History in different ways...
I, Rolf Kenmo, am the one who started the development of the HumanGuide-concepts. I have been a consultant almost my whole working life. I worked at first with IT for about 10 years. Since 1975 I have focused on psychology and pedagogy in order to use that knowledge for development of individuals/leaders, teams and companies/organizations. In 1983 I started Humankonsult AB in order to go my own way for creating more "Human efficiency". That means not to work harder, instead it means increasing people's self-knowledge and in this way have a better time both at work and in life. Then the choices at work and in life will fit better a person"s personality. Moreover, it will be easier to cooperate with other people by better understanding of myself and others.
In 1986 I started the development of the HumanGuide®-concepts with crucial support from the Swedish psychologists Lars-Erik, Liljeqvist, Bo Haglund, Mary Norman, Leo Berlips and Olof Rehn. In 1999 I started to cooperate with psychologists abroad. We have in common that we use L. Szondi's (1893-1986) personality theory. The most important psychologists from abroad for the development of the concepts have been Friedjung Jüttner, Switzerland (& the Szondi-Institut); Giselle Welter, Brazil (business partner today); Christian Clair, France, and Robert Maebe, Belgium. Since 2000 Giselle Welter has also contributed in an extensive way to the development of the concepts, e.g. she has carried out an extensive validation study in 2006 with very good psychometric results for the concepts test module -- the core of the concepts. HumanGuide in that study in Brazil was the first approved personality test (April-2009) that was online and based on forced-choice (ipsative). Look at SATEPSI. More validation studies have been done. The last in 2016 based on 110,000 tests. Excellent psychometric results.
The HumanGuide®-concepts can be used in many ways, because the concepts are based on modules that can be combined -- the concepts are much more than a personality test. The HumanGuide®-concepts are a test and development system! Typical applications are for
- development of individuals/leaders
- development of teams
- handling conflict (better cooperation by understanding of each other)
- development of organizations e.g. support in recruitment, etc.
More information on the web site.
The Development History Has Another Strategy Compared with the Competitors
I have systematically used the idea to be different compared with the competitors. The objective is to much better meet the users' expectations and needs. I recommend therefore the book Blue Ocean Strategy (W Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne), where you can read more about that strategy. Some examples how we have applied that strategy
- when you do a profile (test) you will not be a “type”. Instead you will understand what "tools" are in your personality's "toolbox" and what strengths they give
- when you have received your profile (the test result), you will meet an authorized "humanguide". In this way you will really understand the profile and its consequences. This is instead of getting a standardized report of many, many pages. The result will then be both fine-tuned and documented in a so-called CoreProfile (“the personality in a nutshell"). Look e.g. at my presentation as a humanguide CoachRKenmo_eng.pdf,
- when you have received your CoreProfile you can use it as a platform for both development as an individual and as a team member – based on many tools. Most people who have done a CoreProfile most often will use it as an everyday tool
I focus just now mostly on the development of the concepts' use. However, I do still some assignments in Sweden and sometimes abroad in order to control that the concepts function well. I do also assignments, so I get ideas for further improvement and development. Moreover, I support my growing global networld both concerning Brazil and other countries. By the way, do you know that Sweden's biggest industry town is Sao Paulo with more than 30 000 employees (2010) in Swedish-owned companies?
We got a good confirmation of our development strategy 2014. Our customer u-blox AG (since 2003) in Switzerland wished that the test module should be translated into Japanese, Korean and Chinese, because their business was increasing in East-Asia. The company develops and sells globally GPS and wireless chips. u-blox uses HumanGuide mostly as support for recruitment and team building. Today we can offer the test in 15 languages.
We are also investigating possibilities to get partners in more countries than Brazil, Switerland and Norway. There is ongoing discussions with potential partners in Portugal, which is natural, because in Brazil they are also talking Portuguese;-)
For Your Success!
Rolf Kenmo (my consultant profile á la HumanGuide)
Giselle Welter, CTO, RH99, Brazil (her consultant profile á la HumanGuide)
The History Year for Year...
1975 - Rolf is responsible for development of better methods in order to develop IT system in a big IT consultant company. This implies that he starts to cooperate with a "psychologist" company, which is focused on vocational psychology.
1986 - Rolf starts to develop a personality questionnaire in order to support selection of bus guides for journeys to the Alps. He does that together with psychologists –m ostly with Lars-Erik Liljequist and Bo Haglund from GPI, i.e. Göteborgs Psykotekniska Institut.
1999 - Rolf participates in the 15th global conference for the Szondi International Society at the university in Louvain-la-Nueve, Belgium. He gets there contacts with many "Szondians", who then could support him with his development of the HumanGuide-concepts. Moreover, he designed an internet-based version of the questionnaire.
2001 - Rolf publishes the book Let the Personality Bloom in a Swedish edition. The objective with the book is to support personal development based on the HumanGuide concepts.
2002 - Giselle Welter, Sao Paulo, Brazil, develops together with Rolf a Brazilian version (Portuguese) of the questionnaire. Giselle starts to use that in Brazil.
2005 - The book Let the Personality Bloom is published in an English edition. Giselle starts a validation study of the HumanGuide concepts test module.
2007 - Giselle's validation study is approved at the Universidade Sao Fransisco in Itatiba (outside Sao Paulo), Brazil. The book Let the Personality Bloom (Deixe a Personalidade Florescer) is published in a (Brazilian) edition.
2009 - HumanGuide is the first and by now the only forced-choice and internet-based personality test, which is approved in Brazil -- SATEPSI. The book Let the Personality Bloom is now also available in the same version in Swedish, English and Portuguese (Brazil). It can be bought in Swedish' book shops (also via adlibris.se) and in Brazil (vetoreditoria.com.br).
2010 - A new more advanced website is launched in Brazil.
2011 - The test was translated into Polish.
2014 - The test module is now available in 12 languages. This year are added Norwegian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, etc.
2015 - The test was translated into Hungarian and Hebrew.
2017 - We developed three web apps
- your.humanguide.se - as personaliy knowledge "in your pocket" (smartphone)
- cards.humanguide - as a support for using the HumanGuide Cards (a deck of cards combined with this app)
- mobile.humanguide.se - as support for our authorised users
2018 - We developed the version 2.0 of the your.humanguide,se so the user e.g. could calculate the passionindex the personality and a job.
2019 - We celebrated 20 year of cooperation with our partners Giselle Welter (CTO) and Marco Sinicco (CEO) at RH99 in Brazil. This year it had been done 500,000 tests with the Brazilian IT-system (Portuguese) between 2010-2019.
2020 - In April a Finnish version of the test was launched.
My Personal Story and Some Important Decisions in Life...
It was a strategic decision for my life to choose education, even if I then didn't understand that. My dad did. He was a worker and he lost his chance to make such a choice, because his father died, when he was 16 years old. He had instead to start working, so the family got a needed income. My dad wanted now to help his son to make a good decision. Therefore, my dad had talked to a teacher he knew, if he could help us with this choice. He could that, so we went by bicycle around 20 km to have a meeting with this teacher. After a discussion we came to the conclusion that I should choose a practically oriented school. Why? Because if I didn't like to be at a school longer, then I will have easier to get a job. I was good in school, but I didn't like some teachers, because they disliked, when I now and then was questioning their opinion...
Well, how was the decision? I finished this practical school with a good certificate. I "repeated" the same kind of choice 1963, so after three years I became an engineer in electronics. I have never worked as an engineer, because I added one more school year with economy and IT. This was 1968 and it was then very easy to get a job with that competence in IT:s "childhood".
I started 1975 to cooperate with psychologists
1975 happened something special for me. At that time I worked at a big IT consultant company. We had evaluated the usage of three big IT-systems in the government. We found many problems and some were very big. I was seen as a "creative guy", so I got an internal assignment to improve our methods for system development. I understood that we had very low competence in psychology and pedagogics. It was a "hallelujah moment" for me, because of my big interest in these knowledge areas. I was also lucky, because i came in contact with a very creative and independent psychologist Lars-Erik Liljequist at GPI Göteborgs Psykotekniska Institut, where they was specialised in organisational psychology. He and his colleagues have taught me a lot since then. The result was that we improved the methods for development of IT-systems. We also added knowledge and exercises in psychology and pedagogics. In a way it became a synthesis of technical and human knowledge.
This experience or the "discovery" from 1975 changed my life. I found a passion here! Talking about motivation - that is the top version! What can I then say about my strategic decisions 1959 and 1963? They became partly wrong, because I have learnt too little in the human knowledge area. Today I see the blue thread in my life: I have taken three big bad decisions in my life and I will use the rest of my life to help other people to avoid such mistakes. I will probably never be retired - I am instead a passionaire;-) Moreover, the research says that people are happier, when they help other people compared to only care about themselves. Giving is better than taking, BUT of course there should be a balance in the long run...
1986 I started to develop a personality test
Anyhow after 1975 I have improved my strategic decisions;-) Especially after 1986, when a new crucial moment happened in my life. At that time I have started my own consultant company Humankonsult AB (1983). One of my employees was Lil Larås. Her brother was CEO for the travel agency Lion Tours. They had journeys to The Alpes - mostly Austria, Italy and France. They recruited guides for each season and they wanted to improve their recruitment process. Therefore, Lil asked me, if there was any personality test, which was based on Leopold Szondi's (1893-1986) personality theory? Based on Szondi's theory? Why? Well, one of the very useful knowledge, which I had got from Lars-Erik (1975-), was about that theory. He had done a manual for BBT (Berufsbilder Test, which was based on Szondi's theory) in Swedish for the governmental service Arbetsförmedlingen and their vocational guidance. However, that test consisted of photos from people in a working situation. That test couldn't be used in this case. It would be too expensive to have a meetings all over Sweden with candidates. The company needed a questionnaire. However, there was no such questionnaire in the whole world. Therefore, I took the decision to develop such a questionnaire, because I was so impressed by the usefulness of Szondi's theory in order to understand myself and other people. In this development I had help by Lars-Erik and some of his colleagues.
It was good conditions to develop the questionnaire for the busguides, because it was done a detailed assessment after each journey. We saw clear patterns for good guides. We also figured out how you should be as a good guide in the different countries. How? Well, The Alpes and their cultures differ. E.g. in in the Italian alpes and the culture are more “cosy”. That attracted the travellers, so the guides should be like that too.
1999 I participated in the XVth SIS (Szondi International Society) conference at the university of Louvain-la-Nueve, Belgium. After that I started to cooperate with other "Szondians" abroad. Among them was the psychologist Giselle Welter, from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Since then she has been a crucial partner in the development of the HumanGuide concepts e.g. she made a validation study 2006-2007, which became the foundation of the SATEPSI's approval of the HumanGuide test 2009. It was the first test based on internet and forced-choice, which was approved in Brazil. Today (Feb 2020) it has been done more than 500,000 tests in Brazil with their IT-system (Portuguese). Since 2009 Giselle cooperates with Marco Sinicco and they run the company RH99, which is marketing the HumanGuide concepts in Brazil.
To choose a lifepartner...
Ooops! I have missed to bring up the third bad big decision: To choose a life partner. I married for the first time 1969. We were in love at that time, but step by step during the years our differences in interests and values became more and more clear, so we divorced 1993. Half a year later I met a new woman, but then I was more cautious about this “strategic decision”. Therefore, I asked her: I have a personality test, do you like to check the prognosis for a marriage? Hmmm... She was also divorced, so she was interested… The prognosis was good;-) 2019 we had been together 25 years without any destructive conflict. We have of course conflicts, but we handle them in a constructive way. So a little time before the 25th anniversary I wrote the eBook “How to get a good life partner?” (only available – so far – in a Swedish edition). The book has two objectives: To get a good description of the right lifepartner and how to nurse the relation. The key is to have similar interests, so when you have time together, then you like to do similar activities. There is the same opinion in research. By the way you have one of the tools from the book available to download on this website - click here. Inspired by a society in Italy, who married only one year ahead, then you have to agree on one more year, etc...
Rolf Kenmo
CEO, Humankonsult AB
