About SDI Training
The SDI is a powerful and effective tool for understanding and influencing the motives that drive behaviours. The SDI plays off people’s basic need to better understand themselves and others, and that understanding allows them to lead with clarity and empathy, build stronger teams, and more effectively navigate conflict.
Starting With the Why
While many tools focus on what we do, the SDI goes deeper and helps us understand why we and others behave the way we do.
The results reflect people’s experiences of themselves – they actually see themselves in the charted data. But they also don’t feel pigeonholed, because the SDI allows for the reality that people are different (even when they are similar) and react differently in different situations. Today’s workforce is more and more diverse, so it’s critical to understand how differences impact our interactions. The SDI provides a base for understanding who we are and what motivates us, and it provides the same insights into others.
These insights are particularly beneficial during the stages of conflict. The SDI is a “dual-state instrument,” meaning it shows the degree and nature of changes from the things-are-going-well state to the conflict state.
Charting What Matters
The SDI helps people relate to one of seven Motivational Value Systems (MVS) and one of thirteen Conflict Sequences. Each individual’s MVS is represented by a dot on a colour-coded triangle, and their Conflict Sequence is represented by an arrowhead that shows how their motives typically change during the stages of conflict. And people who work together can see their results plotted in the context of their group.
This picture of personality makes it easier for people to understand the results and talk about them. The SDI provides a common and memorable language that guides people toward greater understanding and interpersonal effectiveness.
By experiencing the SDI, people can identify their motivational values, not just their behaviours. Conflict and motivational values are closely related, because people are more likely to go into conflict over things that are important to them – a critical insight in today’s high-change business environments.
What Sets It Apart
The SDI is a powerful tool for all levels of an organisation. The critical insights it provides enable leaders and team members to better understand how to influence people who think, behave, and communicate differently.
As jobs become more complex and strategic, social and emotional competencies have become key differentiators for success, particularly for leaders. As people are promoted to more senior roles, their performance is measured not only on bottom-line results, but also on how they manage their relationships with key stakeholders.
The SDI helps leaders at all levels focus on how they communicate and work with one another and how they use individual and team strengths in light of their business needs. The result is reduced conflict and increased collaboration and trust, building productive work relationships for sustainable results.
