About Us
About Us
The Creation of the Hartman Value Profile
Axiology – a study in values
By the mid-1960s, Robert S. Hartman had become a well-known teacher, writer, and speaker whose ideas were being sought out by dozens of major businesses and educational institutions across the United States and in Mexico. He had become the leading advocate of a new way of better understanding human beings called axiology — a word that has never found wide popularity. Simply stated, axiology is a field of philosophy—not psychology —that believes that great insight can be gained into the actions and behaviors of individuals and groups by studying their values and the way in which values drive decisions, choices, judgments, and ultimately are a major motivating factor behind actions.
The Technological Society
The mid-1960s was also a time when post-World War II technological progress was showing up in almost any and every field of endeavor. Some people have even called this particular time “The Technological Society.” Most advances were tied closely to new, emerging discoveries in mathematic such as Einstein’s relativity theory and what was called transfinite mathematics. All of this was very complex and very complicated, but Hartman knew that any of his work that could be supported and affirmed by these kinds of mathematical models would more quickly gain the attention of the kind of world that was quickly evolving. He would have agreed with a leading voice of innovation at that time, Edwards Demming, who famously said: “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
It’s not a personality test
Finally, the mid-1960s, was a time in which psychological testing and all kinds of psychological assessment instruments were being introduced. Assessing human beings—in every kind of setting from university research laboratories to traditional business organizations—became highly, highly popular. Most of our modern “personality” tools such as the Myers Briggs Type Inventory of the DiSC Assessment grew out of this environment.
So, in Hartman’s experience, all of these varied strands of interest began to converge. Would it be possible, he wondered, to create an evaluation instrument based on the finest logic and mathematics available in his world, and that would go beyond the information being gained from “personality” tools? Would it be possible to dig deeply into the values that were primary drivers in people’s lives and in organizational priorities, and then be able to be more insightful about how people came to the point of making judgments/e-valu-ations that drove their lives? Could there be both individual and group applications that gave further, helpful and useful depth of insight about what “makes people tick”?
It may be important to add that while Hartman saw his assessment instrument as being very different in its intent and outcome from “personality,” psychological tools, he did not demean these approaches. Instead, he believed that a “both/and” approach that could be complementary and mutually reinforcing made for a healthier and more productive approach. Therefore, the Hartman tool has become important to the work of significant psychological practitioners.
Hartman was also concerned to see if his assessment instrument could be more predictive of performance outcomes than “personality” tools, and if he could better understand the kinds of pressures and stressor that might interfere with or limit good judgment. Without question, skill sets and refined processes and the best information available all had a place in advancing success, but without the element of good judgment all kinds of other important assets would be vulnerable.
Change starts with awarenes
Today, although Hartman’s assessment instrument has never gained the kind of attention that the highly-marketed “personality” tools have, his work has been successfully extended across the United States and throughout the world in ways that are gaining more and more application and credibility. In our modern world, it is becoming increasingly obvious that human beings are values-driven, both with positive and negative motivations and outcomes. It is becoming increasing obvious that making good judgments is of higher necessity than maybe it has ever been. Hartman’s tool is exquisitely designed to speak to this kind of world. And—with high importance—the tool will advance a deeper realization and awareness of Self value, the way in which a person understands and embraces personal value.
Hartman believed that change can be the result of awareness, so his tool is created to gain enhanced and increased awareness. And, when that awareness can be data-driven and measurable, it has even more influence in our world today. The tool is guaranteed to provide higher awareness about human potential both for individuals and groups. And, Hartman was certain that the “right awareness” inevitably leads to the “right conversations”—both within an individual’s considerations about Self and within groups of people who are trying to accomplish tasks together and basically find ways to better live together. “Right awareness” and then “right conversation” tend to point us in better directions that can help us all. Hartman’s tool is a distinct and powerful catalyst of this kind of process.
Finally, on a very practical level, Hartman wanted an assessment instrument that could be done in a brief period of time—less than twenty minutes—and that was not filled with complex directions. There are no “trick questions” or “wrong/right” answers in the assessment, simply the rank ordering of two sets of eighteen items. The tool has proven to be exceptionally difficult to “game” or to be used to create a deceptive “golden halo effect.” One enhanced aspect of the tool is its ability to be given incrementally over time so that trends in both improved growth and any negative impact can be gauged.
There is an old truism used by people in various craft professions that says “measure twice, cut once.” On the most basic level, the Hartman tool provides a unique way to enhance the way that people can be better understood. The tool’s goal is always—first and foremost—to provide encouraging affirmation, while at the same time showing clear and precise ways that growth and development can be important. The tool’s goal is simply to look again, and see what new insight might be gained. “Measure twice, cut once.”