HIRE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME: Part II Qualified Sameness

THE CHANGE PEOPLE PATTERN™ – SAMENESS

By Marilyne Woodsmall

HIRE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME:

THE CHANGE PEOPLE PATTERN™ – QUALIFIED SAMENESS

Remember that now more than ever, given the present state of the global economy, it is so critical in your hiring practice to choose the right job candidate who best matches the tasks to be performed. Employers cannot rely on traditional resumes and a person’s physical appearance in hiring the best people for specific jobs. Instead, when you use People Patterns™ in your hiring, you will save you time, money, and valuable resources. You will enhance your productivity since you will be hiring right the first time rather than wasting time looking for new people to replace bad hires the second time around.

Over twenty years ago, we created Profiling Plus™, our own behavioral assessment instrument that specifically targets hiring and personnel. This effective and practical behavioral tool is one that synthesizes our knowledge of behavioral change and typological research and models. In the context of these articles, we are simply focusing on one aspect of work.

People Patterns™ are so revelatory in understanding why people do what they do. Remember that knowing how a person thinks and how he or she behaves in a particular context in the execution of a given task is going to be much more informative as far as determining how competent a given individual is going to be in the execution of a certain job. I insist on reminding you of an important point. It is that the best predictor of future behavior is past history. What determines a person’s suitability for a job is best reflected by what the person has done in the past in similar situations. It is these very factors relating to past and present behavior that are revealed through People Patterns™.

In this article let’s focus on the second element of the Change People Pattern™: Qualified Sameness, as it relates to personnel and hiring. There are obviously certain tasks that are much better suited for individuals who are qualified sameness in orientation.

Interestingly, the average business person in the world is qualified sameness. Chances are that if you are the typically successful business person, you probably see the world and conduct your business through qualified sameness filters. Also, the military often appeals to those who are qualified sameness (as well as sameness people). If there is a lot of variety of task, as in special forces units or with the French Foreign Legion, for example, you will more likely find individuals who tend to have marked difference traits in their behavioral profiles.

What distinguishes a qualified sameness person from a pure sameness person is that although the former likes jobs in which there is some repetition of task, the qualified sameness person needs some elements of variety to be part of the task from time to time. Each qualified sameness person is unique in the manner in which the element of variety comes into play. For example, in sales, the individual may enjoy the sameness in terms of selling the same product line, although he or she may like to expand the customer base so that they are always seeing new people rather than focusing on the same list of customers they see all the time. Or else, they may be selling the same product and experience the difference element by traveling to different cities.

Secretarial jobs and executive assistant jobs are well suited to qualified difference in that there is usually a set routine of certain tasks that need to be performed on a daily basis such as going through mail, taking phone calls, making appointments, etc. The element of variety may manifest in the planning of events, in receiving different visitors.

In the typical business, most managers tend to be qualified sameness and they well suited to handle different types of people because they feel comfortable with repetition and variety to different degrees. I mentioned assembly work in a prior article about sameness and personnel selection. Often, it is the supervisor on a given shift who tends to be the qualified sameness (or qualified difference person depending on the tasks at hand) because he or she is the one who has to be able to deal with changes that may come up. These unexpected elements of variety may take the form of glitches in a system that have to be corrected or changes in scheduling, etc. Generally speaking, good supervisors of sameness employees tend to be qualified sameness (or qualified difference depending on the context and task in question).

The so-called seven year itch cycle applies to qualified sameness people when it comes to staying at a given job for a certain period of time. Unlike the classic sameness person who may stay in a job for years or for life, the qualified sameness person will remain at the same position or job from seven to nine years approximately. Often the time factor is dependent on how much variety the person likes to experience in the job.

The other factor that determines how long a qualified sameness person stays at a given job is often based on how long it takes the person to learn a new set of skills and increase his or her knowledge base in performing the task. As long as the qualified sameness person continues to learn new things on the job, he or she is more likely to stay at the same job. The moment that boredom sets in, then the qualified sameness person is likely to want a change of jobs.

Finally, remember that in the typical business world, most people will be qualified sameness in orientation. They will be most happy and most productive in their jobs when they have a combination of repetition and variety. The context in which the variety manifests will be different for each job and for each person, as will the duration needed for the difference factor to appear.

For practical purposes, when it comes to hiring someone who best fits a given position, it is not about a particular People Pattern™ being good or bad. It is simply a question of finding the right person with the appropriate Change People Pattern™ to fit the task or tasks needed for the job to be done with competence and ease.

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HIRE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME:

THE CHANGE PEOPLE PATTERN™ – SAMENESS

By Marilyne Woodsmall

As I mentioned in a prior article, nowadays, given the current economic crisis, it is all the more critical to hire the right person for the right task or right job the first time. Doing so will save you time and money and will increase your bottom line. In this light, remember that basing your hiring on traditional resumes and on someone’s appearance is not the best way to know whether a given candidate is best suited for a particular task. This is where knowledge of People Patterns™ can make a huge difference in hiring the right person for the right job.

Knowing how a person thinks and how he or she behaves in a particular context in the execution of a given task is going to be much more revealing as far as competency and suitability are concerned. Also, as I mentioned at an earlier time, the best predictor of future behavior is past history. It is important to realize that it is not what a person says that he or she will do that matters. Instead, it is what the person has done in the past in similar situations that matters. There are critical factors connected to past and present behavior that are revealed through People Patterns™.

Today in the context of personnel and hiring, let’s focus on the first element of the Change People Pattern™: Sameness. There are obviously certain tasks that are much better suited for individuals who are sameness in orientation. In general, any job that involves routine in any way is perfect for a sameness person. These individuals prefer to be in jobs that require them to repeat specific tasks every day. For them,
“No variety is the spice of life” is their tantrum. Sameness people thrive on repetition and will seek it out whenever and wherever they can. Continuity is the key word for jobs that are best suited for sameness people.

Jobs in assembly lines are perfect for sameness people because they require the repetition of a set of specific tasks and which often are performed during the same shifts every day as well. In fact, the sameness element, the ability to consistently repeat a task in the context of an assembly line is critical to creating quality and defect free products. It is no coincidence that the major car manufacturers are located in the mid-west which is highly sameness in orientation. Sameness workers really take pride in their work and in the products and/or services with which they are involved.

Connected to the element of repetition is the notion of job security. Sameness people need to know that their jobs are secure and that there are no changes in their work environment. It is important that their work conditions remain the same. That is why sameness people have a much harder time dealing with new management, or with new rules that break from the routine that they are used to following in one way or another. Management needs to be aware of how to incorporate policy changes or how to present and frame any modification in an aspect of the job that changes the way in which sameness people are used performing it.

Several years back, we had a modeling project with a firm that manufactures self-adhesive labels. Most of the workers in the plant were sameness (and some qualified sameness). When management wanted to impose a new structure called “High Performance Organization” (recommended by some outside consultant) on the plant workers, it was not only poorly received, it was basically rejected by the sameness workers. They couldn’t deal with a change in the way things had been done there for years. The plant was fortunate to have a really competent and intelligent manager with whom we worked who understood the importance of behavioral elements in a management context. And because of his knowledge of the Change People Pattern™, he quickly understood why the new system would not work as presented, given the mindset of the employees.

As well as repetition of task, sameness workers also work best in jobs that involve a regular time schedule. They work best at 9 to 5 jobs in which they take lunch breaks and other breaks at the same time. They also tend to spend vacations at the same time every year or as close as possible to that time frame. If the requisite sameness element is found in their job, a sameness person tends to remain in the same job from 15 years to an entire lifetime.

Another job that is a good fit for sameness people is telemarketing. In a modeling project that we had modeling top telemarketers, the best ones were sameness in orientation (unless they were supervisors, as we shall see at a later time). Repetition of task is important to them as is job security. Basic jobs in bureaucratic structures such as the Postal Service or the DMV are suited for sameness (and also qualified sameness people).

In sales, sameness people will thrive if there is an element or several elements of continuity in their job. For example, if they are selling the same product to the same customer base without change, they will prosper. As long as these salespeople are following a given routine without deviation, they are quite content to remain at the same job for years if they are really happy and in their sameness comfort zone. What I have found over the years is that sameness individuals will instinctively come up with strategies that promote and support their sameness mindset to the tee. They will unconsciously eliminate any “difference” or change factor that may show up in the workplace that disrupts their routine so that they are surrounded by continuity and sameness.

In short, if you a have a job or task that requires constant repetition, and one in which pride in workmanship and continuity are key, then you had better find a sameness person for the job. You will have someone who will be happy doing the same thing over and over again to his or her delight. And you will be happy in the long run, having hired the right employee for your business.

Finally, in hiring, it is not about a particular mindset or orientation or People Pattern™ that is good or bad in itself. It is simply a question of finding the right person with the appropriate Change People Pattern™ to fit the task at hand.

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ARE ALL TYPES THE SAME?
PEOPLE PATTERNS™ VS MEYERS BRIGGS – PART I

Crazy Quilting by Anita Carpenter

From time to time students and clients will ask us about the other typologies in relation to our People Patterns™, in particular Myers-Briggs. Many of you have probably heard about the Myers-Briggs Inventory at some point. It is a tool that has been used for understanding what are considered to be behavioral preferences and yet, it can be quite limiting in its scope. Meyers-Briggs presents four categories of these so called preferences:

1)Introvert – Extrovert
2)Sensor – Intuitor
3)Thinker – Feeler
4)Judger – Perceiver

However, before I briefly go over these types, it will be helpful to explain three things: 1) the concept of typologies 2) the different forms of typologies 3) the concept of contextuality and 4) the concept of refinement and deep structure, the latter two which we’ll consider in our next article.

First, let me mention the concept of typologies. There are three fundamental methods or approaches when discussing typologies. The first approach is the one we will mention in this article. It is based on a method of formal logic. It is the one upon which Meyers-Briggs, with its four categories, is based. As with all typologies based on formal logic, Meyers-Briggs says that types are immutable. There is nothing that you can do to change the types. You have to accept the category you are in so that you are literally boxed in for life. You have to accept the box and you are stuck in the box forever.

The problem with this is that such absolutes go against reality. According to Meyers-Briggs, each one of these four types is a preference for which there is nothing you can do. You have to accept where you are even though you can prove you can change it. So the bottom line is that with the Myers-Briggs types you are trapped in an argument of formal logic. You are in the box once and for all and you can never escape out of the box. Thus, you are frozen in either an introvert or extrovert box. You are forever labeled a sensor or an intuitor. You are an indisputable thinker or feeler and you are in the immutable zone of judger or perceiver.

This results in one of 16 types and this is simply what you are forever labeled on your chest with a behavioral Scarlet Letter, or in this case, Letters: an INTJ, an INTP; an INFJ; an INFP; an ISTJ; an ISTP; an ISFJ; an ISFP; an ENTJ; an ENTP; an ENFJ; an ENFP; an ESTJ; an ESTP; an ESFJ; an ESFP. You are forever labeled as one of these and many people proudly wear these labels through life.
Many personality typologies reflect this approach of the immutable type. In our work in Neuro-Linguistics, however, we know that it is possible to change the types. More on this at a later time.
Second, there are several different forms of typologies. There is what is known as a developmental typology (which we have also been teaching for years and have written about) and a horizontal typology. Both Myers-Briggs and People Patterns™ are horizontal typologies in that they put people into boxes. In this way, they are similar.

It is with the third concept, that of contextuality, and with the fourth concept, that of refinement and deep structure, where these two typologies, People Patterns™ and Meyers-Briggs, differ.  We will consider these points next time.

The Great Computer Wars Part 2 – Options And Procedures

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The Activity People Pattern from Personality Language ™.

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WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

Me, Me, Me

All sales, all persuasion and, in fact, most things in life, depending on one’s values, revolve around one basic question. The question that lies at the basis of all sales and influence is the following:

What’s in it for me?

Most people ask this question subconsciously to one degree or another. Interestingly, it also happens to be a question that many people disregard. (As we shall soon see, this basic question is directly connected to a behavioral pattern that is our motivational trigger which we call the Motivation People Pattern™.) In our everyday interactions with people, whether in sales, in negotiations, or in general life situations, notice how often people do things because there is some benefit to them.
There is a common reframe that people use when it comes to this question and it is that they do things out of so-called “enlightened self-interest.” One cannot really say that this has anything to do with enlightenment anyway, so for all practical purposes, the word “enlightened” with self-interest is basically an oxymoron more than anything else.

The reality is that, in general, people do things that are in their self-interest. The bottom line is that people do things because there is something in it for them. This being the case, there is an important question that arises. It is the following:

If a person doesn’t do things that aren’t in his or her own self-interest, then why should one expect other people to do things that are not in their self-interest?

Let’s take sales. It would be naïve to believe that people will buy things simply because you would like them to do so. If you want customers to buy something, then you have to provide them with something that they want. In fact, all sales and influence boils down to this very point. So, if you want your customers to buy from you then there are two things that you have to do:

1)Figure out from their perspective what it is that they want or need or what they want to avoid.

2)You have to determine what it is that you have which they want and be willing to give it up.

In other words, determine what is in it for your customers from their perspective and not from yours. Remember that you don’t get something for nothing. In order to receive, you have to give something to your customers. This is the golden rule upon which all human interaction is based.

It is amazing how many people in the world continue to believe that they can get something for nothing. They think that by flattering or pleading with people, that these individuals will simply give them things for nothing. If you happen to force someone to give you something without a reciprocal exchange, then the person will feel cheated and may lash out at you with what we call “The Three Dragons”: Remorse, Recrimination and Revenge, each to different degrees.

The essence of sales is to provide your customers with one of two things: either provide them with something that they want or else help them to avoid what they don’t want. The Motivation People Pattern™ reveals this very powerful secret of human behavior. From our previous articles, remember that the Motivation People Pattern™ identifies two different motivational mindsets: 1) move toward and 2) move away from. Either you are going to give your customers something they want (move toward people) or else you are going to help them to avoid something that they don’t want (move away from people).

As we have explained in previous articles, once you know the motivational trigger of your customers, then you will know whether they are move toward in orientation or move away from in orientation. If they are move toward, this means that you offer them carrots, or incentives and things that they want. If they are move away from, then you offer them sticks, or things that they don’t want or offer them things that they want to eliminate or to avoid.

So a knowledge of the Motivation People Pattern™ will enable you to understand and to satisfy the “What’s in it for me?” principle of human behavior of your customers and of anyone for that matter. And the Motivation People Pattern™ is just one of the People Patterns™ that make up what we call “Personality Language”™. It will enable you to cater your sales copy or sales presentation to your respective customers’ motivational triggers, and, thus, increase your sales, as well as create trust, the key to all interaction.

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY: THAT IS THE QUESTION

The holiday season is upon us and it is time when gift giving takes center stage. With the economy in a downturn, the retail industry is holding its breath to see whether traditionally higher holiday sales will be the exception or the rule this year. Whether the buying activity occurs at crowding malls with droves of people searching for super bargains or whether it occurs on the web where consumers are surfing away precious hours trying to grab the best deal for a given product, buying behavior can be predicted based on particular patterns known as People Patterns™.

These patterns are ingrained perceptual filters, which, in the context of sales, determine and explain specific aspects of buying behavior and have major implications for anyone who sells products anywhere, whether online, one on one, or in retail stores.

Today I’ll mention one of these mental patterns which has to do with so-called buyer’s remorse. It is called the Organization People Pattern™. It deals with the way a person organizes time and space, which, in turn, affects the way in which people make decisions. Interestingly, it is this People Pattern™ which reveals one’s proclivity towards so called buyer’s remorse. TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY: THAT IS THE QUESTION!

From a sales perspective it is critically important to know why some people make quick buying decision while others hesitate. Also, why do some buyers keep purchases while others often tend to change their mind about the purchase of a given product or service? The answer lies in the Organization People Pattern™. The tendency towards buyer’s remorse is based on a large part on the two elements of the Organization People Pattern™: whether a person is what we call a Structurist or a Free Spirit.

A Structurist is a person who likes to live life according to a specific plan. These people lead organized lives and don’t like surprises. They like to have things planned out ahead of time and like agendas, day planners, lists, and the like. From a buying perspective, Structurists are the ones who stick to their decisions. Once they buy something, they will tend to keep the items unless they learn some information or acquire some valid data about the product or service that puts it in a negative light.

For the most part, Structurists don’t change their mind unless a situation warrants it. Furthermore, Structurists keep commitments and expect others to do the same. The business world runs on a Structurist rule book and those who are Free Spirit in orientation have a hard time fitting the Structurist mold, which they perceive to be rigid and inflexible.

Free Spirits, on the other hand, like to live their lives spontaneously. What they perceive to be the rigidity of the Structurists gets in the way of their spontaneity and fun. They detest organization and prefer to live in the moment. Free Spirits tend to take things as they arise and they don’t have any desire to plan things in advance. Future consequence of action, such as in buying a particular item, does not enter into their mode of thinking because they are so focused on the present moment.

When it comes to buying, the decisiveness of the Structurist is diametrically opposed to the indecisiveness of the Free Spirit person. The Free Spirit person will rarely have a decisive answer. They do not like closure. Even when they buy a given product, there is always a much higher risk of buyer’s remorse that totally drives Structurists crazy.

So knowing which type of person your customer may be will help you to tailor your sales presentation to fit the Personality Language™ of your customer. For example, in selling to a Structurist, be sure to present your product or service in an organized and systematic manner. Be sure to focus on both present and future consequences of purchasing your product.

If you are selling to a Free Spirit, it is important to be as flexible as contextually possible. Don’t expect the person to adhere to a deadline or to a time frame. And appear to be spontaneous.

If you understand these two elements of the Organization People Pattern™, you will be better equipped to deal with all of your customers and you will be able to satisfy them so that they won’t return your product.

Happy Holidays!

© Copyright 2009 by Marilyne Woodsmall, Ph.M., All Rights Reserved

We recently heard a comment by former President Bill Clinton that there is a great right wing conspiracy against President Obama. As we often see, so much of politics is all about spinning things against the opponent. Seldom do you hear politicians speak about what they stand for or what they can do for the people. Instead, they spend their time attacking opponents. This is sometimes called negative campaigning. Such a strategy is not limited to one political party or another since all of them engage it this type of behavior.

The question is: Why does this happen? There is, in fact, a behavioral root cause to such behavior. This type of behavior occurs time and time again because it works. There are two parts to the equation. Either people vote for candidates they like or else, more typically, they vote for candidates they don’t like. This is a reflection of human nature and happens to correspond to a behavioral pattern which we refer to as the Motivation People Pattern™. It is one of a series of powerful inherent patterns that together form what we call Personality Language™.

The reason why we do things in life comes down to one of two reasons which correspond to the two elements of the Motivation People Pattern™:

1. Either we do things to get something we want

or

1. We do things to avoid something we don’t want.

People who do things because they want to get something they want are called move toward people. Those who do things because they want to avoid what they don’t want are called move away from people.

This dichotomy manifests in all areas of life and it happens to be true in politics as well. In most cases, voters don’t know what they want, yet they know what they don’t want. Politicians know this and they try to be as vague as possible in order to have a minimal chance of offending anyone.

The reality of the situation is that most people don’t know what they want.

Avoiding the things you don’t want, doesn’t give you what you want. It only gives you what you don’t want. So what to do? We suggest that the most important thing to do is to decide what you want. Once you decide what you want, the next step is to take action to make this a reality. This is critical and once you do so, you will be much happier.

© Copyright 2009, by Marilyne Woodsmall, Ph. M., and Wyatt Woodsmall, Ph.D.

www.personalitylanguage.com