DiSC training activities

There are several extras you can use in your DiSC trainings, such as People Reading Cards, QuikDiSC Card Deck and lapel buttons. (You can find these if you scroll down through the purchase options for the DiSC^® Classic Facilitation System Kit.)

Some facilitators uses the QuikDiSC Card Deck in these ways:

• Business simulation: Each person takes three to four cards that are least like them. These represent the roles that they will play in the simulation. They should let their partners see their cards. Give pairs a fairly realistic business scenario and ask them to behave in the manner of the styles on their cards.
  How comfortable were you? What made this exercise difficult for you? What did you learn? What did you have to restrain yourself from doing? What did you want from your partner but didn’t get because they assumed you were a different style?

• Sales scenario: Give one person a toy and ask them to try to sell it to their partner.
• Management scenario: Provide feedback on how well their partner performed a task. Motivate them to do even better next time. The task should be something simple as drawing a sitting stick figure or making a paper clip necklace.

• Guess their type: Give the participants five random cards and ask them to trade cards until they hold ones that describe a team member in the room, or their immediate supervisor, or an executive whose DiSC profile you know. How well did people do?

Other facilitators like to challenge their groups to expand their thinking about DiSC by reflecting on how the concepts in DiSC can be applied in various situations.

• DiSC in the world: Have participants read one or both of these articles:  These Smurfalicious personas will engage your users and Prioritizing social networking with your DISC profile. Do you agree with the advice of these authors? Are their simplifications helpful or harmful? Are they directive or misleading?
  Ask groups to apply DiSC to their own fields. How could you use DiSC when preparing for a presentation, writing a blog post, or creating a new product, planning a menu, announcing layoffs or asking for a raise? How applicable is DiSC?

• DiSC and disagreement: How would you respond to a serious customer complaint if you knew the injured person was a D, i, S, or C? Assume that you failed to deliver on a promise or meet a deadline. You can also write a complaint about poor service (a car repair failed, for example) as if you were each type.
• Raps and rhymes: Ask small groups to write short poems or raps about each DiSC style.

 

More DiSC training ideas

The Everything DiSC Blog recently posted a great activity: Telling Your DiSC Story

What are your favorite training activities?

Reminder: Facilitation kits are available for all DiSC profiles. They are easily customized by topic or the amount of time you have with participants.