I am working towards Level 2 Advanced Accreditation in Extended DISC® and I’ve realised something… DISC is not one thing.

We often talk about “DISC” as though it is a single assessment.

It isn’t.

There is the original DISC behavioural framework, there are simpler DISC assessments, there is Everything DiSC and there is Extended DISC®.

They share common ancestry and language.

But they are not necessarily the same assessment system.

And that’s something I’ve come to appreciate.

The story goes back further than Marston.

Carl Gustav Jung’s work on psychological types, published in 1921, provided part of the theoretical foundation.

William Moulton Marston subsequently developed a four-dimensional behavioural model in his 1928 book Emotions of Normal People, describing Dominance, Inducement, Submission and Compliance.

What Marston didn't create was the collection of modern online DISC assessments, reports, algorithms, databases and training products that exist today. Those came later.

Different people and organisations have taken the underlying ideas and developed their own assessment methodologies, tools and intellectual property around them.

So, when someone says “We use DISC.”

My next question might now be “Which DISC?”

Because the answer can make quite a difference.

For me, one of the biggest differences with Extended DISC® isn't the four letters.

It is what happens between the four letters and the resulting profile.

A simple DISC approach can provide an accessible description of behavioural preferences.

That can be useful.

But Extended DISC® takes a more granular approach to understanding behavioural styles. It identifies and reports on 160 different behavioural styles, using its own assessment methodology, database and algorithms to generate reports.

The focus isn't simply “What type of person are you?”

It is more about understanding behavioural patterns, including the distinction between natural and adapted behaviour.

That creates a different conversation.

Instead of simply asking “What colour are you?”

We can start asking…

“How do you naturally tend to behave?”

“How are you adapting your behaviour to your current environment?”

“What happens when there is a significant difference between the two?”

For coaching, leadership and team development, that is a more interesting conversation.

And this is where I think we need to be careful.

There is a tendency to treat the word DISC as though it automatically tells us what an assessment does.

It doesn't.

The underlying behavioural framework is one thing.

The questionnaire is another.

The scoring methodology is another.

The database is another.

The interpretation methodology is another.

And the report you ultimately receive is another.

In other words…

The letters may be the same.

The machinery underneath them may not be.

That's something I've come to appreciate working with Extended DISC®.

Extended DISC® was developed by Jukka Sappinen in Finland, with development beginning in 1991 and the system launching in 1994. The methodology was developed around the needs of organisations and was subsequently introduced to international markets.

That history has made me even more interested in understanding not just the DISC model, but what sits behind a particular assessment system.

Level 2 Advanced Accreditation will take me deeper into that methodology and, importantly, into how to use it responsibly.

I wouldn't describe the original DISC model as “open source” in the software sense.

A better way of putting it is that the underlying behavioural framework is distinct from the intellectual property contained within particular assessment systems.

The fact that a behavioural model is publicly known doesn't mean that someone else's questionnaire, algorithms, database, report content, training materials or trademarks can simply be reproduced.

The intellectual property can sit in what has subsequently been developed around the model.

And I think that is important.

So, same four letters.

Different systems.

Different methodologies.

Different levels of granularity.

Different ways of interpreting and applying the results.

This is probably one of my biggest takeaways.

If someone tells me they have completed a DISC assessment, I'm now less interested in their colour than I am in asking…

Which one?

What methodology does it use?

What does it measure?

How are the results calculated?

How is the profile interpreted?

And, perhaps most importantly…

What can we responsibly do with the information?

Because a behavioural model can be simple without the assessment built around it being simplistic.

And two systems can share the same four letters while being very different tools.

DISC isn't necessarily one assessment.

It is a family of approaches that have developed from a common behavioural framework.

I'm only beginning to appreciate how much difference there can be between them.

Same four letters.

Not necessarily the same thing.

#ExtendedDISC® #JukkaSappinen #BehaviouralProfiling #UnderstandingBehaviour#LeadershipDevelopment #TeamDevelopment #Coaching #PeopleAndCulture