I recently came across a rather rare article that was printed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, later to become the National Enquirer. The date was July 4, 1776. Enjoy reading and Happy 4^th of
July!

--------------------------

Declaration of Independence Signed!

Signers declare, “We are One! We are United! We are the World!”

Philadelphia – July 4, 1776 – After days and days of heated debate, all 56 representatives of the 13 Colonies signed and unanimously agreed to a Declaration of Independence from England and thus paved the way for the creation of a free and United States of America.

Just weeks prior to convening this convention, the odds were 60 – 40 against an agreement coming out of the convention. What allowed this extraordinary event to occur was the insistence on the part of Thomas Jefferson, co-author of the Declaration, that each delegate take a Communication Profile Assessment. This profile is based on the Drake P3, which was actually developed by Sir France Drake in 1556. Drake needed a way to identify individuals who would be best suited to sailing around the globe and conquering nations. “I needed to put the right people on my ship and get the wrong people off my ship, and then my ship could sail away and
circumnavigate the globe”, said Drake. “I needed people who had a world vision, who had what it takes to succeed in a global economy”, Drake went on to say.

Jefferson had been exposed to this type of assessment instrument while building Monticello. One of his agents who was supplying workers for constructing the building was using assessment tools to recruit the best talent for the positions he needed to fill for Jefferson. The agent had Jefferson and his overseers complete a Job
Profile for each position and then the agent went off to recruit. Each potential candidate was given a Candidate Profile Survey and then the agent would compare the Candidate’s Profile against the Job profile. All of this
information was used by the agent to present the best possible fit for each position. The agent even introduced Jefferson to the concept of Behavioral Based Interviewing, even though the underlying psychology would not be invented for some 80 years. Jefferson had agreed to pay the agent a 30% fee for each person hired. The agent
eventually landed an exclusive with Jefferson and was introduced to other signers including John Hancock, who used the agent and the assessment tools to build an international Insurance Company bearing
his name.

What impressed Jefferson most about these assessment tools was using the information from the surveys to better communicate with people. Jefferson felt that communication would be the key to a successful convention and ultimately the key to founding a free nation. “I always felt that Sam Adams was a high extrovert, especially after he had a couple of his great beers” said Jefferson. “This survey data not only validated my initial feelings about Sam, but also gave me information that I use now to better communicate with him, and the others. It is one of the reasons we are here today”

Adams agreed, saying” I was skeptical at first. I thought it was some crazy magic that Franklin had come up with on one of his trips to the other side of the globe. Now I am a believer. Without these tools I never would have been on the same side of an issue with the likes of Josiah Bartlett from New Hampshire.”

After the obligatory picture taking session, the entire delegation adjourned to Bookbinders for dinner and the evening’s entertainment provided by Elton John singing “Philadelphia Freedom.”

________________________________________