Computing Compatibility

When you take the Core Values Index™ psychometric assessment and personality test, you learn how you are emotionally hardwired. We like to call it your personality's DNA because it represents your innate, unchanging nature.

The CVI answers the question: Why do you see the world the way you do?

When you complete your CVI assessment and read your full report, you discover many new details about your personality, some of which may confirm what you already know about yourself, but there is likely a great deal about your emotional hardwiring that will be new.

For example, you probably know how you react to stressful and challenging situations with other people. But do you know why you react the way you do? Have you noticed you may react differently to conflict depending on the personality of the other person? You're still the same individual, but you act differently based on the situation. There's a reason for that, and your CVI report describes why.

We also know that each individual has an optimized method of learning that works best for them, but may not work best for the next person. Why is this? Your CVI report discloses the reasons why you have an ideal learning style.

Understanding how other people are hardwired, and how to recognize their psychometric profile, is profoundly useful.

Once you've taken the CVI and read your full report, you will learn a great deal about how you are emotionally hardwired. But the value of the CVI doesn't stop there. Understanding how other people are hardwired, and how to recognize their psychometric profile, is profoundly useful. This knowledge can help you navigate both personal and professional relationships with greater ease and success.

We all know that we naturally get along with some people from the moment we meet them, while others are like oil to our water and no amount of effort seems to help us see eye to eye. Can the CVI help in this regard?

By learning how you see the world, and then by learning how others see the world as well, you can begin improving your ability to communicate, relate, and connect with other people.

Emotional Distance

When you meet someone who is psychometrically similar to you, the distance you must emotionally travel to get along with them is very short; you're practically there already from the beginning.

When you meet someone who seems to have a personality profile completely opposite of yours, the ground you must cover to meet in the middle can sometimes seem uncrossable. This isn't true in practical terms, but it can definitely feel that way.

Can this distance, short or long, between two people's personalities be computed? Can the steps required to cover that ground be outlined like an emotional encounter algorithm?

There are things about this compatibility computation that we know to be true, there are things we suspect are true based on the evidence, and things we have yet to discover.

Personality by the Numbers

The Core Values Index represents your personality by a ratio of scores, each representing how much of four core values (personality types, essentially) dwell within you. When you have a high amount of one core value in your personality profile, at least one of the other three will be relatively lower.

Some people have perfectly well-rounded CVI profiles; their scores are the same across all four personality types. Others are profoundly high in one while one or two of the other personality types may be practically non-existent within their profile.

The number of combinations are in the millions, but general compatibility between two people can be expressed in relatively simple terms by comparing the scores of their two CVI profiles. This compatibility has a lot of nuance to it, but some basic fundamentals stand out.

• Those who have relatively similar scores in the same framework of personality types (i.e., they're in the same order of priority) have the least ground to cover to find compatibility.
• Two people who have nearly opposite personality profiles, where one person's highest score is the other person's lowest, have the most "room for improvement" as the saying goes.

It is important to note that there is no right or wrong CVI profile. It's all a matter of where are you, where the other person is, and how far do you have to stretch to find commonality in your perspectives.

Things get a bit more complicated — and nuanced — when two people's profiles have a certain amount of overlap that isn't entirely straightforward like our two previous examples. How do you measure compatibility between yourself and another person when you share similar profile 'shapes' but your scores vary? What if your scores are relatively similar but in a slightly different order?

The first step is for you and the other person to complete your CVI assessments and review your personality profile reports. Are your core values listed in the same order of priority from primary to secondary to tertiary and to minor?

What is the spread between your scores for each of your four core values? We have found that every three points of difference represents an order of magnitude in how it manifests within someone's personality, even within your own profile. For example, if your primary core value is more than 3 points higher than your secondary core value, it can be said that your primary core value is at least an order of magnitude more significant to you than your secondary core value. The same principle applies when comparing core value scores between two different people.

Can two people find compatibility, especially in the context of a romantic relationship, if their profiles are radically different? Yes, but it takes more work and understanding than if they had very similar profiles.

→ See: Q&A About Relationships and the Core Values Index and Are You Compatible? Using the CVI in Personal Relationships

Can compatibility be computed for two co-workers or between a supervisor and subordinate in the workplace? Absolutely.

The same principles apply to work relationships as they do to personal ones. The difference is that the top priority is for each individual to be highly aligned to the profile of their role first and foremost.

We have found that even when two people who work together don't have numerically compatible CVI profiles to each other, as long as they are numerically compatible to their role, a sense of respect can more easily exist.

"Maria and I don't see eye to eye on most things, but she's damned good at her job, she loves what she does, and I have a lot of respect for that."

Can compatibility be improved?

This is a common question, and there are two answers.

First, your CVI profile and the CVI profile of everyone you meet is essentially fixed and cannot be deliberately changed through force of will. That's what we mean when we refer to a person's CVI profile as their innate, unchanging nature. However, when you learn about your profile and gain the knowledge of how you tick and how you see the world, and then learn about the CVI in a general sense and seek to understand and respect the profiles of others, you will find that you have the potential to get along with just about anyone.

You can learn to overcome and even honor your differences with others, rather than change your emotional hardwiring to suit the situation.

You can't change how you are emotionally hardwired and you can't change how others are hardwired, but you can learn to recognize their personality profile and seek to respect their perspective.

Core Values Index™ and CVI™ are trademarks of Taylor Protocols, Inc.