The Strategy Profile Difference Calculation from page 8 of the PSI Learning Kit is used to form the Rainbow of Styles for a group profile. The rainbow is then used to identify paired opposite, similar and dissimilar teams to highlight the variety of personal preferences for the rational and intuitive ways of preparing for the future, solving problems and approaching work.

Rainbow of Styles

First you need to create a Rainbow of Styles like the one shown in the Central Coast Creations' example below. Then you can quickly form the three types of teams based on individuals' positions in the rainbow. These guidelines assume you are forming the rainbow during a workshop. You can do the same on paper beforehand if your group has provided you with their rainbow position in advance:

1. Arrange the participants in the Rainbow of Styles grouping with the highest rational person on the participant's left and the highest intuitive person on the participant's right.

2. The other participants then fill in so that they are in the descending order indicated by the difference that each person calculated on page 8 of their PSI Learning Kit.

3. When complete, the arrangement will resemble the grouping in the Central Coast Creations' rainbow. The steps used in this example for 12 people can be adapted easily for different size workshops.

As shown in the light red columns in the Rainbow of Styles, assign the individuals to their paired opposite teams as illustrated in this example:

1. Divide the total number of people in the workshop by two (2). For example if there are 12 people to be separated into pairs, there will be six (6) teams.

2. Begin with the highest intuitive person and count off people 1 through 6 for the six teams and begin again 1 through 6 for the remaining individuals.

3. If there is an odd number of people in the workshop, one group will have three members.

4. Ask each participant to write down the number (P1 - P6) he or she was given in the counting as their paired opposite team number to be used later in the workshop.

As shown in the light green columns in the Rainbow of Styles, assign the individuals to their similar teams as illustrated in the example below:

1. Decide the number of similar teams you want to use. Three (3) teams were used in the Central Coast example.

2. Divide the total number of people in the workshop by the number of teams, taking the integer value as the number in each team. For example, if there are 12 people to be separated into three teams, there will be four people in each team (12 ÷ 3 = 4).

3. Begin with the highest Intuitive person and count off people 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, until you reach the highest rational person in the rainbow. For 12 people, you would end up with three teams of four.

4. If there is not an integer number of people, one or more groups will have another member. For example, the count for fourteen (14) people would be 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3.

5. Ask each participant to write down the number (S1 - S3) he or she was given in the counting as the similar team to be used later in the workshop.

As shown in the light blue columns in the Rainbow of Styles, assign the participants to their dissimilar teams as illustrated in this example:

1. Decide the number of dissimilar teams you want to use. Three (3) teams were used in this example.

2. Divide the total number of people in the workshop by the number of teams, taking the integer value as the number in each team. With 12 people to be separated into three teams, there will be four people in each team (12 ÷ 3 = 4).

3. Begin with the highest intuitive person and count off people 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 until you reach the highest rational person in the rainbow. For 12 people, there will be three teams of four each.

4. If there is not an integer number of people, one or more groups will have another member. For example, the count for fourteen (14) people would be 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2.

5. Ask each participant to write down the number (D1 - D3) he or she was given in the counting as the dissimilar team number which will be used later in the workshop.

Training Applications

You can use the Rainbow of Styles and Workshop Teams in training and development programs to encourage flexibility and style integration. Group issues that deal with trust, respect, cooperation, openness or collaboration are easily addressed using the results of the PSI Learning Kit. Explore the wide variety of training programs that have benefited from the PSI assessment in the for profit as well as the not for profit setting.

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