A brief description of this very useful tool. FIRO-B stands for fundamental interpersonal relationships orientation-behavior. It started as a psychometric tool originally developed to predict that our Navy personnel would work together on submarines and is now used in training and in some workplaces, Business development. As a leadership tool, I think FIRO-B is great for helping us understand behavior.
FIRO-B’s assessment was largely based on the premise that, in addition to our basic human needs for survival, food and shelter. The FIRO-B Assessment of Interpersonal Behavior is any behavior that occurs among others and we all have quite unique combinations of interpersonal needs that influence our interpersonal behavior.
These interpersonal needs and can predict how you will find yourself in terms of behavior towards others, express the behavior and how you would like other people to behave with you, your expected behavior to pass a precision level of 93% of our interpersonal needs vary depending on the context of the environment where there is wind and it can be managed as you would with your basic needs for shelter and heat, that is, they are not fixed but when carrying out a FIRO-B assessment they will be very good reading of your interpersonal needs when at the time of completing the questionnaire, the remote FIRO-B can provide information on how and why conflicts develop and do not develop between people and through understanding this.
FIRO-B includes three different social needs:
1. Inclusion
2. Control
3. Affection and openness
Inclusion or commitment that indicates how many people are present in your life. Inclusion is about sociability, how much you need to include others, and how much you need others to include you in anything.
Please check off your needs related to influence and responsibility, how much influence you need to have or instructions to give, and how much influence or education you need from others.
affection or connection is often called openness which indicates how much closer and affection you express to others and need to others how much you tell people your thoughts and feelings and how much you need others to tell you their thoughts and feelings than FIRO-B uses a questionnaire that basically asks 6 questions in nine different ways to detect the precise scale on which a person agrees or disagrees with the six statements.
Each Social need divided in two further Factors:
- Express Behavior
- Wanted Behavior
Expressed Behavior: In this level when we showing behavior towards other people.
Wanted Behavior: In this level when other people showing behavior towards us.
Expressed Behavior and Wanted behavior apply on these three areas: Inclusion, Control, Affection and discussed & ends up further in six main section below:
Express inclusion:I make an effort to include others in my activities. I try to belong to social groups to be with people as much as possible.
Wanted inclusion:I want other people to invite me to belong and I love it when others notice me.
Express control:I try to exert control and influence over things I like to organize things by directing others.
Wanted Control:I feel more comfortable working in a well-defined situation I try to get clear expectations and instructions.
Express Openness:I strive to reach people with whom I feel comfortable expressing personal feelings and try to support others.
Wanted Openness: I want others to express themselves affectionately with me. I love when people share their feelings with me and when they encourage my efforts.
In interpreting the questionnaire, each person will receive a score from 0 to 9 which reflects that scale, but which is not at all effective and 9 is always crucial, to discover both the expressed behavior that everyone can see and the wanted behavior, which is obviously very harder to see, far 8 scores do not give us a typology, but rather a snapshot of interpersonal needs, the scores refer to the frequency of the behavior and selectivity in terms of who and in what context will see that behavior, so in terms of the behaviors we expect to see with any of the elements in the 3 areas of interpersonal need.
FIRO-B Score Level:
- Low score (0-2)
- Average score (3-6)
- High score (7-9)
- Low scores mean low frequency if when and high selectivity of who or in what context you will see that behavior.
- Average scores indicate a certain frequency if when and selectivity of who or in what context you will see that behavior.
- High scores mean a high win rate and low selectivity of who we will see that behavior in or in what context they will see that behavior.
For Example: if your 35th birthday is approaching and you have low expressed inclusion and low expressed frankness, you won’t post it on Facebook or tell anyone you know and maybe have a quiet night with your partner and a bottle of good wine.
If you have high express inclusion and high express openness, you posted it on Facebook months ago and there is no one you know that you haven’t talked to about the big party you organized and you also invite people in the bus queue when you are on the street, so it all depends on how often you show something and selectivity to how many people or in what situations
