Interaction Research Institute, Inc.

Centrally located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, The Interaction Research Institute, Inc. is an established research, training, and development organization. Incorporated in 1975, IRI has provided services in survey guided improvement, strategic planning, performance measures, analytical consulting, information systems design, organizational development, and cross-cultural intervention.

The Institute is staffed with a core of experts in the technosocial sciences with broad practical experience in domestic and international operations. Serving a wide spectrum of clients over the past 31 years, IRI has pioneered a variety of novel and specialized intervention programs for government, commercial, and industrial organizations.

In the early 70s, IRI personnel supported military and civilian advisory efforts in Vietnam, and developed the Intercultural Transaction Technique. This method is used to select and train personnel for advisory functions and other multicultural missions overseas.

In the late 70s, IRI designed the Leadership Evaluation and Analysis Program (LEAP) for the U.S. Marine Corps. This unit-applied organizational development program was implemented on a worldwide basis by the Marine Corps, and adapted for commercial application for numerous organizations throughout the United States.

During the 1980s, IRI provided associate services to W. Edwards Deming in support of his seminars and consulting activities. IRI devised an operational procedure to implement the principles and methods of Deming, and in 1983, IRI presented the first "Applied Deming" course at George Washington University, and at the IBM Corporate Quality Institute. In 1984, IRI was responsible for introducing the Bill to Congress, and preparing the proclamation for President Reagan that established October as "National Quality Month."

In the 1990's IRI created streamlined decision-support systems for client organizations, and implemented the STATMAN Expert System for Navy-wide Occupational Health and Safety application. Additionally, IRI designed and conducted training and intervention programs to improve cross-cultural interaction and customer service.

Currently, IRI is involved in preparing Marine advisors for duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and West Africa. In addition, IRI creates customized web-based climate, customer, and exit surveys with dynamic reporting systems, and conducts statistical analysis and organizational assessments.

IRI has been instrumental in achieving continuous improvement within public and private sector organizations. IRI's services and products represent over three decades of professional experience.

IRI's philosophy synthesizes the teachings of Deming, Senge, Ishikawa, Juran, Ouchi, Drucker, and others who collectively represent a cogent approach toward modern organizational excellence. Our vision, entitled Organizational Process Managementä means…

Effective management of the entire organizational system through methods that provide predictive information for decision-making.

Our focus is on understanding the interaction between all organizational processes through proper application of modern scientific methods. The insight gained ensures that decisions accomplish the mission in the most efficient and effective manner. Managing the organization as a system assures that all components function cooperatively to achieve the stated aim. Managing the organization as an integrated whole optimizes the performance of all, and leads to a greater level of achievement.

IRI's operational approach to process improvement, the Process Management Cycle is a four phase method that can easily be applied to any improvement objective. This model focuses on the mission of the organization and provides a more practical approach toward creating beneficial change.

Plan : Establish the Objective
Analyze : Diagnose the Process
Correct : Change the Process
Evaluate : Validate the Solution

The Process Management Cycle follows the same sequence as the scientific method to systematically address the conditions that produce improvement.

IRI's implementation strategy is simple, flexible, and multi-dimensional; designed to meet all modern organizational challenges.

IRI's Top Down strategy focuses on executive level involvement. We call it the Big Bang approach. Executives and Steering Committee members roll up their sleeves and improve processes at their level. This represents a true model that generates activity from below. The nature of this involvement provides the insight necessary to formulate a viable strategic plan to guide future efforts. The ultimate goal is institutionalization of the philosophy and methodology.

Our Bottom Up plan, the Catalyst, begins with the improvement of several key processes that produce a catalyst for expansion toward a total consolidation of effort throughout the organization. Cultural adaptation is a natural consequence of this plan.

Finally, IRI's Roadblocks and Roadmaps program was initiated to address organizations stalled by insufficient guidance, or blocked by a lack of technical expertise. This approach is designed to get team members out of the doldrums, streamline their efforts, and steer them toward meaningful results.

Whatever strategy or combination is selected, your organization will challenge the future with increased confidence and capability - we guarantee it!

THOMAS D. AFFOURTIT

Founder of the Interaction Research Institute, Inc. in 1975, Dr. Affourtit has over 30 years of experience as a psychologist and management consultant. As President and Chief Executive Officer, he also functions as an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist specializing in organizational development , leadership/management dynamics, motivational assessment , and intercultural communication.

Dr. Affourtit designed training programs for foreign nationals in transition from traditional to sophisticated communication and engineering systems. He wrote Analysis of a Culture in Conflict, a series of studies focusing on the problems of developing nations adapting to modern industrial methods. He is also the author of the Intercultural Transaction Technique, a method of selecting, preparing, and evaluating advisors assigned overseas.

Dr. Affourtit developed a simulation methodology to assess cross-cultural training effectiveness for DoD, and is currently training U.S. Marine Corps Advisors for duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, and West Africa . He designed a training and intervention program to improve cross-cultural interaction and customer service for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He was the principal instructor and facilitator for the INS program conducted throughout the United States.

Dr. Affourtit was the head of the Management Assistance Review Team that conducted an evalution of the programs at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS). The team also developed indicators that are used at APCSS to assess end-of-course and long-term customer satisfaction and impact.

Dr. Affourtit has designed surveys for numerous government and commercial organizations, including Allied Command Europe, the Joint Analysis Center , George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, and the Federal Highway Administration. Recently, Dr. Affourtit conducted studies of the White House Military Office (WHMO) and the evacuation of the Pentagon during the September 11 th attack.

In 1995, Dr. Affourtit developed the Survey Guided Improvement System methodology to link results from internal and external customers and stakeholders to provide a systems assessment of all organizational elements. He designed the ongoing Employee Survey used by Federal Lands Highway to assess internal motivational climate and the Public User Survey to gauge satisfaction with and importance of highway conditions from the viewpoint of the driving public.

For the U.S. Marine Corps, Dr. Affourtit designed the Leadership Evaluation and Analysis Program (LEAP), a unit applied, survey-guided organizational development program that was implemented on a worldwide basis for use by commanders in field environments. And, he developed the Network Monitor System, a Department of Defense information retrieval and data source method used to identify and transmit effective organizational procedures to units functioning under various environmental conditions.

Dr. Affourtit created the "Whole Person" officer selection program for the Marine Corps Manpower Plans & Policy office. Developed as an alternative to reliance on SAT scores as the single indicator of potential effectiveness of officer candidates, the effort involved identification of factors that impact officer effectiveness and deriving a composite scoring method for the multiple factors (e.g., achievement, motivation) that predict effectiveness.

Dr. Affourtit served in the Marine Corps in an active and Reserve capacity from 1954 to 1996. As a Corporal he served in Korea from 1955 to 1956. In 1970 he was awarded a direct commission as First Lieutenant under the Specialist Officer Program. During the Vietnam conflict, Captain Affourtit served in both a civilian and military capacity from 1971 to 1973. As an advisor to the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF), he was responsible for training U.S. engineers and their Vietnamese military counterparts in the management and eventual turnover of all Intercontinental Communication Sites (ICS), under the highly visible Vietnamization program.

Continuing his reserve career, LtCol Affourtit developed the Counterterrorism Master Scenario Event List (MSEL) for use during JCS exercises, and he participated in three NATO operations as a Civil Affairs Staff Officer. Commanding the Reserve training unit of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, LtCol Affourtit developed the curriculum and coordinated the training for Reserves of all services and foreign students. As Commanding Officer of the Battle Assessment Mobilization Training Unit, LtCol Affourtit prepared Battle Assessment Team members for data collection activities during Desert Shield/Storm in 1991 and 1992.

In 1983, Dr. Affourtit developed the first "applied" course to W. Edwards Deming’s seminar at George Washington University. In 1984, he was responsible for introducing the Bill to Congress, and preparing the proclamation for President Reagan that established October as National Quality Month.

Dr. Affourtit received his B.A. degree in Psychology from the University of Miami in 1964, and his M.A. degree in Experimental Social Psychology from Marshall University in 1967. He completed course requirements for a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Delaware in 1975, and received his Ph.D. in 1989. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, the Personnel Testing Council, Psi Chi National Honorary (Psychology), and Chi Beta Phi National Honorary (Science).

Dr. Affourtit is the author of several reports, articles, and books including: The Japanese Correction: Organizational Process Management Principles and Methods; Combating Ignorance: How to Transform Useful Information into Knowledge; Measuring Motivation: How to Understand, Predict, and Control Behavior; and The Organizational Process Management Programmed Workbook.

Vice President of Interaction Research Institute, Inc. (IRI) since 1975, Ms. Affourtit is the designer of the STATMAN: Statistical Management software program. A specialist in performance measurement, she has assisted numerous organizations in developing performance measures that align with strategic objectives, and conducts customized on-location training and facilitation in process management and measurement.

Ms. Affourtit develops the sampling, validation, and analytical methodologies for all the external and internal customer surveys conducted by IRI, including a method to correlate results from several different surveys. She creates the questionnaire instruments, including Section 508 compliant web-based surveys, and web-based reporting systems to dynamically display findings.

Ms. Affourtit has provides statistical support to the DoD Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (SADBU) office. In this capacity, she conducts special studies and trend analysis of Small Business Indicators, including the comparison of DoD versus government-wide small business performance.

Ms. Affourtit created Exit Surveys for the U.S. Coast Guard, Patent & Trademark Office, Defense Threat Reduction Agency and IT commercial organizations, and designed and completed analysis that isolated the factors that have the greatest impact on employee retention. She also created a model to compute manpower requirements for any specified set of course offerings for the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.

Ms. Affourtit created the web-based Organizational Climate Survey used by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for the past five years. The FHWA team uses the analyses and reports to target interventions. She worked with customers & stakeholders to redesign the Federal Lands Highway (FLH) Program Administration and Customer Satisfaction surveys. She assisted FLH professionals in enhancing their internal surveys and performance measures, and was involved in conducting a Public Survey of drivers within National Parks and Forests.

Ms. Affourtit was a member of the Management Assistance Review Team that conducted an evalution of the programs at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS). The team also developed indicators that are used at APCSS to assess end-of-course and long-term customer satisfaction and impact.

Ms. Affourtit developed and conducted a series of Customer Service Excellence workshops for DoD that included script development and role playing as part of a comprehensive program to improve the products and services. She was the principal instructor at IBM's Corporate Technical Institute for several courses in process management, and assisted in devising measures to assess the value of IBM's educational offerings.

Ms. Affourtit conducting team building sessions for THAAD Project Office (TPO) during a transition that involved a change of command and implementation of a new organizational structure. She assisted the Space & Missile Systems Center, Test and Evaluation Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base in improving their work processes and creating a climate that enables optimal performance. The intervention combined conflict resolution sessions and training of in-house professionals as mediators.

Ms. Affourtit has worked with various health care organizations in creating Benchmarking systems to compare key clinical indicators and target improvement opportunities. She also devised analytical methods to reveal critical factors that contribute to patient recovery. This helped reduce the recovery period for critical interventions such as heart bypass surgery.

Ms. Affourtit designed the reporting module of the Mishap Analysis & Reporting System (MARS) for Naval Air Systems Command Occupational Safety & Health Program. An expert system, the program extracts the data required for the information requested from the MARS database and displays the data in the appropriate chart format. She was a consultant to the Quality Management Board chartered by the Chief of Naval Operations to derive a Navy-wide measurement system to assess Occupational Safety & Health program performance.

Ms. Affourtit worked with the Corporate Leadership Team for Defense Acquitision University to define objectives aligned with their strategic goals. She developed DAU's Organizational Assessment Survey, and provided consultation in developing and analyzing external customer surveys. She assisted EPA principals in the development of the Data Quality Objectives system to assist program managers in specifying the type of information needed to reach a decision.

Ms. Affourtit developed Total Quality Leadership awareness and tools training for NAVAIR Systems Command and provided train the trainer workshops for NAVAIR's trainers and facilitators. She conducted kick-off training and ongoing facilitation of Process Analysis Teams chartered by the Marine Corps Systems Command to pursue their strategic goals. She also assisted the Marine Corps Manpower Plans & Policy developing an assessment methodology for the “Whole Person” officer selection program.

Ms. Affourtit assisted several organizations in deriving alternatives for performance appraisal, including a Salary Forecasting Model that computes the appropriate salary for job candidates based on education, experience, and requirements of the position. She developed a procedure to create internal equity by modifying salary survey findings according to the strategic value of each position, and a process to compare actual salaries against those derived by the salary model.

Mrs. Affourtit is the author of several papers on process management and organizational improvement, including the chapter, Statistical Process Control Applied to Software in Total Quality Management for Software. Ms. Affourtit has a SECRET level security clearance.

Vice President for Engineering Leadership, Interaction Research Institute, Inc. since 1998, Mr. Chatfield is a management specialist and Registered Professional Engineer with expertise in organizational development and management evaluation.

Mr. Chatfield received the 1996 Secretary of Transportation’s Award for Meritorious Achievement (Silver Medal) for exceptional leadership in implementing continuous quality improvement across the Federal Lands Highway organization. He authored a book published by the Federal Highway Administration titled, Transforming Government — Six Years of Continuous Improvement in Federal Lands Highway. In addition, he was the managing editor and primary writer for a quarterly 16-page newsletter that was circulated nationwide for seven years.

In leading the Federal Lands Highway organization’s quality efforts from 1991 to 1998, Mr. Chatfield developed agency strategy and approach to management, led the organization and its parent agency, Federal Highway Administration, to adopting proven and appropriate management improvement initiatives. His insistence on overall performance tracking helped lead the organization to achieve six years of documented continuous improvement. He planned, formatted, and coordinated the organization’s strategic business planning policy as well as the plan itself.

As a program manager from 1989 to 1990, Mr. Chatfield was team leader for four engineers. The team coordinated, managed, and helped develop programs for funding highways in National Parks, National Forests, and Indian Reservations. The team developed Federal legislation, regulation, and policy related to transportation facilities on federally owned lands. They also prepared needs studies based on performance management principles which were used to develop proposed program funding levels and resulted in nearly doubling the Congressional program authorizations.

Prior to 1989, Mr. Chatfield managed the Federal-aid Highway Emergency Relief (ER) Program and the Public Lands Highways (PLH) Program. He also was the Division level Information Resources Management (IRM) and microcomputer specialist. While managing these often controversial and high-exposure discretionary programs he developed legislation and regulation for ER and PLH, wrote the national Emergency Relief Disaster Assistance Manual, recommended approval of over 50 natural disasters and catastrophic failures on Federal-aid highways, controlled allocations of over $450 million for ER and over $200 million for PLH, managed day to day questions concerning eligibility of work, routinely responded to congressional inquiries, spoke at conferences and meetings such as the National Hurricane Conference, developed and implemented IRM projects at the division and interoffice levels, and produced a 30-minute instructional video program to help State and local government officials better understand the ER program.

Mr. Chatfield was a Highway Engineer from 1969 to 1983. After a three-year training program which was interrupted by two years service in the Army during the Vietnam era (1969-71), he worked as an Assistant Area Engineer, Area Engineer, and Engineering Coordinator in Mississippi and Kentucky. Upon his 1976 promotion to a Design Engineer Position in Washington, D.C. he was a Design Engineer on the Boston to New Haven portion of the Northeast Corridor Rail Improvement Project. After a two-year assignment in the Special Procedures Branch, he received the Emergency Relief Program Manager position in 1983.

Mr. Chatfield has authored many articles, reports, guidelines, and two books. Titles include: Value-added Oversight; Bottom Line Quality; What To Do About Creeping Cynicism; To Team Or Not To Team; Partnering Overview; Customer Satisfaction Through Partnering; Empowerment - Quality or Anarchy?; Rewarding Quality; Leading Strategically; Total Cost of Quality; Handling Failure and Judging Success; The Shewhart Cycle in Three Dimensions; The Dead Toreador.

Mr. Chatfield received his BS degree in Civil Engineering from New Mexico State University in 1969 and his MA degree in Public Affairs from Kentucky State University in 1978. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Registered Professional Engineer in Virginia, Member of the Rockville Traffic and Traffic Commission, and a Volunteer Driver for Montgomery County Red Cross.

Mr. Zimmerman has over ten years of progressive responsibility in managing advanced development projects in organizational development, training and systems design. He has over 15 years experience in systems integration across a wide variety of operating systems, hardware, and program application. He has developed video, TV, and corporate LAN systems, and has managed projects in national intelligence, simulation modeling, computer architecture, operating systems, artificial intelligence, applied statistics and social network theory. In the past several years, he has designed corporate web sites, including interactive sites using Java, VB and CGI scripting.

Mr. Zimmerman conducted the detailed design, and managed the programming team for the Mishap Analysis and Reporting System (MARS) currently used by Naval Air Systems Command, and planned for Navywide implementation. This project includes a database for Navy occupational safety and health data, and generates reports required by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Naval Safety Center. Mr. Zimmerman designed a linking system with STATMAN to automatically analyzed data to support the Navy’s GPRA requirements for organizational performance reporting.

Mr. Zimmerman is responsible for all phases of on-site training and installation of IRI’s STATMAN Expert system. He has been involved in writing IRI’s process management and measurement tutorials, operations manuals, and associated training. He developed the design to program the Windows version of IRI's STATMAN: Statistical Management Program, and developed the Expert System for medical institutions.

During 1993 to 1995, Mr. Zimmerman was a Technical Director and member of the corporate R&D board for Scientific and Technical Analysis Corporation (STAC). He was responsible for solicitation and review of all R&D projects, and he supported Executive management with corporate technology, plans, and implementation. Mr. Zimmerman designed and developed the corporate Internet strategy for over 100 sites that included database query, reporting capability and security. Mr. Zimmerman also served as Program Manager for the Link Analysis system. In this capacity, he managed a staff of 12 technicians and two business development specialists. He was responsible for business development, product marketing, on-site consultation and all phases of project management.

From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Zimmerman served as an Advanced Systems Manager with Artificial Intelligence Technologies. He was responsible for developing and acquiring government business dealing with research and development software. The position involved emphasis on Mr. Zimmerman’s integrated knowledge of the software environment to government applications. He built business plans, performed market studies, determined market strategies, and researched all phases of government applications.

Mr. Zimmerman functioned as a Research Scientist and Project Manager for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1987-1991. In this capacity, he performed background research, developed and maintained customer support activities, and initiated business and improvement research projects.

Mr. Zimmerman completed course requirements for his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Iowa (1980-1987). He received his MS degree in Computer Science in 1980, and his BS degree in 1979 in Psychology from the University of Iowa. Mr. Zimmerman received Honors Convocation for all four years in undergraduate school.

Ms. Borah is a professional Administrator with significant experience in account and contract management. In addition, she has a background in Managed Care and Employee Benefits programs.

Since 1995, Ms. Borah has been responsible for all business development, contract management, negotiations, and external communications. She has functioned as facilitator for team and consensus building activities, and has prepared research and presentation programs for IRI clients. Ms. Borah’s in-depth knowledge of health care data application has been instrumental in IRI's consultation, training and product support of Ancilla Health Systems, Sisters of Charity, Navy Occupational Safety & Health, Columbia HCA and Alliant Health Systems.

Ms. Borah works directly with IRI’s clients in developing goals and priorities, and preparing plans for management, organizational and business improvement. Further, Ms. Borah manages all contract activities, establishes milestones, and assures overall quality of output.

Ms. Borah served as Regional Account Manager for HCIA, Inc. in 1994. In that position, she helped integrate the business development activities for the Health Care Decision-Support System, the Comprehensive Health Care Management and Analysis Program (CHAMP), serving Fortune 500 employees and managed care organizations in 25 states.

From 1992 to 1994, Ms. Borah was an Account Executive for CoreSource, Inc. In this position, she managed and coordinated all aspects of client relationships. In addition, she analyzed claims and clinical data, and made recommendations on benefits. She negotiated fees at renewal, and she met regularly with clients to monitor customer satisfaction, and to devise action plans to meet customer needs. Ms. Borah also provided and negotiated additional service to brokers and consultants in the areas of managed care, worker compensation, and flexible spending accounts.

Ms. Borah served as Senior Account Executive for the Travelers Corporation from 1982 -1992. She was responsible for selling and managing all products related to Employee Benefits, including managing disability, multi-option health plans and managed mental health. In this position, Ms. Borah negotiated directly with clients through brokers and consultants, researched benefits, and made recommendations for resolution. In addition, she conducted seminars, planned and conducted Employee Benefits orientation sessions, and implemented alternate funding arrangements. Ms. Borah’s accomplishments included the negotiated sale of the first managed disability program in her region, covering 12,000 employees in eight companies. She helped expand a managed care network into Western Maryland, and negotiated the renewal of accounts that increased from 15% to 70%.

From 1978-1992, Ms. Borah served with the Life Office Management Association (LOMA) as Coordinator and Curriculum Development Manager. In this position, she formulated course content and developed textbooks for the Life Management Institute program. In addition, she was responsible for development of course examinations.

Ms. Borah received her BBA degree from Emory University in 1978. In 1981, she became a Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI) and is licensed to manage Life and Health Insurance.