A Review by Peter Everette

 

Enquire Within Reviews

Enquire Within is a new Windows based Grid Programme which operates on Windows 3 and Windows 95. It comes with extensive help and tutorial files, which are available on line while you are using the programme. The programme takes you through the process of formulating the grid right from scratch, with lots of refinements and options along the way. For example, the style of questions it asks you can be changed and modified using different `Qualifiers’ such as `in terms of how I feel about... ’ or `in terms of what I like about... ‘.

All of the screens used are well set out and presented avoiding any cluttered feeling. A combination of Dialogue Boxes and Drop down menus from the top of the screen let you select the next step 'in your grid work, from choosing elements, eliciting constructs by a conversational triadic process, Laddering Up and Laddering Down (Pyramiding), and then rating the grid on a scale decided by yourself.

Along the way there are lots of opportunities to tailor the process to suite yourself or your client, e.g. during the elicitation of constructs stage you can decide whether to accept 3 elements chosen at random, with two of them randomly placed on the Similar Pole, or alternatively you can choose your own similar pair from the same three randomly chosen elements, or even choose your own elements from a list.

Laddering can be done in two different ways, either the traditional "Which do you prefer, and why?" approach, or "Reconsidering the construct `good listener - does not listen’, why is that an important distinction to make about key people in my life?".

Laddering Down is the Enquire Within version of Pyramiding, to explore subordinate constructs. It takes a construct and asks "Please give an example of how different jobs described as "Never on call" differ from those described as "on call often", in terms of how I feel about."

Constructs can be prioritised if preferred, so that analyses are only performed on certain constructs. The analysis used in the programme is a cluster analysis based on correlations, which is then converted into a dendrogram. This places together the two most correlated elements, places a "virtual" element on the dendrogram and recalculates the grid. This process is repeated until you get a "Dendritic Analysis" as shown -in Figure 1.

Thus far the programme does what you would expect of it. Enquire Within then has a few surprises up its sleeve! A process called Differentiation allows you to look at either elements or constructs which score a high correlation, and asks you whether the close correlation is truly representative of how you see it, or whether they are in fact different in some way. If similar, you can decide to combine the two together if you wish. If different you are then invited to add another element or construct to help differentiate them. If this Differentiation process results in a new construct or element, you are then invited to rescore the grid. Using Differentiation and adding extra elements such as "Me in 5 Years" or "The Ideal Me", you can easily perform "what if" analyses.

There are different modules being planned, including an education module and a management competencies module.

The cost is US$700 for a two-year license, renewable thereafter at a cost of 25% of the initial cost for every extra two years.

IMPRESSION

I enjoyed using Enquire Within. It has an easily understood front end and a useful tutorial to get you started. As well as being versatile in how you set up the grid exercise, you can continue to update and test out your ideas by adding to the grid. Some of the other packages around have the option to analyse the data using Principal Components Analysis, a form of multivariate analysis. Enquire Within does not include this as an option. Because Principal Component Analysis concentrates on the relationship between elements rather than both elements and constructs, it tends to lose some of the true meaning of the grid by distilling the meaning down to 2 or 3 factors, and also because it would not allow the process of Differentiation. I would recommend Enquire Within to anyone interested in developing uses for grids on PC's.

Enquire Within have an Internet site at:- http://www.enquirewithin.co.nz/

Latest Information

Following feedback from users of the programme, three additions have been made. The elicitation process now includes an option to shuffle element cards around the screen to help find the similar pair and the singleton. The packaging of the product has been reorganised to cater for users with different requirements and to provide a cheaper entry price. Tutorial material is written specifically for the different user groups and a series of detailed workbooks is available. There is also now a facility to export the rating matrix in a comma delimited text file. This will let you import your grid data into other programmes such as Ingrid and SPSS.

Peter Everette

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Comment from John Mayes:

Enquire Within is under constant development both pro actively and in response to user comments. For instance better use of colour and layout in the current version has improved the presentation of the analysis shown above.

Recently Enquire Within has been completely rewritten as Enquire Within II and provides better layout and new facilities. The full version is now much cheaper (US$49) and contains a much more comprehensive help system that comprises one of the most comprehensive manuals on the practical application of repertory grid.

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Tutorials

Download a series of free standing repertory grid interview tutorials, introducing the use of the grid interview in various applications such as counselling, decision making and organizational development, here.

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