People have sometimes asked us: “Why don’t you offer the MindSonar questionnaire on the web?” or “Why don’t you make MindSonar available directly to the general public?” We have four good reasons for not wanting to do that and for making MindSonar available to trained professionals only.
Better interpretation
First of all, interpreting MindSonar, although it has quite an extensive written report, still works best when a trained professional is helping. A professional understands much better how combinations of different Meta Programs and Graves Drives work. They also have a better understanding of and how certain mindset influences how someone feels and behaves in a certain situation.
Better application
A measurement is useful only to the extent that you can actually do something with it. A trained professional can help people translate insight into action, through advice, coaching and training. The same goes for organizations. Understanding how people think is only valuable in so far as people in the organization can use that understanding to change.
MindSonar and the professional enhance each other
We see MindSonar as part of a formula. A coaching or consulting ‘Powered by MindSonar’, it is much more than just the measurement. The other part – usually a quite important part – is the professional using MindSonar. It is the combination of the fine grained measurement of MindSonar with the passion and expertise of the MindSonar professional that make for a great product.
Preventing data contamination
Yet another reason for not opening MindSonar up directly to the general public, is data contamination. If the measurement were open to just anybody, many people taking it would not be very serious about their answers. They might, for instance, just be trying to see if they could fool the system or they might make it their sport to get an extreme score. By opening up MindSonar to just anybody, we would increase the amount of ‘frivolous data’, degrading the quality of our database.
13 Comments
I do agree to this. The MindSonar test would do great if it will be used and applied by those who have a deeper understanding of what the test is really all about. Personality tests, for example, have been made available to the general public. One can even take a free test online. However, the credibility of the test itself can be questionable.
Hi Officialkent,
Thank you for your commnent! I haven’t seen you on this site before…. Are you a trainer or a coach too?
One test that has gone viral, and diminished its value is the “IQ” test, there are so many available mow, that is is impossible to know which tests are valid.You don’t want that to happen to your sonar test
Thanks for your comment Sally, I hadn’t even thought of that yet.
I totally agree that the integrity of the test is much more solid when it’s not available to the public. People take it much less seriously if they believe that they have access to it at any point in time, especially off the internet. In the hands of professionals the test would be used properly and actually fulfill its purpose, I believe.
Thanks for you comments. Kim.
I do agree that MindSonar is best suited for a professional setting. However, I do wish you could do a little bit more in terms of demonstrations and perhaps trials for your software. I’m in a small firm, and though I can clearly see that MindSonar would be a great asset to my team and our clients, my company is unwilling to spring for the cost. Fortunately for you and unfortunately for me, there are not a lot of programs like MindSonar on the market, and so it’s not easy for me to pull up literature to show the possible benefits and convince them to try it!
Hi William, I was talking with Tim Hallbom of NLP & Coaching Institute where I just taught the first MindSonar Certification Training. He has a plan where you can do a MindSonar profile and have a MindSonar professional help you interpret it – which really is the best way. When you take the training this cost would be deducted a hundred %. If you’re interested, call Tim – his contact information is in the ‘contact us’ page.
I think it might be possible and perhaps desirable to adapt portions of MindSonar to a standalone software program. I envision a software package where users are administered a test to explored certain defined (but popular and useful) personality aspects and then the software scores the person and explains in a general sense what those scores mean in various pre-selected contexts. Perhaps relationship compatibility or suitability for certain professionals or majors in college. There are some serious “Mind Mapping” software packages out there. One (Visual Mind) specifically advertises the ability to “improve effectiveness and productivity” — two end results that MindSonar may also be used for. Even if the software were very limited, it may also have the benefit of creating a great deal of buzz and raise awareness of the MindSonar approach.
Hmmm, thank you for thinking along with us, Peter! At the moment we’re moving away from on line DIY tests, but I’ll keep this in mind!
I absolutely agree with your reasoning. To maintain MindSonar’s image as “helping people”, that means a certain level of proactive forward movement. Typical online personality tests targeted for the average person are basically for novelty. The person takes the test, reads the results, then never thinks about it again unless as something to define themselves by. By keeping your services limited to professionals, you ensure they’re being taken seriously, the results are being used in a proactive way, and that they are being correctly interpreted by a professional. But I’m not going to lie, I’m VERY curious about it, but as an average citizen, I’m not sure I’ll ever be in a position to take it. ha ha.
I think this is a wise decision. I think it is very important to keep the credibility of the evaluation and of the whole concept and the work that can be done with meta programs, but this all involves the need of a trained professional.
There are many public market testing and I’ve noticed that do not generate the same result. After taking the Certification MindSonar I confirm the importance of that as professionals we prepare to handle these tools as we work with people with whom we must be responsible. Thanks for the responsibility that handled MindSonar