Arthur Carmazzi Leadership and Culture change in the Media > Press Releases > Senior management Training

Directive CommunicationTM (DC) is the revolutionary and highly effective psychology based workforce transformation methodology founded by Arthur F. Carmazzi. It has been applied in some of the world's leading organizations with exceptional results.

Arthur F. Carmazzi has 21 years experience specializing in psychological approaches to workforce enhancement and corporate culture transformation. He is a renowned motivational leadership keynote speaker and trainer in the Asian Region and has advanced the Corporate Training industry with innovative experiential techniques and tools that have been acknowledged by some of the world's greatest organizations. He is the best selling co-author of The 6 Dimensions of Top Achievers, and author of Identity Intelligence and Lessons from the Monkey King.

Arthur is the developer of the CBCI (Colored Brain Communication Inventory) and HDMA Emotional profiling tools used for "Psycho-Productivity" management. These tools have been implemented across a variety of HR and Leadership disciplines by numerous multinationals to generate greater efficiency of human capital. The unique "linked implementation" structure of Arthur's tools and methods have earned him and the Directive Communication methodology accreditation from the prestigious American Institute of Business Psychology.

Q : What first drew you to the field of Psychology, and in particular as applied to the workforce?

A : At one point in my life (1999), I was in massive debt (about -US$320,000) because of a business venture gone wrong. I got a job for a multi-national based in Singapore. By nature, I have always been a positive and responsible person – always putting in 100% of my effort to get the job done. And when I went to work for this company. I thought I could make a difference in the organization (as many people do when they first start work), I was confronted with people blaming each other and not cooperating, I thought I could help. 4 and a half months later, the unimaginable happened, I became a different person! And one I didn’t like to boot. I became cynical and started blaming others too, I stopped cooperating and I became part of the culture that I though I could change.

One day at breakfast, I saw what I had become and knew it wasn’t me. I needed to discover the powers that could change such a positive person into a negative individual who only did the minimum required instead of his usual 100%.

Psychology and its applications to groups and workforce, where the directions I sought. And that’s where I looked for answers to rediscover my identity as a responsible, positive and effective member of the workforce

Q: You have developed a profiling tool known as the CBCI (Coloured Brain Communication Inventory. Can you tell us a bit more about this?

A: Part of the reactions caused in our “environments” are related to expectations of others we work or live with. The CBCI is a foundational tool that identifies the way a person’s brain communicates. When an individual has an awareness of how peoples actions relate to their brain processing – or in DC language “what colour glasses they are wearing”, it gives a foundation to reason instead of reaction. In essence, the CBCI helps people to react less to actions related to a persons genetic disposition of brain communication.

Q: You have also developed an HDMA Emotional profiling tool. What exactly is this and how does it differ from the CBCI?

A: This is a 360º perception profile. It deals with the way a person believes they fill their personal emotional drive, and the reality that is perceived by others. The tool provide an analysis of the gaps between different environments of superiors, peers and subordinates. While the CBCI deals with the genetic aspects of processing, this deals with the environment cultivated emotional drives that affect our motivation.
When a person becomes aware of the gaps in perception, realisations are made about personal actions within those environments and how they are affecting (even taking away from) other peoples emotional needs. This leads to the ability to adjust behaviour to be more congruent with what a person “Wants to Be” and therefore affect the environment they work or live in.

Q: Of the companies that you have worked with, which one provides the best example of transformation and why?

A: Well, for productivity, I would have to say Nestle, the attitudes of management and their ability to Bring out the Best in their employees was demonstrated in the implementation of a significant company wide initiative while superseding the sales goals. The original belief was that due to the amount of extra effort required for the initiative that sales and performance targets should be reduced. The transformation happened when the management applied DC psychology strategies with their employees, and attitudes toward their place in the organization was shifted.

For organisation “alignment” though, I would say MTV Asia, transformation came after a series of programs that allowed individuals to Live the MTV brand at work which in turn affected personal fulfilment and turnover as well as sales across different departments

Q: What advice would you give to someone striving to become a more effective manager?

A: Don’t Need Suck!
In group dynamics, each individual will have specific emotional drivers and needs that motivate them as explained above. While individuals do have different priorities of these needs, and may fulfil them differently, the needs are the same.

In a closed environment such as a department, a small company or a project group, some of these foundational needs are limited in the amount of emotional gratification that can be distributed amongst its members. When one or two members fill their own emotional needs first and take a majority of the fulfilment, they leave others with less or sometimes no gratification in these areas.

When our basic emotional needs are taken away, we use our “Reptilian Brain”, and React like lizards, instead of acting intelligently. This happens often in organizations such as:

Someone takes more credit than they should

Someone makes decisions that affect you and you cannot do anything about it.

Someone doesn’t at least acknowledge your efforts or ideas because they think THEY know better.

Someone takes all the fun and diverse projects or tasks and leaves you with the mundane jobs.

The people who do this are the Need Suckers in an organization, and greatly affect productivity

Q : You are extremely well known in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, China, Indonesia and India. Do you have any plans to “break” into Europe or the USA?

A : Yes we do, but we are first developing our Directive Communication Franchisees to take on much of the demand that comes from expansion. These individuals are specially chosen for their passion to make a different and their ability to put aside their own ego. They also undergo training for 3 ½ months before getting their certifications in order to maintain quality. We are looking to get into the Americas in 2010 and Europe in 2012

Q: You created Directive Communication Pte Asia (DCI) in 2000 to provide a platform for people who work in companies to “reposition” themselves within the company. How far do you feel that you have met your original objectives and where would you like to see DCI in another seven years?

A: As long as there are unfulfilled people at work, there is much to do.

Q: Your website mentions “14 short-cut strategies” that accelerate success and allowed you to get hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of business and marketing benefits with very little money. Can you tell us a bit about these 14 strategies?

A: Wow, that would be a very long answer. First, these strategies came from desperation. I had no money and was in massive debt and knew I would never get out by working for an organization. These were the creative reactions to a hopeless future, a future I didn’t want to live.I can send you a complete write up on this if you would like

Q: Professor of Cognition and Education, Howard Gardner, is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be assessed by standard psychometric instruments. How far do you agree with this?

A: I am inclined to agree with Mr Garner simply because the definition of “Intelligence” is no longer defined as an academic notion. Even with the CBCI you will find that genetically we learn differently simply because to the process of interpretation or the way our brain “communicates”
In my book Identity Intelligence, I define intelligence as “the ability to supersede “reaction” and act rationally in a given situation.

Q: And finally, what is the next important date in your professional calendar?

A: There are 2 equally important dates for May/June, the first, May 10th is our next recruitment for Directive Communication Licensees in Malaysia, and June 3rd is the Graduation dates for our 7 Singapore Franchisees.

Q: Can you explain how companies can exercise/practice directive communication?

A : Directive communication is a psychological methodology that allows an individual to influence the actions and reactions of groups. The applications for this depend on what kind of group dynamics you would like to create. For example, if you were applying it to leadership, one could bring out leadership qualities that would inspire the employees to enjoy their work and increase effectiveness. If we applied it to service, it would take the form of cultivating a service culture that was reinforced through personal fulfillment from delighting customers. Some other applications can include productivity, sales, project management, quality assurance, branding and organizational development. DC creates environments that support higher levels of group effectiveness in the discipline its applied to.

Q: In your experience, how willing are companies in Asia to practice directive communication?

A: Results are what matters. Over 41% of individuals who attend directive communication workshops continue to practice it and use the DC tools they take home. While a 2 day workshop can make a huge difference for an individual however, it may not make such an impact for the total organization. For this purpose we have created a results guaranteed program that actually implements DC psychology practices into an organization. This is our 6 step Creative Synergy program

Q: Is directive communication a cost-consuming training for organizations?

A: It is true that DC trainers are more expensive than the average trainer, but then again, HR and training managers can measure the results after a DC training. This is because DC training is NOT knowledge based but action based, so trainees have a different perspective of how to approach their jobs after experience DC. I guess the question is, would you rather spend RM2,000p/d on giving your people some “knowledge” that will most likely not get implemented; or, provide them with a more effective and accurate perception that will improve their performance from 5% to 20%, but costs RM5,000p/d?

One must also consider the time employees are spending in training, if they don’t come back with implementable actions to improve their departments of become more effective in their job, then an organization looses the time that employee could have contributed to the bottom line.

Most DC programs are SDF approved for funding which helps to reduce direct cost to the company. And, DC trainers do a pre-training exploratory investigation and follow-up to assist in implementation.

And, as far as I know, there is no other 3 and a half month program that Guarantees ROI results like our Creative synergy program. This program either costs USD1 if we don’t meet result targets, or USD24,000 if we do. So is it cost effective when you know you will get a measurable result that gives you a specific return on investment? You decide.

Q: What are some of the outcomes from companies that have practiced directive communication? What kind of impact did the companies see?

A: One Singapore based manufacturing multi-national that applied DC in 3 departments increased its bottom line substantially by saving over S$17,000 per week in wastage.

Another – the Malaysian division of a fortune 100 organization increased motivation and efficiency to implement and spear head a new global initiative requiring 30% more work from its 1800+ employees, while exceeding sales and growth goals for the region. This was a DC leadership development program

An international retail chain from Singapore increased its customer service standards and logistics effectiveness (inclusive of service) to cultivate an increase of over 12% customer loyalty.

Q: What is the level of directive communication in Asia as compared to Europe or the US? What needs to improve? What will be the catalyst to spur more companies to take up directive communication?

A: Directive Communication was developed for Asian multi-cultural environments, so there are more Asian organization (or at least foreign organization BASED in Asia), using DC than in other parts of the world. The exceptions started using it in Asia and then disseminated it to their non-Asian branches

Q : Can you explain how companies can exercise/practice directive communication?

A: Directive communication is a psychological methodology that allows an individual to influence the actions and reactions of groups. The applications for this depend on what kind of group dynamics you would like to create. For example, if you were applying it to leadership, one could bring out leadership qualities that would inspire the employees to enjoy their work and increase effectiveness. If we applied it to service, it would take the form of cultivating a service culture that was reinforced through personal fulfillment from delighting customers. Some other applications can include productivity, sales, project management, quality assurance, branding and organizational development. DC creates environments that support higher levels of group effectiveness in the discipline its applied to.

Q: In your experience, how willing are companies in Asia to practice directive communication?

Most DC programs are SDF approved for funding which helps to reduce direct cost to the company. And, DC trainers do a pre-training exploratory investigation and follow-up to assist in implementation.

A: One Singapore based manufacturing multi-national that applied DC in 3 departments increased its bottom line substantially by saving over S$17,000 per week in wastage.

A: “Workforce” pertains to the whole group as opposed the individual. It is not team building and it is not personal development as much as it is cultivating a culture that manifests an empowered competence and motivated workforce.

When an individual learns ways to be better at their job, they have been personally enhanced, when an individual learns how to better work with others, their cooperation has been enhanced, but, when an individual develops the ability to work with a common vision through the organisation, when they learn how to cultivate that vision through improved competence and motivation, and when they are able to strategically cultivate an environment that supports each individual bringing out the best in themselves and others; that is workforce enhancement.

A workforce enhancement initiative sets the decision making and behavior foundations that breed cooperation, greater competence and alignment.

Q: How can employers create the Psychology of Cultivating a Thriving Work Culture?

A: In the Directive Communication Psychology system, there are 5 pillars that must be constructed before this can happen. But before the pillars are created, senior management must be involved, because this is a Psychological initiative which deals with human perception, it cannot be delegated and senior management will need to play an active role.

Q: What are the 5 pillars of creating that culture?

A: Please see attaché document “Psychology of leadership

More innovation means better more cost effective ways of doing things, new products or services that people WANT. Saves money, and sets up a higher probability to make more.
More Cooperation (including cross departmental) means it takes less time to get things done ACURATLY, which in turn means cost saving and faster time to market (very important in today’s economy)
More motivated employees means a personal stake in the success of the organization and the related work has the potential to be more fruitful.
Greater ability understand and manage their psychology and the psychology of others, means that there is a system to better more consistent results in each area of work.
Lower employee turnover and less stress means substantial money savings in re-training and sick leave losses.
An enhanced workforce is greater than the sum of its parts, if there are 100 employees in an organisation with a poor corporate culture, they will produce the work of 63. In an average work culture, they will do the work of 100, but in a leadership enriched or brand congruent culture (please see culture attachment), they produce the work of up to 159 employees – what is the savings there?

Q: Can you share a case study of an organisation where incorporating such a culture has reaped outstanding results?

A: Locally in Singapore, according Foo, Siang Chi (http://www.carmazzi.net/Organisational_Development.html), the Logistics and Customer Service Manager for Barang Barang International, the 3rd session had already yielded at over a 10% increase in his departments efficiency.
Other specific benefits to Barang Barang related to management by employees.

In the Customer service department, Lead time reduced in solving problems by improving cooperation between depts. Before the initiative it used 20mins to handle an incoming call, now utilized only 10mins, with more info/ support from another dept. (1/2 the time used as compared to prior to initiative)
As i understand from Sharon, you will be in Malaysia for training next week. i hope to get the story published by end of this week, or at least before your training starts.

Arthur F. Carmazzi

Principal Founder of The Directive Communication™ Organizational Development Psychology