Embedding Strengths-Based Learning in Your Organization

On a recent Called to Coach, we spoke with the Principal Architect of Gallup's Global Learning Strategy, Dean Jones about Strengths-Based Learning. What happens when we know our strengths well and want to move on from there? How do we start to apply our strengths in meaningful ways to the things we care about, our organizational mission, goals and outcomes? That's when strengths can become especially powerful.

Below is a summary of the conversation. Full audio and video are posted above.

How can we use strengths as a business strategy?

• Talent identification is the first step (naming)
• Talent awareness and appreciation is the second (claiming) -- this is where people and organizations get "stuck" (and don't move on to the third step)
• Talent application and development (aiming) -- this is the key piece for people and organizations

CliftonStrengths is a grassroots movement, but leaders need to get "bought into" strengths early in the process. Leaders need to see how strengths can have an impact on their organization's success. Building a strengths-based culture involves enhancing people's ability to deliver consistent, near-perfect performance in a specific task. This means strengths become integral in the way employees interact with each other and the way they get work done (not something they do "on top of" their work).

There are three phases of building a strengths-based culture:

• Discover (creating a shared understanding of strengths and the principles and philosophies that define what a strengths-based culture is)
• Embed (turning strengths into an integral part of individual behavior, team behavior and organizational behavior)
• Sustain (reinforcing and building momentum, and using strengths as a catalyst for what an organization wants to accomplish)

Dean Jones' Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Activator, Focus, Woo, Strategic and Relator.