HBDI
HBDI maps how someone prefers to think across four quadrants - analytical, sequential, interpersonal, experimental - so a team can see whose thinking style is missing from the room, not just whose seniority is.
A four-box grid splits thinking into analytical, sequential, interpersonal and experimental, with your natural pull toward one or two corners.
Reach for this when…
- Every meeting solves problems the same way and misses the same blind spots.
- A specific person's objections keep getting dismissed as "not being a team player".
- You're building a team and want more than a skills match.
How to run it
- Complete the HBDI online assessment.
- Read the profile across four quadrants: A (analytical), B (sequential), C (interpersonal), D (experimental).
- Debrief individually or with the team.
- Map the team's collective profile and spot the missing quadrant.
- Design meetings and decisions to deliberately engage all four.
A worked example
Situation. Andres Restrepo runs an engineering consultancy in Medellin, Colombia, whose design reviews kept greenlighting technically sound solutions that clients disliked.
Applied. The HBDI profiles showed the whole review panel scored heavily A and B - analytical and sequential - and was missing quadrants C and D almost entirely; the one team member who raised relational questions was routinely talked over.
Result. Andres restructured reviews to require a C or D voice present before sign-off. The next three client presentations went through without the usual last-minute redesign.
The catch
HBDI describes preference, not capability - someone scoring low on a quadrant can still think that way, just less naturally and at more cost. It's proprietary, requiring paid, certified administration, and like any self-report tool it captures how people see themselves, not necessarily how they operate under pressure.
A missing quadrant on paper does not mean a missing person - it means design the process so that thinking gets asked for.
Origin: Ned Herrmann