This page:
•  Provides contact information
•  Explains how and why Insight Management Partners was created
•  Has short bios
•  Describes our connection with Innovation Associates
•  Lists the people we wish to acknowledge

Contact Information

Insight Management Partners, Inc.
355 Brimstone Lane, Sudbury, Massachusetts 01776, USA
Tel: 508-788-9890
Fax: 206-339-9396
E-mail: info@insightmanagementpartners.com

Genesis of Insight Management Partners

During our respective careers in business management, we had been bothered by the frequency with which we observed experienced executives setting strategies and making decisions that yielded genuinely bad outcomes. Particularly bothersome was the frequent defense of these decisions on the basis of what was viewed at the time as good logic. Moreover, these decisions were typically made by very bright and extraordinarily well-educated people. We hypothesized that many of these executives were somehow locked into ways of thinking that tended to promulgate lower-quality thoughts, and that an insight probably would have avoided the poor outcomes.

We started with the following logic. Performance - whether good or bad - is a function of decisions and actions, which in turn are functions of the quality of thought that informs them. Our hypothesis was that an increase in the frequency and strength of insights would improve thinking, and that would result in better decisions. Individuals and their organizations would ultimately show improved performance. We also expected that as insight increased in individuals, they would exhibit better personal and business judgment - what we commonly call wisdom. Therefore, we set out to explore the following questions: How might one increase the incidence of insight? And does it lead to higher performance?

Bios

Charlie Kiefer was graduated from MIT with degrees in theoretical physics and management and in 1976 founded Innovation Associates (IA) to help large organizations innovate. During the next 20 years the company grew rapidly, based on unusual and powerful approaches that improved clients' abilities to learn and think, to build alignment and commitment, and to change. The firm also offered a legendary education program, Leadership & Mastery, which counts more than 1,000 executives in its alumni base of 8,000. In 1990, cofounder Peter Senge published the landmark management bestseller, The Fifth Discipline, based on IA's work.

Ken Manning, Ph.D. graduated from Brown University and The University of Massachusetts, Amherst with degrees in psychology. He spent 10 years in sales and marketing prior to his 23 years as an executive coach, consultant, trainer and licensed psychologist. Currently Ken is also an adjunct faculty member for the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and on the staff of their Graduate Executive Coaching Program.

Robin Charbit holds degrees in chemical engineering and management. His background in the chemicals industry includes having worked with Exxon for 11 years, culminating in his role as the Business Leader of their international plastics business. From Exxon, Robin moved to Arthur D. Little (ADL) for 10 years - first in Europe and ultimately, in Boston, where he led and managed the North America Chemicals Practice, which provided broad consulting services to that industry.

Insight Management Partners and Innovation Associates: The Link

Insight Management Partners (IMP) and Innovation Associates (IA) are connected through their common founder, Charlie Kiefer, and through pioneering work in improving the performance of leaders and organizations through better thinking. Twenty years ago, IA developed and deployed a set of groundbreaking methods and approaches that remain valuable to business today. IMP's agenda is to launch from this work and explore the new and promising discipline of thought and insight. IA's classic Learning Organization methods continue to be available from Applied Systems Thinking.

Acknowledgements

We very much want to extend our sincerest thanks to a large number of people who have helped us along the way. In no particular order:

•  To our clients who liked what they heard and followed their instincts as we developed our approaches and products
•  Norman Sheppard (Web Design Pittsburgh PA) for his help, skill and effortless way of working on the construction of this site
•  Debra Simes (debra@wordslinger.net) for her kind and generous review of our attempts to write about our work
•  Mark Guarino (www.guarinodesign.com) for the design of this site and the ease with which he extracted ideas from us and turned them into something elegant and beautiful.
•  Michael Goodman (Mrginhop@aol.com) for allowing us to use his spectacular pictures.
•  We are indebted to many thought leaders in the fields of psychology and human development, especially Dr. Annika Hurwitt Schahn (www.optimaliving.net) and Dr. George Pransky (www.pranskyandassociates.com).
•  And of course, all our friends and colleagues who have unselfishly and constructively reviewed our ideas and developments.