How Foursight can help make meetings 60% more productive
Imagine the following scenario: there are four people in a car – 2 in front of the car and 2 in back. Now imagine that each person in the car has their own steering wheel directly in front of them that controls the direction of the car. While the car is moving, one person starts turning the wheel one way, another turns it another way, while the other two people turn it in a slightly different way. What would happen to the car?
If they are lucky, someone would step on the brake and stop the car altogether or else the car might swerve widely out of control.
Now like a car that has 4 drivers, most meetings spin out of control or go nowhere because many of the participants are trying to steer the meeting in different directions at the same time. Why? Because often, they have different Foursight preferences.
What is Foursight and how do Foursight preferences impact meeting productivity?
Foursight is an assessment tool that gives people insight into where they get energized and where they lose energy when solving problems.
There are four main Foursight preferences and if people are unaware of their own preferences then it can negatively impact meeting productivity.
The four main Foursight preferences are:
- Clarifiers – who enjoy gathering data and information and pinpointing the right challenge to solve.
- Ideators – who enjoy coming up with lots and lots of possible solutions to solve a challenge
- Developers – who enjoy refining a few ideas into a practical solution
- Implementers – who enjoy jumping into action and want to arrive at a decision quickly and get it done.
What often happens at meetings is some of the clarifiers keep asking for more information, while the ideators are throwing out lots of ideas, the developers are trying to hone an idea, and the implementers just want to move on. In short, people are all going in different directions usually at the same time. In fact, by some estimates, more than 60% of all meetings are considered a total waste of time by meeting attendees. By understanding Foursight, groups can make their meetings more productive.
