Choosing between a DiSC workshop and a Big Five workshop? Here is the case for the Big Five.
DiSC gives a team a friendly shared vocabulary. The Big Five gives it the most researched model of personality there is, a score on five separate traits, and a workshop built around real conversations instead of four styles. Take the Big Five assessment and see the difference for yourself.
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Five reasons teams choose the Big Five
If you are weighing a DiSC workshop against a Big Five workshop, these are the differences that matter most.
It is the model researchers actually use
The Five Factor Model is the most widely researched model of personality in academic psychology, studied independently for decades. DiSC is a popular commercial tool that is easy to learn and widely used in training, but it is not the model the research literature is built on.
It measures what actually causes friction
Teams rarely struggle because of communication style alone. They struggle with change, new ideas, pressure and risk. DiSC has no dimension for how a person handles stress, and in a study of more than 9,000 people who took both tests, Openness was the trait DiSC captured least. The Big Five measures both directly.
Scores on five traits, not one style
Each person gets a position on a spectrum for Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism, and the full assessment adds 29 facet scores beneath those five traits. Two people who share a DiSC style can look very different here, and that is where the useful conversations start.
The session is a conversation, not a debrief
In a Big 5 at Work session your team physically lines up on each trait, talks with someone at the opposite end, and practices a simple way to name what is true on both sides without it turning personal. People leave with sentences they can use on Monday, not just a letter to remember.
Start with the assessment, then bring in a facilitator only if it helps
Anyone on your team can take the Big Five assessment for $4.99, and a team dashboard shows where you cluster and where you differ. If you want a workshop, a Big 5 at Work consultant facilitates it, so nobody on your staff needs to run it. You can look at your own results before you spend anything on a session.
DiSC and the Big Five, side by side
Both help a team talk about how people work. They cover different ground, which is why a Big Five workshop is not a repeat of a DiSC one.
Where DiSC works well
We are not here to say DiSC is bad. It is easy to learn, people remember it, and it gives a team a common language for how they communicate. If a shared vocabulary is all you need, it does that job.
If you want to go further, into how your team handles change, pressure and disagreement, the Big Five is the model built for that. Many teams find the two work well together, and nothing you learned from DiSC gets thrown away.
How it works
Take the assessment
About 10 minutes. The comprehensive assessment is $4.99. You see your own results right away.
Compare as a team
Bring your team in and see where you cluster and where you differ on a team dashboard.
Add a workshop
A Big 5 at Work consultant facilitates a session for your team, from a two-hour kickoff to a full day, virtual or in person.
Questions teams ask
We already have a DiSC facilitator, or already did DiSC. Why switch?
You do not have to give anything up. Teams that liked DiSC often want something fresh instead of a repeat, and the Big Five covers ground DiSC does not: change and new ideas, stress and risk, and 29 facet scores that make familiar traits more specific.
Is the Big Five too clinical for a workplace?
Some of the trait names sound technical, but nothing here is a diagnosis. Every position on every trait carries a strength and a pitfall, and there is no right setting. The colleague who worries first can be your early warning system, and the one who pushes for change can be your engine.
How is the test built?
It is built on the IPIP-NEO-120, a public-domain inventory used in research that measures the five traits and 30 facets. Big 5 at Work scores 29 of them, leaving out Liberalism. You can read more on the science page.
What does a workshop cost?
The comprehensive assessment costs $4.99. Workshop fees depend on team size and format, so we ask a few questions and introduce you to a consultant who can quote it.
See the difference in 10 minutes
Take the Big Five assessment, then decide whether a Big Five workshop is right for your team.
DiSC and Everything DiSC are trademarks of their respective owners. Big 5 at Work is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Comparisons on this page are general descriptions of the two approaches.
Ready to try it with your team?
If you've run DiSC before, you already know the value of a shared language. The Big Five gives your team that language with a model built on decades of peer-reviewed research, and one person can cover everyone in a single purchase, from $3.49 a person.