Councilors, staff take DISC personality assessments and map team styles ahead of strategic planning

Councilors and city staff spent a morning Jan. 31 on a DISC personality assessment and team-building exercises intended to improve communications and set the tone before policy and budget work.

Facilitator Rachel Barry led the session and reviewed the DISC four-style framework (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness). She said the assessment is designed to help people understand their communication and work preferences and to reduce misunderstanding on teams.

Councilors and staff completed the assessment earlier and then compared results to a staff—s distribution map showing clusters across the four styles. "When I'm generally dealing with a new team, this is something that we do that's quick and easy because then we can have an indication of how, when somebody's communicating with you, you know their personality type," Barry said during the session.

Participants described their dominant traits and discussed how different styles complement each other. Staff created a city-team map showing clusters of styles among management and department heads; participants discussed how mixture of styles can aid decision-making while noting occasional friction when meetings involve members with contrasting preferences.

Councilors tried pairing with members of differing styles to practice communication adaptations, and staff said they will distribute the team map to help councilors and department heads identify subject-matter experts and support roles. Several councilors said the exercise validated existing working relationships and suggested the map be used as a reference when assigning tasks or building teams to accomplish city goals.

Ending — Facilitator Barry said the team map and profiles will be distributed to participants and to staff and department heads. Council and staff then moved on to a policy-heavy afternoon agenda.