whitecrow
10-28-2008, 05:16 PM
I'll use this thread to yet again plug one of my favorite life tools: Strengths Finder 2.0. This book is being marketed as a business management and motivational tool, and it's in the business section. It costs around $20.
Building on the idea that most life-coaching and personal-improvement programs focus on our weaknesses - things we need to do better or do less or more of - SF2.0 profiles your strengths. While it's interesting to do this on your own, where it gets exciting is when it's used in groups.
This has been the basis of a group I've been meeting with since before I discovered Avalon, and it fulfills every qualification of a ground crew and radiant zone. We've been brainstorming, building on ideas of sustainability and bringing information to suburbia, as well as earning money in ethical ways and establishing base camps in (hopefully) safe areas. We're up to about 20 people now, and range in age from teens to 60s.
Here's how Strengths Finder 2.0 works...In the back of the book is a sealed envelope that contains a code number that can be used once. You go to the SF website and log in using the code. This takes you to one of those psychological survey assessments that we've all seen...nothing terribly unusual about it. It's the kind where they present two statements and you choose the one you agree with more, or which describes you better. There are about 175 questions, and you have 20 seconds apiece. This takes about half an hour.
After you've completed the survey, you get a stack of individual reports based on your five most prominent strengths as identified by the survey. Yes, this is somewhat arbitrary, even a little hokey. But the 34 strengths and abilities which their research has identified cover the range of talents and gifts pretty well, including intuitive and artistic types as well as those with leadership ability (and control issues), persuasive gifts, seeing the connectedness of everything, learners, etc. etc.
Included are a series of "action plans" that suggest ways you can use your specific strengths to better your life, and also suggest ways to identify people with whom you will work well.
Do I think anyone should pin their identity to this book? Absolutely not. I have several strengths and gifts that aren't listed in my top 5, and I surely do not ignore them. On the other hand, it's worth every penny I spent...so much so that I have bought copies for several friends (which is how I came across it).
For what it's worth, here are my own top five strengths:
Intellection (set aside time to think)
Input (addicted to it)
Connectedness (we are one)
Learning (addicted to that too)
Ideation (new ways of connecting dots)
Building on the idea that most life-coaching and personal-improvement programs focus on our weaknesses - things we need to do better or do less or more of - SF2.0 profiles your strengths. While it's interesting to do this on your own, where it gets exciting is when it's used in groups.
This has been the basis of a group I've been meeting with since before I discovered Avalon, and it fulfills every qualification of a ground crew and radiant zone. We've been brainstorming, building on ideas of sustainability and bringing information to suburbia, as well as earning money in ethical ways and establishing base camps in (hopefully) safe areas. We're up to about 20 people now, and range in age from teens to 60s.
Here's how Strengths Finder 2.0 works...In the back of the book is a sealed envelope that contains a code number that can be used once. You go to the SF website and log in using the code. This takes you to one of those psychological survey assessments that we've all seen...nothing terribly unusual about it. It's the kind where they present two statements and you choose the one you agree with more, or which describes you better. There are about 175 questions, and you have 20 seconds apiece. This takes about half an hour.
After you've completed the survey, you get a stack of individual reports based on your five most prominent strengths as identified by the survey. Yes, this is somewhat arbitrary, even a little hokey. But the 34 strengths and abilities which their research has identified cover the range of talents and gifts pretty well, including intuitive and artistic types as well as those with leadership ability (and control issues), persuasive gifts, seeing the connectedness of everything, learners, etc. etc.
Included are a series of "action plans" that suggest ways you can use your specific strengths to better your life, and also suggest ways to identify people with whom you will work well.
Do I think anyone should pin their identity to this book? Absolutely not. I have several strengths and gifts that aren't listed in my top 5, and I surely do not ignore them. On the other hand, it's worth every penny I spent...so much so that I have bought copies for several friends (which is how I came across it).
For what it's worth, here are my own top five strengths:
Intellection (set aside time to think)
Input (addicted to it)
Connectedness (we are one)
Learning (addicted to that too)
Ideation (new ways of connecting dots)