Meaningful change and improvement begins with assessment. Where are you now? What are your strengths on which to build? What improvements will gain you the competitive edge? Here are the personality and climate assessments I have found to be most useful in enhancing innovation.
Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI)
The Kirton Adaption Innovation Inventory has a powerful theory and an enviable body of research behind it. The theory is elegantly simple. We are all creative. We create differently. Scores are plotted on a continuum and each style has its gifts in managing novelty—that is solving creative problems and managing change.
FEBI
The Focus Energy Balance Indicator is the ultimate mind-body psychometric. The report describes your ‘Home Pattern’ which appears in your head, heart and in your body. That’s right, it is correlated to physiological patterns—the actual way in which your muscles fire. Once you’ve identified your home pattern you can work with alternate physical movement to enhance your access to your least-preferred patterns. The FEBI is especially powerful in coaching.
FourSight
Where do you like to play in the creative process? Are you a Clarifier or Idea Generator? Do you like to Develop solutions or Implement them? This tool is ideal for teams who face a lot of novel situations and want to hone their skill at problem-solving and decision-making.
MBTI
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the grandmother of psychometric assessments. It is the assessment against which other assessments are correlated. It is robust across cultures and last year over 6 million people around the world completed the MBTI. It measures your preferences in how you like to take in information and your trusted criteria for decision-making. It describes how you are energized (and fatigued) and your all-around methods for organizing your life. I use the Step II Interpretive Report which includes five sub-sclaes (called Facets) for each Dimension. Even if you have taken the MBTI before this version will give you increased self-understanding to build personal effectiveness.
SOQ Climate Assessment
What’s the outlook for your situation? The Situation Outlook Questionnaire describes your climate for creativity on nine dimensions. Best of all, the research is actually a correlation of market results to climate. Is innovation fostered or squashed? Research suggests that 40% of the variability in a climate is due to the quality of the leadership. The SOQ is an absolutely stellar instrument to improve your team’s impact on results that matter.
