Let me tell you about Emergenetics…and how I have used it for almost 15 years in the two local government organizations I have been responsible for both as a City Manager  (1,000 employees), and now as an Executive Director of our regional water authority (70 employees).

A quick background on my career: I have been in local government for 36 years in city management in two cities, the most recent as City Manager of Charlottesville, Va. for 15 years, and almost 1 ½ years ago I left city management to come to the ACSA.

Emergenetics is a personal development tool for understanding human behavior and the unique differences in the way people approach work and life.  Emergenetics combines sophisticated left-brain/right-brain analysis with behavioral tendencies, resulting in a clear, defined perspective on personality unlike any other.  With Emergenetics, you get a color-coded, easy-to-understand window into  who a person truly is.  

The Emergenetics Profile provides a full portrait of everyone’s true essence—including thinking, behavior, preferences, and communication styles. While other personal analysis tools make suggestions on how individuals can change, Emergenetics has a different approach. It embraces what makes individuals unique, by helping them “emerge through their genetics” with an enlightening profile that has profound implications both personally and professionally. It is very much a  “strengths” based tool, to build on your personal energy and passion, not “beat you up” on your challenges and weaknesses. Emergenetics says we are who we are, embrace that and celebrate that, and shows you how to use your energy in very positive ways. Over the past 20 years, Emergenetics has earned an international reputation for creating a science-based process that is easy to complete, easy to understand, and easy to apply to everyday life. Almost ½ million people internationally have been using Emergenetics as a personal and team learning tool.
 
HOW DOES EMERGENETICS WORK?
Emergenetics exposes cognitive  preferences by highlighting the distinct, brain-based strengths of each team member, enhancing how teams work together.
Emergenetics taps into an individual’s uniqueness and distinctive work and learning preferences.
Emergenetics helps you  discover your innate strengths—it provides a clear-cut way to see how people truly go about their work and where strengths lie.
Emergenetics individualizes leadership—leaders are pinpointed more quickly, developed more productively, and strengths assessed more completely.
Emergenetics provides a blueprint to engage teams through methods and strategies that drive appreciation and collaboration.
Emergenetics reenergizes teams to utilize their strengths to drive greater performance

WHAT COULD THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
Higher percentage of strategic objectives and goals are met
Empowered leaders and teams who communicate more clearly.
Higher employee retention and personal satisfaction levels

RESULTS FOR LEADERS AND MANAGERS :
Emergenetics works because it integrates with everything you’re already doing in your organization—goal setting, team initiatives, trust building, and communication enhancement. And Emergenetics makes a huge impact on your people, allowing teams and employees to shine.
 

• Individuals who go through the Emergenetics process instantly gain awareness of themselves, their managers and peers.
• Teams who use Emergenetics gain new input for creativity and are more effective.
• Emergenetics can  a foundational element for facilitating organizational dynamics and building a talent-rich organization.
• Emergenetics improves communication and enhances productivity.
• Employees can understand how unique approaches translate into measurable competencies.
• Emergenetics is a blueprint for successfully managing change.
• Emergenetics is a more comprehensive approach to objective setting and attainment.

HOW HAVE I USED EMERGENETICS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
Both the City and the ACSA  undertook a comprehensive approach to utilizing Emergenetics, certifying staff individuals to train and administer and ultimately profiling over 1,100 employees (in both the City and the ACSA):

• Knowledge and Competency Building – As part of the training program for every employee. Emergenetics is being used to link different programs and learning applications with individual strengths and personal growth.
• Team Building – Across departments, Emergenetics is being used in a team building context providing a customized format designed to match team goals and objectives with team strengths.
• Relationship-based Learning – Emergenetics is a core piece for the ACSA leadership mentorship program pairing senior executives with high-potential rising leaders.

Emergenetics provides the lens for team members to see each person as an individual who brings uniqueness to their job and the team. Leaders are learning how to tap into the uniqueness within their teams to improve innovation and performance

EMERGENETICS AND INNOVATION
*  To think differently,collaborate *
When it comes to innovation, organizations sometime think there can be a “magic formula” that can propel them from good to great or transform them. The Harvard Business Review recently came out with an article that pointed to this kind of innovative thinker…one who thinks differently ( in its profile of Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregerson’s work, The Innovator’s DNA…as a recognizable (and unique) phenomenon).
 
However…most organizations are a collection of bright, talented people who need to work together to create a collective wisdom.  Luckily, HBR’s article, while pointing out that certain people are in effect wired for innovative leadership and thinking, did underscore the point that it can be a learned and practiced effect.

We can all be innovative leaders…and we are all different thinkers!

It is an incredible amount of work though, to get into a conceptual framework and outside-the-box mentality that this research hones in on. So how can an organization tackle this challenge?

First think about this fact stated in the Harvard article: “ While roughly one-third of anyone’s innovation capacity comes from their genetic endowment, two-thirds of it is still driven by the environment.” This research is saying that a much greater percentage of our capacity for innovation comes from the environment and people around us. By bringing in people who think differently than we do, we’re instantly creating a greater ability to think differently. Emergenetics help you target exactly who those folks are in your organization, and you can work from their strengths and their energies and passions.

And as we just found from this reaearch out: Thinking Differently = Greater Innovation

Building teams based on collaboration and different thinking is also part of the solution.

Think about how a person who is not genetically predisposed for lots of Conceptual Thinking can approach a problem…they may look more to the left-brained approach of “Why – what are the logics” and “How – What are the steps to get this done efficiently” than connecting new ideas in a traditionally “innovative” sense.

But…combine that tendency with someone who truly does look at the world via the conceptual framework and you’ve got potentially groundbreaking, off-the-wall ideas that are instantaneously filtered through a system for completion.

It’s about giving ideas legs…and making them implementable and organized.

What about adding a person in who exhibits a more driving behavior to take charge on pushing the ideas forward…and another person to think differently about who should be involved and how the innovation will affect others…and another person to ensure that the plan is on track and defined…and another person who brings an openness to changing midcourse for better iterations and suggestions.

You get the idea…the more diverse people you bring in—i.e., the more diverse environment you can create—the higher the innovation potential you can realize.

Emergenetics gives you a tool to foster creativity and innovation in an organization and in teams. It really works, I have been using it for over 15 years for just this reason.

CASE STUDY - ACSA
Emergenetics has become a day-to-day tool for the ACSA (our regional water authority) by being a foundation for a common language and perspective, all of which has helped us in creating a more cohesive and successful organization. Emergenetics has helped us foster communication and because it is informative, easy to understand, and fun, it is one of the first tools that we have used at our utility, and it has grown to where every employee has been trained in Emergenetics. All of our management and leadership training is centered on the baseline of Emergenetics, and is expanding from there to strategic planning, trust in team, communications, coaching, leadership, etc. This is a great tool that is worth you exploring, first at a personal level and then maybe organizationally.

For more information contact: Gary O’Connell, Executive Director ACSA, and Certified in Emergenetics, Advanced Emergenetics, and Emergenetics Coaching; 434-531-0674, email goconnell@serviceauthority.org AND more information is available on the Emergenetics web site: https://www.emergenetics.com