Communication Styles

Rating:
Summary: Very Valuable Information
Review: I didn't fully realize the value of this Communication Styles booklet until I read a recent article in Fortune magazine called "The $100 Billion Friendship," which was a conversation between Bill Gates and his business partner, Steve Ballmer. They talked about how the success of Microsoft largely depended on knowing each other's communication style (judging from the booklet, Gates appears to have an "Analytical" style, while Ballmer is a "Driver"). Their styles could have easily conflicted and caused problems, but because they knew how to interpret and respond to each other's style, their working relationship was complementary and so they made billions.

Using the booklet, you take a test to identify your communication style, and in the next section you learn how to work effectively with people who possess other styles. You learn how to understand their expectations and behaviors. Just from reading the language and examining the charts, you can tell that reliable research went into this information.

Before using the booklet, I'd had a problem with putting people into types. The booklet addressed this concern, which was that people react negatively to something one day and positively the next. As the booklet explains, the results focus on characteristics that social scientists have identified as continuous. So the test delves deeper than your mood at the moment to identify and interpret your permanent characteristics, and in the final section a matrix shows other permanent characteristics which fall into other types. It helps me quickly "see the forest through the trees" in any business or social situation, which is a very valuable skill.

Rating:
Summary: Worthless Pamphlet
Review: To state it simply, the contents of this booklet is misleading and wrong. The text unjustifiably mixes communications styles and personality types. The implicit assumption of the text is that if you can figure out one's communication style, you can imply the personality type of that person, which is obviously wrong. For example, the basic fact is that your communication style may differ depending on context, which is not mentioned.

The text basically asks you to identify one of four "communication styles" that describes you, and then launches in very vague and short descriptions of personality types that are supposedly represented by those communication styles.

The introduction claims that "nearly two decades of research and experience" provided a rich understanding of individual differences. Yet, the text contains zero references to those two decades of research.

To make matters worse, an incredibly inefficient five-question self-evaluation instrument is included that takes ten pages out of 25 total for scoring your answers. (Out of the remaining pages, three more are wasted on introduction). For such a steep price, they could have at least come up with an easier instrument, instead of having "If you scored yourself X go to page Y" all over the place.

This pamphlet is probably some kind course material, giving basic introduction to communication styles.

If you are contemplating buying this pamphlet, I have only one piece of advice: don't. There are much, much better resources available on the web.