This project was developed as part of the certification process for the IDG Measurement Coach. While discussing their unexpressed abilities, people often expressed a fear of the opposing polarity, revealing a tendency to overvalue only one side of the polarity.

Country: Brasil
IDG HUB: IDG Cluster Brasil
Link to website:
Link to presentation: IDG Measurement Polarities

This project was developed as part of my certification process for the IDG Measurement Coach.
The IDG Measurement is an assessment that measures the level that the IDG competencies are expressed by a person. ‘Even though numbers are an important part of the solution, the assessment was designed with the purpose not to evaluate or put people into boxes, but to open up deeper, more meaningful conversations about the human qualities that we need to develop if we are to meet the complex challenges ahead’ (Being at Full Potencial – company that has created the assessment).
The overall IDG score is a holistic measure that captures the extent to which someone is expressing its inner abilities for growth and impact in the world. It is meant to give a high-level overview and a sense of Where someone is in its Inner Development journey at some point in time.
For each IDG ability the result could be in four different colors (purple, green, yellow and red) to represent the scores: “EXPRESSED” (for green and purple results) and “UNEXPRESSED” (for yellow and red results – NOT meaning that the person does not have the inherent ability to thrive in that area. It simply indicates that at the current point in time was not fully EXPRESSED).
During the conversation, I noticed that people often felt uncomfortable not knowing how to enhance na ability identified as unexpressed. I’ve provided an opportunity for the people to reflect on their daily behavior, and all the time they end up recognizing that the assessment results were accurate, but most of the time people attributed the result by referencing the polarity of the ability as a point of uncertainty of themselfs.

Example:
The unexpressed ability was: PRESENCE.
The person’s consideration of her result: “But I don’t see myself as an ABSENT person when it comes to my clients.” Surprised, the person added: “So I need to focus more on PRESENCE during my consultations, otherwise my clients won’t be well served, and I might lose them.”
Noticing that the person was interpreting the result through the lens of the ability’s polarity, I offered a perspective on the importance of the polarity and initiated a dialogue about it. Starting from the broader purpose (retaining her clients), I identified her greatest fear: losing clients due to a lack of PRESENCE – the unexpressed ability.

The greatest impact I noticed was the people’s attention to the explanation of Polarity, its aspect of complementarity, and the importance of not choosing a single pole—the possibility of negative impact of focusing solely on one pole.
The second greatest impact was realizing that the person was reaaly surprised that there are positive and negative aspects to both poles. The key insight was: “Wow, I always thought in terms of negative and positive poles!” Every time I shared this information, it led to interesting insights about diferent day-to-day situations. Most importantly, people began to understand that the pole previously considered positive, in their previous mindset prior to our conversation, also carried negative aspects when overused.
I realized that the methodology of polarities helped individuals both in relation to their greater purpose and in addressing their greatest fear—which is often the first emotion and verbalization when the conversation revolves around unexpressed abilities.
This exercise proved beneficial in the following ways:

  • People gained a deeper understanding of the meaning of the IDG ability. In this case: PRESENCE.
  • People understood what could lead to their biggest fear, by recognizing the negative side of any given pole, while also reinforcing that the complementary pole should be considered.
  • They realized they couldn’t neglect the complementary pole because, in the long term, focusing solely on one pole could create problems for them—and consequently preventing them from achieving their greater purposes.
  • They understood that the energy of polarity could be leveraged, as each pole offers positive aspects.

My project is based on the idea that, as a coach working with clients who self-assess quantitatively in relation to the IDG abilities, I can also help them leverage their abilities by integrating the polarity of unexpressed abilities. This process fosters a balance between extremes, allowing the client to harness the energy and positive aspects of both sides, rather than prioritizing just one. This directly reflects the goal of “building bridges between polarities,” which is essential for achieving more harmonious and sustainable long-term development.