I receive many jokes in my inbox. Jokes are brilliant because not only do they make you laugh, but if you pay attention, you can usually find an imbedded lesson. The fascinating aspect is that the same joke can impart a different message depending on the recipient’s head space and time.

In my training and coaching practice, we often start with assessments. Let me share this joke with you and then I’ll describe the lesson I learned from it with relation to assessment tools.

A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinarian’s office. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest. After a moment or two, the vet shook his head sadly and said, "I'm so sorry, your Duck Cuddles has passed away!"

The distressed owner wailed, "Are you sure?

"Yes, I am sure. The duck is dead," he replied.

"How can you be so sure," she protested. "I mean, you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something."

The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few moments later with a black Labrador retriever. As the duck's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.

The vet patted the dog and took it out, and returned a few moments later with a cat.

The cat jumped up on the table and also sniffed delicately at the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.

The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck."

Then the vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman.

The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill.

"$150!" she cried, "$150 just to tell me my duck is dead!!

The vet shrugged. "I'm sorry. If you'd taken my word for it, the bill would have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the CAT scan, it's now $150.00.

Cute, but what is the imbedded lesson regarding the use of assessment tools?

The lesson in this joke is that sometimes you have to pay someone to learn something you already inherently know. Does it mean that you shouldn’t waste your money on tests and self-assessments? Absolutely not and I’ll explain why.

After a client completes an assessment, we review the report in detail and explore the significance of the findings. At this time, I see a lot of nodding and hear many knowing chuckles. The consistent feedback is that the client is in total agreement with the assessments reports. They are astonished at how a simple questionnaire can so accurately describe their skills, strategies, behaviours and motivators.

This indicates that there is very little revolutionary information unearthed by the assessments, whether it is Myers Briggs, DISC or various other assessment tools. Does this mean that participants do not find any value in assessing themselves? Quite the contrary and as the saying goes, there’s more to the truth than just the facts.

The participants positively glow with praise over the assessment process. Notice the use of the word process. When an assessment is completed in isolation it has only limited value. Assessment reports contain a wealth of “nice to know” information and most people appreciate the focused time spent on getting to know themselves a little bit better.

However, what can make an assessment consequential is not so much the information it contains, rather how that information is framed. The intelligence gleaned from good assessment reports is framed in a context that enables it to be a starting point for the process of self development; personal, professional or both.

The process of developing one’s potential starts with self-discovery.

Imagine you are about to take a road trip out west to see the Rockies. Your car, while not ancient, does have some mileage on it, so it’s prudent to take it to a mechanic to have some diagnostics run. On the basis of the mechanic’s assessment you may decide to chug along as is and hope for the best or you may choose to rotate your tires to improve your performance. You may even invest in a Global Positioning System to monitor your progress and help find your way back on track if you get lost. Whatever you decide, it is a decision based on all the intelligence you have available to you at the time and that is the most responsible way to make important decisions.

In the case of my clients, these decisions can include the deployment of identified leadership strategies to evoke desired results, undertaking training and/or coaching to build strengths for greatest success, seizing a new career direction and restructuring environments to achieve greater effectiveness.

To fully exploit the power of assessments, it is important that you view it as a first step in the process of personal and professional development. It involves learning what you already know in a frame and perspective that enables you to have concrete outcomes based growth.

In the joke I told, I believe the woman knew that her beloved duck was dead but she needed professional or at least house pet confirmation before she could move on and make appropriate decisions. In real life, I believe that most people have a sense of their skills, strengths and behaviours and their impact, but there are challenges in articulation and execution of goals. Objective assessment tools give the perspective and lay the foundation for you to act with intention to realize your potential.

©2006 All rights reserved

Aviva Shiff is the co-founder of Spark Training and Coaching Associates. Spark Training and Coaching Associates http://sparktac.com/ helps individuals amplify their personal impact, influence and effectiveness through corporate training workshops and coaching programs.

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