Thought Process Optimization® (TPO)
A Shortcut to Developing High Performers:
How TPO Works
(Version 2.1)
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 1
Contents
1.0
Executive Summary: Expert Reasoning and Judgments: The Key to High Performance ................ 3
2.0
TPO Does What Has Not Been Done Before ................................................................................ 4
3.0
How TPO Works ......................................................................................................................... 4
3.1
The Capture Process .......................................................................................................................... 5
3.2
The One-Term One-Meaning Process ................................................................................................ 6
3.3
The Intellectual Capital Repository® (ICR) Software Application....................................................... 7
3.4
The Transfer Process .......................................................................................................................... 7
3.5
The TPO Continuous Improvement Process ...................................................................................... 8
4.0
TPO Value Added Performance and Productivity......................................................................... 9
4.1
Employee Performance without the TPO Shortcut ........................................................................... 9
4.2
Value Added Performance with the TPO Shortcut ............................................................................ 9
5.0
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 10
6.0
About the Authors ................................................................................................................... 11
7.0
TPO Glossary ........................................................................................................................... 11
8.0
References............................................................................................................................... 13
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 2
1.0 Executive Summary:
Expert Reasoning and Judgments: The Key to High Performance
K. A. Ericsson, a recognized world leader in expertise, says: It takes 10 - 20 years of experience, mentoring and
coaching to become an expert. (1) This means than it takes at least that long to develop the expert reasoning
needed to make fast, effortless, subconscious judgments that are the key to high performance.
While all experts make subconscious judgments, most individuals who make subconscious judgments are not
experts. Nobel Laureate Hebert Simon says experts make judgments that prove to be correct 80 - 90% of the
time. (2) Today expert reasoning is often called intuition because it is primarily a subconscious process.
An expert’s personal decision-making process enables him/her to accurately identify and correctly use
relevant knowledge, information, data and cues from tacit interactions to consistently make superior
decisions. (3) But because the process primarily occurs in the subconscious mind, experts are unaware of it
and how they use it to make judgments and decisions; therefore, they are unable to explain it to others. (3)
This paper describes a proprietary methodology – MIP’s Thought Process Optimization® (TPO) – that uses the
principles of cognitive science for capturing, documenting and using an expert’s personal decision-making
processes to transform novice and other employees into expert level thinkers in weeks instead of years. It also
explains the five major TPO functions: the Capture Process, the One-Term One-Meaning Process, the
Intellectual Capital Repository® (ICR) software application, the Transfer Process and the Continuous
Improvement Process.
MIP’s methodology enables TPO professionals to assist the expert in making his/her subconscious personal
decision-making processes conscious. That enables the TPO professional to fully define and document the
expert’s personal decision-making process. Once documented, the expert’s personal decision-making process
can be read, studied and used by others to make the same or similar judgments and decisions.
Our work with TPO has shown that experts use personal decision-making processes for each job function they
perform, whether it is diagnosing a patient, evaluating an employee, making a sale, etc. Each of their personal
decision-making processes contain hundreds of thought processes
that encompass every situation the expert may encounter when
making a decision. Each thought process contains both a pattern and
a response. Experts can sense and make judgments about the
existence of conditions they have and have not experienced.
For example, one pattern observed by a physician might be – the
patient seems scared to death or the patient seems seriously
disoriented or the patient understands their situation is serious.
This enables physicians to make crucial judgments about patients
they have never seen and illnesses they have never encountered.
Responses are activities experts engage in when in their judgment
the pattern exists, e.g., classify the patient’s perception of his/her
condition as urgent is the response to this pattern.
In a decision-making process, thought processes are used to make a series of judgments that lead to one or
more decisions. They are not performed randomly or all at once. When a decision is made, only a subset of
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 3
the available thought processes are used. The thought processes included in the subset and the order in
which they are used is determined as judgments are made about patterns. Thus when a physician judges a
patient’s condition to be urgent he/she will bypass all thought processes for not-urgent conditions.
Each individual’s decision-making processes are not only personal but constantly changing as experiences,
technology, business and learning evolve. TPO accommodates change by providing an automated Continuous
Improvement Process. This enables individuals to personalize and constantly improve their copy of the
expert’s documented thought processes; to continuously learn from other employees, customers and
suppliers across the globe; and to collaborate by sharing thought processes regardless of time and location.
This type of sharing and collaboration is crucial for innovation and effective decision-making and it is currently
lacking in most organizations.
2.0 TPO Does What Has Not Been Done Before
TPO Does What Has Not Been Done Before by providing a shortcut to becoming an expert. The TPO
shortcut accelerates the learning normally acquired through years of experience, mentoring and coaching.
This is accomplished by enabling employees to use the written
representations of an expert’s decision-making process, which
embodies what the expert has learned through years of experience,
mentoring and coaching. With TPO, organizations are able to bring
novice and other employees up-to-speed in days or weeks so that
they deliver the expert judgments and high performances that
normally take 10 to 25 years of experience.
TPO is tested and proven:



Novice and other sales reps at a telecommunication company
performed at a level similar to that of the expert within weeks.
This enabled the sales region to go from the lowest sales volume
in the company to the highest within 18 months. (3)
Novice bankers in marketing and finance strategy were quickly
performing near the level of the expert in their field. Through
collaboration, these newly developed experts immediately
solved the bank’s liquidity problem and then developed a
solution that led to a doubling of profits within months.
In a few days, emergency room residents and medical students improved their average diagnostic
accuracy by 20% and reduced the time required to accurately diagnose a patient from over 1 hour to
less than 5 minutes. Collaboration and sharing enabled continuous improvement. (3) (4)
3.0 How TPO Works
There are five major TPO components:
1. The Capture Process is used by a TPO professional to develop a schematic and a written
representation of an expert’s personal decision-making process. This process makes TPO
possible.
2. The One-Term One-Meaning Process identifies each term in captured decision-making processes
and establishes a one-to-one relationship between terms, meanings and definitions. The one-toCopyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 4
one relationship is enforced through the Intellectual Capital Repository® (ICR). This process is
used to package an expert’s personal decision-making process so that it can be easily transfer to
non-experts.
3. The Intellectual Capital Repository® (ICR) is a software application that supports the Thought
Process Optimization® (TPO) methodology and meets specific client requirements. It contains
decision-making processes and supporting information that is specifically related to the decisionmaking processes. The ICR provides TPO’s ability to share expert reasoning, enforces One-Term
One-Meaning throughout all functions at all times, simplifies the transfer process and makes the
continuous improvement process possible.
4. The Transfer Process brings novices and other employees quickly up-to-speed so that they
perform at the level of an expert. The transfer of the expert’s personal decision-making process is
achieved by having employees use the expert’s thought processes as they to do their jobs. This
process gets organizations off to a quick start and a fast payback.
5. The Continuous Improvement Process uses the ICR to enable employees to personalize and
constantly improve their copy of the expert’s documented thought processes; to continuously learn
from other employees, customers and suppliers across the globe; and to collaborate by sharing
thought processes – patterns and responses.
3.1
The Capture Process
The capture process enables a TPO professional -- a management consultant who is an expert in capturing
expert reasoning and every aspect of TPO -- to develop a written representation of the expert reasoning
contained in the expert’s personal decision-making process. This includes:




WHAT expert reasoning is performed
WHEN it is performed
WHY it is performed
HOW it is performed
The capture process begins with recorded face-to-face sessions and exchanges of emails between the expert
and a TPO professional. Because much of an expert’s reasoning is buried in his/her subconscious mind,
meetings resemble sessions with a psychoanalyst more than business interviews.
Following each session, the TPO professional:

Analyzes the recording of the sessions to search for cues that can reveal a subconscious thought
process. A thought process contains both a pattern and a response. The patterns in their thought
processes enable the experts to recognize patterns in data, information, knowledge and cues from tacit
interactions. The response enables the expert to act appropriately.

Separates knowledge from the cues to expert reasoning. Knowledge is specific information or facts
about the expert’s environment or experiences, while expert reasoning is a series of thought process
that are used to recognize patterns in knowledge and information to produce judgments and decisions.
The expert provides a lot of knowledge and examples but very little or no expert reasoning because the
expert is unaware that they use this reasoning.

Identifies and assembles a schematic of the expert’s decision-making process that shows how his/her
expert reasoning is organized, the general flow and the relationships that exist among thought
processes used to make judgments or decisions. The decision-making process schematic evolves as
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 5
the TPO professional and the expert develop a more complete understanding of the expert’s decisionmaking process.

Trains the expert to understand and use the decision-making process schematic so that the expert can
recognize when his/her thought processes are missing and still need to be captured.

Drafts the beginning of the written representation of the expert’s decision-making process by
transforming identified cues to expert reasoning into meaningful words that represent preliminary
captured thought processes. Experts typically cannot articulate their thought processes so the TPO
professional must do this for them.

Reviews preliminary captured thought processes and the decision-making process schematic with the
expert and then expands and refines them based upon the expert’s feedback. While experts cannot
articulate their thought processes, they can recognize them when they see them. When the TPO
professional’s version of preliminary captured thought processes are reasonably close to the thought
processes the expert actually uses, the expert can correct them.
Each personal decision-making process contains hundreds of thought processes that encompass every
situation or condition the expert may encounter when making a decision. The above steps are repeated
until the following conditions are met:
1. All the thought processes that the expert uses and/or needs when performing the decisionmaking process have been captured.
2. The TPO professional performing the capture process can use the expert’s thought processes to
reproduce the judgments and decisions made by the expert.
3.2
The One-Term One-Meaning Process
The terminology used in the patterns and responses in each thought process must be consistently defined
to ensure accurate collaboration, interpretation and understanding. For example, what does “Chicago
Sales” mean? Is “Chicago” Cook County, the metropolitan area, the loop and the near north or something
else? Are “Sales” shipments, invoices, payment, orders or shipments less returns? Are “Sales” dollars or
units sold? (5) In addition to meanings, definitions of calculations or at least the components used in the
calculations of terms such as, “On-Time Shipments” are needed for understanding.
To avoid misunderstandings when thought processes are shared and transferred, TPO uses its One-Term
One-Meaning process to establish and enforce consistent terminology. This ensures that each term is
identified and has only one meaning/definition. It also ensures that each meaning/definition is associated
with only one term.
The One-Term One-Meaning Process ensures that captured decision-making processes are refined,
revised and fully documented with meanings and definitions as well as examples, comments and links to
other supporting information. This process is also used to package an expert’s personal decision-making
process so that it can be easily understood, assimilated and transferred to non-experts. According to K. A.
Ericsson, once meaningful sentences are understood, their meaning is easily assimilated and retained in
long-term memory.
The terms, meanings and definitions contained within an expert’s decision-making process are initially
identified and documented by the TPO professional with the assistance of the expert and a governance
team. The governance team establishes and/or approves all terms, meanings and definitions. When
employees refine, improve and expand their decision-making processes, One-Term One-Meaning is
enforced through the ICR. This ensures that consistent terminology is established and enforced. Through
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 6
the ICR the exact data, information, knowledge and cues from tacit interactions that employees need
and/or will need in the future are always indentified, fully defined and documented.
3.3
The Intellectual Capital Repository® (ICR) Software Application
Intellectual Capital Repository® (ICR) is a software application that supports the TPO methodology and is
tailored to meet specific client requirements. It contains employee decision-making processes, terms,
meanings and definitions as well as examples, comments and links to other supporting information that is
used to develop experts. The ICR provides TPO’s thought process sharing capabilities, enforces One-Term
One-Meaning throughout all functions at all times, simplifies the transfer process and makes the continuous
improvement process possible.
While it is possible to deliver an expert’s documented decision-making process as a printed document, it is
best to deliver it through a cloud based ICR on a tablet computer. What is important about the ICR is not
the tool but the content; the decision-making processes and the logic programmed into the ICR that enables
employees to access and use fully documented thought processes in many different ways.
There are four primary ICR functions: Learn, On-the-Job-Use, Update and Decision Support. These
functions can be very basic or expanded to include areas requiring complex functionality. (See
http://www.mipcorp.com/tpo_software.html)
The ICR enables every employee to:






Learn, add and change thought processes;
Expand decision-making processes;
Share improvements and enhancements with other employees;
Continuously learn from employees across the globe and in some cases customers and suppliers;
Copy, insert, replicate and use another employee’s thought processes;
Access all decision-making components such as: terms, meaning, definitions, comments, examples,
videos and other supporting information.
The ICR protects each employee’s decision-making processes so that he/she is the only person who can
change them, although others can view, copy and use them. In addition, the ICR can save the results of
each judgment an employee makes and make those results available to approved employees. It can also
link each employee’s thought processes to pertinent information on the web, the organization’s knowledge
management system, data warehouse or other big data sources.
Consistent terminology is used by the ICR to link thought processes across all employees and to integrate big
data and analytics with employee reasoning so that everyone using the same term makes judgments and
decisions based upon the same information. This sharing and linking of patterns and responses in thought
processes and information goes a long way toward overcoming silo thinking and sub-optimization.
3.4
The Transfer Process
As soon as the expert’s captured decision-making process is fully documented and stored in the ICR, it is
ready to be shared with all employees and transferred directly to employees in the same field.
The transfer is achieved by having employees use the expert’s thought processes as they to do their jobs.
Learning to use an expert’s documented decision-making process is easy and quick because:

TPO provides a complete well organized and easily understood decision-making process. It does not
contain the random thoughts that normally are gathered in meetings, conversations or brainstorming
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 7
sessions. Nor does it contain knowledge or facts about the past, which are now obsolete and/or
cannot be easily applied to the situation at hand.

Expert reasoning requires less effort and makes an employee’s job easier.

Employees are already familiar with the subject matter.
A brief video that introduces TPO concepts is viewed prior to using the expert’s decision-making process
and employees should study the expert’s decision-making process before they begin to use it.
When the ICR software is used to transfer the expert’s decision-making process instead of printed
documents, learning starts by viewing and selecting the pattern that matches the situation or condition
encountered and then performing the associated response, e.g., classify the patient as urgent. The ICR
stores the classification so it can be retrieved at any time and then displays the next relevant thought
process that needs to be considered. Because the thought processes in a decision-making process are not
linear thinking, the judgments made determine the next relevant thought process. For example, when a
patient is classified as urgent, it causes all thought processes that are not related to urgent to be omitted.
Some organizations may want learners to practice using the expert’s decision-making process before onthe-job use. This can be done with real life or mock situations. Real life practice sessions take place when
the expert and the learners all use the expert’s documented decision-making process and the ICR to
address the same situation at the same time. For example, a top physician and medical students all use the
top physician decision-making process to diagnose the same patient at the same time.
Mock situations are situations that are reproduced with videos, actors, simulations, etc. The expert’s
judgments and decisions are captured in the ICR and available to all learners. That enables learners to
practice at any time and the expert does not have to be present. Regardless of the method of practice
used, the judgments made in practice sessions are captured, reported, evaluated and compared to the
expert’s judgments prior to on-the-job use.
3.5
The TPO Continuous Improvement Process
The transfer of an expert’s decision-making process is just the beginning. Different geographical areas
have different needs; technology, products, processes, customers, etc. change; and employees within the
organization constantly find new and better ways of thinking about what is occurring. This means that as
changes occur and employees learn, they need to be able to update their documented decision-making
process.
In order to use the TPO continuous improvement process, each employee’s decision-making processes must
be stored in an ICR that enables them to refine and expand their copy of the expert’s documented decisionmaking processes. Without this ability, valuable changes and improvements are lost and over time
documented decision-making processes become obsolete. As the decision-making processes of employees
are continuously improved, the improvements can be shared at all levels. Through the ICR the sharing of
the thought processes contained within decision-making processes enable employees to continuously learn
from each other regardless of where they are located and regardless of time.
Actual performance can be tracked and correlated with the thought processes in the ICR so that
employees can perform the self-assessment that enables them to identify their mistakes and make the
necessary improvements to their documented decision-making processes. Managers or a governance
team can identify superior performance and track it back to the thought processes used to create that
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 8
performance and then ensure the improved thought processes are shared through the ICR with others
worldwide. (3) Those using thought processes that result in inferior performance can be coached.
High quality decisions often require collaboration among colleagues, employees in other departments
and people outside the organization such as customers and suppliers. With TPO, this collaboration is
achieved through the sharing of patterns and responses in thought processes, rather than knowledge and
information, which are easily shared in documents or meetings. This type of sharing and collaboration is
important for innovation, for opening new markets and for finding new ways to serve customers better
and more efficiently. Collaboration through the sharing of thought processes is currently missing in most
organizations.
4.0
4.1
TPO Value Added Performance and Productivity
Employee Performance without the TPO Shortcut
The illustration below shows the current approach for improving performance. Following implementation of
typical new systems such as an ERP,
big data and standard training there
is almost no improvement in the
performance of experts who
consistently deliver outstanding
results and only a modest bump in
the performance of other
employees.
These modest results are achieved
when organizations use analytics and
spend years developing better
internal processes; building
procedures and systems to improve
business processes; making big data
available; and providing the standard
way of training.
Implementation of new operational systems have benefits if they improve corporate operating efficiency so less
inventory is required, product is shipped quicker, customers are billed faster, etc., but these systems do not
improve employee decision-making processes or develop high performers.
Big data has value if it provides analytics and information that enable people to develop insights and make
better decisions. But big data only improves employee decision-making processes if it provides the data
employees need for self-assessment or the data a governance team needs to identify and track superior
performance back to the thought processes used to create that performance.
4.2
Value Added Performance with the TPO Shortcut
The illustration below shows the high performance that is delivered with TPO when an organization chooses to
implement an ICR and the continuous improvement process. Each employee starts with his/her personalized
copy of the expert’s decision-making process that is protected so that he/she is the only one who can change
it, but it can be viewed and used by every employee. This creates a competition among employees to take
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 9
ownership of their decision-making process and capture their improvements and emerging thought
processes.
The vertical gold line represents the jump in expertise after the expert’s documented decision-making
process is transferred to
novices and other employees.
The diagonal gold line
represents the performance
achieved after the ICR and
continuous improvement
process have been
implemented. The
performance difference
between the red line (without
TPO) and the gold line (with
TPO) represents the TPO value
added.
Today, employees develop
expert reasoning
independently through trial
and error experience. That means if an organization has 100 managers or sales representatives,
improvements in reasoning will be developed independently 100 times – most likely when each
recognizes that they made a mistake many times. With TPO, improvements only have to be developed
once and then shared through the ICR with the other 99 managers or sales reps.
When employees are not continuously reinventing the wheel, everyone benefits – including experts who
constantly learn from everyone else. This accelerates learning and continuously creates higher
performance that exceeds the initial expert level.
A change in the management incentive process may be necessary to ensure that sharing is rewarded and
“hoarding” is discouraged. In addition, improving the decision-making processes of employees will
improve everyone’s performance, sales and profits; consequently, over time a new bonus or incentive
structure may be required.
TPO is a win-win for employees and organizations. With TPO, employees have a way to quickly acquire
the additional skills they need to become experts and to thrive in this business world. And organizations
have a short cut to a fast payback, sustained innovation and growth by making novices and other
employees high performers.
5.0 Conclusion
Experts achieve significantly better performance than other employees but little effort has been devoted
to understanding how these experts deliver such superior results. This situation exists because the expert
is unable to explain his/her subconscious reasoning and people do not understand how different an
expert’s decision-making process is from those of other employees. (See Experts Are Different
http://www.mipcorp.com/experts_different.html)
TPO removes this limitation and reveals the expert’s reasoning in a way that it can be shared with anyone
who can benefit from it. Through the use of the ICR, transfer of an expert’s decision-making process to
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 10
other employees is quick and inexpensive and it produces rapid improvement in judgments, results and
efficiency. The ICR ensures that each employee can improve and update his/her personalized copy of the
expert’s decision-making process. It also enables anyone in the organization to share those improvements
so that they continuously learn from other employees.
Organizations that have deployed TPO have reported significant improvements in innovation, growth and
profitability.
6.0 About the Authors
Sandra Kay Tice, BS, is a cognitive scientist, the CEO and Founder of MIP Corporation. Ms. Tice has over
three decades of experience in cognitive and information science that is focused on decision-making. She
pioneered artificial intelligence, business intelligence and the ability to capture, document and use expert
reasoning. She developed Thought Process Optimization® (TPO) and has used it to capture and document
the personal decision-making processes of CEOs, CFOs, physicians, strategist, economists, managers,
marketers and sales representatives, engineers, teachers and systems managers in banking, healthcare,
telecommunications, education and insurance.
Richard J. Stuckey, MBA, is a Partner with MIP Corporation. Mr. Stuckey has been working with Thought
Process Optimization® for years. He has captured physician decision-making processes and worked with
leaders in medical and teacher education. Rick is a retired Accenture partner who was responsible for
Accenture’s unstructured data/knowledge management practice.
7.0 TPO Glossary
Capture Process is used by a TPO professional to develop a schematic and a written representation of an
expert’s personal decision-making process. This process makes TPO possible.
Captured Decision-Making Process is a written representation of an expert’s reasoning contained in a
particular decision-making process. This written representation shows: WHAT expert reasoning is
performed…WHEN it is performed…WHY it is performed…and HOW it is performed
Continuous Improvement Process enables employees to personalize and constantly improve their copy of the
experts’ documented thought processes; to continuously learn from other employees, customers and
suppliers across the globe; and to collaborate by sharing thought processes – patterns and responses.
Decision-Making Processes are personal cognitive processes for performing and managing a job function – such
as making a sale, managing a region, developing a product, diagnosing a patient or planning curriculum delivery.
They contain hundreds of thought processes that encompass every situation or condition an employee may
encounter when making a decision for the particular job function addressed. These thought processes, which
are stored in long term memory, can be captured and reproduced as written representations.
Decision-Making Process Schematics are multi-purpose diagrams that shows a map of the individual’s decisionmaking process, a high-level view of how TPO is used to capture expert reasoning that is buried in an the
subconscious mind and a roadmap for identifying thought processes that needs to be captured.
Documented Decision-Making Processes are captured decision-making processes that have been refined,
revised, fully defined and packaged so that they can be easily transfer to non-experts. This is done through the
One-Term One-Meaning process.
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 11
Experts are individuals who can quickly and accurately size up complex situations, generate insights and
rapidly make the right judgments and decisions more than 80% of the time… consistently outperform others
in their field…recognize and learn from their mistakes…always remain open to new ideas…and continuously
learn. Most experts have 25 – 30+ years of experience in their field. Experience has shown that experts with
30+ years of experience usually make the right judgments and decisions over 90% of the time.
Expert Reasoning is a fast, effortless, subconscious process encompassing a series of thought processes that
produce one or more expert judgments. Each thought process contains a pattern and response that is
performed automatically by the subconscious mind. An expert’s reasoning provides the ability to accurately
identify and correctly use relevant knowledge, information, data and cues from tacit interactions to
consistently make the right judgments and decisions.
Intellectual Capital Repository® (ICR) is a software application that supports the TPO methodology and is
tailored to meet specific client requirements. It contains employee decision-making processes, terms,
meanings and definitions as well as examples, comments and links to other supporting information that is
used to develop experts. The ICR provides TPO’s thought process sharing capabilities…enforces One-Term
One-Meaning throughout all functions at all times… links – integrates – thought processes throughout the
organization based upon common terminology… simplifies the transfer process…and makes the
continuous improvement process possible. Synonym (s): TPO Software
One-Term One-Meaning is a process that is used to: identify each term in captured decision-making processes…
establish a one-to-one relationship between terms, meanings and definitions… ensure captured decision-making
processes are refined, revised and fully documented with meanings and definitions as well as examples,
comments and links to other supporting information…and to package expert decision-making processes so that
they can be easily understood, assimilated and transferred to non-experts. These tasks are initially performed
by the TPO professional with the assistance of the expert and a governance team. In the continuous
improvement process, consistent terminology is enforced through the ICR and the governance team establishes
and/or approves all new terms, meaning and definitions.
Patterns are conditions that can be recognized by the human mind. Conditions, which are stored in long
term memory, can be captured and reproduced as written representations.
Reasoning is a cognitive process that encompasses a series of thought processes. Each thought process
contains a pattern and response that are performed by the mind. If the reasoning belongs to an expert, it
is a fast, effortless, subconscious process that produces correct judgments a minimum of 80% of the time.
If the reasoning belongs to a non-expert, it is primarily a slow, time consuming, conscious process that
typically produces the correct judgment less than 50% of the time.
Responses are mental or physical activities that employees engage in when in their judgment an
associated pattern exists. Responses, which are stored in long term memory, can be captured and
reproduced as written representations.
Thought Processes are reasoning that contain both a pattern and a response. The patterns in the thought
processes enable employees to recognize conditions in data, information, knowledge and cues from tacit
interactions. When employees recognize or sense that a pattern exists, they respond.
Thought Process Optimization® (TPO) is a proprietary methodology that uses principles of cognitive
science for capturing, documenting and using expert reasoning so that every individual can improve
his/her personal decision-making processes and make expert judgments and superior decisions.
TPO Professionals are management consultants who are expert in capturing expert reasoning and every
aspect of Thought Process Optimization® (TPO).
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 12
Transfer Process brings novices and other employees quickly up-to-speed so that they perform at the
level of an expert. The transfer of the expert’s personal decision-making process is achieved by having
employees use the expert’s thought processes as they to do their jobs.
8.0 References
1. Ericsson, K. Anders, Prietula, Michael J., and Cokely, Edward T. The Making of an Expert. Harvard Business
Review. 2007.
2. Frantz, R. Herbert Simon. Artificial intelligence as a framework for understanding intuition. s.l. : Journal of
Economic Psychology, 2003, Vol. 24.
3. Tice, Sandra K., Lauder. Scott P., Stuckey, Richard J. Making All of Your Staff High Performers. PM360 Online. s.l. :
PM360, August 2013.
4. Tice, S., McNutt, R., Tice, P., Elstein, A., Schwartz, A., Bordage, G., Abrams, R., and Stuckey, R. Reducing
Cognitive Errors By Capturing And Disseminating Expert Reasoning. Chicago, IL : Diagnostic Error in Medicine
Conference, 10/2011.
5. Tice, S.K. and Shidle, J. The Quest for Consistency. Darwin Magazine. 2003.
Copyright, 2014 v2.0 – MIP Corporation (for additional information email [email protected])
Page 13