The Harrison Behavioural Paradoxes – an explanation

As many regular readers know, at T4P we work with a very interesting assessment tool developed by Dr Dan Harrison. His background in Mathematics, Personality Theory, Counselling and Organizational Psychology has enabled him to make a rather unique and exceptional contribution to assessment methodology.

There are many different assessment reports available in the Harrison System and one of our favourites is the Paradox Graph®. A paradox (Greek: para = against, dóxa = opinion, view) is a statement that seems to contradict itself or contradict common sense, but which contains a truth. For example, as any parent will know there is a term called ‘Tough Love’. Sometimes you need to be firm and let children know that there are rules and boundaries while at the same time showing that you love and care deeply about them.

This report uses Dan’s unique paradox technology to combine pairs of primary traits in a way that distinguishes four sub-traits. Each primary is either dynamic and action-oriented or gentle and supportive. If the action trait is too strong and not balanced by the supportive trait, it can become an ‘Aggressive Imbalance’. On the other hand, if the supportive trait is too strong and not balanced, you can get a ‘Passive Imbalance’.  These imbalances can lead to less effective working relationships and interfere with a person’s success. When you effectively combine two paradoxical (complementary) traits, you can demonstrate versatile behaviour in a variety of contexts that leads to positive outcomes for both others and yourself.