How to Read Your TDF Assessment Results

What does the TDF assessment describe?

The TDF assessment, formally known as the TDF Pattern Inventory, is a self-report tool used to explore perceptual patterns: the facts, choices and connections that tend to attract your attention. It produces a TDF pattern to consider alongside the descriptions and your own experience.

The three lenses have specific meanings in this model. T notices facts and details. D notices choices, contrasts and priorities. F notices connections and context. Everyone uses all three. Their order describes the six patterns.

A pattern does not measure how intelligent, caring or capable you are. For example, putting F last does not mean you cannot care about people. Putting T last does not mean you cannot work accurately. Perception and learned skills are different questions.

In Discovering Your Best Self: The TDF Map, David Farr and Bill Roberts describe the assessment as a measure of self-image. That matters: your answers reflect how you see yourself, which deserves thoughtful interpretation.

What happens when you take the assessment?

The current online assessment (V2) contains 120 items. Allow approximately 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to answer thoughtfully at your own pace. You need a valid assessment code to begin and must respond to every item. There are no right or wrong answers.

V2 retains all 120 items used by the established scoring rules and removes 40 items that did not contribute to the calculated result. The scoring formula and six pattern descriptions are unchanged. Earlier assessments contained 160 items, and saved assessments continue on the version with which they began. Retaining the scoring formula does not by itself establish that the two administration formats produce identical responses; the historical research describes the form studied at that time.

Each item presents a word with two related words to clarify its meaning. Choose the response that best describes how you see yourself overall, across work, home and other settings. Use your own perspective rather than trying to guess how someone else would rate you.

The completed responses are scored to generate a pattern result. Review the result-sharing notice before you begin. Sharing arrangements depend on your assessment code: a Standard assessment offers a sharing choice, while Workshop and Workshop Reveal assessments include sharing with the facilitator after you acknowledge the notice. With Workshop Reveal, your result and report remain unavailable to you until the facilitator releases them.

Once you can read the result, give yourself a few minutes with the full description. The three-letter code alone leaves out much of what makes the model useful.

How do you read the pattern letters?

Read the code from the most prominent lens to the least prominent. The final letter is written in lowercase to identify what TDF calls the small lens. It is present, even when it attracts less attention.

TDf and TFd both start with facts, but their second lens changes the picture. TDf brings choices into focus next. TFd brings connections into focus next. Read the whole order before deciding that two patterns describe the same experience.

A ten-minute exercise for reading your result

Choose an ordinary situation from the last week: a purchase, a meeting, a change of plan or a conversation at home. Write down what happened before looking for an explanation in your pattern.

1. Notice: What caught your attention first? What did you ask about?
2. Compare: Which part of the description fits that experience? Which part does not?
3. Look again: What information did someone else introduce that you had missed?
4. Try: Write one question you could ask earlier next time.

For example, you may have checked every specification before buying equipment, then realized you had not asked who would maintain it. Your next question could be, “Who will use and support this each week?” That is a concrete use of the model, whatever your reported pattern.

Repeat with a second situation from a different setting. Look for recurring attention, rather than collecting only the examples that confirm the description.

What if your result does not seem to fit?

You do not need to force yourself into a description. Farr and Roberts discuss several possible reasons for a mismatch, including distraction, tiredness, answering as you wish to be seen, and limitations of the instrument.

First, check the meanings of the lenses. Being good at spreadsheets does not by itself establish a T-first pattern. Being sociable does not establish an F-first pattern. A familiar skill can make a description sound right for the wrong reason.

Then read a neighboring pattern and compare specific experiences. A facilitator can help you explore the distinction, but the conversation should give you room to disagree. Ask a colleague what they observe, without asking them to decide your identity.

If you have questions about the result or assessment process, contact TDF People. Bring the part of the description that puzzles you and one example from your life. That makes a more useful starting point than simply asking whether the code is right.

What should you ask about assessment evidence?

A description that feels familiar can prompt useful reflection. That experience alone does not establish how accurately an assessment measures its intended construct or predicts an outcome.

When evaluating evidence for any assessment, ask which version was studied, who took part, what was measured and whether the findings support your intended use. Results from one population or purpose may not answer a different question.

The TDF research manual reports studies of item consistency and relationships with other assessments. It also states that test-retest reliability had not been directly assessed. A finding about items within a scale does not establish how often you would receive the same pattern on another occasion. Read how TDF was developed and studied for the findings, source dates and limits.

When considering your own report, look for specific examples across settings and give mismatches attention too. For help reading research claims, see personality test reliability and validity. This interpretation guide does not establish a comparative accuracy rating.

What should you do with the result?

Choose one useful change: ask for the information you need, invite a perspective you often overlook, or explain a concern more clearly. You can start with the meeting worksheet or use the team workshop guide.

Avoid making the code an excuse: “That is my pattern” does not resolve a missed commitment. Nor does someone else's pattern tell you their qualifications, motives or ability to do a job. Keep actual behavior, experience and responsibilities in the conversation.

After a week, ask what changed. Did your new question surface something useful? Did a colleague understand you better? Keep the practice if it helps, and adjust it if it does not.

Sources and further reading

The model and interpretation guidance draw on Discovering Your Best Self: The TDF Map by David Farr and Bill Roberts, particularly its introduction to the lenses and questions about pattern identification. The exercise and equipment example are illustrations created for this guide.

The evidence summary draws on Boyd Spencer, Bill Roberts and David Farr, TDF Pattern Inventory Research Manual, second edition, copyright 2002, pp. 5–6. Those findings concern the earlier versions and samples described in the manual; they are not a new study of the current online assessment.

How TDF Works introduces the framework and includes book references. The assessment start page provides the current instructions for taking the online assessment.