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The Importance of Measurement

Unless critical aspects of human behaviour can be defined and described precisely, the odds are they can't be changed. In this respect, Human Synergistics can offer impressive and very real advantages.

By Mike Gourley, Director, Human Synergistics

By measuring human behaviour - be it at the individual, group or organisational level - it becomes tangible, it becomes something that can be described and made specific. Measurement allows the abstract to become concrete. It makes the obscure specific.

When an individual manager can look at reliable and valid feedback that clearly illustrates how he or she is behaving, pinpoint key strengths and development needs, and see detailed steps for development and improvement, then very real improvement can take place.

When a leader can understand the impact of their leadership styles and strategies on those they are leading, then effective leadership strategies can be learned.

The key lies in the reliability and validity of the measurement tool. That's been the focus for Human Synergistics now for over 20 years. You're more likely to read about our tools in an academic journal than in your local magazine. It's not exactly heady stuff from a marketing point of view, but this academic critique is what lies at the very heart of our tools. The fact that they are statistically robust means they do what they are supposed to do - measure behaviour and provide a basis for learning and improvement. It's because of this that you'll find our work written up in Management magazine and the New Zealand Training and Development Journal.

Over 900 organisations have used our tools in New Zealand and Australia alone. Over 45,000 managers in this part of the world have received feedback through our leadership tools. Over 120,000 individuals have used our Organisational Culture Inventory to describe the cultures of their organisations.

Our tools form the basis of some of the most highly regarded leadership development programmes throughout the world. Our Organisational Culture Inventory tool is even used in investor presentations as a vehicle for displaying the organisation's efforts to build a high performance culture.

Not many consultants can claim that their material is used in university classes - but we can. Over 300 universities and business schools teach our work. Our research into leadership and culture, group effectiveness and learning process is amongst the very best in its field.

The heart of the Human Synergistics Integrated Development System is the circumplex - a circular graph that measures 12 distinct styles of thinking and behaviour. Some styles are constructive; others are passive/defensive or aggressive/defensive.

The circumplex provides a way to see behaviour. To see what drives performance and what creates barriers to effectiveness - whether at the individual, group or organisational level.

The circumplex brings together a wide range of research about human behaviour and performance into a single profile that is easy to understand - thus increasing the odds that the feedback will be used and behaviour will be changed.

For more information, review the following links:

1. About Human Synergistics
2. The Human Synergistics Circumplex
3. The Human Synergistics Integrated Development System
4. The Life Styles Inventory (LSI) - measuring individual behaviour
5. The Group Styles Inventory (GSI) - measuring group behaviour
6. The Organisational Culture Inventory (OCI) - measuring organisational behaviour
7. Our client experience