The foundation of the DiSC Model, as described by William Marston in his book, The Emotions of Normal People, was a circle as is represented in today’s Everything DiSC Profiles—the third generation DiSC Profile. The dot placement and shading in the circular model provides a clear visual of the continuous nature of DiSC in a more simple and intuitive manner that is incredibly straightforward and powerful.
What Is Changing?
Currently the Everything DiSC Profiles ask the participants to respond to 79 items on a 5-point likert scale determining how frequently each item or adjective describes them. That 79-item assessment will no longer be available after mid-July 2012 when Adaptive Testing (AT) will launch for any Everything DiSC assessment providing a new, more sophisticated scoring algorithm to give participants the most precise DiSC style assignment possible. Adaptive testing will maximize the precision of the style assignment, participant confidence and personalized feedback. Based on extensive validation research conducted by two independent agencies that specialize in psychometric testing, the AT measurement is 12% more accurate than the 79-item Everything DiSC profile and 32% more accurate than the DiSC Classic Profile.
The New User Experience
Everything DiSC AT assessment participants will see two major differences when responding. First, adjectives will be replaced with phrases. Research indicates that people resonate and relate more with a phrase than a word. Phrases eliminate the need for adjective definitions and set the stage for more precision in responding and scoring.
Second, if participants respond inconsistently on a specific scale (sometimes a high endorsement of S items, sometimes a low endorsement of S items) the EPIC System will send additional questions to clarify the correct score of that scale. If responses indicate the participants have two equally strong styles, tie-breaker questions will be given to help clarify between those two competing styles. The respondent may be given five to ten extra items that will more precisely measure the scale.
How Many Questions Will There Be?
The number of questions in the Everything DiSC profiles will be different for each participant depending on how they respond to the previous phrases. As the participants respond, EPIC will adapt the questions given based on the individual’s previous responses. Response time will not change—it will still take about 15-20 minutes to complete an Everything DiSC AT assessment.
What Will Be New?
The only report that will be updated on June 2 is the Everything DiSC Supplement for Facilitators. The map (see below) will have advanced shading that will show whether the respondent has extra priorities (no more than two). The typical priorities for the respondent’s style are shown by the solid shading in the map; extra priorities will be shown by the advanced shading. Unexpected items will be listed as phrases rather than adjectives. More data from the adaptive testing means that a participant’s dot placement will be more precise.
As each Everything DiSC product was introduced, the older profiles look dated. The decision was made to update the look and feel of the existing reports rather than allocating resources to develop new applications. Since the Everything DiSC Workplace and Everything DiSC Comparison Reports are the most widely used, they will be the next reports to be updated.
The updated reports will be released later this year when beta testing has been completed. Immediately after, work will begin on updating the rest of the profiles in the Everything DiSC Profile family. For registered Everything DiSC Training Kit owners, the facilitation updates, including the videos, will be available for download prior to the launch of the updated profiles. Please make sure you’ve registered your Training Kit to get these updates as they are released!
Please refer to these two documents for more information:
Everything DiSC Research Report for Adaptive Testing Assessment
Everything DiSC Adaptive Testing Information and FAQ’s
