
Whilst other businesses may have just started setting their vision for 2022, we at DISCsimple already know ours! Our calendar year runs from summer to summer so our work on our vision began last year! That has made a big difference to the way we operate because Christmas is just a half year break for us. So, when my team asked me if I would write my perspective on vision for the New Year, I was happy to oblige, because it is SIMPLE!
Someone once described to me that the importance of a vision is what you can see on the horizon. The mission of the business keeps you focused on the direction of travel to reach that horizon. I have seen a lot of metaphors over the years for this direction: the road, the rail tracks, the helm of the ship, the fairway but I am not going to speak about those today!
What I am going to talk about is what we see on the horizon and what we have always seen on the horizon at DISCsimple. Our vision is that everyone in the world has a DISC profile. We remain committed to this. They don’t have to get their profile from us as long as they obtain one from somewhere. We just want to do our part to help make our vision a reality. British statistician, George EP Box is quoted as saying “All models are wrong, but some are useful” and that is our view of the DISC model!
We aren’t saying it is the only tool and we know that some people don’t value the model in the same way we do! DISC is a behavioural styles tool used by over a million learners in the workplace every year and as an established and much used model, DISC is one of my personal favourites!
Does it explain everything we need to know about people?
No!
Is it helpful to pigeon hole people and use it in all instances in a business?
No!
Is it a tool which can help us to understand more about ourselves and more about others and is that useful for the world?
Yes!
Our vision is for everyone in the world to have a DISC profile because this level of understanding can only help the world when human connectivity, understanding, kindness and our ability to put the needs of the other person in a relationship ahead of ours, is more important than ever before.
It is a big vision, and some might think, as a small business in rural Wales, we are getting a bit over excited, but this is what is on our horizon. If you are crafting your business vision and have listened to Simon Sinek and others, there is one more passage I have always found encouraging. This quote is often attributed to Nelson Mandela and said to have been used in his inauguration speech, but it was written by Marianne Williamson:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people the right to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
These words have rung in my ears for nearly half my life and inspire me. Regardless of your own religious beliefs, you get the idea. In the planning stages of our vision, I had to personally dig deep to remain open and to focus on the big picture when we were exploring ideas. We all had to be bold and adventurous and not be afraid to speak out for what we believe in. We tested our assumptions about the vision, sought council and explored implications, then, we wrote it down and we have stuck to it each year since the business was founded. It impacts our annual vision and the milestones we have to reach to achieve this vision, but overall, it hasn’t changed since we began.
You might be surprised by the source we used when we were building alignment to the vision. We want to bring clarity and to encourage dialogue with the interested parties and then to inspire others so that people can decide if they want to realize this vision with us, (and if it they don’t – we honestly don’t mind because we know that people are busy with their own stuff!) The source of our methodology for growth comes from a great movie, “Pay it Forward”. It could probably be described as a chick flick, with some maths, but you may have seen it!
It may not be surprising that as a bit of a nerd I believe in mathematics! So how do we dare to adopt a vision which is “powerful beyond measure”?! Because we truly believe in helping people to find this deeper understanding in their relationships and we have a solid system to make that happen. Simple isn’t it?!

So, if one person does a good thing for 3 other people and they, in turn, pay it forward to 3 more people, you reach 9 people. If those 9 pay it forward to 3 more each then you reach 27, and if those 27 pay it forward to 3 more each then we have reached 81 people and so on! So, then we looked at the maths bit – you can watch Mark Frauenfelder – and it is almost impossible to imagine our vision or that this calculation is accurate, because the numbers get big quickly!
We know that between the 20th and 21st layer we can reach 7.4 billion people! Yes, you read that right! With 21 layers, we can reach 7.4 billion people! The population of the world by the end of 2022 is predicted to be 7.9 billion, so, shoot me, we might have a slight shortfall! “That is with 21 layers!” I hear you cry and you are right but don’t lose faith in me yet!
We have grown substantially in the last two years; we have solid foundations in place, and we are braced for further growth. We are not alone. We have over 2000 colleagues with Everything DiSC® (a Wiley brand) and just because we are the only Authorised Partner in Wales (and proud of it!) the other Partners are all on their journey. We are a big family based across the globe and we have as much desire for the people in all corners of the world to understand each other and build deeper, happier relationships and improve better communication, teamwork and productivity in their workplaces.
Add to this that there are thousands of other DISC publishers in the world. Everything DiSC® is just OUR favourite child of all the products on the market because its interactive learning platform leaves paper profiles standing and brings a richness to the learning that we have never seen before in the DISC knowledge industry! So, we do have help, (remember, not everyone has to come to us, as long as they come to DISC!)
So now you can see that our vision for 2022 and the foundation of our thinking lies in creating a large number of business professionals who want to use, or already use, DISC with their clients who share our beliefs and continue to spread the good word. It is apt that these associates jokingly call themselves “DISCiples” and I often get asked – are there only 12 of them?! But no, there are 25 of them and our vision in 2022 is to increase that further! We have spent the last two years developing the simplicity of the service that we provide to them and have just launched DISChool, which provides additional support when they need it, to ensure they have everything they need to build the confidence and competence to help others to use the DISC tool.
We are attracting new retail clients daily and this means that all these organisations, whose people need a brilliant and diverse set of professional advisors to use the DISC tool, are served by the best of the best. The truth is, we simply can’t achieve this vision without a diverse and enthusiastic team. This might apply to your vision. Who do you need to join your quest? Do you know people who might want to join ours? Would we be likely to know people who can join yours?
So that is our vision and we would love to see yours! I wish you every success with your own vision and that you have the ability to clearly communicate it powerfully to all those who can help you to achieve it. In DISCsimple, I see my role in the business is to ensure that our inarguable truth is to find people to champion the execution of this vision while we help them to achieve theirs.
We focus our communication internally and externally; we adapt our communication to suit each behavioural style, so in 2022 you might see our vision communicated in different ways – some of which appeal and some of which you may not even notice. This is because DISC is a language with four clear accents and you may not hear us until it is spoken in your accent!
At DISCsimple we pledge to keep things simple in an otherwise complicated world. So, if you haven’t ever had a DISC profile yourself, or your team haven’t, or your suppliers haven’t, or your customers haven’t, or your clients haven’t, or your family haven’t, then what is there to lose to make a tiny investment to improve your relationships with any or all of those people? You only need to choose 3 to start with (!) but you should find 3 who will pay it forward to 3 of their people! If you do manage to watch the film over Christmas, there is one more parallel. Just like doing good deeds for others, encouraging others to have a DISC profile has the same reciprocal affect. The person doing the encouraging or giving gets as much from the gift of this knowledge as the recipient because all relationships are two ways.
I am a natural introvert who enjoys structure and process, and I am leading a business and team of extroverts! Left to my own devices I would probably try to achieve this vision one person at a time, quietly without a fuss, but this isn’t my vision any more.
It is our vision at DISCsimple!
So, I agreed to write this because I can understand why our Team wants me to shine our DISC light brighter in 2022!
Vision is just a dream unless you share it
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