Kantor Behavioral Profiles baseline name: date:
Kantor Behavioral Profiles baseline INTRODUCTION Individual Behavioral Profile In our earliest social system the family individuals explore a range of behavioral options. In doing so, we recognize some as a better fit than others. Over time, as we mature, our preferences become hardwired as our behavioral propensities. Through extensive empirical study, family systems therapist David Kantor, PhD, was able to identify and name the full range of behavioral options within a social system. From among these options, individuals become attached to certain behaviors and less inclined to use others. Your strongest everyday tendencies are called your baseline behavioral propensities. Your responses to the questions in the baseline profile helped to identify your behavioral patterns along three different dimensions: Action Mode: The behavior you exhibit most commonly when interacting with others. Operating System: The rules you implicitly follow and expect others to follow as well. Communication Domain: The focus of your attention and the kinds of topics, issues and content to which you naturally gravitate. Why Behavioral Propensities Matter Because we spend a great deal of our lives interacting with others, it is essential to understand our own tendencies and to be able to recognize the tendencies of others. Doing so, will help you both broaden your own behavioral repertoire meaning that you can engage comfortably in a wider range of actions and have greater tolerance for differences in the behavior of others. Page 2
ACTION PROPENSITIES Based on your responses, your Action Propensity is: BYSTANDER Your action propensity reflects your most common contribution to a group conversation. In every interaction, there are only four basic parts: the move, the follow, the oppose and the bystand. While these actions happen repeatedly throughout dialogue, individuals commonly take one or two of these actions significantly more frequently than the others. Your propensity reflects the action to which you gravitate. A Mover initiates. Movers are often the first to suggest a direction or to introduce a new idea or concept. Movers start the action. A Follower supports. Followers get behind others ideas and take the necessary action to carry it forward to completion. Followers finish the action. An Opposer challenges. Opposers push back on ideas, providing alternatives and helping to shore up weaknesses. Opposers correct the action. A Bystander bridges. Bystanders observe, add neutral perspective and integrate seemingly disparate ideas. Bystanders connect the action. Page 3
ACTION PROPENSITIES Center of Gravity Not only do individuals differ in terms of their basic Behavioral Profile, they also have varying levels of ability to employ the other options within each Domain (Action, Operating, and Communication). For example, two individuals whose strongest Action propensity is Move may have varying degrees of comfort taking Follow as an action. One may almost never use it and the other may use it almost as often as Move. In that case, those two individuals could have the same basic profile but be experienced very differently. In the instrument, we asked you questions to help us calculate your Action Propensities. We also asked you to rate the amount of time you spend taking each of the actions. The charts below compare what you believe about yourself versus how the instruments scored you. To consider: How significant is the gap between how you believe you spend your time and what the instrument calculated? To what would you attribute that gap? Are there any actions that are less than 20% of your profile? If so, you will be more effective if you can start to incorporate these actions into your profile. Likewise, if your strongest propensity is more than 40% of your actions, you are overusing this propensity. Your colleagues and family know this to be your default stance and may discount you or inadvertently try and block you because of it. Page 4
OPERATING PROPENSITIES Based on your responses, your Operating Propensity is: OPEN Your Operating Propensity is the set of basic rules that you implicitly follow when interacting with others. Different people prefer different rules and there are three distinct Operating Systems that have been identified, reflecting different system archetypes Closed, Open and Random. Your Operating Propensity reflects the set of rules that you will follow when you are free to act as you prefer. Individuals with the Closed propensity emphasize structure and planning and are more likely to value both tradition and hierarchy. They provide others with clarity about individual roles and responsibilities and expect for everyone to know and follow the rules. Individuals who have the Open propensity emphasize process, participation and teamwork. They look for ways to include others, consensus and they believe everyone has a contribution to make. Individuals demonstrating the Random propensity operate with no rules and few boundaries. They tend to emphasize creative expression, autonomy and individuality. They rarely consider imposing a system on others they merely want the freedom to operate in their own unique way. Page 5
OPERATING PROPENSITIES Center of Gravity Preferences for the Operating Propensity typically are much stronger than your Action Propensity. In fact, most people have a strong operating propensity, a weaker second propensity and then a third which they reject (commonly a 60 / 30 / 10 distribution). Both your calculated and self-reported operating propensity distributions are in the graphs below. Teams tend to experience conflict when the leader is operating according to the rules of his or her strongest propensity even when the majority of the team would prefer an alternative approach. For example, Closed Propensity leaders see it as their right to make unilateral decisions which can be challenging to a team which is strong in the Open Propensity. Those strong in the Random propensity often inadvertently alienate the team by operating far outside of team norms. To consider: How strong is your strongest Operating Propensity? Do you find yourself trying to impose your way of working as the right answer on others or do you have the flexibility to adjust your style based on the needs of the situation or the group? Can you see situations where your strongest Operating Propensity might not be the best approach? Do you and your significant other share the same Operating Propensity? How does being the same of different on this dimension show up in your relationship? Page 6
COMMUNICATION PROPENSITIES Based on your responses, your Communication Propensity is: MEANING Individuals tend to focus on certain kinds of issues and topics more frequently than others. Communication Propensities represent what you pay attention to when you are interacting with others, either Affect, Meaning, or Power. Because of your interest in these topics, the language that you use most frequently is reflective of your Communication Propensity. The language of Power is about accountability, competence and completion. Individuals with a Power Propensity tend to speak in reference to specific goals and are highly conscious of time. They enjoy crossing items off of their list and moving projects to closure. The language of Affect is about connection between people, particularly emotional. Individuals with an Affect Propensity take special note of others wellbeing and how they are reacting to what is being said. They emphasize trust and motivation and try to provide a climate of warmth and caring. The language of Meaning is about thinking, logic and a sense of purpose. Individuals with a Meaning Propensity are concerned with what we stand for and with deeply understanding how things work. They love exploring ideas and concentrating on the theoretical underpinnings of a discussion. Page 7
COMMUNICATION PROPENSITIES Center of Gravity Preferences for the Communication Domain show up in what have been historically thought of as your strengths. Those strong in Affect are able to connect with others and often have high EQ. Those strong in Meaning dive deep into ideas and can understand very complex concepts. Those strong in Power achieve by getting more done than anyone else. Your selfreported and calculated strength in these domains is represented in the graphs below. Expanding your range in the Communication Domains is one of the easiest ways to increase your efficacy, both at home and at work. Knowing when you and others are speaking in different languages gives you the instant ability to bridge and shift over into the preferred domain of others. Doing so will also help you consider ideas and issues from all sides, leading to much higher quality decisions. To consider: Are you able to speak in all three of the Communication Domains? If not, who do you know that is strong in your weakest Domain who could help you become fluent? Can you think of a time when you came into conflict with someone else because you weren t speaking the same language? How do the Communication Propensities help you understand this situation more clearly? What is the predominant Communication Domain in your current organization? How well does this match with your strengths? What are the implications for you? Page 8
BEHAVIORAL PROPENSITIES Baseline Your Baseline Profile is: BYSTANDER in OPEN MEANING Behavioral Profile The combination of your strongest Action, Operating and Communication Propensities creates your baseline Behavioral Profile. Your profile describes how you tend to behave normally when you are free to be yourself, both at home and at work. Each profile has its own unique strengths and limitations. What is important for development is understanding your profile and how it impacts your ability to interact with others. The Talents, Traps and Tips below offer some insight into your characteristic behaviors. Your TALENTS are: You are able to synthesize and reiterate the key points of a lengthy debate You can identify commonalities between seemingly disparate approaches to a problem Others see you as bringing the group together around a common purpose Some TRAPS you may fall into: Because you look for commonalities, others may perceive you to be conflict averse Your orientation towards ideas may lead you to neglect issues of people or action Your desire to involve everyone may draw out discussions unnecessarily Some TIPS that may help you: Be prepared to couple your perspective with proposals of your own Try to recognize your own biases before giving the group feedback on how they are operating Help the group recognize when a debate has gone on too long and it is time to move to action Page 9
GETTING UNSTUCK The ultimate goal of understanding your profile is to give you greater choice in how to behave in any situation. While our profiles are the unwritten playbook we follow when interacting with others, they don t always help us produce the results that we want. In fact, sometimes the strength of our propensities causes us to be stuck, unable to take actions beyond our default positions. The chart below maps your propensities into Strong, Stuck and Weak zones. Propensities which are too strong may cause you to overuse them, such that others expect you to behave in predictable, repetitive ways. Those which are weak are often absent from your typical behaviors or can even be repulsive to you. To expand your Behavioral Repertoire, and therefore be more agile in conversations, look closely at your extreme propensities. For those that are in the Weak zone, you ll want to try those on and see if you can incorporate them into your behavior. At the very least, become curious about why your colleagues might be attending to a different Communication Domain or following the rules of a different Operating System. Think about what the situation demands and see if you can put your natural tendencies aside and use whatever actions seem to be the best fit. Page 10
PUBLIC vs. PRIVATE PROFILES One of the most common questions we get is Does my profile change? Profiles can change based on three factors: 1. The impact of the surrounding context on your behavior. Organizations, like people, exhibit a specific profile and send implicit and explicit messages about the behaviors which are valued and rewarded. 2. Whether you are in a normal low stakes environment or are feeling a high degree of stress and / or anxiety. In high stress situations, a different profile often emerges, one with a much more limited range. 3. The degree to which you are consciously monitoring your behavior and trying to expand your repertoire or acting purely from instinct. We find as soon as individuals become aware of their profiles, they can almost immediately begin employing a wider range of actions, making a better match between their behavior and the situation. In some of the questions in the instrument, we asked you to answer the questions in the context of a conversation at work. In other questions, we asked about your behavior in the context of your family. The charts below show how your profile differs between your work and private lives. Page 11
To consider: If your public and personal profiles vary significantly, in which situation do you feel more like yourself? If your profile at work and at home vary significantly, consider whether your current organization is a good fit for you. What makes you behave so differently in that situation? Being able to maintain very different personas suggests you already have a well developed behavioral repertoire. Is there a cost to you of operating so differently from one context to the other? Kantor Behavioral Profiles Deepening our understanding of individual, team and organizational dynamics David Kantor s theory of Structural Dynamics describes the interplay of structures within a communication system and provides compelling insight into how individuals and teams can operate more effectively together. His model, used for decades by psychologists, organizational development professionals, and interventionists to improve performance, is now broadly available through this suite of instruments and in his groundbreaking publication, Reading the Room. Kantor s research, which was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Health in the early 1960s, aimed to create an empirical understanding of family function in situ. What he discovered was a set of fundamental concepts that explain how individuals communicate with one another, both successfully and unsuccessfully. Over the successive years, Dr. Kantor applied these ideas to families, to couples and then brought them into organizations. Because this theory links individual s profiles with observable external behaviors, it has an actionable perspective on how to improve communication outcomes in all settings. Rather than just describe an individual s profile as a static entity, these instruments provide coaching on how to expand your behavioral repertoire, manage your reactions in high stakes settings and find organizations that are the best fit with your own profile. www.kantorinstitute.com Page 12