DiSC vs Insights Discovery: which one suits your team?

If you are choosing a profiling tool for your team, DiSC and Insights Discovery® are two of the names you will come across. Both give each person a report about how they prefer to work, and both are used in team workshops. This article sets out how they differ so that you can choose with confidence.

DiSC and Insights Discovery are two separate tools from two different publishers. Both use a simple four-part model to help people understand how they and their colleagues prefer to work and communicate. DiSC describes four behavioural styles. Insights Discovery describes four colour energies and is based on the psychology of Carl Jung.

Inner Leader is a UK leadership and team development consultancy and an Everything DiSC Authorised Partner (Everything DiSC is published by Wiley). We deliver DiSC, so we have an interest in this comparison. We do not sell or deliver Insights Discovery. Everything this article says about it comes from the publisher's own website, which we checked on 14 November 2026.

What does each one measure and where does it come from?

Everything DiSC is a workplace assessment published by Wiley. Wiley describes it as a personal development learning experience that measures a person's preferences and tendencies, based on a model of four behavioural styles: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. Our guide to the four DiSC personality types describes each style in detail.

Insights Discovery is published by Insights. Its publisher says it has its roots in the work of the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and uses a four colour model to help people understand their working style. The four colour energies are Fiery Red, Sunshine Yellow, Earth Green and Cool Blue. You can read the publisher's own description on the Insights Discovery page of insights.com.

Both tools are about preferences. Wiley says no one DiSC style is better or worse than the next, and Insights says there are no good or bad scores in Insights Discovery.

Are the four DiSC styles the same as the four Insights colours?

No. The descriptions sound alike in places, but they are two separate models and a colour does not convert into a DiSC style. Below is how each publisher describes its own four.

The four DiSC styles, in Wiley's words:

• Dominance: direct, forceful and outspoken with their opinions.
• Influence: outgoing, enthusiastic and lively.
• Steadiness: gentle, accommodating and patient with others' mistakes.
• Conscientiousness: analytical, reserved and precise.

The four Insights Discovery colour energies, in the publisher's words:

• Fiery Red: assertive, decisive and focused.
• Sunshine Yellow: sociable, dynamic and persuasive.
• Earth Green: caring, encouraging and patient.
• Cool Blue: analytical, objective and detached.

Insights says everyone has all four colour energies and prefers some over others. A person may lead with one colour, and it is the combination of the four that makes them who they are. In Everything DiSC, a person's style is shown as a dot on a circle, and most people sit somewhere between two styles.

How do DiSC and Insights Discovery compare side by side?

How do the reports compare?

Each person who completes Everything DiSC receives their own profile. It explains their DiSC style and gives practical advice on working with people whose style is different. We are big advocates of Catalyst, the online Everything DiSC platform, where people can see their own DiSC style and their colleagues' styles, with practical tips for working well with each person. Everything DiSC also comes in several versions, and our guide to which Everything DiSC profile to choose explains them.

Everyone who completes Insights Discovery receives an Insights Discovery Personal Profile, which the publisher describes as a 20 page profile that identifies strengths and areas for development. Its chapters cover strengths, weaknesses and value to the team, communication style, management, sales effectiveness and creating your ideal working environment. Each person also has a position on the Insights colour wheel, which has 72 positions.

How do the workshops compare?

We can only describe our own workshops in detail. In an Inner Leader DiSC team workshop, everyone completes the assessment online a week or two beforehand. The team then goes through their profiles together. Our Everything DiSC training runs in person anywhere in the UK or virtually, from a three-hour virtual session to a full day in person. The delivery of a half-day virtual session for up to 14 people starts from £2,750 +VAT, not including DiSC profiles.

Insights says the Personal Profile is the basis for individual coaching, e-learning and group workshops. It also says the profile is always interpreted and explained to the person by an accredited Insights practitioner. For details of how those sessions run, it is best to ask Insights or one of its accredited practitioners.

What should you do if part of your company already uses the other one?

Start by asking what the rest of your organisation already uses. A shared language is most useful when the people who work together every day all know it. If the teams you work with most closely already use Insights Discovery, that is a good reason to choose it. If they already use DiSC, that is a good reason to choose DiSC.

Plenty of organisations end up with more than one tool, usually because different parts of the business bought at different times. That is manageable. It becomes harder when two tools are used for the same purpose with the same group, because people end up holding two vocabularies for the same behaviour. Our article on DiSC vs Myers-Briggs covers the same situation.

How do you choose between DiSC and Insights Discovery?

Both tools help the people in a team understand how each of them prefers to work and communicate, and how they can adapt to each other. These three questions will help you choose.

• What does the rest of your organisation already use?
• Do you want a profile written for a particular group? Everything DiSC has separate versions for managers, leaders and salespeople.
• Who will run the session, and what will they do afterwards to help your team keep using what they learned?

If you are also looking at team roles, our article on DiSC vs Belbin compares those two.

Questions people ask about DiSC and Insights Discovery

Are DiSC and Insights Discovery the same thing?

No. DiSC and Insights Discovery are separate tools from different publishers. Everything DiSC is published by Wiley and describes four behavioural styles: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. Insights Discovery is published by Insights and describes four colour energies, based on the psychology of Carl Jung. Each has its own questionnaire and its own report.

Is Fiery Red in Insights Discovery the same as the D style in DiSC?

Fiery Red and the D style are not the same thing, although the descriptions are similar. Insights describes Fiery Red energy as assertive, decisive and focused. Wiley describes the Dominance style in DiSC as direct, forceful and outspoken. They belong to two separate models, so a colour from Insights Discovery does not convert into a DiSC style.

Can a team that has done Insights Discovery move to DiSC?

Yes, a team that has done Insights Discovery can move to DiSC. Each person completes the Everything DiSC assessment, which takes fifteen to twenty minutes online, and receives a DiSC profile. Colour energies do not carry over into DiSC styles. Inner Leader delivers Everything DiSC, and our Everything DiSC training page explains how a session runs.

Can DiSC or Insights Discovery be used for recruitment?

No. Everything DiSC is not designed for recruitment screening, and Inner Leader does not use it that way. We use it to help people who already work together understand each other and work better together. Insights says the Insights Discovery profile must not be used for recruitment, selection or evaluation purposes.