On February 10, TRIUMF’s Life Science Division hosted a team building workshop leveraging the DiSC assessment and facilitated by Vishnu Vardhan, an Executive Coach and Leadership Development Facilitator.
Vardhan convened the teambuilding event for the Life Sciences Division, including the thought-provoking DiSC assessment workshop and how it helps in leadership development. Vishnu says that these workshops were directed toward employee development, a key alignment with TRIUMF’s 20-Year vision.
DiSC is a leading personal assessment tool used by over 40 million people to improve work productivity, teamwork, and communication. It is an adaptive, non-judgmental, self-report designed to offer a "road map" to determine what motivates, irritates, and drives different personality styles. It also helps individuals understand oneself and others more clearly.
‘As Aristotle put it, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom,” said Vardhan. “That insight extends into our professional, as well as our personal, life. When we stop at simply understanding yourself, we miss the opportunity to grow in other areas, and while it is wonderful to understand why we get ticked off or irritated by what other people do, it is only the starting point for developing more emotional maturity. At this level of understanding, we also begin to leverage our own self-awareness, and we might have developed a bit more self-control.”
The DiSC methodology can amplify the impact of these inquiries, Vardhan explains.
“We can gain even greater value and application effectiveness if we use the assessment to move on to the other two parts of Goleman’s definition of emotional intelligence: social awareness and social skills. I believe that the DiSC assessment can help all of us in both of those areas as well.”
The Life Sciences Division’s full day workshop included several activities like personality poker, teambuilding shaft and teambuilding with marshmallows (yes, marshmallows!). The teams worked through the so-called Marshmallow Challenge, a team activity used worldwide by facilitators to demonstrate how teams can enhance their leadership skills.
Many Life Sciences participants certainly did not expect the team-building exercise would involve handfuls of uncooked spaghetti.
“Learning must be fun, or else engaging the adult learners becomes a very challenging task,” said Vardhan. “That is the reason I ensure that all my training workshops have a fun element. The Marshmallow Challenge is a remarkably fun and instructive design exercise that encourages teams to experience simple but profound lessons in collaboration, innovation, leadership, and creativity.”
Participant feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
One of the attendees said “It was very helpful and constructive. It helps to form more sustainable work relationships between members and increase productivity.” Another participant mentioned that “The session was more engaging than I expected!”
“Humans are constantly making connections with people, and these workshops certainly have an impact on overall employee wellbeing. Placing an emphasis on team building creates the perfect environment for employees to feel like they are being heard and appreciated. When we feel valued, we are inherently happier, and this directly impacts productivity.” said Vardhan
About the Facilitator: Before joining TRIUMF, Vishnu worked in the talent development domain for subsidiaries of Kellogg’s and Microsoft.. He is certified in Gallup Strengths Coaching, DISC, Belbin Team Roles, LEGO Serious Play, Hogan Assessments, Design Thinking (KPMG), Dale Carnegie Certified Facilitator. He has extensive knowledge of Strategic Leadership Development, 6 Working Genius, Situational Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Thomas Kilmann Conflict Management, Gamified Experiential Learning, and Change Management.