It was six hours before the big workshop in Las Vegas. 88 people were signed up, and less than half had done their FourSight assessment. The group activity I planned to facilitate hinged on knowing people’s profiles. It wasn’t going to work with half the results.

Frustrated, I looked at the results, and just for grins, I made a group profile. What a shock. They were all Implementers. It made sense. These were trade show experts, who work in a deadline-driven sales environment that demands Implementer energy.

Then, why hadn’t they done their assessments? I finally asked the organizer. She said this group constantly copes with pressing deadlines. If it’s optional, subtle or due weeks away, they skip it.

I searched my email for the reminder notes we had sent out. Our letters were long and explanatory, with due dates buried at the bottom. I laughed to myself. For Implementers, this letter reads, “Blah, blah, blah.”

Suddenly inspired, I enlisted the organizer’s help: Can you please get the list of all the people who haven’t taken FourSight yet? I’m going to rewrite this reminder. We’re going to send out an email no Implementer can resist.

I sat at the computer and started composing. I deleted more than half the text in the letter, going from 108 words to 43. I wrote a new subject line, this one with a deadline, call to action and time bracket: 

REMINDER: Before 1 pm, Take FourSight Assessment (10 min)

We sent the email and waited. Within an hour, we had gotten 75% of the results, enough to assign groups, run the activity and deliver a Las Vegas workshop that everybody talked about for the rest of the trade show.

 Group Profile for Trade Show Exhibitors

FourSight proved its power. It served not only as a training tool for creative thinking and problem solving but also as a leadership tool, helping me understand the cognitive complexion of my group. FourSight helped me communicate, train and engage people in a way that helped them learn, grow, transform – and complete their assessments.