For Everything DiSC® Facilitators: Using the Everything DiSC® Model to Help Build Agility and Resilience

Organizations today face continuous change: shifting customer expectations, economic uncertainty, technological disruption, workforce changes, and increasing pressure to do more with less. The organizations that thrive are not necessarily the largest, strongest, or most established. They are the ones that can adapt quickly, learn continuously, and respond effectively when circumstances change.

Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, suggests that organizations either grow stronger or weaker during periods of challenge and disruption. Rarely do they remain unchanged. Whether an organization emerges stronger depends largely on its ability to adapt, collaborate, and respond proactively rather than reactively.

Building that capability requires both agility and resilience—at the individual, team, and organizational levels. As an Everything DiSC® facilitator, your organization has likely invested in helping people better understand themselves and others. That investment can play a critical role in developing the emotional intelligence, flexibility, and trust needed to navigate change successfully and build lasting resilience.

Characteristics of Resilience

Resilience, both individual and social (team, organizational, community) resilience, requires:

• A high level of emotional intelligence (EQ) and emotional agility: Emotional Intelligence can be defined as having skills in four areas: self-awareness; self-management; social awareness; relationship management. Those individuals who can most successfully manage their own emotions and understand the emotions of others are in the best position to proactively respond to change and uncertainty.
• A broad perspective: Resilient individuals can look at a situation from a variety of different viewpoints. This leads to increased flexibility. As Darwin is often misquoted as saying: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Whether or not Darwin said this, it is nonetheless true.
• Openness, tolerance and trust: These characteristics are especially important at the team and organizational level, as teams look at creative, innovative ways to solve problems and develop new approaches to doing business.

Clearly, DiSC is a tool to help build all four of the skills required for emotional intelligence. DiSC also helps us move up the Judging to Valuing Ladder from judging to understanding to appreciating and even valuing other points of view, perspectives and approaches. Thus, helping us develop a broader perspective, more openness, greater tolerance and increased trust.

DiSC and Stress

During times of stress, it becomes more difficult for us to stretch into other styles and we tend to become more ingrained in our natural style. In addition, we tend to exhibit more of the “negative” aspects of our style. Or put another way, our strengths overused become weaknesses.

For example, a leader with a D style who can, under lower levels of stress, adapt to meet the need of an employee with the S style for reassurance and support may, during times of high stress, become very focused on the task at hand and bottom-line results, failing to consider or attend to the interpersonal aspects of the situation. Further complicating the situation, the employee with the S style will likely have an increased need for reassurance and support during a time of high stress.

The effect is we retreat to our own quadrant of the DiSC map and move further away from each other behaviorally. This erodes trust and impairs working relationships. Looking at the behaviors we and our team members are exhibiting through the lens of DiSC can help us both mitigate or own behavior and extend grace to others.

Taking Action

Here are three specific actions you can take to leverage your organization’s investment in DiSC.

• Have people review their DiSC profile on Everything DiSC Catalyst, in addition to information on their own style review information on the style opposite them on the map. Have a brief discussion of their behavior under stress and how that fits (or doesn’t fit) with how they are currently feeling and acting. Ask team members to think about how their current state of mind and actions may be interfering with them effectively working with people of other styles. For example, as someone with a D style, under stress I often forget to ask people how they are doing or even say hello before I dive into a task-oriented conversation. When I am not under stress these behaviors come pretty easily. Under stress I have to be hyper-aware and very intentional to be more people focused.
• Introduce or review the Judging to Valuing Ladder Ask people to identify where they are on the ladder in terms of their perceptions of teammates. Discuss what it would take to move up the ladder and how looking at situations through the lens of the DiSC model can help do that.
• Help team members tap into their specific, style-based strengths, needs and motivators so they can make a positive contribution to the team’s success. Here are some examples by style:
  • Dominance (D) Style: Explain the big picture, bottom line purpose of assignments; challenge them with concrete goals; give them challenging assignments where they can have a sense of control.
  • Influence (i) Style: Provide them assignments that require collaboration; give them opportunities to express their feelings; help them share their optimism and positivity with the rest of the team.
  • Steadiness (S) Style: Capitalize on their tendency to focus on the needs of others and their desire to bring the team together; provide structure; give them time to process change.
  • Conscientiousness (C) Style: Provide assignments that allow independent work; communicate objectively and logically; use their questioning nature to help avoid pitfalls and missteps.

If you would like to brainstorm ways that you can utilize DiSC to develop resiliency and agility during continuous change, please reach out. I am here to be a resource and to support you. And please share other ways you are using the DiSC model to improve relationships and results within your organization.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you build resilience in the workplace?

Building resilience in the workplace starts with creating an environment where employees can adapt, learn, and recover from challenges effectively. Organizations can strengthen resilience by developing self-awareness, fostering strong relationships, encouraging continuous learning, providing psychological safety, and equipping leaders to support their teams through change.

Tools like Everything DiSC® help employees better understand themselves and others, improving communication, trust, and collaboration—all of which contribute to a more resilient workforce.

2. What are the characteristics of a resilient team?

Resilient teams share several key characteristics, including trust, adaptability, open communication, accountability, and a willingness to learn from setbacks. Team members support one another during challenges, maintain focus on shared goals, and adjust their approach when circumstances change.

Teams with high levels of self-awareness and interpersonal understanding are often better equipped to navigate uncertainty while maintaining performance and engagement.

3. How can leaders help employees adapt to change?

Leaders play a critical role in helping employees navigate change successfully. Effective leaders communicate openly, provide clarity about the reasons behind change, acknowledge concerns, and create opportunities for employee involvement.

Leaders who understand individual differences can also tailor their communication and support strategies to meet employees’ unique needs. This helps reduce resistance, increase trust, and improve adoption of new initiatives.

4. Why do employees resist change?

Employees often resist change because of uncertainty, fear of failure, lack of information, loss of control, or concerns about how the change will impact them personally. Resistance is often less about the change itself and more about how the change is communicated and managed.

Organizations can reduce resistance by engaging employees early, providing clear communication, addressing concerns openly, and helping individuals understand the benefits and expectations associated with the change.

5. How does Everything DiSC® support change management?

Everything DiSC® helps organizations manage change more effectively by increasing self-awareness and improving communication across teams. Different individuals respond to change in different ways, and understanding those differences allows leaders to tailor their approach to build trust and engagement.

By helping employees understand communication preferences, workplace priorities, and reactions under pressure, Everything DiSC® provides leaders with practical insights for reducing resistance, improving collaboration, and supporting successful change initiatives.

6. What are the benefits of Everything DiSC® in the workplace?

Everything DiSC® helps individuals improve self-awareness, strengthen workplace relationships, communicate more effectively, and work more productively with others. Organizations often use Everything DiSC® to support leadership development, team effectiveness, conflict management, employee engagement, and organizational change initiatives.

When employees better understand themselves and their colleagues, they are more likely to build trust, collaborate effectively, and contribute to a positive workplace culture.

7. How does self-awareness improve team performance?

Self-awareness helps individuals recognize their strengths, limitations, communication styles, and behavioral tendencies. When team members understand how they impact others and how others may perceive them, they can communicate more effectively, resolve conflicts more constructively, and collaborate with greater success.

Research consistently shows that self-aware employees and leaders are better equipped to build relationships, adapt to changing circumstances, and contribute to high-performing teams.