. “Can’t work in that environment,” we said. “People won’t buy it,” we continued. “The software, bandwidth, and methodology will require new skills and techniques which will take too much time!” – we exclaimed.

The pandemic changed all that. Covid-19 forced us to rethink our modus operandi. Being sequestered at home, we began to seek face-to-face contact with family and friends. Along came ZOOM! Family and friends were reluctant learners – afraid to try something new. Once tried, we couldn’t get them to end the session. It was easy. It was fun.

So, we thought this could really work with Personality Dimensions®. Still skeptical, we began to brainstorm how we might structure our 3-day Level I training program. We took a course by Sandra Summerhayes and discussed methodologies with other instructors. While in this phase, we began getting requests for workshops and training!

There is nothing like the prospect of earning money – “Show me the money!” – we said, that inspired us to launch into full design and planning mode. We had nothing else to do – talk to each other all day? Oh, how boring! We needed to spice things up a bit.

We started with one person who really enjoyed the program. But more than that, we found it worked! It was refreshing. Then we had a participant from South Korea. Wow – “the world is our oyster” – we thought. In spite of the time difference, we made it work and it was fantastic.

Then we did a workshop with 4 people, learning how to navigate breakout rooms, whiteboards, Kahoot, videos, audios, etc. We were amazed how easy and fast it was to adapt our materials and PowerPoint to this new environment.
Moreover, our clients gave us the accolades that we shall cherish. No longer are we unbelievers – we have been converted, maybe never to return to the past ways of doing things.

Here are some comments from our clients:

“Exploring and understanding the possible functions of different group set-ups really hit home for me. This idea really has me thinking about the positive self-exploration that can be done in these different set-ups.”

“The material covered is what it says it is… a tool. A tool that was given to me by my knowledgeable facilitators. It not just a bunch of facts that are going sit in my brain and rot, it’s something I will use.”

“The facilitators were, knowledgeable and presented the workshop in a manner that was both interesting and informative. Also, their openness in discussing and sharing their personal situation created a more relaxed environment, which in turn made it more comfortable for me to share.”

Michael Tudor & Larry Konyu are level 3 Master Trainers in Personality Dimensions®. Their company, Kondor Enterprises, has been active for the past 25 years. They can be contacted by visiting their website, http://www.Kondor.ca or by email at michaeltudor@rogers.com or lkonyu@rogers.com.