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DiSC Certification Explained

DiSC Certification takes about 20 hours, with half the time in live online classes, and half with self-directed learning and assignments.
Classes start every 1-3 weeks. Find a date that works for you on this schedule.
The training includes a facilitation kit, with PowerPoint slides, videos, exercises, lesson plans, and other tools you can use to adapt DiSC to your learner's needs.
After completion, you earn the title of Certified DiSC Practioner
However, you will still need to work with an Authorized Partner (and not with Wiley directly) to deliver DiSC assessments. Your Authorized Partner also provides you with ongoing support.
Still have questions? Fill out the form above or below, and Dan will set up a call.

DiSC Certification Course Structure

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm Dan Kaplan, and I am an Authorized Partner with Wiley, one of the companies that offer the DiSC assessment. I made this video to help explain the DiSC certification process because it's really not all that clear on other websites.

In this video, I've included answers to questions that I get from people seeking to become DiSC certified. There's a transcription below along with my email if you have any questions.

Before I get into it, let me explain what will be in this video.

First, I will explain why I think DiSC is the most effective behavioral assessment, particularly for communications training.

Second, I'll explain some of the advantages of working with Wiley over other providers of DiSC. Then I’ll talk about what an Authorized Provider, like myself, is, and how we can support you as you become certified.
I'll give an overview of what the DiSC certification program is and what you can do with it.
Then I'll cover what's included in the certification course, including the number of hours that you'll be required to commit to the training, how the training works, and what you get, as part of becoming DiSC certified.
Alright, let's get into it.

Why is DiSC The Best Behavioral Assessment?

I’m often asked, why is DiSC better than Myers Briggs or Enneagram, or Predictive Index, or many of the other dozens and dozens of behavioral assessments out on the market?

First of all, DiSC is more helpful when it comes to communications. It's over 70 years old, and not only is considered one of the most scientifically accurate assessments on the market, but it’s also used by 1000s of organizations to help people communicate better -- not just to understand themselves (as the other assessments do), but to understand their coworkers.

In my opinion, the number one reason is that it's applicable. When you become certified in DiSC, you'll be able to teach people how to use it in an afternoon or less. There are only four styles. So it's simple. It's not like Myers Briggs, where you have to remember all these letters, and then three weeks after the training, you've completely forgotten everything.

Another reason is the tools that Wiley offers you as a practitioner. I'll be talking about this a little later in the video, but there are kits that you will receive to help you implement the training and an incredible e-learning platform called Catalyst. Nobody else on the market has anything like this. It's filled with videos and podcasts and interactive activities, things that your learners can use to actually apply DiSC in their everyday interactions.

Why Work With Wiley For DiSC Certification?

Another question I get from people seeking to become DiSC Certified is why work with Wiley? (There are many providers of the DiSC assessment.)

When I started my consulting firm, I did my research, and I chose Wiley as a provider for two reasons:

The level of support is outstanding, which you'll need as you move to bring DiSCs into your organization or with your clients, and
The tools that Wiley offers are really second-to-none

Let me show you one right here. This is called Catalyst. This is the online learning platform for DiSC as provided by Wiley. It’s great on your phone. You can take the assessment on a laptop or your phone, and you can get your results on your phone as well.

With Catalyst, assessment results are no longer delivered on a static PDF. Now you get an interactive platform with videos, podcasts, and interactive exercises, that all of your learners can use. It’s full of information to help people understand themselves, their co-workers, and how to build better relationships.

And there are also a lot of learning modules in here, for example, I can learn more about my communication style, and things that stress me out or motivate me, to help me become a better communicator. Then I can understand the different DiSC styles of my coworkers that I interact with.

Here’s an example video, with paid actors using the body language, tonality, and word choice of people with each DiSC style, so you can get in the head of what it's like to be one of these other styles so that you can adapt your communications to their needs.

I just love some of the tools in here, for example, how to connect with a very direct person…what to do when problems need to be solved…or when things get tense.

This here, I think is worth the price of entry: the Your Colleagues tool. Nobody else in the industry that I know of has this. Everybody in your organization who takes the DiSC assessment can go in and look at how I as an individual, may interact with that other person as an individual. Some of my clients use this before they sit down in their one on ones so that they can get a better understanding of each other's communications and work styles. It helps them talk about how they want to talk with each other. It includes people’s similarities and differences, so they can find out what's important to the other person, and get an understanding of how they’re the same and how they’re different. There’s great information in here, like what's going to cause tension between you two, how to connect, how to collaborate, and how to get that person's buy-in. Really helpful.

There are tools for group communication here as well. The average employee is on three to five teams, so each user can put together a team and understand how to get some insights into how that team operates and understand those same dynamics on the team level. Really, really helpful. This is the area that Wiley is investing a lot in, to build out more activities for groups to improve their communications.

I'd like to also show you that there are also management communication training modules. If you sign on as a practitioner, you’ll be able to deliver DiSC management training to your teams, and a lot of the content for your managers is in here as well. They can learn about their own management style, and how to use DiSC to direct and delegate, motivate, and develop talent managers. It's an incredible resource. It goes very, very deep. My clients love it. And I think it's one of the things that makes Wiley stand out.

What is An Authorized Partner?

Okay, so the next thing to understand is: what is an authorized provider, and how will you as a Certified DiSC Practitioner, work with somebody like myself? I'm an Authorized Provider for Wiley. Their business model is to sell through providers like myself, almost like a franchise model. So you won't work directly with Wiley, you'll work with someone like me, an authorized provider

Your authorized provider will do several things for you. They're really your first point of contact for support. So what does that mean? That means your authorized provider will deliver the DiSC assessments to your learners, will provide technical support if you need it, and also act as a consultant to help you understand the best way to roll out DiSC within your organization or with your clients.

It's very helpful to have somebody with more experience, who has been doing this for a long time, to help you get the most out of your DiSC Certification training. Also, as I said before, Wiley has a comprehensive suite of other training programs, like management training, the Work of Leaders, emotional intelligence training, conflict resolution training, sales training, and the list goes on, and you would work with your authorized provider to gain access to those programs.

My piece of advice around choosing an authorized provider is to find somebody that you click with obviously, who you think will provide you with the best support. For example, with my clients, I'm very hands-on, I respond, respond quickly. I help them understand their clients or their organization's needs so that they can customize the tools and the training, to become most effective. You can find an authorized partner by going to everything DiSC.com Wiley's website and clicking on Find a provider interview a few find somebody that you click with and make sure that you're confident that they'll provide you the level of customer service that you need.

What Can I Do With DiSC Certification Training?

Okay, so what is the DiSC certification and what can I do with it? That is a great question. The DiSC Certification “prepares practitioners to deliver engaging and impactful desktop learning experiences that help people work better together.” The certification course teaches you the principles of DiSC so that you can use it with your organization or your clients.

What you do with that certification and the materials that's up to you.

When you become certified in DiSC, you get the basic facilitators kit. Now that facilitators kit includes an Instructor Guide, PowerPoint slides, videos, and everything you need to adapt the training to your own organization or to your clients, either in person or virtually.

So it's really up to you how you use these materials and the training. What you receive with DiSC certification is enough for you to get started immediately using what we call DiSC Workplace communications. That's the basic use of DiSC, and it includes three concepts: helping people understand their own communication style, helping people understand their co-worker's communication style, and helping them use all that information to build better relationships at work.

What the DiSC Certification does not include is a deep dive into the more advanced modules that I mentioned earlier: DiSC management, leadership, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, etc. Those are additional modules, which you do not need additional certification to use, but you would need to purchase those facilitation kits and add-on assessments, from your authorized partner. These are above and beyond the Workplace assessment and training, you get with the DiSC Certification.

To summarize, with the DiSC Certification, you'll receive all of the training and the materials, you need to begin using DiSC within your organization or with your clients. How you use that material and that knowledge, it's really up to you.

When you complete the certification course, you receive the credential of Everything DiSC Certified Practitioner, as well as, if you're a member of SHRM, you get 20 PDCs.

What's Involved in Getting DiSC Certified?

What's involved in getting DiSC certified? Well, the DiSC certification course through Wiley is a two-week online training. It will take about 20 hours of your time to complete. About half that time will be spent in an online classroom environment with peers and a live instructor and the other half will be spent with self-directed learning and homework assignments.

The certification training covers the history of DiSC, the research behind DiSC, a deep understanding of all the DiSC styles, guidance on how to customize the DISC assessment and Catalyst, and the training materials you can adapt to the needs of your learners.

As I said before, you'll receive the facilitation kit that will be out of the box ready for you to begin delivering training. And you will be ready to work with your authorized provider to send the DISC Assessment to your learners and grant them access to Catalyst.

The certification course gives you the confidence, competence, and credibility needed to deliver DiSC solutions.

After the training, you'll still have continued access to the online training center as well as other resources and materials, flip charts, notepads, things, swag, and things of that nature that you may want to be able to deliver to your learners.

And finally, the certification course starts roughly every two weeks. You can look up the dates on the brochures above, for upcoming classes.

Call or email me if you have any questions.

I also offer certification with Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team or we flip into the positive to be The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team. Where DiSC is for individuals, The Five Behaviors is for teams. You don't have to do both, but I have found them to be a really, really powerful combination.

I'm Dan Kaplan. Let me know if I can help.