Control:
Group Reflection Questions
• Do your scores mirror your roles?
• Do you work in a high or low risk
environment? What are the implications if
mistakes are made?
Control:
Group Reflection Questions
• Is the team supposed to be innovative? is it important to challenge the status quo?
• Do you work in a process or highly regulated
environment? - are you constrained by
process and regulation?
Low Control
"Likes to do things differently"
Benefits
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Creative
Uninhibited
Free Thinking
Radical
Individualistic
Laid back
Risks
•
•
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Irresponsible
Unreliable
Unfocused
Unplanned
Indiscreet
Unpredictable
Frustrations of Low Control
• When rules and processes are imposed,
restricting their autonomy and personal
freedom
• People who insist on a right or wrong
approach to a situation
• When having to focus on tasks they feel are
unimportant
Questions for Low Control
• What's your attitude to the rules and
established ways of doing things?
• Do you feel more innovative and radical
(perhaps mischievous) than other people in
the team?
• Given a time-frame and project remit, how do
you go about delivering the project?
Responses Low Control
• A lot of rules are there for the sake of having
rules. It's more interesting when they're not
there
• We're more concerned with what we could
do, rather than what we should do
• We enjoy finding new ways to do things
• We enjoy cutting corners
• We tend to do things our own way.
Everybody has Low Control
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Group Strengths
Fun environment
Lots of ideas
Prepared to take risks
Free-thinking, open
minded
Comfort with
ambiguity
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•
Group Risks
Lack of processes &
structure
Little follow-through
Poor attention to detail
May take greater risk
than necessary
Nobody has Low Control
Potential Gaps
• A lack of innovative thinking
• Risk-avoidance
• A tendency to stick to the tried and tested
High Control
"Likes to do things better "
Benefits
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Planned
Reliable
Conscientious
Responsible
Logical
Moral
Risks
• Authoritarian
• Inhibited
• Intolerant
• Rigid
• Uncompromising
• Narrow minded
Frustrations of High Control
• When work has poorly defined goals or
shifting priorities
• Where expectations of the role are
ambiguous
• When others don't meet their exacting
standards or follow the plan or process
Questions for High Control
• Are you aware of yourselves as more detail
and process-oriented than some others in the
team?
• Do you feel that you are responsible for
ensuring that the team follows through on its
promises?
• How comfortable are you with delegating
tasks or accountability to others?
Response High Control
• We like to do things properly
• We like to understand the details
• Most rules and processes are there for
reason
• We do like to ensure that we get things
finished
• We take pride in a job well done
Everybody has High Control
Group Strengths
• Highly professional
• Conscientious, diligent,
respecting rules
• Loyal to the group
while performing
• Uniformity of approach
• Ensures clarity of roles
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•
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Group Risks
Get lost in detail
Fail to respond quickly
to changing needs
May be critical of
different approaches
Stifle creativity
Risk-averse
Nobody has High Control
Potential Gaps
• A failure to finish things
• A lack of concern for deadlines and timeliness
• A lack of detail consciousness
Mid-range Control
"Focus on those things that matter "
Benefits
• Understand the need for
process & procedure but
not constrained by it
• Able to think creatively as
well as manage the detail
• Flex based on the needs
of the group
Risks
• May loose interest in
targets that are too
difficult or
• Where focus on either
end of the scale is
prolonged
Frustrations of Mid-range Control
• When dealing with the extremes of profiles
f rom either end of Control
• Where forced to f lex to one end of the factor
for too long
Questions for Mid-range Control
• When do you find yourself behaving more
like someone with low Control - such as
relying on instinct and creativity?
• When do you find yourself behaving more
like someone with high Control ? Or when
process and structure are important?
Responses mid-range Control
• When there's risk involved, discipline and
rigor is important then
• There's no point reinventing the wheel all the
time
• Some things are just quicker and easier if we
respect the tried and tested
• If something is a detailed job then we'll take a
detailed approach.
Everyone has Mid-range Control
Group Strengths
Group Risks
• May become f rustrated in
• Potential to adopt
an environment that is all
approach appropriate to
about ideas with no
context
concern for delivery
• Pursue new ideas if
beneficial, but ignore if not • May lose patience with very
• Caref ul and detailed in their high levels of detail or very
rigid environments
approach where the risks
are high or tasks call for it
Nobody has Mid-range Control
Potential Gaps
• A polarisation of people at both ends
• Perceived difference in levels of fun and
professionalism
• Low is seen as f lighty, disorganised and
potentially unprofessional
• High is seen as risk-averse, rigid and
potentially boring