09: SUMMARY

Hope is not a strategy?

“Hope is not a lottery ticket [that] you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency…. Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away.” — Rebecca Solnit

09 – 0: Pretest

Pre-Test: DISS Integration Review

Instructions: Choose the letter of the most correct answer.

1. The DISS framework is primarily designed for:

• Academic testing environments
• Diagnosing behavioral disorders
• Supporting inquiry and interaction in helping relationships
• Creating rigid step-by-step action plans

2. A unique feature of the DISS is:

• It uses a checklist for each conversation
• It emphasizes fixed solutions
• It offers a flexible rhythm of inquiry skills that adapt to context
• It avoids emotional content

3. Which of the following best describes the role of the helper (PH) when using the DISS?

• To always provide the right answer
• To apply the same skill in every situation
• To sense what is needed and respond with the appropriate skill
• To minimize emotional reflection

4. The DISS is most helpful in:

• Predictable, low-stakes interactions
• Situations where clarity, presence, and adaptive guidance are needed
• Conversations focused on data collection
• Time-limited evaluations

5. Which of the following is not one of the 7 DISS skills? list-style-type:disc;

• Permit
• Perturb
• Present
• Pace

Pre-test Answer Key

09 – 2: Q&A IN

09- 3: CONTENT

View | Mastering the Art of DISS: A Journey Through Dynamic Inquiry

SCRIPT:

DISS SUMMARY

Integrating the DISS

Congratulations.

You’ve just completed the journey through LISTEN – LITE with the Dynamic Inquiry System Skills (DISS)—a set of seven distinct, but deeply connected and networked practices designed to support Helping as cues, scaffolding, support and lift with respect to humaning… as it relates to understanding fit between pCc & CCR from… emergent from personality dynamics!

Each skill offers a different angle—a different entry point—into intention, attention, relationship, alignment, and Helping with adaptive action. And now, we gather them together.

Let’s conclude with the same clarity we’ve practiced throughout, and walk back through the lens of

Interrogatory we have used as a method to view the seven skills as a networked whole using WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, and HOW.

WHO uses the DISS?

The DISS skills are for helpers, leaders, educators, coaches, and most importantly—humans helping humans.

Anyone who interacts with others in meaningful conversations and interactions can benefit from learning how to ask, how to show up, and listen for a host of factors that may not yet be visible or even known.

Whether it’s the Person Helping (PH) or the Person Being Helped (PBH)—these skills deepen connection, clarification and commitment to RightACTION.

Examples:

• “Is there something missing…?”
• “Is it time to pause, or move?”

These are skills for relational spaces, not just tools for productivity.

WHAT is the DISS?

The Dynamic Inquiry System Skills are:

1. Ping – to test insight
2. Probe – to unpack belief
3. Prompt – to recognize RightAction
4. Permit – to access story
5. Perturb – to challenge assumptions
6. Pause – to breathe
7. Pace – to align the speed of change

Together, they form a fluid, yet flexible, scalable and networked dynamic system for inquiry identifying Importance, Motivation, Urgency, Leverage and Low-hanging Fruit or (IMULL)

DISS, however, is not a formulaic process—it’s an adaptive system, built for the reality of complexity in transaction, transition and transformation.

Examples:

• “Is something important here?”
• “Are there motivating factors?”
• “Do you feel a sense of urgency?”
• Will your actions leverage your future outcomes?”
• Can you see any low-hanging fruit?”

WHEN do you use DISS skills?

All inquiry can be described by one or more of the seven skills of the DISS.

You use them:

• In conversation
• For interactions
• Problem solving
• and Discovery of meaning and sense making

…especially when you don’t know what comes next.

Each skill emerges when the moment calls for it—unforced and always invited.

Examples:

• “Do I need to Ping or Pause?”
• “Is this a moment for Perturb or Permit?”

The WHEN is in the art of listening, noticing and realizing.

WHERE do the DISS skills apply?

Anywhere humans are navigating:

• @VUCA
• Volatility
• Uncertainty
• Complexity
• Ambiguity
• Change

From formal coaching sessions to family dinners, from boardrooms to bedside support or customer service—the DISS skills are context-flexible.

What matters most is helping people lead generative lives through RightACTION…

Examples:

• “Is there something more important?”
• “Can this space hold what’s emerging?”

WHY practice the DISS?

Because helping can be hard and humaning is complex.

Because our culture often prioritizes speed over meaning… action over understanding.

The DISS gives us a way to re-pattern our conversations and interactions—to help others (and ourselves) reach Generativity.

Because in the spaces between stimulus and response… lives can get better….

Examples:

• “Are we seeing what needs to be seen?”
• “Is this… what’s real?”

HOW do you continue practicing the DISS?

• You start where you are.
• You meet people where they are.
• You invest attention.
• You learn to listen with more than your ears.
• You meet people in Rumi’s field… beyond wrong doing and right doing….

You:

• PING Insight,
• PROBE Belief,
• PROMPT RightACTION,
• PERMIT Story,
• PERTURB Assumptions,
• PAUSE & Breathe, &
• PACE Change

…then? Listen!

Examples:

• “Is there anything motivating you?”
• “Could there be one baby step to take?”

With practice, the DISS becomes less of a toolset—and more of a way of humaning… being, doing, having and becoming….

Closing: Suggestions for Practice

So here we are.

Seven skills. A networked system of inquiry.

…Many conversations and interaction.

One invitation:

Live – Love -ASK!

Let the DISS guide your interactions—not only as helping or advising, but as openings for transaction, transition and transformation.

Let’s help people lead generative lives!

Now go practice, reflect, adapt—and repeat.

This is the work. This is the skill. This is the art and science of listening… of helping people lead generative lives.

10 – 3: Application

At its core, THE DISS is a metasystematic approach to humaning and helping. It isn’t a model about technique; it’s a generative shift with inquiry.

This approach:

• Honors pCc (potential, CAPACITY, capability) as a dynamic landscape—not something to be defined, directed, or improved by the helper.

• Minimizes the influence of the helper—not just in what they say, but in how they listen, cue, and presence themselves.

• Embraces “less is more” as an active practice—favoring space, timing, and minimal cues over frameworks, tools, or process steps.

• Frames inquiry as emergence, not intervention—what arises belongs to the PBH.

• Centers contextual fit over content expertise—working with conditions, not conclusions.

This is not a shift in content.

It’s a shift in how help itself is understood.

09 – LAGNIAPPE:

DISS Definitions:

PING Insight

PING is a subtle cue that tests insights: yours and theirs to surface. It does not define or guide. It moves across context without establishing it, offering space for the PBH to make meaning—or not. It is the breath between awareness and interpretation.

Examples:

• “Do I understand what just happened?”
• “Is there a question you want me to ask?”
• “So…?”

PING does not assume relevance, direction, or outcome. It simply opens.

PROBE Belief

PROBE stays within the PBH’s context. It explores belief—not to challenge or change—but to allow further emergence of what is already present. PROBE is a light-touch inquiry, focused on precision and presence.

Examples:

• “Can you unpack that?”
• “Is it important to dig deeper?”
• It is not exploration for its own sake, but gentle alignment with the PBH’s framework of meaning.

PROMPT RightACTION

PROMPT is only used once the possibility of transactional readiness emerges. It invites—but does not require—movement toward RightACTION, as defined by the PBH. It is never about direction or solution.

Examples:

“Is it time to act?”

“What’s the next right thing?”

It honors that RightACTION emerges from readiness—not reasoning.

PERMIT Story

PERMIT creates space for narrative to arise—if needed. It invites the story without suggesting it. Often activated through subtle cues or simple presence, PERMIT supports release, expression, and coherence—but only if the PBH moves in that direction.

Examples:

“Is there more…?”

“…and?”

“…so?”

It is not storytelling—it is spacetime holding.

PERTURB Assumptions

PERTURB is a respectful, calibrated disruption of assumptions. It is never used casually or critically. It creates a shift—just enough to test if the framing is still fit for purpose.

Examples:

“Do you believe it will always be this way?”

“Is there a question you need to ask yourself?”

“…Problem?”

It is applied only with compassion, presence, and sensed permission.

PAUSE & BREATHE

PAUSE always includes breath. It’s not a break in action—it’s a return to presence. PAUSE slows the momentum of reactivity and creates a space where perception can reset.

Examples:

“Could we take a breath…?”

“Do we need to pause?”

[Silence. Breath. Stillness.]

It is a subtle reorientation toward grounded awareness—without interpretation or interruption.

PACE Change

PACE attends to tempo across systems: the PH, the PBH, and the surrounding CCR (Culture, Conditions, Requirements). It aligns rate of change and rate of development—honoring readiness without pushing.

Examples:

“Is the pace of change too fast?”

“Do you feel things are moving at the right pace?”

PACE Change reminds us, even transformation has its own clock.

09 – 4: Q&A

“The leaders always had good consciences, for conscience in them coalesced with will, and those who looked on their face were as much smitten with wonder at their freedom from inner restraint as with awe at the energy of their outward performances.” — William James

09 – Reference

LISTEN! Lite:

Do & Don’t V2.0

Do:

• Relax
• Be yourself
• Show up available
• Attend consciously
• Breathe deeply-center
• Err on side of simple
• Do less…it’s more!
• Keep cues minimal
• Meet people where they are, not where you are!
• Know where you are…
• Make mistakes; reflect
• The next right thing
• Ping Insight
• Probe Beliefs 
• Prompt Action
• Permit Story
• Perturb Assumptions
• Pause & Breathe
• Pace Change
• Learn some basic teeter totter!
• Want to talk about that
• And…
• So…
• Is that important?
• Repeat back high leverage cues…using exact words!
• Notice your (their) projection
• Challenge single perspectives
• Evoke blind perspectives
• Listen for IMULL
• Notice ITEAM
• Continuously listen for pCc
• Respect personality dynamics and differences
• Ask “What’s Important?”
• Notice the density & frequency of the problem solving system
• Breathe
• Purposely use a pause
• Take a breath before repeating things they say or using oneders 
• Note where they go…
• Resist problem solving until you get a sense of IMULL
• NOTICE energy shifts
• Observe openings
• Let them choose
• Let them lead
• Objectify your mind
• Allow them to tell you what to ask: LISTEN!
  

Don’t:

• Be afraid of asking importance as there are many levels
• Ask two questions back to back
• Set context unless…
• ask multiple questions
• explain your inquiry unless asked!
• rush the pace
• think out loud (extroverts) unless asked
• get knocked off balance with unexpected answers—or long pauses-relax
• Trigger, annoy or disrespect
• Criticize, Condemn, or Complain (Carnegie’s 3Cs)
• Takeover the lead unless it’s appropriate
• Take the bait with noisy stories
• Take the tension unless it’s necessary
• Don’t push the interaction…(it’s a string…pull lightly on the thread)
• Don’t “and & so” for the person being helped (Don’t expand or contract for them)

09 – Post-Test:

DISS Integration Review

Instructions: Choose the letter of the most correct answer.

1. The main purpose of practicing the DISS skills is to:

• Become more directive in your advice
• Create flexibility, presence, and depth in helping conversations
• Focus only on outcomes and performance
• Push for change at every opportunity

2. The 7 DISS skills are meant to be used:

• In a strict order from start to finish
• In isolated, one-time events
• Dynamically, based on the needs of the moment
• Only after all information has been gathered

3. key sign that a helper is effectively using DISS is:

• They rely heavily on PROBE
• They speak more than the PBH
• They listen deeply and choose the skill that fits the moment
• They move quickly to problem-solving

4. Integration of DISS means:

• Practicing all seven skills equally in every session
• Memorizing each skill’s definition
• Knowing when to shift, blend, or pause in skill use
• Using PAUSE and PROMPT most often

5. Which of the following best represents a reflective use of DISS?

• “Let’s get to the action plan now.”
• “Where do you feel the conversation needs to go next?”
• “I think I know what you should do.”
• “Let’s schedule the next session and wrap this up.”

Post-test answer key

Pre-Test Answer Key:

1. C – Supporting inquiry and interaction in helping relationships
2. C – It offers a flexible rhythm of inquiry skills that adapt to context
3. C – To sense what is needed and respond with the appropriate skill
4. B – Situations where clarity, presence, and adaptive guidance are needed
5. C – Present (not one of the 7 DISS skills)

Back to Pre-test

View | Video of class
View | Audio of class
View | Transcript of class



Join us,
Our team at Living & Loving Inquiry

Mike R Jay & Gary Gile
Founders @ The NEW LeadU

Subscribe @ leadu.com/news

PS: For clarification

1. If you just want notice of the LeadU blog posts subscribe @  leadu.blog
2. If you want the blog content by email, our weekly newsletter, and breaking news, subscribe @ leadu.com/news.
3. Disclaimer

Mike R. Jay is a developmentalist utilizing consulting, coaching, advising and helping… emergent from dynamic inquiry as a means to cue, scaffold, support, lift, and protect; offering inspiration to aspiring leaders who are interested in humaning where being, doing, having, becoming, contributing, relating, guiding to produce resilience and wellth help people lead generative lives.

© Generati