A talent for bringing out untapped potential

John Geier created the DISC personality self-scoring assessment tool businesses use to match people to jobs.

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: October 9, 2009 - 8:41 PM

Getting the right person for a job has always been a daunting task for employers, but many companies -- large and small alike -- have succeeded because of personality assessment tools created by John Geier.

Companies such as Cargill, Honeywell, IBM and others worldwide have used the DISC Personality Profile System, a self-scoring personal assessment tool that Geier created.

Geier, of Plymouth, died of cancer Sept. 26 at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale. He was 75.

Geier's original survey has been upgraded and expanded several times over the past five decades, and has been taken by more than 50 million people and published in books that appear in 35 languages. The four areas of the DISC profile -- directive, interactive, supportive and corrective -- measure how people view and respond to life situations by looking at temperament, character and behavior, and is designed to help them better understand themselves, said Katie Szczech, a spokeswoman for Geier Learning International in Maple Grove.

"We use the tool for measuring a person's fit for the job, what they are like and how they view it and what their expectations are," said Jerry Dahl of Strategic Team Makers, a Golden Valley firm that has used the tool at companies such as Cargill and Honeywell. "It was a premiere instrument and an instrument of choice."

Geier was a pioneer in assessment studies when he founded Performax Inc. and developed early inventories to look at personality factors that guide behaviors. He sold that company to the Carlson Learning Companies (now Inscape Publishing), and later created Geier Learning International, where he continued to develop assessment tools to help people identify their performance potential in a task or leadership position. Geier also designed inventories in the areas of relationship building, communication, career development and workplace performance.

He was class president and played football and tennis at Northern High School in Flint, Mich., from which he graduated. He was a champion debater at Northwestern College in Roseville, where after graduating he stayed to coach the debate team and took a squad to the national finals, retired professor Hal Miller said. While at Northwestern, Geier helped start a church in north Minneapolis, as well as a program to help developmentally disabled people find jobs.

"He always was getting people to see their potential and see them grow," said his wife, Dorothy Downey.

Geier earned a master's and a doctorate degree in social psychology from the University of Minnesota in the 1960s. He later taught and conducted research at the universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and served as dean of continuing education at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

In addition to his wife, Geier is survived by his former wife, Marian Gardiner of Robbinsdale; four sons, John of Minnetonka, Dan of Bloomington, Mark of Plymouth and Phillip of Andover; three daughters, Kathy Blanchette of Andover, Suzanne Parker of Bloomington and Thea Dillner of Roseville; four stepchildren, Rick Downey of Seattle, Cort Downey of River Falls, Wis., Doug Downey of Maple Plain and Tracey Lee of Camerillo, Calif.; 23 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; seven step-grandchildren; and one step-great-grandchild.

Services have been held.

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