The front room of the office situated in a villa on the Nieuwe Parklaan in The Hague is slightly too light and too chic for a place where the ‘dark side’ of people is revealed. Not exactly the workplace of a fortune-teller or medium.
An article in this newspaper on the dark side of talent prompted an email from Larissa Zwart, managing director of United Courtesy Masters. Initially, this company recruited professionals in the field of hospitality: hotels, restaurants and theatres, but also well-to-do families. They are now active in other sectors as well because these ‘hospitality professionals’ also perform well in other service-oriented organisations.
Now a ‘tool’ has been developed that more or less mercilessly lays bare all characteristics of people and/or the inherent skills they possess, both good and bad.
If it proves to be effective, it’s an instrument that will earn a great deal of money. Human resource managers are always extremely keen to get all relevant information about people they are thinking of employing, want to hold on to or perhaps want to fire.
As the English put it - the proof of the pudding is in the eating - so the author of both the article mentioned above and this piece decides to put it to the test. The exercise is conducted by Willem de Jager, chairman of the board at the Odin Institute. Together with Courtesy Masters he developed the measurement tool and went on to fine-tune it. In this process they cooperated with the research section Change Management at the VU University Amsterdam. His introduction includes an impressive list of companies and government bodies that Odin counts as clients. The message is clear: this is not some sort of faddish hocus-pocus, but a serious event that belongs in the field of science.
Strangely enough, the customary questionnaires, tests, role playing exercises and interviews do not materialize. Instead a ‘competence board’ is to be used that has not yet actually appeared on the table. All a test subject has to do is select 8 cards with symbols on them, the meaning of which is not immediately obvious, and then 10 cards from a set of 24. Whilst making the selection, the test subject is carefully observed. For example, how confident or hesitant are his choices and how much time is taken to make them? Or rather, which symbols attract attention but are then put to one side.
No explanation is given, no questions are asked. Answers are only given after the ten cards have been chosen. Five minutes have lapsed by then. De Jager then produces the competence board. The selected cards are laid down on the open spaces on the board. 'The symbols are derived from psychological classifications formulated by the Swiss Carl Gustav Jung.’ He is the founder of analytical therapy. In humans, conscious and unconscious processes occur that greatly influence how we think and act. Jung (1875-1961) focused his research on the area below the surface, the subconscious.
Without lecturing on the merits of Jung, De Jager explains how his concepts have been used as the guiding factor in the development of the Courtesy Odin Development Compass (C-ODC), as the test is referred to in international marketing terms. 'Not only key competences, which people are aware of, are revealed, but also points for improvement and unconscious motives.'
The C-ODC measures actual and potential competences, so the brochure says. 'Socially desirable answers are not possible. The results can be immediately converted into a percentage of the average salary. They can also be matched to recruitment and job profiles. The measurement is fast and places no strain on the mental abilities of an individual. Twenty minutes on average and a whole team or organisation can be examined in a short time. The pay-back time is short, the return is high.'
So that’s the brochure, now the reality. A test subject whose job is not under threat, whose performance is not being criticised (as far as he’s aware) but who, in any case, has not been sent by his employer, can allow himself to relax and be tested with an open attitude. If a lot is at stake though - promotion, demotion, or even dismissal - the situation is no doubt quite different.
But, considering how long it took to do the test, the results are remarkable. A journalist’s own paper is completely the wrong platform for his self-written ‘ego pieces’. The test, however, showed that in relation to his own profession, all is well with this particular test subject, both consciously and unconsciously. De Jager accepts the compliments. ‘However, people with ‘heavy’ characteristics are in danger of tipping the scales’. And so it appears when the chosen cards are reversed that the risks are innumerable. Arrogance is not far off, and that’s just the tip of the personality disorders that are listed by the psychology.
To avoid people not recognizing the true worth of the test, De Jager demonstrates the value of charting the dark side and risks. 'Perhaps our findings reveal that a person misses leadership qualities. It will not be possible to develop these characteristics later on, even though the person involved may think otherwise. The opposite can also happen: you test a person and discover that he has unexpected qualities though these are not being put to use. Sometimes this is because the person involved didn’t realise he had these talents, or because his employer hadn’t noticed. Such research results are very significant for HR managers. Particularly in the present economic downturn when companies are having to decide who they are keeping on board and who they are letting go, while not compromising the quality of their organisation.
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