SDIdeas Blog

Developing Vision into Reality

Written by Tim Scudder, President of Personal Strengths Publishing and coauthor of Becoming a Leader We Need with Strategic Intelligence

Part of the role of being a leader is creating a desirable future for an organization. But how can leaders design such a future? The dynamic interaction of purpose, foresight, and systems thinking is key.

Foremost is the purpose of the organization. The way we define the business and social problems we are trying to solve will influence our definition of results and the way we think about our future. For example, an organization that defines their purpose as “providing reliable telephone services” will think differently than one that defines their purpose as “enabling communication,” and their definition of results will reflect this.

To develop foresight, we must pay attention to our environment and the results (especially the unexpected results) of our operations. Large-scale social and technical changes are affecting the way we work, and the values and attitudes of the people we work with. Unexpected results, while sometimes inconvenient, may be the source of a new offering, or an opportunity to improve a current offering. How is your organization capturing and capitalizing on these surprises?

Finally, a vision without a system to implement it is only a hope. Systems thinking (when aligned with purpose and foresight) increases the viability of a leader’s vision. For example, many people attribute the success of iPod and iPad not to the revolutionary devices alone, but to Apple’s system of digital rights management built into the iTunes store software.

Designing the future requires the careful integration of purpose, foresight, and systems thinking.  This improves your vision’s chances of  flourishing.

More on this topic can be found in our leadership development program, Becoming a Leader We Need with Strategic Intelligence. For more information: www.leadersweneed.com

It starts in the morning with the kids before you go to work, then kicks into second gear with your co-workers or your boss, and finally culminates at home with your spouse and children. It’s conflict, and it doesn’t have to be a part of your daily life, according to Tim Scudder, CEO of Personal Strengths, USA.

He said that recent research suggests that the top reason why people leave their jobs is because of a poor relationship with their immediate supervisors. Conflict, both at work and at home, can actually be an opportunity to resolve long-standing issues and help people lead more fulfilling and productive lives. The secret is understanding the five keys to conflict, and how to move them forward toward the final step – resolution.

“The key to managing conflict isn’t just about pushing them to resolution, but also to learn how to have nicer conflicts,” said Scudder. “As one set of conflicts is resolved, others will take their place, so it’s important to learn how to make conflicts productive and positive experiences, instead of allowing them to distract us from our goals and disrupt our lives.” Read the rest of this entry »

New SDI Leadership Development Experience with Michael Maccoby

Carlsbad, CA – January 25, 2011  – Leadership is a relationship-one that exists in a context. Becoming a Leader We Need with Strategic Intelligence is a new program from Personal Strengths Publishing that focuses on the skills and qualities leaders need to be effective-no matter the context. This leadership development experience for senior leaders (and those who aspire to these positions) is the result of collaboration between world-renown leadership expert Dr. Michael Maccoby and Tim Scudder, President of Personal Strengths Publishing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Carlsbad, CA United States – February 7, 2011 – Personal Strengths Publishing, Inc. (PSP) has begun a leadership restructuring that became effective October 1, 2010 and will impact both PSP and Personal Strengths, USA.

John Thill is being promoted to CEO of Personal Strengths Publishing, Inc. and will oversee all functions related to the development and support of PSP’s 14 international distributorships as well as the maintenance of intellectual property.

Former VP of Business Development, Keith Catchpole is being promoted to Chief Learning Officer of Personal Strengths, USA to oversee and maximize SDI Certification.

Under his new role as President of Personal Strengths Publishing, Inc., Tim Scudder is dedicating much of his time toward increasing world-wide visibility of the SDI by authoring books, developing Relationship Awareness products, and establishing strategic partnerships and alliances.

“This is a welcome change for me,” explained Scudder. “In the last 15 years, I have often felt that I have had three jobs. I am eager to narrow my focus on the continued growth of this business and look forward to seeing John and Keith grow within it.”

Mike L. Patterson, Ed.D has been brought in as VP of Business Development. Mike has been a long-time customer of Personal Strengths in his role as Director of Leadership Development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals America. He is also a Level 4 SDI Facilitator with over ten years experience in Relationship Awareness.

Personal Strengths provides assessments & services that empower people to create more effective personal and professional relationships. Their flagship assessment, SDI® (Strength Deployment Inventory®) is available in 20 languages and helps improve relationships & manage conflict. Personal Strengths celebrates their 40th anniversary next year.

We are. Join the SDI Facilitators group on LinkedIn.com and join the discussion!

Written by Hilary Tupling, Consulting Psychologist, Sydney Australia

Consulting Psychologist Hilary Tupling discusses how she is using the SDI with couples in conjoint therapy and in personal development workshops.

Developing a New Respect

In therapy the SDI provides both partners with insights into themselves and their relationship and as such offers a non-judgemental explanation of how they come to misinterpret each other’s behaviour. It helps them to develop a new respect for their partner’s differences (and see these as strengths), as well as assist with managing conflict more effectively.

Growing from this work has been a conviction that that tool and theory are an invaluable resource for those who had (recently) broken up from partnerships and needed to understand better what went wrong: and those who felt that they rarely, if ever, seemed to get long-term satisfaction and commitment in their relationships. The SDI helps to give pointers for understanding and accepting a new partner’s behaviour, rather than just walking away when it becomes alien to their own. Read the rest of this entry »

Performance management systems wouldn’t fail so often if they accounted for the full spectrum of human elements in their process. This article, by DR Katarina Hackman (FAHRI), ran in Australia’s HR Monthly. Dr. Hackman is managing director of K. Hackman & Associates. Read the rest of this entry »

According to Gladwell’s Outliers it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery! Speaks volumes to the value of retaining and developing people. I have often thought about the importance of developing and retaining good people. Clearly investing in the growth of our employees is essential to the success of the organization.

But this statistic caused me to stop and reconsider my thinking about the organizational costs of loosing an employee who has reached a significant level of mastery. It made me think about the true value of the individual, and the importance of retaining and continuing to develop these exceptional people. Read discussion…

“It’s non-threatening and non–labeling.. they’re the things we like most about the SDI.”
- John Brooks, Senior Operations Officer at the Hobart headquarters of the Australian Antarctic Division

John has used the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) as a key part of the pre-expedition briefing procedures for groups of people heading south to the ice. “Living and working in Antarctica presents people with a range of new challenges and a different set of conditions form the ones they’re used to meeting in Australia,” John says. “That’s one of the reasons we like to raise our expeditioners’ awareness of their personal relating styles, and the SDI is an effective way to achieve this.” As part of the extensive training, John’s Station and Field Operations team uses the Premier Edition of the SDI with groups of 20-25 people. Read the rest of this entry »

I went to use my SDI Charting Poster a few weeks ago and discovered that three of the participants had used regular, non-erasable markers. After initiating the start of my conflict sequence, I was relieved to discover that Mr. Clean Magic Eraser took the regular marker off and did not appear to hurt the finish of the poster! It can still be written on and erased with the appropriate marker.

Submitted by Bob Schultz, Robert Schultz Consulting