I’m not sure how it got here so quickly but we’re well into 2020 already! Year ends always seem to be a time to look forward with great anticipation and to look back and reflect. To be honest, I always prefer to look ahead, not behind. But I realize, as every driver knows, rearview mirrors are very useful tools. They provide information which forms the basis for making decisions in the future. So looking back isn’t a bad thing – although a focus on what’s ahead is essential!
The highlights for the past year seem small but we sure were busy. We expanded the Personality Dimensions® system to include the new PD for Youth Foundations™ guide, a PD for Youth on-line report and both a Canadian-French and a Spanish on-line report. None of these things were instant and several are the culmination of work that has spanned several years. This past summer we began an all-encompassing project to update the Picture Cards. No more out of date telephones, ties or reversed keyboards (did you even know about this last one?). All the same content will be in the new cards to ensure the integrity of the model isn’t in question, but with up-to-date images and backgrounds and models who are more reflective of the multicultural diversity of our world. The new cards will make their first appearance in the online assessments and then be slowly integrated into all aspects of the Personality Dimensions® system.
We have a continuing quest to find and bring to our audience hidden gems that have been developed and measure up to the “immediately useful” yardstick (metre stick?). And 2019 saw us introduce 3 more workbooks from the Winnipeg Transition Centre to accompany the Career Activity Planner and the Values & Skills Assessment Cards. The Interview Skills, 9 Steps to a Great Resume and Job Search Tools and Techniques workbooks have made an immediate, positive impact on many of the career centres and youth employment centres that we serve; in fact, we have occasionally had trouble keeping up with the demand!
Looking ahead, we are working on creating a Basics version of Career Dimensions™ to make it both more easily understood and user-friendly. Like all Basics materials, it will be written at a Grade 4 reading level. Work also continues on a new, as yet unnamed, book by Anne Bulstrode and Susan Geary that will introduce the Personality Dimensions® theory to a greater audience. As well, an expanded online report on personal growth – again, not yet titled, will be introduced later in 2020. We’re also working on a Taste of Colour™ presentation guideline, by Michael Tudor and Larry Konyu, as a general introduction in situations where time is extremely limited and you don’t have the opportunity to actually use any of the components. In our spare time, we will be going through all the PowerPoints associated with Personality Dimensions® to update the look and feel. Last but not least on the Personality Dimensions® front, we are looking forward to our partners in the USA opening an office in California in the first half of the year – stay tuned for more details on this.
Throughout this year we will be introducing new editions of several assessments from JIST Career Solutions that our clients have come to trust and rely upon in keeping with JIST’s commitment to ensuring that their products are timely and appropriate. First up is the 3rd edition of the PICS – Picture Interest Career Survey.
For someone who didn’t have much to say I seem to have written a great deal! Our goal is your success and each and every one of us at CLSR hope that 2020 is happy, healthy and prosperous year, whatever your endeavours.
Yours, from the back office …
Denise Hughes is the Director and owner of CLSR Inc. and general editor of Personality Dimensions® materials and products. She just noticed the calendar and realized it is just past the 44th anniversary of her introduction to career and type and temperament materials. Those experiences and the expertise she gained through her years with the Guidance Centre, University of Toronto, and now with CLSR, continue to shape the direction that both CLSR and Personality Dimensions® take.