Mastering our relationships

Self-assessment of communication style

There are many profiling techniques that help you assess your own and your
colleagues’ styles of thinking, behaviour, or communication (e.g. MBTI/Myers-Briggs,
DISC, HBDI/Herrmann, LSI/Human Synergistics, etc.).

These are usually licensed and protected from use by uncertified practitioners,
however there is one that has elements of all those, is open source and royalty free,
and so you are able to use that and take it away to freely use it with your colleagues.

The four-bird model (DOPE)

This is the four-bird model, sometimes also called DOPE, as the four birds it uses to
represent communication styles are the Dove, the Owl, the Peacock, and the Eagle.

Over the next few pages are descriptions of the thinking, behavioural, and
communication styles associated with each of these four birds, followed by a self-
assessment questionnaire – 30 simple questions and a grid to map your results to
determine which type of bird you or your colleagues are.

Please note that this is a highly subjective technique that will only assess you in the
moment, so will not necessarily reflect your normal styles – however it still serves to
illustrate that there are different types, and how our awareness of someone’s
preferred communication style can help us communicate more effectively with them.

(c) 2012 @DavidJCMorris / Business Analysis Master Class / Mastering our relationships / Exercise / 1 of 8
The Dove
The compassionate dove is people-orientated, loyal, friendly hard working and a
great team player but tends to avoid change, confrontation, risk-taking and
assertiveness.

What doves do well

 A natural ‘people person’ and enjoy helping other people succeed.

 Good at building relationships and networking – the key to your success.
 Get fulfilment from satisfying social needs like friendship and sense of
belonging.
 A team player, loyal, easy to get along with, patient and reliable.
 Happy to follow plans as part of a team, but not necessarily on your own.
 Motivated by relationships, shared goals, community service and the common
good.

What to watch out for

 Not a natural goal setter, you focus more on the needs of others than your
own.
 If you do set goals, they are more likely based on what other people think you
should do rather than what you really want.
 Have difficulty confronting problems and asserting yourself.
 Tend to avoid conflict and risk taking, and resist change.
 Not a good planner and don’t particularly like detail.

(c) 2012 @DavidJCMorris / Business Analysis Master Class / Mastering our relationships / Exercise / 2 of 8
The Owl
The wise owl is logical, mathematically minded, methodical and sometimes seen as
a perfectionist. You can be slow to make decisions and inflexible if rules and logic
says otherwise. Not a big risk taker, but you love detail.

What owls do well

 Naturally curious and interested in gaining knowledge and becoming an

expert.
 Thorough, meticulous, accurate, reliable, logical and good with details.
 Like rules, procedures and structure and are a careful (but cautious) planner.
 Think things through to minimise risk and the chance of things going wrong.
 Like being prepared and being in control through preparation and planning.
 Generally get along with other people, but have high expectations of their
abilities.
 Motivated by knowledge, expertise and logic.

What to watch out for

 Tend to focus too much on details, and lose sight of the big picture.
 Plan everything to the extreme, taking too long to plan and not enough time to
act.
 A perfectionist, focusing on doing the job right, rather than doing the right job.
 Don’t like stepping out of your comfort zone or taking risks because you don’t
feel in control or prepared.

(c) 2012 @DavidJCMorris / Business Analysis Master Class / Mastering our relationships / Exercise / 3 of 8
The Peacock
The showy peacock loves talking, being the centre of attention, has passion/
enthusiasm and is happy/ optimistic. They can be accused of talking too much, and
aren’t good with detail or time-control.

What peacocks do well

 Enthusiastic, influential, optimistic, passionate, people-orientated,

charismatic.
 Continually seek new opportunities and experiences following your passions.
 Enjoy the journey as much as the result.
 Can take big risks for excitement and driven by passion – you dream big.
 Flexible and open-minded and tend to notice and seize opportunities.
 Enlist the help of others through your ‘people-oriented’ nature, and can work
by yourself if necessary.
 Motivated by having fun, being popular and social.

What to watch out for

 Tend to value fulfilment over achievement, so often don’t achieve specific

goals.
 Like to focus on the big picture, often get lost in details through lack of
planning.
 Not good at being thorough or sticking to details.
 Don't like structure, may be impulsive, bored by details, and easily get
distracted.
 When the going gets tough, likely to give up and move on to something else.

(c) 2012 @DavidJCMorris / Business Analysis Master Class / Mastering our relationships / Exercise / 4 of 8
The Eagle
The bold eagle is dominant, stimulated by challenge, decisive and direct. They can
be blunt/ stubborn, can lose sight of the big-picture and can be insensitive to other
people’s needs, but are natural achievers.

What eagles do well

 Highly focused, driven and motivated

 Result focused goal setting is ‘natural’ to you.
 Not afraid of failure and just see it as a challenge to bounce back.
 Persistent in achieving goals, even if it takes personal sacrifices to get there.
 Take risks.
 Independent and like to do things "your" way. You don't like to fail.
 Like being productive and making progress.
 Motivated by power, challenge, results and achievement – a natural leader.

What to watch out for

 May lose sight of the big picture.

 May not pay enough attention to the detail, leading to lack of adequate
planning.
 May choose goals for the thrill of the chase or from being impulsive, rather
than well thought out goals that you really want.
 Can be inflexible, impatient and easily bored with detail, which can make you
take needless risks.
 Can be stubborn and sometimes too confident for your own good.
 May value results over people.

(c) 2012 @DavidJCMorris / Business Analysis Master Class / Mastering our relationships / Exercise / 5 of 8
Self-assessment questionnaire
Part 1: Assertiveness

I perceive myself as:

Quiet Talkative
1
1 2 3 4
Slow to decide Fast to decide
2
1 2 3 4
Going along Taking charge
3
1 2 3 4
Supportive Challenging
4
1 2 3 4
Compliant Dominant
5
1 2 3 4
Deliberate Snappy
6
1 2 3 4
Asking questions Making statements
7
1 2 3 4
Cooperative Competitive
8
1 2 3 4
Avoiding risks Taking risks
9
1 2 3 4
Slow / studied Fast-paced
10
1 2 3 4
Cautious Care-free
11
1 2 3 4
Indulgent Firm
12
1 2 3 4
Non-assertive Assertive
13
1 2 3 4
Mellow Matter-of-fact
14
1 2 3 4
Reserved Outgoing
15
1 2 3 4

Total of values you

Total
selected above

Average Total divided by 15

(c) 2012 @DavidJCMorris / Business Analysis Master Class / Mastering our relationships / Exercise / 6 of 8
Part 2: Responsiveness

I perceive myself as:

Open Closed
1
1 2 3 4
Impulsive Deliberate
2
1 2 3 4
Using opinions Using facts
3
1 2 3 4
Informal Formal
4
1 2 3 4
Emotional Rational
5
1 2 3 4
Easy to know Hard to know
6
1 2 3 4
Warm Cool
7
1 2 3 4
Excitable Calm
8
1 2 3 4
Animated Poker-faced
9
1 2 3 4
People-oriented Task-oriented
10
1 2 3 4
Spontaneous Cautious
11
1 2 3 4
Responsive Non-responsive
12
1 2 3 4
Humorous Serious
13
1 2 3 4
Impulsive Methodical
14
1 2 3 4
Light-hearted Intense
15
1 2 3 4

Total of values you

Total
selected above

Average Total divided by 15

(c) 2012 @DavidJCMorris / Business Analysis Master Class / Mastering our relationships / Exercise / 7 of 8
Part 3: Communication style analysis

On the scale below, find where your average scores for assertiveness and
responsiveness would sit, then find the point where lines drawn from both scores
would intersect. The quadrant in which your scores cross indicates your dominant
approach to communication.

1
Dove Owl

Responsiveness

1 2 3 4

Peacock Eagle
4
Assertiveness

(c) 2012 @DavidJCMorris / Business Analysis Master Class / Mastering our relationships / Exercise / 8 of 8