Everything DiSC facilitation checklist

Whether you’re offering your first training using Everything DiSC^® or your 20th, we hope this checklist proves useful.

4 to 6 weeks before

Know and review your objectives

Have you been asked to present DiSC because someone thought it would be fun,  because there’s a communication problem within a group, or is your presentation on DiSC part of a manager or leadership development program? What do you want your participants to get out of your training? Review your objectives with your client.

Choose the right product

First determine which product best meets your needs. Is it the general Workplace or would Agile EQ be a better choice? Not sure which Everything DiSC product to use? Review the Everything DiSC suite of profiles.

Learn about your participants

You’ll be better prepared if you know something about the group you’ll be working with. These questions can help.

• How does the group leader feel about this tool and process?
• Are participants familiar with DiSC or other personality assessments?
• Does anyone need special accommodations?
• Would someone prefer an assessment in a language other than English?
• Do the participants already know each other well? What’s their level of trust?
• Are they experiencing or have they recently gone through any big changes? Will any big announcements be made to the group shortly before the training?
• Will you be meeting with participants in the morning or afternoon? Will you be meeting in-person or remotely? What’s their natural energy level or potential distractions likely to be?

Learn about your training space

What will your training space look like?

In-person training: If there’s no natural light you might want to schedule more frequent breaks. If there are white boards you might not need flip charts. If it’s a lecture hall, you might want to request a different room where people can sit in groups.

Virtual training: Know your presentation and interaction tool(s). Determine if you'll have technical assistance or a producer.

Consider how you can make your attendees more comfortable.

In-person training:

• Can you operate the lights, lower the blinds, or make other adjustments? Is there a clock in the room? Are there white boards? Do they typically have enough markers? Is there room for people to move around?
• Do you need any security cards to enter the building or room or use the equipment? Is there a special wi-fi password for the room or special login requirements?
• Will the room need to be set up differently? Who will move chairs and tables? Do you need to reserve any additional equipment for the room, such as a projector, microphone, or speakers? Is there a maintenance, technical, or emergency contact?
• Can you get into the room early? How early?
• Will snacks, or at least water and mints, be in the room? Will lunch be served in the room? Who is arranging for food and drink?
• Will any attendees need special accommodations?

Virtual training:

• Does any attendee need the opportunity to try out your training platform before attending? Can you offer a link for checking their audio, video, or sound before the session begins?
• Are you providing attendees with a chat room or other space to meet each other before the session or have their own discussion?

Make training decisions

• Make sure you are clear about the goals, agenda, and duration of the session.
  Determine if you want participants to be able to see their profiles before the training. (Trainers using the Catalyst platform, which makes the results immediately available, are seeing benefits of fulfilling partipants' curiousity about their results.) You can edit that option in your Administrator Account (EPIC) if you don’t. (You might want to give more background on DiSC before they see their results, or you might want to use some ice-breaker first that has them guessing their results.)
• Decide what you will do if someone doesn’t complete their profile before your cut-off date. (It doesn’t happen often, but you want to be prepared.)
• Decide if you want to give participants access to MyEverythingDiSC™ or use the Catalyst platform (for Workplace, Agile EQ, and Management only).
• Determine if you'll be assigning any work or suggested reading prior to the session(s).
• If you have the Administrative Account (EPIC) and haven’t used it for a while or are new to it, you might want to review the EPIC Guide.

In-person training:

• Decide if you want to have profiles bound (saddle stitch or perfect) by a vendor and if you want to add your own cover or not. This can affect the due date for participants taking the assessment.
• Confirm any room or services bookings made.

Virtual training:

• Practice using any unfamiliar technology or engagement features.
• Enlist the support of a producer for the session(s).

3 or 4 weeks before

Now is the time to place your orders, prepare your participants, and set the stage for a great session.

Place your orders

• Order individual profiles and group facilitator reports or get an Administrative Account (EPIC).
• Include a facilitation kit if you don’t own one and want access to presentations with videos and other training support materials.
• Order any related products you might want to leave behind, such as interaction guides or pens.

Prepare your participants

Participants might be excited or anxious about taking the DiSC profile. You can reduce most of the anxiety if you communicate well and prepare them for what to expect.

• Send your profile access codes to participants (either out of EPIC or via emails received from [email protected]).
  Sometimes trainers have everyone complete the profile questionnaire during the training session. We don’t recommend this because some people will feel rushed and technology can break down.
• Customize your email message.
  The DiSC administrative tool (EPIC) allows you to add a message to the email sent with the questionnaire access codes.
  You might want to send them a sample report so they know what to expect or include a link to The science behind DiSC. Remind them about any additional requirements for that training day or session.
• Plan to send reminder emails.
  If you’re using the EPIC administrative tool, schedule reminders before you send out profiles. Typically facilitators send the links out at least two weeks in advance and give them one week to respond. 
• Ask participants to do any pre-work such as read an article about teamwork, review their organization’s mission statement, or whatever you know will improve their experience.
• A separate email might include reminders about the day, time, and location/URL of training. If you're using the Catalyst platform, if might want to suggest participants have access to two platforms (e.g. their phone for viewing pages on Catalyst and a PC or tablet for viewing your training.) You might also link to one of these pages:
  I took the DiSC test. Now what?
  How DiSC works

7 to 10 days before

Take these days to make sure you’re completely prepared.

• Verify that all participants have completed their assessment.
• Run group reports, facilitator reports, or Comparison Reports as needed.
• Review participants’ profiles.
  This can be done using the facilitator reports. If someone’s report is showing additional shading (additional priorities) you might want to run a Supplemental Report for that person. Knowing the predominant style of your group can help you prepare for their energy level, skepticism, etc.
• Send profile reports to printer, if desired. If you purchased or created a group, facilitator, or team view report, consider having the group poster blown up for display on the wall.
• Print out one of the posters or wall charts found in your facilitation kit or from our Downloadable assets page.
• Review the facilitation kit or other training outline you’re using. Make tweaks as needed for time constraints or audience needs.
  If you’re going to use slides from an Everything DiSC facilitation kit, customize the slides by adding your logo to the master slide. Add any speaker notes you might find helpful to your slides. Consider adding an introductory slide asking participants to use the #EverythingDiSC hashtag if they tweet or share their experience on other social media.
• Review your training supplies and order more, if necessary.
  • Name tags or name tents
  • Easel pads, white boards, Post-it easels, tape
  • Pens, pencils, markers
  • Post-it notes, adhesive dots (often used to have participants place their “dot” on a group DiSC circle)
  • Table-top playthings (keeps some people from clicking their pens)
  • Whistle, chime, or other sound-making tool you use to call people back from breaks
  • QuikDiSC Cards or other supplemental materials

See the full list of DiSC training tools

3 days before

Reduce your chances of something going wrong at the last minute by following these steps.

Review and test

• Has everyone completed their profile? If not, how will you handle this? What if someone is still not finished by the training day?
• Verify that all your media such as PowerPoint slides and videos work.
  Review your notes and training plan. Review desired outcomes and what to expect with your stakeholders. Finalize your icebreaker/warm-up activity.
• Prepare and print/upload a training evaluation form, if desired.

In-person training:

• Assemble your supplies, including table tent cards, pens, profiles, the Everything DiSC Manual, laptop, batteries, Style Guides, contact phone numbers, etc.
  Test your equipment such as your laptop, speakers, or projector. Pack power cords.
• Double-check on room. (Is it scheduled? Does it have enough space? Does it have the right equipment? Has anyone tested that equipment?)
• Create a seating chart, if desired. Many trainers like to be sure that tables include people with a diversity of DiSC styles. Printing out a Team View report (free in EPIC) can make this easier. 

Virtual training:

• Test your LMS, collaboration, or video tools. If you're using a Zoom background, consider changing it to a DiSC group poster or to one showing your own style (found in EPIC or on our downloads page).
• Check in with your producer, if you have one.
• If using virtual breakout rooms, determine who will be in each room. Many facilitators like to group people with a diversity of DiSC styles or by their styles. Referring to a Team View report (free in EPIC) can make this easier.
• Build out any polls or other extras you might be using.
• Prepare so you know how you or your producer will create a hotspot if you lose your Internet connection during a session.

Day of training

Before and beginning session

Dress professionally and go through any routines that make you feel more confident.

In-person training:

• Arrive early and deal with anything unexpected. Set up your materials.
  Welcome participants as they arrive.
• Introduce yourself.
• Ask for cell phones to be turned off or for the group to agree to a few ground rules around phone etiquette. Point out locations of restrooms, when breaks will be scheduled, etc.

Virtual training:

• Enter session 30 minutes early. Check camera, headphones, speaker, background, lighting.
• Turn off any automatical notifications that might show on your screen while you're sharing it.
• Set up break-out rooms (if using assigned rooms).
• Log into session as a participant via your phone or second screen (optional) and turn your phone to silent. Some trainers like to have three screens available to them: one to see participants, one to see what attendees are seeing, and one focused on chat.
• Assemble water, Post-it notes, pen, reports, or whatever else you might need.
• Place any "reminder" notes to yourself next to your camera.
• Welcome participants as they arrive.
• Introduce yourself.
• Explain your expectations for video, audio, and chat etiquette. (Should people stay muted and virtually raise their hands? Are you or your producer monitoring chat?)

During your session

• Follow your notes or your facilitation kit, and improvise when necessary.
  Watch your pacing, your tone, and audience responses. Is everyone engaged? Is everyone learning? Adapt your style or content as needed.
• Take notes on anything you want to follow up on.
• Wrap up your session and close with next steps (if any) and a thank you.

Post session

• Review how well it went and write notes on how to improve for your next training.
• Respond to any requests taken "offline" or that you agreed to follow up on after the session.

1 week after

• Review your notes and offer additional resources, if appropriate.
  Sometimes you might want to offer individual coaching or to send an email with an article that relates to a topic that arose during training. Or perhaps you were asked a question you couldn’t answer on the spot, but now you can.
• Send Comparison Reports if you have them, or a reminder of how to compare styles on MyEverythingDiSC or Catalyst.
  This can be a very powerful and appreciated follow-up to training if people work closely together. Sometimes trainers offer to administer additional profiles with Comparison Reports for people who had direct reports or teammates who didn’t attend training.
• Send a reminder about MyEverythingDiSC.com if you’ve given participants access. If you haven't given them access, this might be the right time to send out those invitations from EPIC.
• Share a fun activity like DiSC activity with Dr. Seuss quotes.
• Schedule a DiSC review session.
• Ask for a LinkedIn or other recommendation, if appropriate.
• Let us know how it went by giving us a call or posting to one of our social media accounts.