Knowing which of the five levels of productive tension a person feels around an activity allows us to leverage the three main properties of the ChangeGrid — namely, that it is descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive.
Descriptive
The simple summaries given so far for the thoughts and attitudes of someone experiencing a given level of tension are just the beginning. Their tension describes their readiness to tackle the activity at hand where readiness is more than just ability.
When we look at the full two-dimensional ChangeGrid, we see that another dimension described is that of engagement. How prepared someone may be needs to also be coupled with how involved they feel in terms of their engagement with a given activity. (You may be fully ready and able to wash Windows, but few of us are very engaged with the act of removing streaks from glass!)
Predictive
The level of productive tension is also predictive. Even just based on our simple summaries of each level of tension, we can predict that those down in Apathy around an activity are unlikely to do anything while someone up in Stress is unlikely to do the right thing! We can predict proactive behaviors from Power-Stress and reactive behaviors from Power-Apathy.
Not only can we predict overall behavioral patterns, but we can predict a person’s style of thinking, their posture, and even the ways in which they speak and breathe. And this is all still from two or three simple questions regarding the person’s perceptions about an activity!
Prescriptive
The ChangeGrid also allows us to make recommendations regarding what type and level of support is needed to successfully perform the given activity. Will the person need higher standards? Increased accountability? A change of task? Coaching? Stronger leadership? All of these are easily prescribed by an experienced tension management expert from the results of a ChangeGrid reading.