The SDI® - Strength Deployment Inventory Tool® was developed
in the USA by Dr. Elias H. Porter, and is based around recognising our motivational value system, which will tend to
stay fixed even though our beliefs, values, behaviours may well change over time. The SDI is completed by answering specific
questions that look at the following two situations;
When things are going well for you and you feel good
about yourself.
When things are going wrong and you could be potentially
finding yourself in conflict with others.
We have used it successfully in team development, motivation
training and also in conflict resolution, to name a few. Because of its accuracy and simplicity the strength deployment inventory
is a real pleasure to work with.
Strength Deployment Inventory
Completing the SDI is straight forward and the high quality
reports add extra weight to the tool itself. There are two versions;
The Standard Edition which is fine in most instances.
The Premier Edition which has extra practical exercises.
Practical Applications of the SDI
A great exercise which we use with the SDI® is to look at the emails that people send to each other
and then look at their Strength Deployment Inventory profile. With no visual or verbal signals to go on in an email communication,
the chances of misinterpretation is always high. Using the SDI® will really help individuals recognise how to differentiate
their emails for different people, which is increasingly important with the amount of email communication that happens in
most organisations. Our personal tip is to always put the word "please"
in an email, it costs nothing, but can aggravate people if it is missing
Conflict and the SDI
Increased or decreased workload, redundancy, increased stress, the net result is we are starting to see more
conflict in organisations. We have been successfully exploring and diffusing conflict with the Strength Deployment Inventory
SDI® which is excellent at looking at peoples individual conflict pattern. We also use the Thomas Killman profile which focuses
on the choices you make to deal with conflict or not.
We would be happy to discuss how to use the SDI in your
organisation to improve communication and personal effectiveness. Although we are based near London our team work
across the UK and further afield as required, our contact details are here.
