Human Potential Blog

Sharing The Secrets of Success At Work

Dr.Dan Harrison’s Workshop in Hong Kong

April 28th, 2009 by admin

Dr.Dan Harrison will conduct a workshop in Hong Kong on May 5, 2009. This is one of those rare and unusual opportunities to meet with Dr.Harrison himself and discuss some of the current issues and impact of the Economic Downturn and things you can do to maximise the productivity of your team.

Click here to visit the workshop page and sign up.


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A New Star Is Discovered

April 14th, 2009 by John

“I was there!” – yes, it’s true – I was one of the first million people to see Susan Boyle dumbfound the prejudices of an audience of thousands!   By the time I’m posting this, three days after her debut, it’s 2 million, and rising rapidly … 

This is a story of having the courage to pursue your dream, regardless of your critics, a lesson for all of us, and that’s enough of an intro,   

       Watch her here now!

This is the full version 7 min 31 sec – worth watching especially if you’ve already seen one of the editted clips.  I predict we’ll be seeing a duet between Susan Boyle and Paul Potts before the dust settles.  

Dream your own dream.  

John 


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Top 3 Benefits of HATS

April 6th, 2009 by John

We’ve gone for a more collaborative tack with this posting!

Seth recently completed a time-consuming process of editting a 2-hour video with Dr Dan Harrison, to come up with digestible segments that stand in their own right.  He made 22 of them!  So we asked him “having gone through them which are your top 5 picks.

Here’s the first.  In this video Dan Harrison discusses the following benefits of using HATS system.

  • Systematic Approach to hiring
  • Preset formula to evaluate CV
  • Assessment that covers Suitability as well as Eligibility
Check it out.  And if you like it remember to give it a rating!
We get precious little feedback (except from those of you who call in and buy from us!), so your comments will be well received, and will help to choose topics for future videos.
Here’s the video:


Category: Candidate Assessment, Harrison Assessments, Sales and Persuasion, employment screening | No Comments »

Where Can We Turn To, Now?

April 1st, 2009 by John

It’s an unprecedented situation.  Nobody prepared us for it. Nobody COULD HAVE prepared us for it.  The strategies and skills that worked last year – and over the past decades – no longer apply.  Since the situation is new, and unfamiliar, nobody can know how to handle it most effectively.  

People with power and authority are dashing from one meeting to the next … making bold statements about what will and will not happen … and there’s a very strong chance the decisions they are making are deepening the crisis, as they slash staffing, cut production, and print more and more money.  For every person that says the crisis will be long, there’s another saying it’ll be short: we can’t even agree about that.  What can we do?  

One very effective strategy is to learn from others.  But who can we learn from when the current crisis is deeper than any in living memory?  Do we really have to make it up ourselves?  

Here’s a lifeline, a small one, but a small and legitimate one is much better than a guess.  

Now, I rarely promote other websites and am very selective, but this post by Ari Galper has outdone all of his previous work: he found a person who experienced the depression, and interviewed her.  Her comments are short, and very much to the point, with that unmistakeable ring of life experience.  And it’s published with unrestricted access (I love the Internet Age!!) …  

You can read it here, it’s quite short, and definitely merits reading more than once:- 

www.UnlockTheGame.com/blog

I’m not selling anything here, nor is Ari – check it out!  

John 

 


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How Does HATS Differ From Traditional Systems

March 23rd, 2009 by John

Breaking news – we had the good fortune to be able to grab Dr Harrison again, and put some of your questions to him.  We’re still editting them and will post them as fast as they come.  You can find a lot of them just by searching on google, and we’re going be publishing our favourites here.

This segment below is to answer the question “what is it that is new about the Harrison Assessments Talent Solutions?  How does HATS differ from traditional systems for recruitment?”

Here’s Dr Harrison, in his own words:-

John Bower interviews Dr Dan Harrison about how does HATS differ from traditional systems?

Key takeaways we noted:

  • Extremely clear job formula which goes way beyond Job Requirements or Selection Criteria
  • Online questionnaire automatically ranks candidates and screens to create a shortlist
  • Ranking system gives the recruiting manager great clarity to pinpoint the top quality candidate
  • Integrates with the interview process and upgrades the entire assessment process
  • Saves a LOT of time, and makes it possible to concentrate effort on people who are both Eligible AND Suitable for the job
Anything we missed?  Please post a comment!
John

Category: Candidate Assessment, Harrison Assessments, employment screening | No Comments »

Dr Harrison’s Tips On Coaching And Development

December 2nd, 2008 by John

This is one I’ve really been looking forward to sharing!

In the series of interviews we did with Dr Dan Harrison recently, he talked just as much about coaching and development as he did about selection and hiring assessment.

Here is a selection where he’s talking specifically about how to help someone develop themselves.

He specifically addresses the issue of how the coaching intervention required can be the exact opposite, depending on whether the person is showing stress behaviour or preferred behaviour. The issue is that if you get it wrong, a coaching session can actually make the situation worse not better!

Using Paradox to understand their behaviour, it becomes very clear how you can help someone most effectively.

… a great video … totally authentic, Dan at his best, there’s even a bit where we think we finished, but he adds more clarification … watch it now!


Category: Harrison Assessments, Human Potential, Paradox Theory, Personal Development, coaching | No Comments »

How Our Beliefs Change Our Own Biology

October 18th, 2008 by John

This is a very important development, especially if you

  • care about your health
  • care about your quality of life, and want it to be a long and rewarding one, or
  • care about other people
  • want to know what you can do about your concerns

If you are in a hurry, skip this intro and just watch the 3rd video below – it will give you the most valuable conclusions, and stands well in its own right.

But I actually recommend you to watch the three videos in sequence.

They feature Bruce Lipton – a doctor who studied how cells function for decades, including cloning, genetic engineering, and other modern research.  He really knows his stuff.  What makes him different is he makes it understandable.  And he takes a holistic view, incorporating areas of science that medical science has not yet fully woken up to.

The first one – 3 minutes – sets the context for the rest of the knowledge, and answers the question “what can I use this specific knowledge for in the rest of my life?”

Here they are, first the 3 minute intro:

This second one is the first hour of a presentation, in which Bruce shares what he’s discovered about how cells work.  Amazingly, he does this in simple words, and makes something that I myself never really understood in school science lessons very simple and obviously relevant.  It is a bit dry at times though, so if you hate science go straight to the third video – nerds and geeks, watch this one also.  It’ll elevate your understanding!

Here is 64 minutes of how cells function, and the biggest fallacy in modern DNA research:

The third one gets practical.  He brings together a very wide-ranging set of discoveries, from physics, maths, biology, chemistry, and medicine, explaining how phenomena such as energy healing, spontaneous remission, and connectedness actually work. What are the implications?  What is the one thing that we can do to best help ourselves?

Finally 95 minutes of practical application, including where Darwin went wrong about Evolution and how that discovery helps you live a healthier and happier life, and avoid being abused by companies that have a vested interest in selling you more and more medicines:

You may be wondering what a posting about medical research is doing on the website of a Harrison Assessments Master Distributor?? Of course, there’s social contribution: you need to know this stuff.  But yes, there’s more … here’s why this is important to our work here:

Through HA it applies directly to our work in the workplace.  Harrison Assessments is designed to measure a person’s belief, and then give a reflection of how those beliefs are likely to result in work-related behaviour, and ultimately to predict success or failure at work.  Dr Lipton’s work throws new light on just how impactful our beliefs are, not just changing our behaviour and our results, but even changing the DNA in our bodies.

Look at it this way – work is the single most important survival activity humans do, and is the glue that creates our huge interconnected communities.  Our beliefs about work are as important to us as the relationship to your body is important to a cell in your body.

With HA you can get a precise measurement of the impact of your beliefs on your work and on your productivity.  With the beliefs Dr Lipton shares, you can change your beliefs, change your biology, and boost your performance at work.

With HA you can even get a view of the impact of ANOTHER PERSON’S beliefs on their work, helping them change their beliefs, and boosting their performance.

Do you need to know what HA shows you?  Well, I suppose you don’t need to. I mean, you can live the rest of your life not knowing how your beliefs shape your results.  Just like you can live without knowing how your body works and how it connect you with your community – your body knows how to do that and was doing it for you even before you had any awareness of it.

But Is it likely to be useful to you to know?  Absolutely.  Especially in the light of the understanding that Bruce has shared in these videos.

Enjoy. And please post your reactions below, whatever they are!!

John

PS a big thank-you to Barb, who put me onto these videos with a throw-away comment she made!


Category: Harrison Assessments, Human Potential, Personal Development, Wellness | No Comments »

Just how bad can it get?

October 15th, 2008 by John

Here’s an interesting – and scary – quote from a recent news article:

Iceland’s krona was yesterday essentially untradeable and its value was impossible to calculate.”

Wow!  An entire country’s economy, and everyone in it, completely cut off from the rest of the World.  Untradeable currency = untradeable goods = no services, support, or help either.  Something that as recently as 4 weeks ago was completely unimaginable.  In the modern world, we are more dependent on each other than every before.

What does this mean?

Well, I don’t believe we’re going to see too many examples like Iceland’s implosion.  At least, I sincerely hope not! And that’s the reason I’m optimistic: the decision-makers around the World are so afraid of the impact of a complete meltdown and subsequent disintegration, that they will move quickly to restore stability.  Of course, there will be winners and losers in the process, but I do believe that the situation is so serious that agreement will quickly be reached about what to do about it.  In a crisis, a fast decision is better than no decision, and as a result there will be fewer losers.

But it is a good time to reflect on how we can maximise our potential.  Today, more than ever, the answer to the question “who or what can I rely on?” is more clear than ever: focus on your strengths.  Your strengths include your own strengths, and they also include the relationships you have with other people’s strengths.

Clearly, interrelationships are important.  Equally clearly, relying too much on others to provide for us is a mistake, and being self-sufficient and fully aware of our own abilities is also important.


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“How can I have the best result of HA evaluation?”

September 24th, 2008 by John

Someone just wrote in with a question that’s so important it’s worth sharing, and having a wider debate around it:-

“Dear John,

I am wondering if you have any suggestions or ideas how to pass HA successfully.  I mean, to have a way to get the best result in my HA evaluation.

My company uses HA results to promote employees.

Look forward to hearing from you soon.

xxxxx”

Here’s my answer:-

“Dear xxxxx,

actually yes, I do …

Have you been through the assessment yourself?  It sounds a bit like you’ve either been assessed, or are afraid you might be about to be assessed and failed.

That’s normal by the way.  I’ve done the HA questionnaire many times myself, about 6 times in 5 years just for my own interest, and I still have butterflies about the result every time I try it again!

Here’s the thing you need to know about Harrison Assessments:
it’s actually very good at predicting who is likely to be successful and who is likely to struggle … which is (of course) the reason companies choose it for screening promotions and new hires … but the accuracy of prediction can be very high, and is much much more accurate than a traditional process of interviews.  Even assessment centers are usually less accurate than a single Harrison Assessments report.

Scary?  Maybe, but maybe not.  Look at it this way …

You see what THAT means is if Harrison Assessments says you would be better off doing a different job than the one you were assessed for, it is probably right about it.  And while that might sound like a disappointment, I actually suggest it’s excellent news.  Nothing is worse than having to do a job that you struggle at and end up disappointing yourself and the people who rely on you.  Nothing is better than finding out the risks, in advance, before committing your time and reputation or risking damage to your successful track record.

So – worst case – IF you show up as being less suitable for a position you applied for what usually happens is
a) you can see exactly what needs to change in order to be more successful, e.g. next time, and
b) often you can see ways in which you can achieve more in your current job, or
c) you can change your current job just a little to make a big difference …
a big difference not just to your job performance (which your employer likes) but also to your personal job satisfaction.  Of course, ultimately doing a better job always leads to more money, more time freedom, and more opportunities self-expression.

I’m being a bit long here.  Here it is, simpler:-

I assume you’re genuine, and you don’t want a cheat-sheet.  It’s certainly very hard to cheat – much harder than other assessments I’ve seen.  I’ve seen a lot of people try, and have tried myself.  The reality is even the inventor of HA says he can’t fake a perfect assessment result for a position he wouldn’t be good at … and he’s the guy who knows just exactly what it’s looking for! … he knows ALL the research and the calcualtions it does!!  Certainly, I’ve studied HA extensively myself for 5 years – I teach it to experts including psychologists – and have completed the questionnaire 6 times, I still can’t make a perfect result for myself for my own job.

So I won’t say it can’t be cheated at all – in an infinite universe I guess anything’s possible – but frankly if anyone is going to try to cheat they would need to know the right answers in the first place.  And that means becoming an expert in the requirements of the job you’re aiming to do … which in itself is a good thing, really … which means their performance in that job would improve.  I’ve read a psychological research paper that proved people who learn the right answers to a test do better in the job!  That research wasn’t about psychometric testing specifically, but the principle is reasonably general.

The good news (I hope) is that whatever the result is,
- it is likely to be useful to you
- you can learn from it and do better, not just at the assessment but in your job and your career
- it will help your employer recognise hidden talents in you that they may have missed.

Your question was “how can I have the best result in the HA evaluation?”.

My first answer: if you answer it truthfully it will actually tell you exactly what you should do to maximise your performance, accellerate your career success, and achieve your goals.  In my mind – as a 40-something year old successful guy – that IS the best possible result to get, even if it means you don’t get the promotion you applied for today.

My second answer: you CAN improve your HA evaluation for a specific job that you want to get.  The good news is if you do that your performance in that job will also improve.

You can do it with a course of coaching, which would give you the insight you need into how to succeed in that job and, obviously, in the assessment.  Through coaching
- you would know just exactly what are your greatest strengths for the new role,
- you would know ahead of time what are your chances, and what contingency plans to make
- you would discover unexpected ways you can actually perform better in your current role
- you would know just exactly what to do, both short and long term, to increase your chances for promotion

Did any of that make sense?  Hope it did – your question is an important one.

Would you like to improve your results?

Please do write to me directly at John.Bower@HumanPotentialGlobal.com with your questions – I promise your identity will be confidential! – and your question might just give an answer to someone else as well.  So please do share!!

Or if you’re interested in trying Harrison Assessments yourself, sign up for our free demo at http://www.humanpotentialglobal.com/demo.html

Heartfelt best wishes,

John


Category: Harrison Assessments, Human Potential, Keys To Success, Paradox Theory, Personal Development, Psychometric Assessment | 1 Comment »

How To Choose A Good Employee Assessment System?

September 11th, 2008 by John

This is SO exciting!

We’ve been trying (literally) for years to share answers to the questions we hear all the time with a wider audience … and somehow our work just kept getting in the way … until last Wednesday, when Dr Dan Harrison was in town, we grabbed a video camera, and shot a short interview with him.

The questions are the questions we hear all the time, from our clients, from our prospects, from our friends.
His answers – based on 25 years of research into work performance and selection screening – are so much better than anyone else’s!

Here are the first two clips, addressing the question: “OK, I’m looking for an assessment system for recruiting candidates – but don’t tell me about Harrison Assessments yet – instead please teach me what to look for so I can tell the difference between a good system and a poor one?”

How To Do Assessment In A More Scientific And Accurate Way?

and next,

How Can I Tell If An Assessment System Is A Good One Or A Poor One?
Vive la technologie!  And thank you, Google Video!!

Enjoy, and prosper,

John


Category: Candidate Assessment, Harrison Assessments, Psychometric Assessment, employment screening | 2 Comments »