... FOR WHAT? - PI Midlantic

… FOR WHAT?

As a Predictive Index certified Practitioner, you probably are often asked by others if a person’s PI Behavioral pattern is a “good one” or the “right one”.  The first question you should always ask before answering is “…FOR WHAT?”

One of the keys to using PI constructively is in always getting the answer to that question before you begin to answer the original question. Predictive Index Behavioral patterns are “good” or “right” only in relation to the demands of specific jobs as they must be performed in that organization. Knowledge of the job, and of the company, is essential for the rational use of the PI program and methodology.

Making casual assumptions or generalizations about a company’s specific job or culture will cancel out the predictive value of PI assessment results. Therefore, having a company work on creating a behavioral (and cognitive, if your company uses it) job profile is so important.  It is not always easy to get the specific information you need in asking the question “FOR WHAT?” You are often asking people to do a kind of thinking which they have not done before.  But the answers are necessary for you and the experience will be useful for them, so persist and make sure that you get those answers before you respond to the original question about a person’s pattern.

If you always do that, your use of PI assessment results will increase dramatically the productivity of the real company, functioning in the real world, in real terms.  Otherwise, your use of PI will simply be an exercise in psychometrics, which is interesting, but not productive in real terms which are meaningful to business organizations.  (Synthesis, 1977)

Ask the necessary questions, starting with “…FOR WHAT?” and create those behavioral (and cognitive) job profiles. The rewards for the company will be worth the work and effort to do a little more thinking.

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