I’m a new employee here at OKA, and I recently went through the DRiV Certification with OKA. Here’s my elevator pitch for the DRiV: The DRiV is a great new model that discusses various behaviors and how each of these either energizes you or drains you. The DRiV does not indicate your skill or the frequency which you perform these behaviors, but how it makes you feel when you get to (or are forced to) engage them. What sets the DRiV apart from other behavioral tools (like the EQ-i) is that what drives you changes slowly within us—and sometimes not at all. The goal of DRiV work is not to be driven by new or different things, but rather how to best deal with and use those drivers and drainers that you already have. Other tools provide ways to balance yourself out; the DRiV simply says, “This is who you are, and how these areas of interaction make you feel.” There is a blunt truth to the DRiV that is not present in other such tools.

 What is the DRiV?

Of course, the DRiV is a little more nuanced than that. But here’s how it works: there are 28 “drivers,” each of which represents a specific behavior. In a DRiV report, you receive a unique score for each of these drivers. The score manifests in the form of a percentile – the number is the percentage of the population who scored lower than you in that driver. Take a look at the example report on the left for just a piece of what’s included in the DRiV. High scores denote that you are notably energized and driven by that behavior while low scores mean the behavior drains you–even to a point where you may be irritated when other people do it!

My experience being certified in the DRiV was wonderful. The thing that stuck with me most about my time was how empowered and validated I felt. The DRiV gave me the opportunity to reconnect with old parts of myself I hadn’t used in a long time. It felt like when I visit my parents and find my old baseball glove. I haven’t used it regularly in years, but even after all this time, there is a comfortable familiarity that will never leave.

My Experience Being Certified

Allow me to use my own report to illustrate my point. My very highest driver was “Autonomy,” which is a simple one. I derive energy from being able to make my own decisions, to blaze my own path, while on the flip side, being told what to do is exhausting. During the certification, I had the opportunity to tell a story of my childhood, where around 5 or 6 years old, my parents decided it was time for me to learn to ride a bike. They told me it was important, that everyone knows how to ride a bike, and that it was time for me to learn. Whatever part of my brain that my “Autonomy,” score was wired into decided if everyone else does it, then I was not going to be one of them, and I defiantly never learned to ride a bike – I still don’t know how. It was a funny anecdote that my peers in the certification got a kick out of and one I tell to people to get to know me better outside of work.

It’s usually a story I tell sheepishly because it is an objectively ridiculous story. However, the DRiV process helped me reframe the way I thought about myself. One of the underlying premises of the DRiV is that these values are generally static; they tend not to change. Looking at my scores as a whole made me rediscover the parts of myself I put away under lock and key because the outside world expected me to.

Over my life, I have spent an enormous amount of energy denying my own drive for autonomy. It would be disastrous to go around looking for rules to break or making other silly declarations of my own independence. However, during my certification, I realized the drive for autonomy, in and of itself, is not silly. My peers in the certification, my instructor, and the DRiV tool itself all made me feel incredibly valid and seen. We all learned the merits of one another’s drivers, and the potential pitfalls of things that drain us.

The World Through The DRiV

In the time since my certification, I think of almost everything inside a DRiV paradigm. It’s an incredible tool in how applicable it is to everyday life, professionally and personally. The DRiV has really introduced me to a new way of seeing the world and watching people (including myself) operate in and outside of their comfort zones. It allows insight into other peoples’ values; what’s important to them? Maybe your coworker’s actions make sense when you realize their job requires they be constantly outside their comfort zone, or your employee who would be fantastic in a new position. Maybe you observe new dynamics in your personal relationships, platonic or romantic. The DRiV does a great job of giving a new language to all manner of human interaction and will give many people the experience I had.

To find out more about OKA, and our work and services, visit us at www.oka-online.com. If the DRiV is something that interests you, visit this page to learn more about certification, or here to watch a video on your Youtube channel about the DRiV. You can also sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date with anything new DRiV-related on the right-hand side of this page.