Imagine a world where as an employer you understood how to communicate to your individual team members in a way that ensured maximum performance, and that they in turn understood how to communicate to each other. That world is DiSC.

There are many ways of evaluating an individual's skills or approach, and predicting their likely behavior from the results. At one end of the scale are fairly simple tests designed to evaluate specific skills and abilities, such a driving test. At the other end of the scale lie batteries of personality tests, designed to build as complete a picture of a person's personality as possible.

DiSC lies somewhere between these two. It's an easy and quick to take test that can be used to predict the behavior of individuals when they work on their own and with others.

The DiSC model has helped over 50 million people in 20 languages over the last 40 years, understanding and effectively using DiSC in an SME will totally transform the communication in any team.

All sports have a set of clearly defined rules that everyone has to adhere to, but all allow for individual methods to be used within the rules.

Rules of the Game in a business sense is about agreeing some boundaries with your team - the basic do's and don'ts for your business. Once agreed these need to be published and of course performance managed against.

The aim is to establish clear boundaries that people cannot cross whilst still allowing freedom to operate within these boundaries. To use the sporting analogy, in a game of football so long as you obey the rules of the game you can move about the playing field wherever you like. You are loosely regulated within the clearly defined playing field.

Next Level can help you engage with the team and create an agreed set of 'rules' that ultimately are beneficial to all. If you don't establish your company's boundaries and rules of the game then your team will do it for you. You will end up with a 'de facto' culture that most probably won't be to your liking or in the best interests of the business.

Meetings in SME's are typically ad-hoc events called or cancelled at the whim of the business owners or directors, usually in response to a pressing issue. And yet all successful large organisations know that effective meetings are the best form of communication and have their own clearly defined meeting culture.

Effective use of meetings builds enthusiasm in the business. It generates commitment and a feeling of accomplishment from the participants. Employees feel part of something bigger than just their personal day-to-day challenges. Effective meetings also mean that information can be transferred from the owners/directors to staff in a way that prevents misinterpretation which is particularly beneficial when delegating tasks or aligning resources.

Next Level can help you create a meeting culture that suits your business, a structure that supports and improves efficiency rather than simply wastes time, and is valued by all the participants.