The reason life is so rich and dramatic is that we all try to feel worthwhile in different ways, according to our “motivational value system” (I’ll use MVS from here on). Its underlying principle is: the primary motive of all human beings is a desire to feel worthwhile about ourselves. The SDI comes from the work of Elias Porter. I’m giving you a simplistic version on the understanding you will only let loose your embryonic knowledge on people who are fictional. Please don’t use this model to psychoanalyse your friends (not to their faces, anyway). Oh, and because the world of business psychology, like writing, is big on Reputation, I have to do a quick health warning. Today I’m going to give you a whistle-stop tour of the Strengths Deployment Inventory, a questionnaire which helps identify someone’s primary motivation and how it might bring them into conflict with others.
Even if your only experience of psychometric testing is completing a “What Kind of Best Friend Are You?” questionnaire in Just Seventeen magazine, you get the idea (I’m “Dependable Listener”, by the way).Īs a writer, I use the same models to create characters who are not just authentic, but who are most likely to create drama when they encounter someone who is fundamentally different from them in some way.
Every writer – alright, apart from Steven Moffat – has a day job mine is as a management coach and facilitator, using psychological models to help people not just perform at their best, but also – to give one example – deal with conflict in the workplace.
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