Teaching The Personalities in a short time frame—opening

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One of the great things about The Personalities is that it is possible to learn enough in an hour to transform a relationship or save a marriage. The challenge with presenting The Personalities in a short time frame is sharing in such a way that the listeners can grasp the ideas and apply them—especially when the concepts are totally foreign to them.

Ideally, I like 90 minutes to three hours to present The Personalities. But few want to listen that long—especially when the setting is a general program rather than a specific seminar for which folks, desiring enhanced knowledge, signed up. A short, tight presentation is an important aspect of communicating The Personalities in a general group setting.

To do this, I’ve developed a formula through which a speaker can incorporate the basics, personalize the presentation, and get done on time. Through the Certified Personality Trainer Workshops, I’ve taught this formula to hundreds of men and women who have used it to teach The Personalities successfully in 45-50 minutes. Because we currently do not offer such training, I am sharing the formula here in hopes that others continue to champion the concepts.

The graphic above offers a time breakdown for the full presentation. We will address the opening, the first 5 minutes, here. Subsequent blog posts will address the remaining modules.

Opening

If teaching The Personalities is new to you, I suggest you open with this tried-and-true approach. Once you have more experience, you may choose to develop your own style—or stick with what you know works.

Start this Way

Raise your hand in the air (this indicates how you want the audience to respond—by raising their hands) and ask: How many of you have noticed there are people out there who are different from you? Most everyone should have his or her hand raised.

Smile/laugh and ask: How many live with, work with—or used to live with that person who is different from you? (Depending on your audience, you may want to adjust to include “work for” or “gave birth to.”) Again, most all should have their hands raised and are relating/connecting with the presenter.

Third question: How many of you have ever tried to change that person? There should be laughing and groaning.

Next, lower your hand as you want a different response, and ask: How often has it worked? The majority should shout: Never!  

Agree with them and comment: No matter how hard we try to change someone, it never works. 

In concluding this module, ask: Who is the only person we can change? This sets up the key principle that The Personalities is about changing our approach to others, not changing them.

Romans 12:18

When I feel the audience will be receptive to a Bible verse, the next module teaches Romans 12:18—a verse that doesn’t mention God or Jesus and has no “religion” to it (it is simple, sound relationship advice).

Say: There is a Bible verse that I think is applicable here. Some of you might want to write it down. Romans 12:18: If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people.

I then walk the audience through the three parts of that verse (from the NASB). I explain that the “If possible” part is like God giving us a disclaimer as we never will reach that goal. Next: “so far as it depends on you,” means that is the responsibility of each of us, individually, to do what we can to, part three: “be at peace with all people.” I point out that if the verse simply said: “Be at peace with all people,” it would be an impossibility to comply—we can’t control others and their reactions.

Next

At this point, you should be at about the four-minute mark. In the next post, I will address the following five minutes of content that introduces the original Greek words for the different Personalities and the availability of the Personality Profile.