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Throughout an individual’s formative years, they may take tests to discover their likes and dislikes, find areas where they would excel, jobs they can do in the military or the possibility of pursuing an advanced degree.
Unlike these tests, the 4 Lenses™ Assessment places participants into four color-coded groups based on their personality traits.
Defense Logistics Agency Energy adopted this tool in March 2016 and by request, it is given to employees in business units or primary level field activities.
It was created by Shipley Communication and is based on work done by Dr. David Keirsey in 1978 in which he called the four basic personality traits temperaments. The temperaments have subgroups based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
“The organization decided to deploy it after the Equal Employment Opportunity & Diversity office met with the agency’s chief of staff and received approval to move forward with a test group,” explained Darrell Bogan, DLA Energy’s EEO director. “The test group became ambassadors who promoted the training with their leadership and by word of mouth, interest in the training grew.”
The 4 Lenses™ Discovery Workshop identifies the different temperament styles as gold, green, blue and orange. Under these types, individuals identify their different preferences. According to Shipley Communication, individuals who share temperament styles measure self-worth in similar ways. Learning about each style, individuals benefit by learning to appreciate the differences in values and needs of the other styles.
In turn, individuals will have a better understanding of how others learn, think, establish personal values and conceptualize. This provides a baseline to assist in predicting behavior during interactions with others.
“We want employees to know that everyone they meet or interact with is unique with different preferences, styles, mannerisms and ways of approaching life’s challenges,” Bogan said. “[This] can be the cause of much heartache and misunderstanding.”
During the workshop, participants identify their temperament and personality, the strengths and weaknesses of each temperament, discuss thoughts and ideas with similar and opposite temperaments, and work in temperament teams to better understand the other temperaments and improve communication and knowledge of other personalities.
Beverly Johnson, one of the trainers and a complaints manager for DLA Energy EEO & Diversity, said everyone has a primary color and a secondary color.
“A person’s primary color represents the lens in which information is gathered or taken in and the secondary color represents the action taken once the information is received,” she said. “Every individual moves through various situations and lenses, so no one person is set in stone to be one color, either primary or secondary.”
After respondents know their numbers for the various lens colors, they plot them and draw a shape graph which helps them to see which areas they can improve.
“We usually tell someone who is more green to pair with someone who is blue since they complement each other,” said Johnson during one of the training sessions.
The third portion of the training discusses the maturity continuum that shows how each lens moves from a self-interested and prideful state to a state of humility and caring for others, which mirrors the stages of growing up.
DLA Energy’s EEO & Diversity office uses 4 Lenses™ as a proactive means to prevent EEO complaints by arming employees with a better understanding of themselves and their co-workers. “Several employees have told us that after the training, they took the workbook home and went through the steps with their families,” Bogan explained.
“Effective teamwork is essential in meeting the demands associated with today’s dynamic and complex environment, and especially solving the associated tough logistics support challenges,” said Navy Capt. Timothy Daniels, DLA Pacific commander. “Organizational and individual learning tools, such as the 4 Lenses™ workshop, increase group and individual awareness and help foster more constructive, trust-based relationships.”
Daniels took the course after hearing good reviews from DLA Energy Pacific staff who participated in the training.
“I didn’t learn anything new about myself but it was more of an improved self-awareness,” he said. “The informal group interaction helps to foster [a] self- and group-learning environment.”
Marlin Ingram, a logistics system specialist with DLA Energy Americas East at Houston, took the training last June and agrees that it assists in the self-realization process.
“I discovered something new about myself,” he said. “According to the training, I’m a right-brain learner.”
He also agrees that more employees should want to take the training, recommends that they enter it with an open mind and believes that they will leave understanding more about their true self.
More than 590 Energy employees, or about 50 percent of the DLA Energy workforce, have gone through the training since it first began in June, Bogan said. “DLA and DLA Aviation employees have also gone through it; our goal is to have the whole Energy team take the training by this time next year,” he said in mid-December.
“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “The workshop has armed employees with the tools necessary to better understand the different personality types of their leadership and coworkers and how to leverage that knowledge for best business practices.”
| Date Taken: | 12.21.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.01.2018 10:58 |
| Story ID: | 264259 |
| Location: | FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 681 |
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This work, Four Lenses Workshop Voluntary Assessment Assessment Sharpens Employee's Interpersonal Skills, by Tanekwa Bournes, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
