Herrmann® Platform Thinker Portal “My Journey” Learning Activities

NOTE: A NEW version of the journey activities will be available on October 21, 2021 that includes a thinker debrief. (Check out the NEW journey feature here)

Practitioners have the opportunity to offer their Thinkers a set of engaging micro e-learning activities that will introduce the Herrmann Whole Brain® Model, the HBDI® Profile, and the basic understanding of how thinking preferences impact their world, concluding with the Thinker’s HBDI® results being “unlocked”  or the Practitioner can offer the micro e-learning activities as a follow-up after an HBDI® debrief.

Why? Offering self-directed learning of some of the Whole Brain® basics and exploring their HBDI® results on their own time can allow the Practitioner the time to fully explore applications of Whole Brain Thinking and dig deeper into the "so what?" question with the Thinker or a group of Thinkers.

These "My Journey" learning activities consist of:

• content rich micro e-learning videos
• interactive game like exercises
• self-reflection journaling opportunities

These activities guide the Thinker through the following learning objectives:

• The value of understanding our own thinking preferences and the preferences of others
• How preferences and the behaviors of others can create challenges
• Why Ned Herrmann developed the Herrmann® Four Quadrant Model
• Understanding the modes of thinking, it’s more than left-brained, right-brained
• Nature vs. nurture and how preferences evolve
• The four different selves and how preferences are recognizable
• Understanding how our preferences can increase our performance
• How to spot preferences of others
• Demonstrating clue spotting by guessing the profile of a few “Great Brains”
• Realizing the difference in preference and competence
• The challenge to stretch your thinking to meet the needs of others
• Demonstrating your understanding of the four quadrants by guessing your own HBDI® profile

Note: The Videos include sound.  Closed captioning and the entire transcripts for each video are available in English, French, German, and Chinese Simplified.

Now that we’ve piqued your curiosity, let’s go through the journey.  Step by step:

Once a Thinker completes the HBDI® Thinking Styles Assessment and clicks on the link at the end of the survey, they are taken to their Thinker Portal. 

There they’ll see the “My Journey” Tile This tile is dynamically loaded based on how the HBDI® Invitation was created.  In other words, did the Practitioner want the Thinker to unlock their HBDI® results by using the e-learning activities OR did they want the Thinker to unlock their HBDI® results using an "unlock code" the Practitioner would provide to the Thinker when the time was right.

Since the Unlock via the e-learning activities is the default, we'll show this process first.  And follow-up with the differences if a Thinker has an unlock code.  Use link just below to see the Thinker Portal if the Thinker is setup to unlock with a code: click here

Here's a full view of the Thinker Portal as it would be seen the first time a Thinker arrives AFTER they completed the HBDI® Survey:

Notice that the My Journey tile is setup in stages.

Stage 1, the Intro to Whole Brain Thinking, is:

• Take the HBDI
• Welcome to Your Thinker Journey (an intro page)
• The Video"Introduction to Whole Brain Thinking"

The Thinker will need to complete these steps in the Journey to activate Stage 2

Note below in the picture how the "Self Directed Learning is grayed out.

“Introducing the Whole Brain® Thinking Model.”

This is the first of several videos.  In this three and a half minute video, the Thinker is introduced to four characters, that will repeat in the other videos.  The Thinker will see the value of understanding our own thinking preferences and the preferences of others, and how thinking preferences and the resulting behaviors of others can create challenges, and what we can do to value differences, rather than focus on the challenges.

This video will complete Stage 1.

Stage 2, the Self Directed Journey, is:

• The Video "The Science Behind the Whole Brain® Thinking Model"
• Self Reflection Activity: Setting Goals
• The Video "Who Do You Think You Are?"
• The Video "Recognizing the Preferences of Others"
• The Activity "Great Brains"
• The Video "Creating Better Whole Brain® Outcomes"
• The Activity "Guess My Profile"
• The Activity "Get My Results"
• The Video "Occupations"
• Self Reflection Activity: Taking Action

Stage 1: collapses, and Stage 2 expands

Within each step in the Journey there is a "Next Activity" button that takes the Thinker to the next step.

Stage 2 begins with the Video:
“The Science Behind the Whole Brain® Thinking Model.

This 3 minute video introduces Thinkers to the Herrmann Whole Brain® Model, with some of the history and how Ned Herrmann developed the foundational metaphorical model with four quadrants, and introduces modes of thinking.

Then Thinkers are presented with an opportunity to jot down some of their goals as they continue to learn about their thinking preferences.

Next is a fun 3 minute video “Who Do You Think You Are?” that explores every thinker’s four different selves to reinforce the Herrmann four quadrant model.

The next learning stop in the journey is the two and a half minute video called: “Identifying the Preferences of Others.”  This video allows the Thinker to consider “clue-spotting” in order to work more effectively with others.

Now that Thinkers have had a chance to understand the Herrmann® Four Quadrant Model, and have started thinking about clues of other Thinker’s preferences, the next step in the journey is to try out this new knowledge by guessing the profiles of a few (six to be exact) Great Brains.  With clues provided, Thinkers get to try their hand at guessing the profiles for Pablo Picasso, Bach, etc. And they get instant feedback so they can improve their guesses as they proceed.

The next journey step is another fun three minute video called:
“Creating Better Whole Brain® Outcomes.”  This video gets the Thinker contemplating how to work with their preferences and the preferences of others to create better outcomes.

The next journey step is to take the knowledge gained from the previous steps try to guess their results:

“Guess My Profile.”

This exercise steps the Thinker through some very important key points about the HBDI® profile and then provides the Thinker with a quadrant by quadrant guessing tool.

And then finally, a chance to “tweak” their guess by viewing the entire HBDI® profile:

And then…the Thinker gets to compare their guess to their actual profile.  Just what they’ve been waiting for!

Once the Thinker has guessed their profile and seen the comparison, they have “unlocked” their profile.  This next step/screen gives them a sense of accomplishment:

And then they can proceed to the HBDI® Digital results to dig into more details about their HBDI® profile.

Want to know more about the HBDI® Digital results?

Click here for another article that will walk you through the HBDI® Digital learning steps:

Introducing the HBDI® Digital and the Thinker Portal 

But that’s not all!  Also included in the “My Journey” tile on the portal are two additional learning steps:

The “Occupations” video.

This three minute video expands on the idea that thinking preferences impact our choices of occupations and occupations can impact our thinking preferences.

And finally in the “My  Journey” tile is a “Self Reflection” journaling opportunity. 

This step is an opportunity for the Thinker to commit to action items for the future.

This concludes the “My Journey” learning activities to date.
Be on the lookout for more fun and learning as additional steps are developed!

Getting HBDI® Results Without the Journey E-learning Steps

What if the Practitioner wants a Thinker or Thinkers to have access to their HBDI® Results without going through the Journey e-learning steps?  There is a setup for that scenario too.  Link out to this article to get full instructions, but just note that this process happens within the Invitation process or an unlock process, all details are in this Article: A Practitioner's Guide to the My Journey Learning Activities Options

If a Practitioner creates an Invitation to use the "Unlock Code" rather than the e-learning steps, The "My Journey" tile will look a little different than described above:

When a Thinker's Invitation has been setup for "Unlock with a Code", the Intro to Whole Brain Thinking steps are now:

• Take the HBDI
• Welcome to Your Thinker Journey (an intro page)
• The Video"Introduction to Whole Brain Thinking"
• Get My Results which opens a window to enter the Unlock code provided by the Practitioner (at just the right time) and enter that code links to the HBDI® Digital Results

Want to know more?  Here's an article of Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to get going, so your Thinkers can start their "e-learning journey"?

Contact your Herrmann Representative to find out how!