Why I created StrongSuits – to reflect the insights of modern psychology

I’m often asked why I created StrongSuits. In the video below, taken from a recently recorded webinar about the StrongSuits system, I explain why I wanted to create a single tool that could support teams to develop across a range of interrelated areas. I mainly wanted a development tool for teams that reflected the outstanding insights from modern psychology and integrated these in a way that made it fun of teams to have the important but sometimes difficult conversations about behaviour and performance that any team needs to have if they want to develop. The explanation of all this starts at around 4min 40 sec in the video but if you want quick summary here are the key points:

• Strengths – Modern psychology says that people perform their best when they play to their strengths. StrongSuits allows people to identify their own strengths and the strengths of others and map these on a team strengths map in useful but interesting ways.
• Diversity – Modern psychology says that diverse teams are stronger teams. StrongSuits allows people to identify those strengths which are in some way opposite to their own and thereby build a respect for diverse ways of working. For example, someone who has the strength of optimism might learn to respect another team ember who has the strength of caution. Both of these matter in a team and the most mature teams are able to handle both strengths even though they are in opposition to each other.
• Overplayed strengths – Modern psychology shows us that we are often limited by our own thoughts and some of the most limiting thoughts are associated with our strengths when they are overplayed. StrongSuits helps us identify our overplayed strengths and how these manifest as limiting thoughts. For, example, someone who has the strength of agreeability might feel that they can never say no when asked to help and thereby become overburdened by the demands of others.
• Communication – modern psychology tells us that people communicate in very different ways. StrongSuits contains a powerful model of communication that helps people understand how their colleagues communicate, how they deal with conflict and how the handle accountability. Communication is often the number one issue for teams and so understanding the different ways people prefer to communicate can be transformative for teams.

Added to all that StrongSuits allows people to have fun whilst facilitating the kinds of conversations that lead to real breakthroughs in performance.

To hear the full explanation click on the video link below.

Dave Corbet, Creator of StrongSuits