Process Communication is a model for describing personality. It is used in coaching to permit the client to acquire better awareness of self and to put in place better modes of communications with others.
Having better self-awareness opens the door to better management of oneself, to understand for example one’s internal dynamics and those periods of lower motivation and enthusiasm which can arise in a given context.
The Process-Com model was developed in the 1970s by Taibi Kahler, an American psychologist, based on projects he led on behalf of NASA to improve astronaut recruitment and constitute homogeneous teams.
Fundamental Concepts
At the heart of the Process-Com model, there is the idea that each person possesses a particular personality structure.
Six personality types were inventoried :
- Empathic
- Workhorse
- Persevering
- Dreamer
- Promoter
- Rebel
Personality structure is characterized first of all by a base personality which corresponds to one of the 6 types listed, and then by one or more phases.
The base represents something like a life scenario and will characterize several aspects of the personality :
- My communication style: the way in which I would establish my relationships with others
- My psychological needs: that which motivates me
- My management of stress: our way of reacting to situations when we’re under pressure
- My foreseeable scenarios of failure: our way of reacting when our needs are not satisfied
The phase corresponds to a “life stage,” a period during which our needs evolved, in order to find a motivation. The phase may either be current or one already experienced.
The current phase provides indications of our current psychological needs (that which motivates us today) and our probable reactions in cases of stress.
The previously experienced phase gives indications of what was a motivating factor before but which is no longer a motivator.
These notions of base and phase are vital in Process-Com: they allow for the introduction of the concept of phase changing, which is that moment in one’s existence in which our needs and our preoccupations evolve, under the effect of serious and lasting stress, whether it be positive or negative.
An end result is that one can articulate six personality types, their base and their phases, which allows us to precisely describe different personality categories.
In this respect, Process-Com is therefore a model for reducing complexity in order to open doorways to better personal management and better management of relations with others.