TetraMap Facilitation

In March I finally completed my TetraMap facilitation course in Hamilton. I was introduced to TetraMap in 2015 when I was working at H3 Group. It's a pretty bold statement to make, but it was the single most useful thing I have learned in my career.

There is not a single organisation that I have worked in since then (including my own businesses and my husband's family business) that would not have benefited from a TetraMap training course, and so I'm going to attempt to explain the ideas, philosophy and outcomes as best I can.

Essentially TetraMap is a model that enables greater understanding of individual strengths that in turn promotes cohesion and achievement of common goals. Basically: Tetramap helps you to use the best communication methods to talk to your team, customers, clients (or family) without p*ssing them off.

In short, you complete a quiz ("the instrument") that gives you a score for each of the four elements (or types); Earth, Air, Water or Fire. Your "dominant element" generally determines how you like to be communicated with - which is usually your default way of communicating with others.

In the workplace, once you know someone's dominant element, you can more easily play to their strengths and have positive relationships - which is so important for teams, and perhaps even more so for project teams!

For me, my default communication style (in a professional setting) is short, sharp and to the point. I (embarrassingly) assumed that everyone hated fluffy, wordy emails with small talk and step by step explanations. I just wanted to know what they needed and when they needed it by - preferably in bullet point form!

So it turns out, that there are (plenty) of people out there who would interpret those sort of emails as blunt, rude and maybe even vague. These people (understandably) want to know all the details, and the facts, they want to know what you need and why you need it, and what format or style you need it in.

If you're a freelancer or small business owner, Tetramap training can really help you to genuinely improve your relationships with key clients, sub contractors, fellow freelancers, suppliers and your team. I find that I personally tend to "work better" with others who communicate the same way that I do...

But it means that I am missing out on endless other opportunities with clients, customers, designers and even friends that communicate differently based on their dominant element. The ones that love a wordy email with some small talk, or even a phone call or face to face catch up!

The Tetramap course also helps us to acknowledge and identify how others respond to high stress situations based on their dominant element or elements. There is the potential to reduce workplace conflict (and even gossip) by understanding that someone's response is based on their stress levels and isn't personal.

So, after a two day intensive (and super fun and very rewarding) facilitators course, I am now qualified to enlighten others! If you would like to read more about the TetraMap model, please check out their website. To chat about adding this valuable method to your toolkit please get in touch.

There is a Waikato TetraMap workshop coming up on Thursday June 20th. This is a great option for solopreneurs, freelancers and small business owners, as well as managers who are wanting to try before they buy and see what the framework is about before rolling it out to their wider team.