It is a sad fact that I don’t get to spend as much time around ENWorld as I used to. I have come to terms with growing my business taking a lot of time; I simply don’t have the hours to spend browsing the site which used to fill a chunk of every day. I get here as often as I can--I’ve got a growing interest in D&D Next that I suspect will keep me motivated to hang around and keep reading. I continue to recognize ENWorld as an incredible resource for us gamers. This isn’t simply because of the ongoing conversations and spread of ideas. The archive of information stored here is simply amazing!
I recently dug up a thread started back in 2003 (!) so I could read over the survey Piratecat sends out to his gaming group on a semi-regular basis. Do yourself a favor and give it a read (in fact read the whole thread if you have a mind to - it’s pretty interesting stuff). I’ll wait...
I think his survey is some pretty cool stuff. I like how he personalizes it somewhat to the group and the style of game he runs; but, it is certainly broadly applicable enough to use for almost any type of setting or game. I had a copy of it I lost about three computers ago; I’m cutting and pasting that sucker into a new document right now.
This dovetails well with a column I wrote recently about feedback being a gift. That’s certainly true but, as I discuss in the column, soliciting or giving feedback can be a tricky business full of pitfalls and potential hurt feelings. A tool like Piratecat’s survey provides a way to get feedback in a standardized way and is a lot less haphazard than “off the cuff” criticism and commentary.
This brings us to Pearson’s Law: "That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially." - Karl Pearson
As a coach I spend lots of time talking to my clients--soliciting information which can help me to guide them. It’s an important part of what I do, but it can suffer from some imprecision if it is the only method employed. I’ve found a great starting point is to get some standardized surveys and assessments of an individual or couple. My clarifying questions become a lot more meaningful and precise.
The single most frequently used assessment I recommend (nearly every client I’ve ever had has taken it) is the StrengthsFinder 2.0. It’s likely that some of you reading this may have taken it through work. It is so incredibly powerful because operating in your areas of strength makes you faster, more efficient, more productive, and more attractive. The problem is, identifying your own strengths is incredibly difficult. We tend to devalue what we do best on the assumption that, “Those things are just easy. Anybody could do that.”
That’s simply not true. Things you can do things with ease, 90% of everyone else thinks are nearly impossible. Knowing what those things are, and focusing your time on them, is likely the single best tool you can have access to. Plus, it’s super cheap. You can find the book on Amazon for $15 most of the time! I say it’s $15 you can’t afford not to spend.
A different angle for self-assessment is the “conative” measures provided by the Kolbe-A index. That survey measures where you fall on four different scales, indicating the importance of things like how much information you need to feel comfortable or whether you are more prone to dealing with the abstract vs. concrete. It helps you understand why you have such frustrating conversations with people who are on the opposite end of the spectrum from you. It was one of the fundamental indicators that pushed me toward becoming a coach because I fall near the middle of most of the categories, so I can relate to people from across the spectrum. I recommend it in particular for anybody who has a lot of freedom in determining their own schedule and how they perform their work.
The Prepare/Enrich Assessment is the one I use for all of my couples clients. It is widely used by clergy or other counselors who offer pre-marital counseling and has been developed over the last 20 years to be a really effective tool at illustrating the dynamics at the heart of a love relationship. It measures financial compatibility, communication, conflict resolution, family dynamics (like closeness and flexibility), sexual compatibility, and who does which household chores, among many other things. What I like most about going over the results with a couple is not just looking at the areas that need work but highlighting all the many parts of their relationship going really well. Again, operating in their areas of strength will help them shine as a couple even while they are trying to improve the areas that need some growth.
More recently I attended a course where I was introduced to a new assessment that measures “Emotional Styles,” which can have a big impact on happiness. As I mentioned in last week’s column, there are lots of ways to improve your level of happiness. It all starts with understanding your personality and the ways your outlook could be shifted away from “glass half empty.” This assessment was developed from decades of neuroscientific experiments--the kind where you wear a hat made of electrodes and they stick you in an MRI to see what your brain is doing when you’re happy and when you’re not. In looking around the internet at some links on this research, I don’t see anywhere that they have the assessment without also showing how it’s scored, which I think skews the results. If you’re interested in taking it let me know and I’ll send you a copy that only contains the assessment questions.
In fact, let me extend that offer further: If my readers wish to take any of the above assessments, I’d be happy to go over the results with them for free. Helping people with that kind of stuff is one of my favorite activities as a coach because it provides tools for living life better, whether in work, at leisure, or with those they love most. I’d encourage all of you to give it a try.
Technical notes: The StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a book you need to buy in order to get the code from the back that gives you access to the assessment. The Kolbe-A index you can take online for $50. The Prepare/Enrich Assessment needs to be set up and sent to you and your spouse/significant other by me or another P/E Certified Facilitator. It costs $30. The Emotional Styles Assessment is free. To contact me about any of these send an email to scott at scottmorecoaching dot com.
I recently dug up a thread started back in 2003 (!) so I could read over the survey Piratecat sends out to his gaming group on a semi-regular basis. Do yourself a favor and give it a read (in fact read the whole thread if you have a mind to - it’s pretty interesting stuff). I’ll wait...
I think his survey is some pretty cool stuff. I like how he personalizes it somewhat to the group and the style of game he runs; but, it is certainly broadly applicable enough to use for almost any type of setting or game. I had a copy of it I lost about three computers ago; I’m cutting and pasting that sucker into a new document right now.
This dovetails well with a column I wrote recently about feedback being a gift. That’s certainly true but, as I discuss in the column, soliciting or giving feedback can be a tricky business full of pitfalls and potential hurt feelings. A tool like Piratecat’s survey provides a way to get feedback in a standardized way and is a lot less haphazard than “off the cuff” criticism and commentary.
This brings us to Pearson’s Law: "That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially." - Karl Pearson
As a coach I spend lots of time talking to my clients--soliciting information which can help me to guide them. It’s an important part of what I do, but it can suffer from some imprecision if it is the only method employed. I’ve found a great starting point is to get some standardized surveys and assessments of an individual or couple. My clarifying questions become a lot more meaningful and precise.
The single most frequently used assessment I recommend (nearly every client I’ve ever had has taken it) is the StrengthsFinder 2.0. It’s likely that some of you reading this may have taken it through work. It is so incredibly powerful because operating in your areas of strength makes you faster, more efficient, more productive, and more attractive. The problem is, identifying your own strengths is incredibly difficult. We tend to devalue what we do best on the assumption that, “Those things are just easy. Anybody could do that.”
That’s simply not true. Things you can do things with ease, 90% of everyone else thinks are nearly impossible. Knowing what those things are, and focusing your time on them, is likely the single best tool you can have access to. Plus, it’s super cheap. You can find the book on Amazon for $15 most of the time! I say it’s $15 you can’t afford not to spend.
A different angle for self-assessment is the “conative” measures provided by the Kolbe-A index. That survey measures where you fall on four different scales, indicating the importance of things like how much information you need to feel comfortable or whether you are more prone to dealing with the abstract vs. concrete. It helps you understand why you have such frustrating conversations with people who are on the opposite end of the spectrum from you. It was one of the fundamental indicators that pushed me toward becoming a coach because I fall near the middle of most of the categories, so I can relate to people from across the spectrum. I recommend it in particular for anybody who has a lot of freedom in determining their own schedule and how they perform their work.
The Prepare/Enrich Assessment is the one I use for all of my couples clients. It is widely used by clergy or other counselors who offer pre-marital counseling and has been developed over the last 20 years to be a really effective tool at illustrating the dynamics at the heart of a love relationship. It measures financial compatibility, communication, conflict resolution, family dynamics (like closeness and flexibility), sexual compatibility, and who does which household chores, among many other things. What I like most about going over the results with a couple is not just looking at the areas that need work but highlighting all the many parts of their relationship going really well. Again, operating in their areas of strength will help them shine as a couple even while they are trying to improve the areas that need some growth.
More recently I attended a course where I was introduced to a new assessment that measures “Emotional Styles,” which can have a big impact on happiness. As I mentioned in last week’s column, there are lots of ways to improve your level of happiness. It all starts with understanding your personality and the ways your outlook could be shifted away from “glass half empty.” This assessment was developed from decades of neuroscientific experiments--the kind where you wear a hat made of electrodes and they stick you in an MRI to see what your brain is doing when you’re happy and when you’re not. In looking around the internet at some links on this research, I don’t see anywhere that they have the assessment without also showing how it’s scored, which I think skews the results. If you’re interested in taking it let me know and I’ll send you a copy that only contains the assessment questions.
In fact, let me extend that offer further: If my readers wish to take any of the above assessments, I’d be happy to go over the results with them for free. Helping people with that kind of stuff is one of my favorite activities as a coach because it provides tools for living life better, whether in work, at leisure, or with those they love most. I’d encourage all of you to give it a try.
Technical notes: The StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a book you need to buy in order to get the code from the back that gives you access to the assessment. The Kolbe-A index you can take online for $50. The Prepare/Enrich Assessment needs to be set up and sent to you and your spouse/significant other by me or another P/E Certified Facilitator. It costs $30. The Emotional Styles Assessment is free. To contact me about any of these send an email to scott at scottmorecoaching dot com.
