Tools you can use.

This is an introduction to the “I Opt” Leader Analysis report. The report analyzes the leader in the context of the specific group of people being led. This movie offers extensive explanations of analytical technique as well as the construction of the various supporting graphics.

Keywords: “I Opt”, leader, leadership, styles, patterns, strategies, strengths, vulnerabilities, coalitions, executive, manager, staff, decisions, corporate, team dynamics, individual, group, majority, consensus, pinwheel, leader pull, compatibility, cross compatibility matrix, communication, team size.

Learning is an information processing activity. "I Opt" strategic styles define a person's preferred approach to this activity. The Learning Report shows how a person might best approach learning from their particular strategic style election.

Keywords: “I Opt”, learning, report, styles, patterns, strategies, strengths, vulnerabilities, coalitions, executive, manager, staff, decisions, corporate, team dynamics, individual, group, majority, consensus, pinwheel, compatibility, cross compatibility matrix, communication, team size.

This movie walks the viewer through each of the three sections of the “I Opt” TeamAnalysis Report. It shows how the viewer can use the report and “I Opt” technology to improve team performance.

Keywords: “I Opt” strategic style, strategic pattern, strategic profile, strengths, vulnerabilities, leadership, team dynamics, individual, group, team personality, majority, consensus

This movie describes how the emotional responses of others can be predicted and managed using “I Opt” strategic style technology. Both short and long-term emotional relationships are addressed

Keywords: “I Opt” strategic patterns, social intelligence, emotional intelligence, emotions, feelings, leadership, emotional cascades, attribution, mirror strategy, mirroring

This movie shows how “I Opt” technology can be used to identify and leverage natural strengths into long-term career success.

Keywords: “I Opt” strategic style, strengths, exposures, guidance, career navigation, elevator pitch, success formula, favorable positions, teams

A universal form of team tension is shown to arise from a specific cause that is inherent in any team doing anything. The cause is embedded in the character of information that a team needs to fulfill its function. This means that tension cannot be avoided, it can only be managed. The study proceeds to offer specific strategies that can be used to minimize tension exposure or to mitigate tension effects when it cannot be avoided. The strategies offered are specific to the degree and direction of tension being experienced or anticipated.

"I Opt", I Opt, I-Opt, team, tension, dysfunction, conflict, cause, information, dynamic, anxiety, strain, style, strategy, profile, emotion, judgement, information processing, logic, accusation, insistence, attribution, malfunction, performance, teamwork, rules, roles, process, TeamAnalysis

A sample of 194 Administrative Assistants from 100 different firms and institutions were used to identify behavioral stances that are not readily visible (i.e., secrets). The Administrative Assistant role is shown to be unique and highly specialized in terms of its approach to work issues. The research uses over 5,000 people in professional roles as well as people in a range of management positions up to and including the CEO to show the distinctive nature of the Administrative Assistant position.

"I Opt", I Opt, I-Opt, secrets, strategic style, unpatterned, structured, action, thought, analysis, team, Administrative Assistant, Executive Assistant, Secretary, CEO, professionals, role, nurses, teachers, network, RS, LP, HA, RI, conflict, tension, strategy, workload, logic, facts, change.

Creativity has stable and identifiable component parts. "I Opt" technology distinguishes three distinct and independently controllable elements of creativity: volume of ideas, the direction of the creative initiative and the quality of the ideas created. Using these new insights professionals can tailor their initiatives more precisely. The research also forms a foundation for extended scientific research into the subject.

Keywords: "I Opt", I Opt, I-Opt, knowledge, creativity, quality, Peter Meusburger, input, output, process, ideas, strategic style, strategy, style, profile, Brainstorming, Brute Think, unpatterned, structured, action, thought, analysis, experimentation, "connect the dots," tension, team, science

The information processing structure of universities is studied though a sample of 732 positions at over 100 different universities. The study focused on four management levels - Professors, Directors, Administraton and Staff. Statistics reveal that there are structural disjoints that will result in persistent organizational strains. These structural "disjoints" need not be corrected. They are necessary for the effective functioning of the university.

Keywords: “I Opt”, Administrator, I Opt, I-Opt, knowledge, management, manager, organization, professors, profile, strategic style, strategy, style, supervisor, University

A study to determine the degree and direction of change in strategic styles over time was conducted. It used 1,515 test-retest sets of surveys covering a time span of 1 day to over 12 years. The study included 132 distinct firms/institutions including profit, non-profit, universities and governmental entities.

The research found that styles do change, although typically by modest amounts. Observed changes in dominant style are shown to be principally a function of the rank order (i.e., ordinal) measure rather than substantive changes in observable behavior.

The direction of change in styles is shown to be entirely predictable. The study was also able to isolate strategic styles that were particularly resistant to change.

Keywords: “I Opt”, strategic style, style change, test-retest, statistical significance, dominant style, secondary style, analysis, strategy, profile, survey, ordinal, rank order, exact, measurement, environment

This video summarizes evidence-based research based on a sample of 711 sales/marketing professionals and executives from 193 different companies. The study found systematic, statistically significant differences between the between levels in the sales organization. The practical implications of this finding include guidance on promotional selection and training. The study also found statistically significant differences between sales and marketing professionals and by type of sales (i.e., transactional vs. relationship). The practical implications that flow from both of these findings are outlined.

Keywords: “I Opt”, styles, sales, marketing, transactional selling, relationship selling, executive, manager, professional, promotion, sales performance, strategic profiles, strategic styles, information processing, measurement, significance tests, sales seminars, sales teams, sales styles, selection, organizational tension.

The Split Style profile occurs infrequently and involves the display of apparantly contradictory behaviors. This evidence-based video explains the implications of this profile to both the person holding it and the people with whom they interact.

Keywords: “I Opt”, split styles, team, coordination, prediction, transparency, attribution, advantages, types, frequency, intensity.

This video shows how the Career Report can be used to identify and develop the qualities, capacities, accomplishments and other material that combine to create compelling resume content. The video takes the viewer step-by-step through the process.

Keywords: “I Opt”, resume, chronological, functional, technical, core competencies, specifics, cpability summary, formats, career navigation.

This movie describes the content of a 66-slide PowerPoint training program available free from iopt.com. The slides have full text annotation and audio narration (in the notes section). Exercises and discussion topics are included.

Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, mirror neurons, emotions, feelings, cascades, strategic styles, patterns, long-term, short-term, stress responses, culture, management, strategies, attributions, executive

This movie summarizes the “I Opt” Validation Study in easily accessible language. It summarizes each of the 8 validity tests (plus reliability) and shows how these tests work together to create high confidence in “I Opt” technology.

Keywords: Validity, content validity, construct validity, face validity, predictive validity, concurrent validity, discriminant validity, convergent validity, conclusion validity, reliability, theoretical integrity, individual validation, group validation

This movie shows why teams offer an advantage for certain kinds of problems. It also shows why there is an inescapable decline in performance as team size increases over defined limits.

Keywords:Team building, ”I Opt“ team size, leadership, thought diversity, information processing, Measurement, organizational Engineering

This video outlines how to use a mini-system of three ”I Opt“ tools. They offer varying levels of precision and apply to both individuals and groups. All are available free to certified individuals and established client firms.

Keywords: Communication, ”I Opt“, Snowflakes, ”I Opt“ Card deck, tools, goal directed strategies, consensus, majority

Organizational Rank and Strategic Style ~ 16 MIN

A study of 10,617 executives from 1,559 different organizations disclosed a systematic, statistically significant relationship between “I Opt” Strategic Styles and organizational rank. Different styles are favored at the different levels in the hierarchy. Applying the basic information-processing paradigm (input>process>output) to the data revealed that the observed style distribution across ranks was caused by a single factor that is an inherent quality in any organization. As an inherent, inescapable quality it can be relied upon to inform decisions in organizational design and operations as well as providing personal career guidance.

“I Opt”, strategic style, research, CEO, manager, director, Vice President, structure, hierarchy, tactics, strategy, operations, mission, resolution, uncertainty, opportunity, incentive, horizon.

K-12 School System Management ~ 17 MIN

A study of 208 principals, 218 teachers and 37 school district superintendents revealed an organizational fault in the management structure of the average K-12 school system. The existence of this flaw is likely to compromise the success of any initiative from any source targeted toward the improvement of K-12 educational performance. The fault does not reside at any particular level in the school hierarchy. Rather it is the result of the information processing relationships between organizational levels.

“I Opt”, strategic style, teacher, superintendent, principal, school board, research, CEO, manager, director, management, structure, managerial gap, idea-analysis, hierarchy, centroid.

A study of 254 professors from 109 universities revealed an important and previously unrecognized value of the tenure system. Tampering with the tenure system can have serious unintended societal consequences. The study also uncovered and quantified two different kinds of professors who together are responsible for the creation of reliable knowledge-a key university mission. A corollary condition was exposed which acts to systematically compromise student learning.

"I Opt", university, professor, adjunct, tenure, tenure track, strategic style, teaching, research, academic, stereotype, reliable knowledge, ideas, analysis, process, theories

A test-retest study was a natural experiment. The conditions were such that participants were trying to change their "I Opt" style diagnostics. This introduced a "stress" element in which the test was biased against reliability.

The sample of 171 test-retest sets was obtained from a population of 6,298 surveys. The results show that "I Opt" reliability outperformed four traditional instruments (i.e., MBTI, DiSC, Firo-B and 16PF) even while being tested under stress conditions.

"I Opt", reliability, measurement, test-retest, analysis, strategic style, strategy, organization, development, organizational engineering, diagnosis, MBTI®, DiSC®, Firo-B®, 16PF®

A study was conducted to determine the reliability of "I Opt" patterns-sequences of predictable style behaviors. These behaviors are probabilistically defined rather than narratively described. The study demonstrates that "I Opt" is able to meet or exceed any reasonable standard of reliability both for scholarly and professional applications. The study also established that the "I Opt" survey could not be manipulated and that the participants were actively trying to change their initial diagnosis (i.e., the "stress" element of the stress test).

"I Opt", reliability, strategic pattern, style, measurement, test-retest, analysis, strategic style, strategy, organization, development, organizational engineering, diagnosis

City vs. Corporate Executive Management ~ 8 min
(Opportunities and Exposures)

This video contrasts the executive level of city and corporate management structures. It uses a sample of 175 city executives from 19 cities in 10 states. The corporate sample uses 4,963 executives from 882 for profit firms. The study reveals that cities are proportionately stronger in both idea generation and analysis. This condition creates opportunities in the potential for creative ideas successfully applied. It also creates exposures in increased cost, higher tension and lengthening decision time. The video shows how organizational engineering can be applied to magnify city executive strengths and offset their vulnerabilities.

Keywords: "I Opt", leader, leadership, styles, strategies, executive, cities, municipalities, corporations, tension, ideas, analysis, strategy, organization, development, organizational engineering, diagnosis, TeamAnalysis™, savings, creativity, strengths, vulnerabilities, team

This video summarizes evidence-based research that measured the change in worldview as a recovering alcoholic progresses from short-term through mid-term to long-term sobriety. The research found that this change occurs in two distinct phases. "I Opt" strategic styles were used to measure the changes in both amounts and direction. The video then summarizes two application research studies that trace the cause of the sequencing and direction of the observed changes. It also explores the structural components of Alcoholics Anonymous that support this process. The video shows that the worldview of the recovering alcoholic changes in predictable, explainable and substantial ways.

Keywords: Worldview, alcholism, recovery, 12-Steps, 12-Traditions, sponsors, "I Opt" styles, strategic profiles, information processing, measurement, significance tests, sobriety, meeting, "connecting", structural compatibility

This movie outlines "I Opt" research into whether executive men and women differ in the way they make decisions. It explains in easily understood, but technically accurate terms the basis and the findings of the study. It also demonstrates how “I Opt” can be used to address major policy and social issues.

Keywords: "I Opt", leader, leadership, styles, strategies, executive, Vice President, Director, Manager, decisions, Mann-Whitney, men, women, males, females, sample size, glass ceiling, gender differences

Why There is an Optimal Team Size ~ 14 min
(Also appears in "For Professionals section")

This is the second of the two-part series. This shows that diversity sets the "benefit" side of the team size equation. The video then shows how diversity benefit interacts with transaction channel cost (see Optimal Team Size video). The result is a cost/benefit ratio that explains why the "Goldilocks Zone" exists.

Keywords:Team building, ”I Opt“ team size, leadership, thought diversity, information processing, Measurement, organizational Engineering