In the 20th century, D.I.S.C. was a management tool for assessing the skill of employee motivation.
- D = Dominance
- I = Inducement
- S = Submission
- C = Compliance
Dominance was believed to be the assertive skill of good managers and leaders. The alpha male, dominant leader, dominated submissive workers with a motivational stick.
Inducement was believed to be the skill of motivating compliant workers with a carrot or inducement. Dominant leaders employed assistance from inducers to manage compliant staff.
Submission was believed to be the trait of workers who survived under dominant management. The stick caused non-compliant workers to submit to disagreeable tasks.
Compliance was believed to be the trait of workers who strived to comply when induced to do so by a carrot or an inducement. People complied when happy with their pay & conditions, whilst sub-missives unhappily submitted or were sacked for non compliance.
In general:
- Managers were expected to be Dominant
- Assistants were expected to be Inducers
- Non-submissive workers were re-deployed or sacked
- Compliant workers were incentivised to remain compliant
In the 21st century of awakened awareness, a new interpretation of the acronym is dawning; not as a motivational assessment but as a measure of personal empowerment.
- D = Dominant decision making due to intellectual deduction
- I = Inducing choice with intuitive innovation
- S = Submissive instinct introducing a sub-mission
- C = Compliant imagination allowing creative conduct
DISC is an acronym for the four levels of sub-conscious, conscious, super-conscious & supra-conscious awareness of an empowered person.
- Dominant conscious intellectual deduction
- Inducive super-conscious intuitive induction
- Submissive sub-conscious instinctive introduction
- Compliant supra-conscious imaginative conduction