By Dick McCann and Jan Stewart
Greenfrog, ISBN: 1-873267-93-2
(272 pages, paperback)
E-Price US$29.95

• Review
• Extract

This new book is the definitive text for Dick McCann's ground breaking research into a new measure for the fifth dimension of the human psyche. It cleverly combines a novella in the first part with a comprehensive guide to the underpinnings and theory behind McCann's latest innovation in the second part.

The novella in Part One is created around a gym owner and it weaves the fifth-dimensional concepts into a compelling story. The gym owner, Polly, is an energetic woman with a love of life – a person always ready to take on new opportunities. She meets Ned whom she finds a negative influence on the development of her new enterprises, as he insists on finding all the obstacles she will face.

Part Two explores the research and the new instrument that was developed to measure this 'fifth dimension'. It is commonly thought throughout the psychological fraternity that there are only five independent measures of the human psyche, four of which are used widely in workplace training and development, but the fifth has languished in the realms of clinical psychology.

McCann's curiosity led him into an area of the fifth dimension, which he has successfully adapted to the workplace. The new measure looks at individuals' propensity for expending energy on seizing potential opportunities or focusing it on all the obstacles that may occur. The new measure is divided into five subscales, each of which is described in detail. The new assessment tool which evolved from the research is revealed, along with some interesting statistics on the results of studies carried out in different professions.

Part Two of this book, not only explains the concepts and instrument fully, but also contains a wealth of information on topics such as mood induction procedures, goal setting ideas and potential obstacles analysis. It gives some great guidelines on the sort of music to play to help people focus either on the opportunities or the obstacles.

McCann teamed up with Jan Stewart to produce a business book different from any other business book I have read. I found the novella interesting and enjoyed referring back to the story as each of the theories was revealed in Part Two. It was a refreshing change to have an illustrative story uninterrupted by pages of theory. The theory was also punctuated with more stories and quotes, resulting in a stimulating read. I would recommend this book to anyone in training and development who wants to inject new life into individuals and teams with this innovative and unique dimension.

Difference is one of the principles of the laws of humanity. It is a constant irritant and the basis of the majority of cross cultural, family, work and personal conflicts. Only when these differences are harnessed in a positive way can the many disagreements be overcome.

Ned and Polly view the world differently and their own models of reality drive their behavior. Their story of difference is not uncommon, but it is their ability to overcome these differences that is unique.

The theory and techniques behind overcoming Polly's and Ned's differences are revealed in this and the following chapters.

Explaining Difference

Much work has been carried out explaining and measuring the different ways people look at the world. There is a significant body of opinion, which believes the different characteristics of the human psyche can be described by five independent scales. In other words, most of the behavior exhibited by people can be measured against five characteristics which do not interrelate in any way.

For many years, we have been involved in the development of feedback tools, using four of these scales in the context of the workplace. Recently our research has led us to the elusive 'fifth dimension'. The fifth scale has, until now, been in the domain of clinical psychology. We have identified a scale, which basically measure whether someone sees the glass 'half-full' like Tisop, the wizard in the prologue, or 'half-empty' like Agen. This new measure enriches the feedback given on the other four scales and helps to explain differences that are not easily measurable.

Firstly, let's revisit the first four scales before sharing our work on the fifth scale.

The First Four Scales

Previous research over many years by Dick McCann and Charles Margerison (Margerison and McCann, 1995) led to a model for describing the different ways in which people like to approach work. This model measures four key characteristics about people in the workplace. These characteristics are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.  The Four Measures of Work Preference

The Extrovert - Introvert measure is based on how people relate with one another at work. Do they need to talk through their ideas or are they happier thinking through ideas by themselves? Do they enjoy a variety of tasks or prefer to concentrate on a few tasks at a time?

The Practical - Creative measure looks at how people gather and use information at work. Are they down-to-earth people who enjoy working with tested ideas and are patient with routine work? Or are they bored by routine work and enjoy searching for new ideas and new ways of doing things?

The Analytical - Beliefs measure looks at how people make their decisions at work. Once they have the necessary information, do they make decisions based on facts and logical analysis? Or do they make decisions based on principles and personal values?

The Structured - Flexible measure looks at the way people organize themselves and others in the workplace. Do they like clarity, order and a systematic approach to delivering outputs to budgets and time constraints? Or are they so information-oriented that they regularly change their mind and delay decisions until they have all the data?

Research confirms that these four measures are relatively independent and have a low correlation with one another. This means that if some people have a preference to be extroverted rather than introverted, then there is is more or less equal probability that they might also be practical or creative with regards to how they gather and use information. Equally they might be either analytical or beliefs-oriented in how they make decisions, and structured or flexible in how they like to organize themselves at work.

The Team Management Wheel

The four work preference scales are the basis of a team role model known as the Team Management Wheel, shown in Figure 2.

This model gives a simple explanation of the problems of diversity within a team. People with work preferences in different parts of the Team Management Wheel will see the world in different ways. An understanding of this helps team members to develop a high-performing team.

For example, people with more of a preference towards extroversion and creative information gathering are more likely to enjoy Explorer-Promoter roles whereas those with introversion and practical preferences may well prefer Controller-Inspector roles. Other combinations of the four work preference measures will define the remaining team roles.

Figure 2.  The Margerison-McCann Team Management Wheel

Reporter-Advisers enjoy gathering information and putting it together in a way that makes it easily understood. Usually they are patient people who prefer to have all the information before they take action.

Creator-Innovators enjoy thinking up new ideas and new ways of doing things. Often they are very independent and will pursue their ideas regardless of existing systems and methods.

Explorer-Promoters like to take ideas and promote them to others, both inside and outside the organization. They are often advocates of change and are highly energized, active people who like to have several projects on the go at once.

Assessor-Developers usually display a strong analytical approach and are at their best where several different possibilities need to be analyzed and developed. They are often sociable, outgoing people who enjoy looking for new markets or opportunities.

Thruster-Organizers are people who enjoy making things happen. They are analytical decision makers, always doing what is best for the task, even if their actions sometimes upset others. Their great ability is to get things done, and for this reason they are often found working in project management positions.

Concluder-Producers are practical people who can be counted on to carry things through to the end. Their strength is in setting up plans and standard systems so that outputs can be achieved on a regular basis, in an orderly and controlled fashion.

Controller-Inspectors are quiet, reflective people who enjoy the detailed side of work, such as dealing with facts and figures. They tend to be careful and meticulous and can spend long periods of time on a particular task, working quietly on their own.

Upholder-Maintainers are people with strong personal values and principles which are of prime importance in their decision making. Usually they have a high concern for people and will be strongly supportive of those who share the same ideals and values as they do.

The Linker role is a shared role that is held in conjunction with the other roles. It comprises 11 key skills focusing on the linking of people and the linking of tasks.

This model is invaluable in helping teams to perform better. It gives team members a language of teamwork to help them focus on key teamwork issues and develop ground rules for handling conflict within the team.

Polly Bird shows definite Creator-Innovator characteristics. She likes meeting with others and enjoys chatting, a characteristic that served her well in her role of gym owner and personal development expert. She is always thinking up new ideas and new ventures and tends to make decisions based on her own personal beliefs rather than an objective assessment of the facts. She is not as structured as Ned and prefers a more flexible approach to the way she organizes her life.

Ned Yuill is more of a Concluder-Producer. He is a quieter person, enjoying his own company and sometimes feeling uncomfortable when he has to contribute to the discussion in Polly's positive-thinking classes. He is a practical, down-to-earth person and analytical in his decision making. He is also well organized. When Polly says, "I'll meet you at midday," that means 12:00 noon precisely to Ned - not a minute early nor a minute late!

The Fifth Scale

The Team Management Wheel is widely used throughout the world to develop managers in countries as far apart as Uruguay and Norway. However the model has always lacked the 'fifth dimension'. Normally this does not cause too much of a problem as the fifth scale is one where people's scores tend to be more clustered over a narrower range.

The fifth scale is widely used in the area of clinical psychology to distinguish between normal and abnormal behavior. The scale is often used to identify depression, anxiety or neuroticism. So when used in this form for managerial feedback, it is not surprising that the results tend (we hope!) to cluster around the region of normality.

In general though, the scale has low face validity with the managerial population, as no one likes reading feedback information using terms grounded in the world of clinical psychology. The slightest hint that they might be considered depressed or manic will cause most managers to reject any measures based on this scale.

There are times, though, when some information on the fifth scale can help individuals and teams understand major problems that they are having. This is the reason why we delved into this territory, previously untouched by workplace feedback, hoping to discover a way to make the concepts accessible to managers.

Opportunities versus Obstacles

Countless interviews with hundreds of people and six versions of a questionnaire eventually led to the definition of a scale which shows relative independence to the four Team Management Wheel work preferences. This scale is the Opportunities - Obstacles scale, abbreviated as 'O₂' (see Figure 3). It measures where people focus their energy at work. Do they focus it on opportunities? Do they focus it on the obstacles? Or do they focus it on a mixture of the two?

At one extreme, people can focus most of their energy on Seeing Opportunities. They are always positive when new ideas are presented and will look optimistically at most situations. The downside is the energy they assign to Seeing Obstacles. They don't always see potential difficulties and this can cause them to misjudge situations.

Figure 3.  The Opportunities-Obstacles Scale

At the other end of the scale, people may focus most of their energy on Seeing Obstacles. When working on a project, they are more likely to put a lot of effort into looking at all the things that might go wrong. When faced with potential opportunities they may well ignore them, presenting cogent arguments to support their view that the risks are too great.

The Opportunities-Obstacles Quotient (QO₂™)

The Opportunities-Obstacles Quotient (QO₂™) is a measure devised to quantify a person's position on the Opportunities-Obstacles scale. It is defined as the ratio of the energy you put into seeing opportunities to the ratio of the energy you put into seeing obstacles. It is measured by a 50-item questionnaire, which assesses people's responses to various statements. Feedback is a seven page report indicating how the respondent is likely to approach situations at work. It also includes your raw scores and your QO₂™ rating.

Looking at the example in Figure 4, the score is 82 per cent towards the opportunities side of the scale and 30 per cent towards the obstacles side. The QO₂™ is calculated by dividing the opportunities score by the obstacles score. This result indicates that you would be 2.7 times more likely to see the opportunities rather than see the obstacles.

Figure 4.  QO₂™ of 2.7

In the business world, a balance is necessary across the Opportunities-Obstacles scale. As Zen wisdom says, "Nothing is possible without three essential elements: a great root of faith, a great ball of doubt and a fierce tenacity of purpose." In business we need that root of faith; it helps us look for the opportunities that match our beliefs. A tenacity of purpose gives us the persistence to 'hang in there' and seize the opportunities that come our way. However, also essential is a measure of intelligent doubt to prevent us from 'tilting at windmills' or 'waiting for Godot'. Having an orientation to Seeing Obstacles allows us to have a measure of doubt, which anchors us to reality and prevents us from making mistakes. When we have a good ratio between opportunities and obstacles, we can be a powerful force at work.

But what is a good ratio and how does it relate to particular jobs and work situations? These are ongoing questions that form the basis of our research into this new and fascinating scale.

The Opportunities-Obstacles scale is synthesized from five subscales: Optimism (Chapter 14), Moving Towards Goals (MTG) Energy (Chapter 16), Multi-Pathways (Chapter 17), Fault-finding (Chapter 18) and Psychological Time (Chapter 19).

People who map strongly towards the Opportunities side of the scale have a high MTG Energy; that is they set challenging goals and regularly achieve them. When difficulties occur or blockages to their goals arise, they are quick to generate alternative pathways and move around the blockage, still focusing on the goal. As well, they are generally optimistic and full of hope that everything will turn out for the best. They tend to put less energy into finding faults with proposals, projects and people and usually have a positive attitude that can enthuse those around them. For them, the future is a rosy place and one they want to be part of, because it is likely to be better than where they are now.

People who are strongly at the Obstacles end of the scale have a lower MTG Energy and are less able to generate pathways around obstacles. When blockages occur they are more likely to keep 'banging away' down the same pathway and will quickly give up when their energy is expended. As well, they tend to be more pessimistic and will anticipate the worst scenario when problems arise. They will usually put a lot of effort into fault finding, and this can be both a strength and a weakness. When faced with a new idea they are more likely to identify all the difficulties that might prevent the idea from becoming a reality. Seeing-Obstacles people are also more comfortable with the present and past as, to them, the future is not a rosy place but one that is fraught with difficulties. Some hanker for 'the good old days' when life was much better than it is now.

So far, we have surveyed over a thousand people in a variety of jobs in Canada, the USA, the UK and Australia. Eighty per cent were men and twenty per cent women. They worked in a variety of jobs covering the human resources, finance, production and general management areas.

In brief, the data shows that the median value for QO₂™ is around 2. This is simply the value where 50 per cent of people (i.e. 500 in this sample) have a higher quotient and 50 per cent have a lower quotient. 25 per cent of people have a ratio above 3 and 25 per cent of people have a ratio below 1.5. Half the sample had a ratio in the range 1.5 to 3.0. Using this norm data we have defined Pollyanna characteristics as existing in the upper 5 per cent of the sample, which is a QO₂™ of greater than 5 and Eeeyore characteristics as existing in the lower 5 per cent of the sample, which is a QO₂™ of less than 1.

These results are very useful as they show that the measure of central tendency is indicating that in the work situation, it is important to put twice as much energy into seeing the opportunities as it is to seeing the obstacles.

However what interested us was whether there would be a marked difference between those jobs where it seems that a greater focus might be important on either seeing the opportunities or seeing the problems. So we decided to compare a sample of accountants with a sample of sales people.

Our premise was that people involved in direct sales would be more likely to have a higher QO₂™ than people in many other job areas. If sales people focused on seeing obstacles they might never pick up the phone to contact a prospect! The more successful ones are bound to focus on the opportunities rather than the obstacles.

Working with accountants and finance people over a number of years has convinced us that as a profession, accountants need to have a focus on seeing potential obstacles. Our assumption was that seeing the pitfalls and problems is just as important as seeing the opportunities. Therefore we would expect a lower QO₂™ among such a group. As a research design, we therefore decided to compare the QO₂™ scores of a group of accountants with a group of people working primarily in direct sales.

Two samples were collected: 105 people working in accounting and finance jobs were tested for their QO₂™. The results were then compared with data from the sales sample. Although no measures of performance were available in these samples, the respondents were from a variety of organizations and locations, and it is reasonable to assume that a high percentage of the sample will be above-average performers, otherwise they are unlikely to be in employment.

The results confirmed our premise. The median for the accounting sample was a QO₂™ of 1.5 whereas the median for the sales sample was 3.5. This result is highly significant, giving us confidence that the QO₂™ is measuring a characteristic that is important in the way people focus their energy at work.