The Center For Breakthrough Thinking

EMS Network International is an affiliate of The Center for Breakthrough Thinking, Inc. in Los Angeles, California. E. Michael Shays serves on its Advisory Board. The purpose of the Center is to promote and institutionalize the teaching and application of Breakthrough Thinking in universities, corporations and government in solving problems, leveraging opportunities, and achieving change.

The development of Breakthrough Thinking concepts began forty years ago when Dr. Gerald Nadler and his colleagues began researching the reasoning processes of effective people in reaching superior decisions. Dr. Nadler, now IBM Chair Emeritus of Engineering Management, and former Chairman of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, continues his research. His work and that of others in the discipline now involve numbers in the thousands, and feature persons from every section in society.

Breakthrough Thinking is practiced internationally. The thousands of seminar participants who have attended seminars held the world over, college students who have been trained in its disciplines, and colleagues who have read Breakthrough Thinking books and applied the concepts, are reasons for its widespread influence.

Documentation of Breakthrough Thinking concepts and applications can be found in the following books:

Ask the Right Questions, Creating the Answers that Work
Gerald Nadler and William J. Chandon, The Center for Breakthrough Thinking Press, 2003
Breakthrough Thinking and the Seven Principles of Problem Solving
Gerald Nadler and Shozo Hibino, Prima Publishing 1994
The Breakthrough Thinking Handbook
Michael Shays and Gerald Nadler, The Center for Breakthrough Thinking 2008
Creative Solution Finding
Gerald Nadler and Shozo Hibino, Prima Publishing, 1995
Breakthrough Thinking in Total Quality Management
Glen D. Hoffner, John W. Moran and Gerald Nadler, P T R Prentice Hall, 1994

The differentiating feature of Breakthrough Thinking is that it achieves better results through being purpose-&-solution-focused, rather than being cause-&-problem-oriented. Its major benefits are:

It initiates a discipline that always has you working on the right problem
It enables you to turn change into your ally
It shows you how to use the right mix of other management disciplines and concepts
It provides excellent conflict management
It enables you to establish and sustain leadership gains and optimal operating performance
It causes employees to readily challenge their own comfort zones
It frees you from the analytical quicksand of current approaches

With its superior and proven seven principles, Breakthrough Thinking is effective in all walks of life - personal, family, society, and industry. [See the Seven Principles.]

The Center is an alliance of consultants dedicated to helping individuals and organizations significantly increase their results:

Generating the most effective (i.e. creative, low cost/high benefit, quality, timeliness, etc.) recommendations for problems, decision situations, and policies.
Creating a situation with the highest likelihood of turning these recommendations into action solutions.
Using the lowest cost and least time to achieve the first two results.

The Center for Breakthrough Thinking offers many ways to help clients consistently attain these successful results:

Workshops and briefings tailored to the specific needs of your organization.
Keynote speakers for meetings, conferences and trade events.
Breakthrough Thinking training within an organization, including train-the-trainer programs.
A schedule of seminars and workshops for the general public.
For more information on The Center for Breakthrough Thinking, contact EMS Network or:

Center for Breakthrough Thinking
858 Longview Road
Burlingame, CA 94010-6974
Tel 1-650-342-5259
Fax 1-650-344-5005

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