What is MindSonar®?

If I asked you to imagine an X-ray machine for the mind that could actually measure how people think, what would you do with it? That tool is MindSonar® and it is a web-based psychological system that measures Metaprograms and Graves Motivational Drives.

Metaprograms are the building blocks of how people think.

Someone’s thinking style is made up of a combination of Metaprograms, creating a unique, personal system. Graves Motivational Drives describe what they find important, their values or criteria that they measure others by or themselves by. Their Metaprograms determine their behavior and their emotions in a given situation.

Who uses MindSonar®?

MindSonar® is being used all over the world by consultants, coaches, trainers, and organizational developers. MindSonar® Psychometrics helps get to the heart of a client’s thinking. MindSonar® is being used in prestigious organizations like the armed forces of the Netherlands (in their leadership development course), a top European automobile manufacturer (sales), and has been used in the Olympic Dressage team (team-building), which won 20% of all Dutch medals in the London Olympics of 2012 and in one of Europe’s premier banks (marketing). And there have been many non-commercial applications of MindSonar® as well; it is also used in volunteer groups, daycare centers, and schools.

A different kind of test.

MindSonar® is not a personality test. Personality tests will tell you what you are like as a person; always and under any circumstances. Many people feel limited and ‘put in a box’ by these kinds of tests. Some personality tests will even say how ’healthy or sick’ your personality is.

MindSonar® measures how you think in a specific situation.

It assumes that you will think differently in different situations. MindSonar® does not assume that any thinking style is good or bad. Every thinking style has its time and place where it can be helpful.

Where does the name ‘MindSonar®’ come from?

The term ‘MindSonar®’ uses sonar technology as an analogy. Sonar shows us objects that cannot be seen by observing the surface of the water, and it requires an expert to understand the exact nature of those objects.

What do you get from MindSonar®?

Most clients start with a 30-page in-depth profile of how they think in a given context and a 90-minute coaching session that makes the invisible visible. In this first session, we will review the report with you, as well as show you how to adapt your thinking to get the results you are looking for.

Used by professionals only.

You will not find MindSonar® as a do-it-yourself test on the web. MindSonar® is offered exclusively through a network of trained and certified professionals. The combination of the measurement and the professional is much more powerful than just the measurement by itself.

Many uses, a single tool.

Because MindSonar® is context-based, the MindSonar® professional can use the tool in many ways to support people and organizations:

Improve communication.

Motivating people more effectively by adopting the phrasing of your message.
Improving communication in groups.
Helping people in groups and teams to understand how differences in language may hinder communication and teach them how to adapt to each other’s profiles to improve mutual acceptance and understanding.
Tailoring messages to target groups.
Improving the reception of proposals by determining the average profile of a target group and adapting the phrasing of your proposals to that profile.

Offering insights in problems and resources.

Offering insights in problems and resources.
Helping people understand why they get stuck in some situations and flourish in other situations, based on their profile.
Analysing strengths and weaknesses of teams and organisations.
Helping groups and organisations understand their strengths and weaknesses in a given context, based on the average profile and the available variety (standard deviation) in the group.

Supporting change.

Helping people and groups to develop a profile that is better suited to their present situation.
Evaluating change by determining whether the (individual or average) profile has changed after the intervention and the character of that change.
Changing culture, Identifying the dominant profile in a group to determine which metaprograms need to be

Improving team (group) process & composition.

Helping teams and groups to optimally benefit from the available thinking styles, by designing an efficient sequence of interaction for a given task, based on the different profiles available.
Helping teams and groups to understand the profiles necessary for a given task and helping them add (hire) new people who complement the available profiles.

Resolving conflicts.

Helping people and groups resolve conflicts by explaining the role of different profiles in maintaining the conflict and teaching them how to speak each other’s language.

Supporting personal development.

Providing support by comparing trainee’s profiles with those of people functioning well in the given context and training them to develop the desired profile.

Clarifying training goals.

Analyzing the goals of a training program in terms of changes in profile.
Developing training programs that are geared towards developing specific profiles.

Modelling excellence.

Mapping out the profile that enables certain people to accomplish extraordinary things, in order to make that capability (more) learnable for others.

Better recruitment.

Establishing the average thinking style of people functioning well in a certain job and phrasing the text and design of advertisements accordingly, in order to attract people who fit the desired profile.
Better selection of candidates by determining the profile that predominates among people who function well in a particular position.
Selecting people who have a profile similar to the desired profile.

How Will MindSonar® help you?

Inquire about mindsonar assessments for my team or my clients