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LIFO Intention-Behavior-Impact
Its Unintended Impact
Stuart Atkins, Ph.D.
In designing the LIFO Survey with Elias Porter in 1967, my intentions were to create a survey that would encourage peoples introspective process, helping them organize their thinking about themselves and their relationships with people who were the same or different. These similarities or differences centered on peoples Orientations to life with their values, goals, and strengths. People are like spinning and dazzling kaleidoscopes of colors and shapes. It is difficult to describe what one sees while it is spinning. Stop the spinning and there is a beautiful stationary pattern. That is exactly what the LIFO Survey was designed to dohold stationary peoples Orientations to life with their values, goals, strengths which collectively I called Styles. The intention was to describe these kaleidoscopic patterns with a common, stationary framework and language for all to comfortably observe and to discuss without judgment or embarrassment. concept, they wanted to utilize this idea of aligning ones intention to act a specific way, with the actual behavior expressing the intention, and determine if the impact of the behavior experienced by others was consistent with the intention and behavior. Trainers and consultants use intention-behaviorimpact as a compelling and involving way to address the personal development concepts of alignment, authenticity, and congruence. With clients, the intention-behavior-impact concept is powerful and one that people can easily understand through their common experiences of having been misunderstood. Being better understood and understanding their impact on others generates strong motivation for intensive analysis and further exploration. And consistent with the six LIFO learning strategies, the intention-behavior-impact analysis is an in depth, diagnostic way to implement the first strategy of the LIFO Method, Confirmation. Then, once people are confirmed, they can begin to practice the developmental phase of the LIFO Method, the strategies that more directly deal with behavior change, like Extending, Moderating, and Bridging, which lead to real movement and improvement of individuals and teams. Dr. Allan Katcher, who expanded the use of the LIFO Survey and the LIFO Method to 33 countries, pioneered

Intention-Behavior-Impact (IBI)
A funny thing happened early in the history of the LIFO survey that has led to a very useful method for focusing on personal development. Built into the structure of the LIFO Survey are questions worded to explore intention, behavior, and impact. This was originally intended to add variety to the 18 situational questions, each with four choices to be ranked 4, 3, 2, 1, totaling 72 choices and to prevent repetition fatigue. Thus, embedded in the tabulation page of the original version of the LIFO Survey were the abbreviations, int, beh, and imp. Several trainers asked about the symbols. To my surprise, when I explained the basic

Dr. Stuart Atkins is the principal author of the Life Orientations Survey, originator of LIFO Training and author of The Name of Your Game and Life in the Stress Lane. He has taught at UCLA, USC, Caltech, AMA, and the NTL Institute of Applied Behavioral Science.

2011 The Schutz Company. All rights reserved. LIFO is a registered trademark of Business Consultants, Inc. 303 South Broadway Suite 107 Tarrytown NY 10591

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LIFO Intention-Behavior-Impact

the application of the intention-behavior-impact analysis. He was able to do this because of his impressive analytical skills and the willingness of international organizations to devote considerable time to LIFO analysis. He also developed a computer generated LIFO Report that included the analysis of the intentionbehavior-impact results embedded in the LIFO Survey. This proved to be an excellent coaching tool with the LIFO Report providing in depth exploration, clarification, and reinforcement. However, Dr. Katchers results have not always been easily or consistently reproduced. Respondents of the LIFO Survey are not expected to know the true reality of their impact. As it is measured in the LIFO Survey, Impact is: how you believe you come across to others. The survey assumes that respondents will project their style preference in their response choices, adding to their overall profile. In other words, respondents beliefs about their own impact may reflect their own preferences more than the actual impact they have on others. This is the reason for the LIFO Survey AP (Another Person). The LIFO Survey AP measures another persons LIFO perceptions of us, providing organized data to compare with our original LIFO Survey results. It takes into account the variability in peoples ability to judge their own impact on others, and the variability in willingness to be open in giving or receiving feedback on the part of others. In fact, this is one of the reasons for creating the LIFO Survey and the LIFO Method in the first place. They provide a safe, common language and focus, and facilitate feedback and self-discovery when used with the LIFO Methods positive learning strategies and the accompanying workbooks.

1. The LIFO Survey AP (Another Person) with the LIFO Survey Results or Online LIFO Survey Report. An analysis can be made of the areas of agreement and the areas of difference between our own LIFO survey results and those of others. Discussion can then follow about the reasons for the differing views, areas to be improved can be changed and action plans set. 2. The Strength Feedback Chart with the LIFO Survey Results or Online LIFO Survey Report. This strength feedback tool helps people tell us what behaviors they want more of or less of, from us, thus helping us to Extend ourselves by trying new behaviors we are seen as doing too little of; and, learning to Moderate our excessive behavior by doing less of it. This quantitative way of disclosing someones impact eliminates qualitative judgments, defensiveness, and facilitates openness and acceptance of the feedback. As before, an analysis and discussion can result from this process that creates positive change and clarifies where improvement efforts should be made. Intention-Behavior-Impact adds to peoples understanding of themselves and drives them to explore and address issues that may not be apparent on the surface, but that can make a significant difference in their functioning and success. To accomplish this, it is ideal to use the LIFO Survey, Online LIFO Survey Report, the LIFO Survey AP, and the Strength Feedback Chart all together. In any case, the essential part of the Intention-Behavior-Impact analysis is feedback. What one believes about ones impact compared with what impact others actually experience can lead to remarkable insight and target ones plan for self improvement and greater effectiveness.

Recommendations: Ways to get the most from Intention-Behavior-Impact

Intention-Behavior-Impact analysis should include feedback from others. This can be done using two basic methods:

Note from the author

To follow my own LIFO principles, I am not going to guess at this articles impact. I hope my writing behavior has been consistent with my intention and I welcome questions and comments so that I may learn more about my impact and support our mutual development.

2011 The Schutz Company. All rights reserved. LIFO is a registered trademark of Business Consultants, Inc. 303 South Broadway Suite 107 Tarrytown NY 10591