FAQ
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How can I join Spiral Drives™️
Once you have successfully completed the SD Base Training and received your certification, you will have access to our organization and instruments. You then enter into an independent partnership with us. This gives you access to our instruments at a reduced rate. If you work for yourself, this also allows you to earn a healthy return on your investment in your training. If you are an organization looking to make use of Spiral Drives™ internally, partnership offers you a direct financial advantage. In most cases, if you have completed a similar training and certification, we will allow you to join too.
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What does SD Partnership involve?
SD Partners join the Spiral Drives™ network and can purchase our instruments at a reduced rate. You also have access to our permanent education program, the annual partner day, the latest instruments, tools and materials. You can also rely on our support. You pay a small, annual fee, that you earn back if you have more than 10 drivesDNA™ candidates per year. You are also free to purchase the instruments without the partnership.
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What’s the difference between SD and other Graves/Spiral Dynamics™️ providers?
The best way to answer this question is to ask our SD Experts. We would be glad to put you in touch with them. In general they tell us they value our personal approach, our service, our realistic fees, our strength in innovation, the breadth and depth of our product assortment, that we choose nuances in interpretations over cutting corners and that we also include beige and turquoise. On top of that, working at the team and collective level is both unique and distinctive. The team level focuses on team dynamics and the collective level focuses on shared culture and energy. Each level has its own undercurrent. At Spiral Drives, we appreciate that culture goes further than simply totalling up team members.
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What’s your history, are you one of the many newcomers?
Our company was founded in 2005, under the name ValuesManagement. We have been working passionately on our own research, development and design of Graves based instruments and tools ever since. We are a stable, completely autonomous organization that develops completely from its own strengths. As of March 2020, we have transformed to the name Spiral Drives™. This name fully expresses our development over the first 15 years.
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What training do I need to follow to become a certified SD Expert?
To become certified as an SD Expert, you need to follow the two-day SD Base Training. This training contains everything you need to start work, either independently or for the organization you work for. We look into the theory of Prof. Clare W. Graves and the practical use of the drivesDNA at the individual level. If you want to work at the team and collective level, your training also starts with SD Base Training, simply because the Graves theory starts at the individual level. This is the ground work for the strategic three-level approach.
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What entry qualifications do I need to enroll for trainings?
You need relevant knowledge and skills to be able to work at the relevant level, collective, team or individual if you want to enrol. As far as we are concerned, you already working as an advisor, trainer or coach. Our trainings add to this with the Graves development model and the drivesDNA at the three strategic levels.
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What do I need to be able to work at the team and collective levels?
This requires attending the 1-day SD Extended Training. In this compact and efficient training day, you’ll learn how to unravel team dynamics using the Team drivesDNA™ and how to expose the undercurrent in teams and organizations using the Collective drivesDNA™. In both cases we teach you how you can effectively transform your insights into actions and improvements. Then we get ready to support you in your first process(es) with your client(s).
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I’ve been trained and certified elsewhere, what now?
If you already have a similar certification, then you can usually join without any problems. To use the Collective drivesDNA™ and our specialized instruments, an additional training is usually required, unless you have a recognized accreditation in psychology, such as by the NIP in the Netherlands.
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What does your extra specialized training involve?
All Graves instruments providers offer similar instruments, based on the ipsative question method. They all focus on the personal drives’ preference of candidates, where the total score is 100%. This works well, because it avoids making any direct value judgments. Our specialized instruments have been developed in accordance with classic psychometrics, based on 5-point Likert scales. They give results related to a norm group with good qualitative guidance. This makes these instruments extremely powerful. You need extra knowledge and experience to make use of them effectively and responsibly. Our specialization instruments are a result of years of teamwork with our (test) psychologists.
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I already work with Graves instruments, what extras can SD offer me?
With Spiral Drives™ you can add the Collective drivesDNA™ and/or the specialization instruments to the instruments that you are already familiar with. They work seamlessly together, whatever provider you are currently working with. This means that you get to work at the strategic level in organizations and/or gain a more concrete grip on individual and team development.
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You started 15 years ago, what have you done to keep your instruments up to date?
We have been active commercially since 2005, but we haven’t stood still. We have carried out a review of our products every 4-5 years. Insights into the drives develop over time and we keep adding these new insights to our surveys, so they are up to date. It’s important to us that our surveys always make use of the latest insights. We are open and transparent about these regular improvements.
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How similar are you to Spiral Dynamics, Management Drives, Profile Dynamics and other providers?
The main similarity between these providers is the research work carried out by Professor Clare W. Graves, supplemented by the color coding by Don Beck and Chris Cowan, authors of the book Spiral Dynamics. Apart from some possible differences in interpretation, this is the same starting point for all providers. All of the providers make use of the ipsative test method in their surveys. That means that not only do all measure the same things, they also all measure them in the same way. This makes their reports comparable and interchangeable.
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What differences are there from Spiral Dynamics, Management Drives, Profile Dynamics and other providers?
Well, we were the first to work with the three-level approach with instruments that really measure each level. The most distinctive of these is the Collective drivesDNA™ where you work at a strategic level with your client. At the individual level we have an advanced and easy to understand personal report. You can support your candidate with this in their development, while still keeping an important role as an SD Expert. You can have reports professionally printed for individuals or for hundreds of candidates via our Printing On Demand Service. In terms of Graves’ theory, we are different because we include all of the drives in the model, including beige and turquoise. Our knowledge and experience means that we have even been able to measure turquoise in a reliable way for years. Finally, we enjoy sharing our knowledge with SD Exports, about for example psychometrics. Sharing makes us all experts.
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Does all this mean you are more expensive?
No, not at all. We don’t care about shiny, fat lease cars or swanky offices. Almost all our clients find us by word of mouth and we don’t spend a cent on overpriced sales or marketing. We don’t believe in it. What we do believe in is an honest, well-structured approach, a good quality website and the most important thing of all: top class products and service, all at reasonable prices. You can use our instruments as modules, so you never pay more than you need to and you can make attractive offers to your clients too.