DNA Behavior History

DNA Behavior News & Research

Featured Research February 2012: DNA Behavior White Paper: Behavior Drives Performance in the New Behavioral Economyread more
1-18-2012: Management Principle: EquanimityAmong the most critical of all influence skills is a leader's ability to maintain equanimity.read more
1-14-2012: Management Principle: Human Incentive Systems The difference between a good company and a great one is its peopleread more
1-3-2012: Management Principle: Law of Holes.Success is tied to the well being and the performance ability of staff members.read more
12-22-2011: Management Principle: Derived Credit To achieve true professional leader status one must engage in behaviors that are counterintuitive. read more
12-15-2011: From the DNA Blog: Secrets to Effective Conflict Resolution Conflict in the workplace is disruptive. It can have a negative impact on productivity, and may pose a threat to other employees.read more

Early DNA Observations

A primary theory on which our business has been based is that each person has a natural behavioral style which is predictable and remains stable throughout their life. Our regular observation was that when people are making major life, business and financial decisions which put them under pressure that their true natural instinctive behavior emerged. We could see that this natural behavior was strongly influencing how they uniquely responded to life and financial events. Our belief that this natural instinctive behavior was in place from very early in life and uniquely influenced a person's perspectives for making decisions. This natural behavior could be referred to as "hard-wired" and was what we call today a person's DNA Behavior. In many instances, the natural behavior would take over in place of learned behaviors which are developed from the environment, experiences and education. Notwithstanding, these learned behaviors are important to understand as well because they also contribute to a person's personality development and play a role in their decision-making preferences.

Natural Behavior, Learned Behavior
Transforming Business and Personal Performance

Ultimately, our philosophy became that if you were going to interact with a person at any level whether in the workplace, as an advisor or personally you needed to firstly know their DNA Behavior style. This is because it is the core of their life and financial decision-making and ultimately the key to personal and business performance.

In September 1999, we formed the DNA Behavior International business to establish a new approach for serving clients based on natural behavior insights. Further, we had a desire to help people all over the world to maximize their human potential and build great relationships by knowing who they are.

The first testing ground for this new client centered approach was people seeking financial and business advice. The foundation was to truly know the client first by gaining insights into how they made decisions and then guide them through a customized discovery process to the right solutions tailored to them. The reactions of clients to this "understanding people before numbers" approach was very positive. This gave us the confidence to start formalizing the development of a discovery process based on natural behavior.

Initial DNA Development

We knew to work with people in this client centered way internationally with a scalable model that an objective and reliable system to measure a person's natural DNA Behavior was needed. This model also needed to be able to separately capture the influences of a person's environment, experiences and education, which is what we call their learned behavior. So, in April 2001 we brought together a team of experienced behavioral specialists to commence the development of a scalable system which could be used with clients. The process started with a formal review of the personality profiling systems already in the market and our beliefs were confirmed that most of the existing systems did not measure natural behavior. Further, many of the systems although widely used were generally superficial and could not be relied upon for long term life and financial decision-making. Rather, they measured situational behaviors which often change throughout a person's life and therefore are not reliable predictors of behavior.

With this background, research and development commenced to develop the DNA Behavior Profiling Systems as they are today. The goal of DNA Behavior International is to provide a highly predictable process which operates as the "swiss watch" of behavioral discovery. We know that many of the drivers of a person's decision-making sit below the surface and cannot be easily observed. Hence, the DNA Behavior Discovery Process we have researched and designed measures objectively and comprehensively the whole of a person's natural DNA Behavior and their broader personality with very robust and reliable outcomes. Further, in the development process we recognized the importance of the output being presented in an understandable and yet insightful format which can be applied to people in a wide range of settings all over the world so that it is highly educational and practical.

The first application developed was Financial DNA which was developed for the financial planning market. The premise was that eventually all financial advisors needed to know their clients better to build relationships and customize solutions.

Maturing the DNA Research Process

In 2009 after commercial success with launching the DNA Behavior theories in the financial services markets worldwide through Financial DNA it was decided to mature the research process had to mature to another level. The result of this thinking was the formation of the International Center for Behavioral Research in 2009. This is a dedicated independent research institute with a highly experienced team of psychologists, behavioral specialists experienced in psychometric design and businessmen experienced in behavioral assessment. The Institute is now consistently monitoring the DNA Behavior Discovery outcomes to enhance the accuracy and quality of our DNA Behavior profiling products. Further, the Institute is performing further research into the behaviors that make up a person's Communication DNA, Financial DNA, Business DNA, Family DNA, Entrepreneurship DNA, Philanthropy DNA and CareerLife DNA.

The DNA Behavior Profiling Systems have been independently validated with research performed by the Institute and a team of consultants who are psychologists from Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, GA.

DNA Behavior Business Today

Today, DNA Behavior International is an international advisory firm which focuses on helping companies through behavioral client centered business transformation, and also helping individuals make the right choices for building a Quality Life. The uniqueness of our business approach is deploying the DNA Behavior Discovery Process to firstly know the client's life and financial motivations and then aligning the people in the business to who the clients are and also matching the delivery of solutions. With this behavioral knowledge of both the clients and employees of the business significant performance improvement can be achieved.