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Module 5 2

Module 5

Module 5: Interpreting & Applying MN Results


Module 5 Objectives

In this module you will:

Review the aim of the MN Process
Consider the difference between “work” and “engagement”
Learn ways to identify the needs of your client
Collect clients' personal information
Connect clients’ potential to activities
Use the MN Software to assist in the process of aligning potential

Module 5: Introduction

Once an MN Validation is complete, the next critical task emerges: interpreting the client’s MN results. This activity has a number of key aspects, including:
Identifying the needs of the client
Connecting MIs and MNs to careers, tasks, and hobbies
Helping the client make decisions based on the results
However, before we get into specifics with the client, it’s important for us to step back and see the larger picture—what we are trying to accomplish with MN with our clients.

Starting with the end in mind

In his best-selling book, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey urges readers to begin with the end in mind—to start with a clearly articulated goal to ensure the right strategy and path to reach it are chosen. Keep in mind that clients will come to you with goals of all sorts--finding the right job, major, or career path. While these are all viable goals in themselves, you should never lose sight of the wider aim of what MN was set up to do-- to help people reach states of flow more easily and regularly.
It is therefore recommended that you help clients see the wider scope—of how they can leverage their potential for not only the goal they set out to accomplish, but for the deeper purpose of continually finding ways to remain in flow. By doing so, you will not only help them achieve their immediate need, but also an even greater need that they might not know ever existed. In the process, you would truly be “teaching a person to fish”.
There are billions of people out there searching for flow, and an infinitely greater number of ways for them to reach it. This is what can make the process of decision making maddening. To make the process easier, it’s important to spell out the key components involved in attaining flow—namely, energy, potential, and resistance, and also activity—the vehicle that these elements must be plugged into in order for them to become activated. Your goal as a practitioner is of course to solve their immediate concern (e.g., choosing a job, finding life balance, selecting a major), but also to enable the client to see how these elements fit together in the larger picture so the best plans can be made and best decisions can be taken at each step of the way.

A shift from "work" to "engagement"

In the previous era, when life was less complex, people traveled a straighter line through their lives with respect to their studies, work, and income. They got degrees or qualifications to perform a specific type of job, and did that for most of their lives with very little change. As long as they showed up and performed their tasks responsibly, they received a fair compensation that typically enabled them to buy a car and a home, support a family, and eventually retire on what they had saved. Fast forward to today—to an age where qualification is becoming a lot less important than skills; where people need to keep reinventing themselves; where people outlast their companies; where folks change careers 7-10 times over the course of their lives, and sometimes choose not to retire because they enjoy working. The world today is vastly different from the world of yore because of many factors, but specifically because technology has helped to create a level of abundance that we have never before seen. With a significantly better standard of living, humans have to do far less to survive, giving us a greater capacity to choose what we would like to do with our time—including being involved in more leisurely activities, hobbies, and volunteer work. And, as we have discussed, when there are more options of what one can do, it becomes more difficult to decide specifically what to do.
Although these changes are happening right under our noses, they are occurring so quickly and quietly, they they often go on undetected by the masses. Institutions such as schools, colleges, employment agencies, and companies often fail to respond to these evolutions, perpetuating programs and policies that were ideal for another era with their present stakeholders—much to everyone’s detriment. For instance, students today have a dilemma of whether to get a degree knowing it will likely equip them with knowledge and skills that will be obsolete by the time they graduate—and leave them with a hefty college loan that will keep them in debt possibly for decades.
It is for this reason that you might find it helpful to change your frame about the paradigm of work and finance—to view people as beings that have the capacity to engage in a variety of activities—some of which may generate significant income, modest amounts of income—or no income at all. And that because of the flexibility that is afforded to so many people, they have the luxury of a wider selection of options to choose from when filling their plates.
In this sense, it might be more helpful not to look strictly at what “work” people can do (i.e., jobs that earn), but how people “engage” themselves—i.e., how they can fill their time with activities that are meaningful to them and enable them to remain in flow as much as possible. Income is a different (though related—and critically important topic!). Because if people play their cards right, they can find ways both to be engaged in meaningful work as well as earn enough to keep their options open. Their best way of doing so is to be equipped with the MN model while planning their strategy.

Identifying clients' needs

Each client will be unique, and naturally, will have unique needs. You might have a client who is changing jobs, and who wants to be sure that a particular plan for a job change is the right one. Or perhaps it’s someone who is unemployed and unsure of which direction to head in. You might also be approached by parents who want to ensure their son or daughter is choosing the best major or career path. A single working mother might seek out advice on whether she should start up her own business. A senior manager in a large company might be interested to find greater work-life balance. MN’s flexibility enables you to use the tool with each of these types of clients—and just about any other; however, the way you apply MN in each case will be slightly different.
That’s why it is important that you get enough background information about your clients—the key details that generate the topography of their lives. Equipped with those points, you will find it much easier to help your clients understand MN and its relevance to helping them solve their problems.

Which information to collect from your clients

The following are the areas of information about the client that you might find valuable to know:

the client’s current circumstances (geography, employment)
aspirations
qualifications
financial situation
available resources
existing responsibilities

Sample Questionnaire for Collecting Client Information


Below is an example of a questionnaire you can use/adapt for use with your client while collecting details about them for counseling or coaching with MN.
Download
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 Sample Client Questionnaire.docx
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When to collect the information

The next thing you need to consider is when you are going to get this information from the client. It might be an excellent idea to collect it when you first interview with the client to determine the type of guidance you’ll be providing. However, because of the depth of information required for an effective interpretation and application of clients’ MN results, you may choose to get rough details in the beginning, and after the MN Validation, go into further depth.

How client details will affect your approach

The following describes how the information you collect about clients will guide the way you approach them.
Age: While we hope that age should never be a limiting factor, it will surely restrict which type of options are available to a client. For instance, if a client is 55 years old, it would be extremely challenging for him to consider becoming a physician because of the time required to attain the necessary academic requirements. At the same time, becoming a therapist or nurse could still be a possibility.
Location: Where a client lives matters especially if an individual is involved in work where access to certain resources, people, and companies is required locally. For instance, someone planning a pet-walking service would likely do better in a city, most likely near more affluent areas, as opposed to being in a rural community.
Skills: Skills refer to the specific tasks that a client can do competently. They can include simple things such as typing and data entry, to more involved ones such as making presentations, networking, and conducting interviews. They can get even more complex and specific, such as extracting a tooth, performing a regression analysis on a set of data, or capturing dangerous wild animals that have strayed into populated areas. Clients will find it easier to venture into new work opportunities when they have skills that are relevant to those areas. It is important to indicate to clients that if that lack specific skills in an area they want to explore that a) it is advantageous and desirable if those skills are based on strong MIs or MNs that they possess, and b) that it takes time to develop skills (possibly dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of hours).
The MN Task list also provides skills.
You can also find lists of skills on the the Internet. For example:
https://www.thebalance.com/list-of-general-skills-...
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Current employment status: If your client is employed full time or part time clues you in to the time that’s available to them--or that needs to be filled. This will inform you when it comes to creating a complete solution for the client. While some individuals might be inclined toward a traditional type of work arrangement (having a full-time job as the primary source of income, supplemented by part-time jobs or hobbies), others might be more amenable to situations where they cobble together different types of activities, each of which contributes to a pool of funds with which they can support themselves.
Role/Titles: Clients will have all likely held some title or role in working activities they are or have been involved in. Understanding this gives you insights into their existing skill set, as well as the level they have reached in their career. Often people find it challenging to take on new jobs or careers once they have attained a higher level of status; they might be especially sensitive if suggestions come up (from the MN report or otherwise) that they feel are “below” them.
Qualifications: Qualifications open doors. Degrees, diplomas, and certificates signal a degree of knowledge and competence that enable people to get access to a wider variety of jobs. Even though clients might not want to make direct use of existing qualifications for work purposes, they might be able to leverage them to gain credibility or to leverage opportunities. In situations where they lack qualification, it may be essential for them to gain credentials to enable them to pursue a particular line of work. They need to take this into consideration as attaining qualifications takes time, requires energy, and often comes at a significant financial expense.
Experience: Experience in different areas helps a client in a number of ways. Apart from fostering core occupational skills, it provides soft skills, perspective, and wisdom—all of which can be parlayed into new avatars. Probing clients for different types of experience can unveil important details that can greatly shape the guidance and planning process.
Financial situation: While money doesn’t buy happiness, it does provide people with opportunities. Things change greatly when an individual has a considerably large savings, a spouse who can financially support fully the client, limited financial requirements, etc. (Naturally, you should determine your clients’ comfort level about discussing their personal finances, as this topic is often a sensitive one that they might wish to go into details about.) Even if they do not want to provide specifics, you could ask them to rate their financial situation on a scale of 1-5, where 1 indicates distress and 5 indicates significant excess. Having insight to this will help the client plan more realistically.
Goals/Aspirations: If clients have clear goals or aspirations, it creates one circumstance. You will need to validate whether their Natures are in line with them or not. If clients do not have clear goals or aspirations, you will need to work with them to establish them, of course ensuring they are in line with their MIs and MNs.

Getting personal

In particular cases, clients might want to discuss things related to their personal lives. They might also freely express things in the discussions because they are on their minds and affect their decisions; they sometimes feel comforted by someone who will listen to their personal issues. They also might not be able to determine what is relevant to tell you and what to withhold, as to them, all aspects of their lives are meaningfully intertwined. They might also feel that the more they share, the more you’ll understand them, and the more you’ll be able to help them. As a practitioner you need to determine the degree to which those details are important in order for you to do what you need to do for the purpose of the validation and the guidance you will provide.
This line can often be a blurry one. For instance, a client begins to reveal something about her relationship with her mother--how the way her mother treated her when she was young greatly affects her current perspective of herself and her ability to perform administrative types of tasks. Or a client who wants to express details about her divorce because it affects her financial situation and ability to plan for a career change. As a rule of thumb, you need to consider:
The goal of the MN guidance and the role you are playing. If you are a licensed psychotherapist, and your MN intervention is going to include a degree of therapy, that would certainly open the door more widely to learning about these details. If, however, you are yet to obtain certification as a coach or counselor and you are just performing a validation and providing simple guidance for application of the MN results, you might want to be restrictive about the kind of details you elicit and encourage the client to elaborate on.
The time available. In most cases, your MN intervention will have clear parameters about what you will do, the amount of time you spend, and the costs for your time. And in most cases, there will be limits to time and budget. As such, it is important to keep your clients on track, gently guiding them back on course so they don’t offer extra details that could significantly extend the length of your sessions or that don’t provide you with information that is not relevant for what you need to accomplish.

Example:

Marlene: My husband really mistreats me. He’s verbally very abusive and teases me when I talk about starting my own salon. In fact, last week at a pool party, he…
Practitioner: Marlene, sorry to interrupt. I understand that must be a challenge for you. However, I would like to bring our focus back to support and resources. If you yourself decided you wanted to open your salon would it be possible?
Marlene: Yes, if I really wanted.

Example:

David: I would like to get my Yoga Instructor certification, but all my extra time is going into taking care of my mother. She is losing her memory. It’s getting harder day by day. Like last week when I went to visit her, she…
Practitioner: David, that sounds like it must be hard for you. However, what I’d like to know is whether you will be able to make any extra time or not for getting additional certification.
David: Not for the next 3 months. But my sister is moving in with my Mom in January, so after that it’ll be possible.

You can't always get what you want

Stability over passion

There are some motivational speakers who rev people up and exhort them to follow their passion. They tell them to drop caution to the wind and do what their heart yearns for.
I wholly disagree with such advice.
Each person is different, with different appetites for taking risk, with different amounts of responsibility, and with Natures that are better or worse suited toward different types of activity. A single mother holding down two jobs to pay the rent and put food on the table would be ill advised to quit her day jobs to pursue her dream of becoming an actor—especially if she doesn’t have the natural abilities for it!
At the same time, a man who has a spouse earning a comfortable salary might be able to explore the possibility of leaving his corporate job to pursue a career as a cartoonist without much difficulty (except possibly for getting the agreement from his partner).

You can’t always do what you want (or too much flow can be a bad thing)

With all of this talk about the infinite options available to people today and the numerous creative ways people can financially find ways to engage in them, this is not to say that people will (or should) get to do only what they would like to do or only what they are naturally good at! The world and people’s contexts are constantly in flux, and an important skill in life is learning how to negotiate those changes.
Think for a moment about a fish in a home aquarium. You keep the temperature and pH at optimum levels, being careful to feed the fish just the right amount--not too much or to little. However if the temperature or pH level go even a bit too high or too low, or you accidentally drop a large dollop of fish flakes in the tank, you might find your finned friends belly up the next morning. Now consider fish out in the wild. They must constantly contend with huge fluctuations in temperature and pH levels—and varying food availability. But such creatures have strengthened their capacity to adapt! In the same way, MN is a tool that enables people to adapt—to weather the changes of a rapidly changing world of work and activity, where those who master it can increase their chances of encountering circumstances favorable to their Natures, and who, when the going gets tough, can not only handle difficult challenges, but who can more readily and adeptly navigate themselves into situations that align with their inherent qualities.

Students vs. Adults/Professionals

It goes without saying that the type of information you collect from students and professionals will be significantly different. Professionals typically have work experience, qualifications, financial income, family responsibilities, and so on. For students, you will likely want to reduce and modify the questions you ask them. Below are questions that would be more appropriate for them:

Questions for students:

What are your interests?
Do you have any hobbies?
What things are you particularly good at / not good at?
Do you have particular aspirations for work?
What kind of environments do you like working in?
What kind of people do you like working with?
Do you know what course of study you would like to pursue?

Questions for professionals:

What are your interests or hobbies?
What things are you particularly good at / not good at?
What problem(s) do you currently have?
What would be an ideal situation for you?
What kind of environments do you like working in?
Where does your income come from?
How much do you need to earn monthly to sustain yourself?
Having answers to questions like these puts you in a much better position to work with clients on identifying what types of activities could effectively fill their time, while enabling them to see ways of earning what they require to maintain financial security.

Case Study #3: Meenu Jain

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The following video contains an MN Validation performed by Steven Rudolph with a client. (Please note: the client's name and personal details have been changed to maintain the client's anonymity.)
Client's name: Meenu Jain
Gender: Female
Age: 35
Location: Mumbai, India
Medium: Skype
Context: Meenu lives in Mumbai, where she teaches after-school classes to children from grades 1-5. She tried to run her own small business for some time, but shifted to teaching prep classes a few years ago. Eager to get more active again, she has been considering a role as a sales executive and administrator for an educational company that would provide services to students in private schools. She is taking the MN Test at the request of her potential employer to determine whether or not she has the right nature for the job. The potential employer is present during the validation, and, at certain points in the interaction participates in the dialogue.

MN Practitioner: Steven Rudolph


Total time taken with Practitioner: 55 min
Validation Method: Client watched most of the MN Primer before the session. The practitioner closed some gaps and then performed the MN Validation.

Module 5: Assignment #1 - Right match?

Consider Meenu Jain, the woman in the case study for this module. She is being considered as a candidate for a job, where her role would require her to:

visit private schools on a regular basis
identify potential leads for schools to visit
make sales pitches to principals and decision makers about the product
make presentations to students and parents about the product
create and deliver presentations
create proposals

The employer is considering her for a long-term role in his company. If she clears this stage, he would want Meenu to:

interview and hire additional sales agents
train sales agents
manage those sales agents

Question: Based on Meenu's MI-MN scores, how well do you think she will do in the role of

a sales agent?
a team manager?

Justify your answer.


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