Q and A on Ministry Team Building With DISC
Insights, Processes, Recommendations

1. What can DISC do for us as a team?
2. Is DISC the right tool for leadership / ministry / mission team building?
3. Why is DISC so well-suited to the relational and abilities dimensions of team-building over against other tools?
4. We are having a lot of problems as a group that have motivated us to do team building. Is DISC the right tool for us at this stage?
5. We don’t have any serious problems working / relating as a team, but we do like to conduct periodic leadership development (e.g. in retreats). Can DISC help in such cases?
6. We just appointed several new leaders, can DISC help us work together more effectively?
7. If we want to use DISC, what’s the best way to go about it?
8. Additional DISC Team Building Resources

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Question:

What can DISC do for us as a team? Answer: Several things. I’ll list a few.

1. First, DISC will help every team member understand his/her own behavior in relation to others. It provides an objective basis for discerning why one acts a certain way.
2. Second, it helps teams affirm the strengths and refine the weaknesses of each member’s relational patterns.
3. Third, DISC helps everyone appreciate differences that may have been misunderstood previously. Without a tool like DISC, people may judge those who are different as behaving wrongly or inappropriately, when it may simply be a matter of how they are “wired.”
4. Fourth, it helps to clarify and emphasize the unique contribution of each person.
5. Fifth, it helps create an environment where each can operate within his/her “sweet spot,” making maximum contribution to team effectiveness.
6. Sixth, it reduces conflicts by equipping team members to respond to others based on their style preferences.

Question: Is DISC the right tool for leadership / ministry / mission team building?

Answer: Yes, provided you understand DISC is focused on two dimensions of team-building - relationships and abilities, i.e. it helps improve relationships and provide clarity on the abilities (or potential liabilities) of your team members. Other dimensions of team functioning - spirituality, mission, theology, and structure are not addressed by DISC profiles and exercises. But for the relational and abilities dimensions, few profiles are more perfectly suited than DISC.

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Question: Why is DISC so well-suited to the relational and abilities dimensions of team-building over against other tools?

Answer: Several reasons.

1. First, the Personality Insights version of DISC is a scientifically validated instrument. You can trust it as an accurate measure of one’s behavior in a given context. I use it with confidence in academic settings where validity is important.
2. Second, DISC is user-friendly. While I highly recommend using a trained facilitator to administer, interpret, and explain the DISC model, this is not always feasible, especially in mission contexts. Unlike some tools that are very complex, DISC is accessible to any team that is willing to complete the profile and then listen to a few CD/DVD presenations or read a few books.
3. Third, DISC is understandable and memorable. This is especially true in comparison to other popular team-building tools such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Firo-B, FIRO-F, Birkman, etc. Each of these instruments and others like them are outstanding, but they have the added frustration of being virtually useless without the help of a qualified consultant. Also, ask the average person who took the Myers-Briggs a few years ago to name their psychological type and explain it in Jungian terms. They may muddle through a list of initials that closely resembles their type, but stumble when describing the difference between extrovert vs. introvert and intuitive vs. sensate. My experience with DISC, however, is that people identify with the model very easily and usually remember their style for years to come.

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Question: We are having a lot of problems as a group that have motivated us to do team building. Is DISC the right tool for us at this stage?

Answer: Maybe. Maybe not. DISC strengthens relationships, helps people understand why they differ with some and get along with others, and gives tools for dealing more effectively with people. That’s the purpose. Whether DISC is the right tool at this stage of your team development depends on two factors: 1) the intensity of your conflicts, and 2) the expectations you bring to your team-building event. It is important to have realistic expectations about what DISC can and cannot accomplish. For example, if your team is in intense conflict, you may need mediation or conflict coaching like that facilitated by Peacemaker Ministries (featured in the Conflict Resource Room) before using DISC. Sometimes teams need honest soul-searching to restore biblical peace-making principles and practice confession, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation before anything else. Without this, there may be too much internal “noise” inside team members that limits the benefit of something like DISC. Once biblical-peacemaking is done, however, it provides a more productive climate for DISC to have its effect. In fact, DISC may help to explain how the conflict became so intense and provide helpful tools for keeping it from happening again. Also, read above about What can DISC to for us as a team?

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Question: We don’t have any serious problems working / relating as a team, but we do like to conduct periodic leadership development (e.g. in retreats). Can DISC help in such cases?

Answer: Absolutely. In fact, this is probably the best situation one can have. DISC will help to make your good relationships even better.

Question: We just appointed several new leaders, can DISC help us work together more effectively?

Answer: Yes. Shifts in the make-up of a leadership team provide a ripe opportunity for using DISC to enhance your effectiveness.

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Question: If we want to use DISC, what’s the best way to go about it?

Answer: The best method is to bring a Certified Human Behavior Consultant to administer, interpret, explain, and apply the DISC to your situation. I conduct these trainings, as do several others. But like I mentioned above, this is not always feasible. If cost or availability prohibits this, here is a simple sequence that would constitute an excellent weekend retreat or seven-eight small group sessions.

1. Each person take the profile. For team building, I recommend the DISCovery Report Online, Full Adult Version. This not only gives you the most complete description, it also allows you to use some of the online team-building functions at Discoveryreport.com with the alpha-numeric code provided.
2. Compile copies of each team members’ profiles into a loose-leaf notebook, and get everyone together as a group.
3. In your group, start with a brief introduction to DISC by generating discussion from the information on pages 41-44 in the Appendix of the DISCovery Report. These pages cover “Understanding DISC Types and Your Personality Style,” each team member’s “Personality Graph,” and “Understanding Your Graph.” Do the same thing with pages 5-7. Do not spend too long on this exercise. Limit your time to no more than 30 minutes per person, to include, if possible, each person sharing their graphs with the rest of the group. The purpose at this stage is simply to share each person’s resuls and set the stage for more detailed interpretive information to come.
4. Listen to and discuss one of the audio or video presentations from the list below that explains the DISC model. Each of these presentations is excellent, but I recommend beginning with How to Understand Yourself and Others DVD or VHS version, along with the Conference Funbook. While you are listening, encourage each team member to jot down a few notes on related pages of their DISCovery Report.
5. Appoint one from the team to facilitate a few group discussion exercises that allow team members to understand and appreciate each other’s strengths. No need to be the world’s greatest facilitator here. Perhaps start with something as simple as each team member giving a 15-minute presentation on themselves, highlighting various pages of the DISCovery Report, commenting on “this really is me,” or “I’m not sure I totally agree with this part.” Follow that up by every other team member providing brief feedback with discussion stems like, “Here’s where DISC helped me learn something about you that I did not know before…”, or “Here’s where DISC has helped me to deepen my appreciation for you…”.
6. Watch the movie, Peter and Paul (DVD version is best, especially chapters 15-18). Though obviously not filmed with DISC in mind, it is still an excellent example of how God used Paul (D/C), Peter (I/D), Barnabas (S/I), and James (C/S), and how they related to one another and the church. Keep in mind two things, 1) there is a little “Hollywood vs. History” in the movie (i.e. it does not always follow the biblical sequence or perspective on the events), but that does not detract from its overall value for team-building; 2) not all the behavior revealed in the movie is “controlled,” but it is still quite realistic. After the viewing, openly discuss your observations.
7. If you have a computer available at your team-building event, become familiar with the tools on Discoveryreport.com. Using the alpha-numeric codes printed on the cover page of each DISCovery Report, go to the site, click “Tools,” and experiment with the “Relationship Feedback” and “Team Graph,” options. They are quite helfpul. Have some fun as a group by entering different team member’s codes in the “Relationship Feedback” section. Discoveryreport.com can be a very useful tool for helping the team derive continual benefit from the DISC exercise.
8. Each person prepare and present a reflection piece, “I will use my learnings from DISC to capitalize on these strengths and be more mindful of these potential liabilities…” and then, “I will use my learnings from DISC to improve my relationship with team member (fill in the blank with each team member’s name) in the following ways…” (if your team is too large for everyone to do this, replace team member with those with ‘D’ style, those with ‘I’ style, etc.)
9. Expand your knowledge of DISC with the informative books Positive Personality Profiles and Who Do You Think You Are Anyway? It would not hurt for every person to read one or both of these books, and have discussion. At the very least, appoint one of your team members to craft a presentation to the group that distills key insights from the book(s) as they apply to your team.

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Additional DISC Material for Ministry Teams,
LifeandLeadership.com

• DISC Directory (Includes a list of resources for all ages)
• DISC for Ministry Teams
• Q and A / Overview of the DISC Model

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