The Thirteen Principles of TIIMS™

Total Innovation and Intelligence Management System™

1. Facts and/or reality often have little or no bearing on the decision making process and are easily overridden by human factors and the concept of: “perception is reality.”
2. Tampering with the principle of natural selection. From childhood to the workplace people are often chosen for positions based not upon their being the best, but for a wide variety of other reasons. This results in a sub par organization whose weaknesses may not be readily apparent or acknowledged until a situation arises in which it is pitted against individuals or organizations with greater ability.
3. 88% ¹ of all organizations move too slowly in decision-making, administrative, and operational practices to approach even near maximal performance. Typical performance ranges from 80% to below 50% of optimal levels in the average organization.
4. 88% ¹ of all organizations fail to utilize Vilfredo Pareto’s proven ⁸⁰⁄₂₀ principles 80% of the time.
5. Despite countless studies and solid evidence that the “Top-Down” method of management is ineffective it remains the most dominant business model. This model is typified by the dual inefficiency of workers at lower levels having insufficient authority to make key decisions, and channels of communication resistant to information exchange and collaboration with higher levels of management.
6. Lower literacy levels result in lower performance. Studies show that in America even within white-collar office settings literacy averages only 8th to 10th grade level. Additionally, a generally unaccounted for factor is a worker’s “Practical Literacy Level™.” PLL™ adjusts the literacy level by taking into account the fact that crowded schedules and personal reading habits often mean documents and text are scanned or not completely read. Many communications go unread entirely. This results in a level of literacy that in practice is lower than a worker’s demonstrated maximum. For instance, a 12th grade document is already at or above the statistical average maximum level of comprehension. Combine this with a worker who reads less than the whole document and the true effective PLL may be as low as 6th grade or even lower. PLL is equally applicable to verbal forms of communication such as voicemail, face-to-face discussions and meetings, video presentations, etc.
7. All the way up to the executive level, logical and analytical reasoning skills are not strongly emphasized, nor do the majority of workers possess strong abilities in this critical area. This includes pattern recognition, a sub discipline. Without strong pattern recognition skills workers are unable to see the forest for the trees, or, equally important, the reverse, isolate an important single tree from the forest.
8. All the way up to the executive level, knowledge acquisition and continuing education are areas in which the average worker shows a low level of interest or ability, despite the fact that many organizations place emphasis on these areas.
9. Almost all organizations show a discrepancy between what senior management, and thus the company, says, and what senior management and workers actually practice. Stated goals are frequently rhetorical and are not translated into everyday business practices. For instance, almost all organizations state as priorities improving quality and efficiency while maximizing cost effectiveness, though at the same time opportunities to accomplish these goals are often ignored or given low priority on a routine basis. This discrepancy usually exists at all levels but at lower levels often results in lower employee moral.
10. Despite the proven principle that history often repeats itself this advice goes continually unheeded in planning for the future. Organizations historically respond reactively rather than proactively.
11. Optimal performance requires both short-term and long-term thinking, but crucial long-term needs are routinely sacrificed for short-term immediate gratification.
12. Research and innovation are consistently inadequate with high costs or low potential initial revenue often cited as reasons, despite the fact that research and innovation are responsible for increased revenue and lower costs.
13. It is impossible for an organization to achieve maximal performance without a system that allows the effective management and measurement of items one through twelve above.

¹ Note from 3 and 4 above: 88% is the average figure if you include all companies that meet the TIIMS definition of an organization. However, the figure for large (Fortune 1000 size) or government organizations equals or exceeds 98%.

How much better would your organization be if you were able to significantly reduce or eliminate the negatives (which exists in almost all organizations) and maximize on the positives (which are lacking in almost all organizations)?

Most have already observed how the above principles impact their organization. Most would also agree that reducing or eliminating the negatives and maximizing on the positives listed above would result in dramatic improvements. Most also know that identifying the areas where improvements can be made is only half the problem. Actually getting workers to adopt better work habits and to improve is much more difficult; in fact, as numerous studies have historically proven, getting workers to change or improve the way they do their jobs can in many situations seem almost impossible.

To learn how TIIMS overcomes these obstacles and brings dramatic improvement to any organization or process, please refer to: “How TIIMS Works.”