You have probably completed a psychometric test before. Maybe MBTI (Myers-Briggs), Belbin or Firo-B. Each tells you something different about yourself. The reason I favour HBDI is because it is simple. Most people we speak to cannot remember the four letters of their Myers-Briggs personality profile. The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument gives you a colour; blue, green, red, or yellow. Most people still remember their colour years later and are able to tell you what it broadly means. For this reason and that HBDI has hidden depths once you understand your colour, we favour it as a tool to be used at work.

Using the HBDI Tool

In 14 years of using this particular psychometric test, the most practical ways we have seen it used are:

Teams changing their Skype profile picture to include a colour so that they can better understand each other.
Recruitment – Whilst it cannot be the final answer it helps recruiters make an informed decision.
By working through problems using the colours as stages, team get to the answer quicker, e.g. What data are we missing (Blue).
Plotting each member of a team on the HBDI colour chart helps the team to understand their overall strengths and weaknesses.
Managing projects by considering it from each colour helps the project manager to be more successful.

The Red-Woman and the Green-Man

Of course psychometric profiling also brings its funny moments. A true story of a married green-man and red-woman couple. Red-woman to man, ‘Do you still love me?’. A ‘red’ question because it is from the feelings quadrant. Green-man to woman, ‘I told you on our wedding day that I loved you and should that change I will let you know’. A ‘green’ response because it is about logic and next steps.

To understand even more about HBDI read: ‘The Ultimate Guide to HBDI – Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument‘.

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