I’m so glad you’re here! What an interesting year that was – a year of coping, hoping, learning and adapting. Like many thousands of people, I had to develop several new skills, not the least of which is I can now Zoom (or, at least, sort of, providing someone sets the process up)! 2020 – the year that taught us so much more than we ever thought we’d need to know to do in such a short period of time. I felt like I was dragged, kicking and protesting, into the virtual world and someone slammed and locked the door behind me, and I suspect that I’m not alone in that sentiment.
But what I learned, and we have benefited from here at CLSR, is how to pivot and run – pivot away from being paper based and running toward the goal of having as much as possible available, as quickly as possible, online. And we’ve been largely successful. As I write this our “Project” list has 42 active items on it – those are the things we’re presently working on – and we added 13 more items to the ‘completed’ category and that’s just what we finished in the month of December. So, we’re a little tired and were grateful for the (very) quiet break between Christmas and New Years, but we’re back at it!
It may take us a little longer to get to the phone these days as working remotely doesn’t always allow us to answer directly, but we’re still committed to supporting you in any way that we can. For us that means going in several directions at the same time (it helps to have a large pot of coffee to hand) but for you that means we now have such great new resources as the VSAP (Values & Skills Action Planner). It combines the best of two great resources; the Values & Skills Assessment Cards and the Career Activity Planner workbook. The VSAP provides far more than results; it is a self-exploration guide to next steps, including identifying transferable skills and setting short and long-term, realistic goals, along possible career pathways; in short, it’s tailor-made for employment counsellors to use with the job seekers they serve. Just a week after we launched the VSAP we also launched the new Personality Dimensions Wellness Report. You won’t be surprised to hear that Canadians feel that Covid 19 is having a negative impact on their stress levels and mental health. The new Wellness Report couldn’t have come at a better time. This report helps participants identify how they can have a greater sense of their own wellness and, in turn, how they can counteract the negative effects of any stress that they are experiencing. Both of these online tools have garnered a lot of interest in the couple of months that they’ve been available I’m pleased to report.
If you’ve been on the CLSRassessments.com site recently you may have noticed that the Personality Dimensions cards have a slightly different (by different I mean modern – no more brick cell phone) look to them. It’s taken us well over a year to work with focus groups to finalize the designs and get them in place. While we’re still waiting for stock to arrive from the printers, if you order Picture Cards, or Poster Cards, later this month you will get the new designs. And, of course, this change means that all the PowerPoints have had to be updated too. And, while we were at it, all our Toolkits had to be adapted to allow for virtual presentations of the materials! We are grateful to everyone who has contributed so much towards making this happen! It’s an ongoing process. While the majority of the Toolkits are now available with instructions for both in-person and virtual presentation, the last two are under construction as I write this, as is a companion to Building Blocks and, eventually, the Train-the-Trainer guide.
The authors of Colour Savvy are working on a new publication that will replace Colour Savvy in the level 1 training kit, titled: Your Personality Unlocked. It’s presently sitting on my desk for final review (I’m almost done, Anne and Susan, honest!) and we anticipate publication in early spring. Meanwhile, they are also working on a brand new expanded personal report for Personality Dimensions that should launch within the next 6 weeks or so. Keep an eye on CLSRassessments.com for availability.
In the next few weeks you’ll see quite a change when you go to our clsr.ca website; it was beyond time to update and we hope you’re as pleased with the look and usability of the new site as we are. This new platform will allow us to expand our offerings, something we’ve been wanting to do for a while now, to include the HR materials, and, especially, the Dealing with Conflict, Personality Type Indicator and Strategic Leader online assessments, not to mention the complete “50 Activities for …” series, in print and digital versions. Each of these are huge in the US and we are delighted to finally be able to bring them to you!
And, because you’ve told us that the need is there, we’re working on a Basics version of Career Dimensions! No promises on a deadline for delivery of this online assessment yet though as it’s still early in the focus group stage, but know that it is coming down the pipe.
This short note ended up being anything but short, so I’m going to end it now (time for more caffeine?). Just know that you are what keeps us doing what we do, and we will continue to support you in this emerging online world through product development and customer service. I hope you’ll join me in looking forward, positively, to see what 2021 brings.
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 45th 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.