7 minutes
Style is not character How someone disagrees is not how evolved they are.
What you’ll be able to do Identify the practical implication of “Style is not character” and apply it to one live DHS decision connected to Intercultural Conflict Styles at a DHS Desk. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: How should the team use the concept? Document a next step for Style is not character: Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed. Direct is not “honest.” Indirect is not “evasive.” Those rankings are Polarization. What the evidence is Intercultural conflict-style research (including Hammer’s ICS work) describes two axes people often use: direct vs. indirect about the disagreement, and emotionally expressive vs. restrained . Useful as a noticing tool. The inventory itself is an assessment. This course will not give it. It will not put a style on a performance review.
Put this lesson to work What you can change You control whether style is not character changes a live DHS process connected to Intercultural Conflict Styles at a DHS Desk or remains information on a page.
What to watch for The team completes the learning, keeps the same default, assigns no owner, and never checks who carries the burden.
Your next step Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Fictional conversation
Hear the deadline concern, then describe the delivery The same fictional speaker raises the same deadline concern in two ways. These short synthetic recordings illustrate wording and pace; they do not represent a cultural group or an assessment.
Version one: direct wording, steady pace Read the complete transcript We cannot finish the review by Friday with the packet arriving Thursday. Can we move the deadline to Tuesday?
Version two: tentative wording, slower pace Read the complete transcript I wonder whether Friday gives us enough review time. The packet arrives Thursday. Would Tuesday be possible?
1. Compare what stayed the same Both versions identify a Thursday packet, a Friday review deadline and Tuesday as an alternative. What changed in delivery, and what evidence about the work remained the same?
Consider the response The wording and pace changed. Neither version establishes honesty, competence, a cultural identity or leadership potential. A useful next question is: What review work must fit between receiving the packet and the decision?
In the lesson notes, draft a next line for a comparable conversation and explain what it would help you learn.
Carry this forward How someone disagrees is not how evolved they are.
You control whether style is not character changes a live DHS process connected to Intercultural Conflict Styles at a DHS Desk or remains information on a page.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Completion is shown by a scenario decision, a knowledge-check response and a saved one-minute commitment.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Reset this lesson
Course overview Next lesson Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
