Life Orientations Training
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Life Orientations® Training, or LIFO® Training for short, is an applied behavioral science system that fosters individual and organizational productivity. It begins by identifying the individual’s basic orientation to life, or personal style. Based on this foundation of self-knowledge, it offers a variety of strategies to help individuals and groups to be more productive in their work and more influential when dealing with key people.
[edit] History
Life Orientations Training was developed by Stuart Atkins, Ph.D., in the late 1960s, based on a unique synthesis of key concepts from psychoanalysis, self-actualization theory, client centered counseling, group dynamics, and his experience as a behavioral scientist and organizational consultant. Atkins introduced it as a positive and structured tool to supplement organizational development, T-groups, and sensitivity training. These new group methods helped people learn how to improve themselves by studying each others' behavior, thoughts, and feelings. However, many participants objected to these methods as too un-structured, personal, and embarrassing for people who work together.
Responding to these concerns, Atkins, with consultant Elias Porter, Ph.D., developed the Life Orientations® Survey and the Life Orientations® Method based on the work of Erich Fromm, Carl Rogers, and Abraham Maslow. In 1968, the Life Orientations® Survey was presented by Atkins and Allan Katcher, Ph.D., in the Human Factors in Management course at UCLA and with such diverse clients as the American Cancer Society, Mattel Toys, General Foods, U.S. Steel, and the State of California.
Atkins extended the Life Orientations® Method beyond diagnosis to include six developmental strategies for improving performance, which he called Confirming, Capitalizing, Moderating, Supplementing, Extending, and Bridging. To simplify and aid memory, the Life Orientations® trademark was shortened by Dr. Atkins to LIFO®, a contraction of LIFe Orientations.
Atkins and Katcher soon found the demand for the LIFO Method outstripped their delivery capacity, so they started licensing organizational trainers in the LIFO Method and developing workbooks to accelerate learning. In 1976, Katcher began to focus his LIFO practice internationally, appointing agents in many countries, and focusing on executive coaching, teambuilding, and OD applications. Atkins directed LIFO programs in the United States, with emphasis on the developmental strategies applied to management development, individual productivity, communications, and teamwork. He named this developmental emphasis LIFO Training.
More than eight million people in 28 countries around the world have participated in workshops incorporating LIFO learning activities. Worldwide rights the the LIFO Method were acquired in 2001 by Business Consultants, Inc. ("BCon"), a training and consulting firm headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The same year BCon established Business Consultants Network, a wholly owned American company, as the sole source for the LIFO Method and LIFO Training worldwide.
[edit] Other Styles-Based Approaches
Other popular "styles-based" approaches to understanding human behavior include the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator® (MBTI®) and the DiSC assessment. The theoretical foundations of the MBTI and DiSC approaches were eveloped in the 1920s and the "Briggs-Myers Type Indicator" was first published in 1942. However, LIFO Training was the first styles-based approach to be used widely in organizations to improve performance beginning in the late 1960s.
[edit] External links
Theoretical Background
Publisher
- Business Consultants Network -- Publisher of LIFO Training materials
Ericdahl 23:58, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
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