Art
Miller Jr. (1923-2017) founded SIMA in 1963.
As a transplanted young
attorney, promoted to manage a large, complex human resources and labor
relations function, Art Miller soon realized that the nature of the employee
was clouded in mystery. Psychology abhorred research of the individual and had
failed in their statistical ways to shed light on human nature other than
question whether the person had an inborn nature of any consequence.
Decisions to hire and
promote were ruled by guesstimate, probability, appearance, assumption,
and impression. So job mismatch became the norm, deemed excusable because
of the wish-list belief fostered by psychology that people were putty-like
and could be shaped or reshaped to fit a need, desire or circumstance.
Art left his decade- long
experience managing HR and began a research odyssey seeking to solve the
mystery of individual human nature. He did something few, if any, other
investigators have attempted. He began what turned out to be a continuing
research odyssey exclusively focused on the individual person. By exploring
lived motivated experience, he sought to understand what was going on when
individuals pursued something they were good at doing and found enjoyable or
satisfying.
As founder of what is now
SIMA International Inc, Art Miller solved much of the mystery of our nature as
individuals and made significant advances in our understanding of God. These
discoveries enabled him to develop a technology which brought his
discoveries within the reach of practitioners in the corporate, religious and
educational worlds. Where there was ignorance and prevailing unconcern about
the nature, health, welfare and destiny of the employee, the student, the
church member…
1.
He developed a science of the person (SIMA*) which could access
the heart and mind of individuals, identify what had been embodied in
their soul and engage them in a process of learning, of working, and of
spiritual development.
2.
He discovered that every person was born endowed with a behavior
Pattern which governed the way they tried to live, including a specific outcome
or consummation to achieve so each one had a purpose to fulfill in life.
3.
He discovered that such Patterns had a five part structure, the
same kind of content, and behavioral dynamics, but each Pattern was unique in
its details.
4.
He discovered that the Pattern provides a clear understanding
and explanation of the nature of individuals and predicts their performance and
acceptable social behavior.
5.
He and his colleagues developed a taxonomy in the mid 70’s of
several hundred coded behavioral elements remaining useful to the present
day.
6.
He discovered a number of principles or operating
characteristics common to Patterns: organic; innate; systemic; stable;
irrepressible and predictive; precocious; amoral; and they control perception
of reality (e.g. how any job is attempted); trigger and sustain achievements; cause emotional
reactions; and color feelings.
7.
*SIMA is the System for identifying Motivated Abilities named in
1963 because NASA insisted on a name for the system they were about to use for
the next 15 years.
8.
Enabled and encouraged by Ralph Mattson’s imaginative but
utterly sound understanding of God’s nature, Art concluded that the only source
for such innately predetermined behavior Patterns had to be God.
o
* In the early years, as they continued to discover such
Patterns in every one studied, they couldn’t imagine a natural explanation to
explain any feature of the phenomena. Consider the feat of designing a person
whose unique mix of competencies were boggling enough. But then consider that
there were up to 25 such behavioral elements uniquely functioning as a system
in a series of unfolding sequences. When you then realized that every Pattern
had the same structure, kind of content and behavioral dynamics, yet each
Pattern was unique, God was the only one left standing. Natural explanations
had nothing to say about the complex phenomena that was uniquely, systemically
functioning in each person.
9.
These discoveries led to a conclusion that the Pattern was
embodied in the person’s heart, mind, will and soul. So any thinking,
feeling, deciding, imagining, creating and doing/performing were governed by
what God had invested in each one. The issue of loving others as we love
ourselves and loving God with all our heart and all our mind and all our
soul draws on what we do with what we were given. Bottom line: God loves us
without reservation. God endows us without our meeting a requirement or
standard. God invests in us so we might fully give the unique love we were
given.
Over many years, Art and
his colleagues worked, one-at-a-time, with many thousands of men and women
of diverse ages, race, educational, social and religious backgrounds. Yet, the
same facts emerged whether they were dealing with students or staff at a
college, employees or management in a corporation, pastors or congregants of a
church.
Of all the discoveries,
what offers the greatest benefit to humanity and its institutions of education,
work, religion and family is that Art discovered God’s plan for human
kind. It is that plan which is available to transform our struggling
educational systems, our grievous matching of employees and jobs; the
irrelevance of church to the working life of members and the rebellion of
children to civilized behavior
What will hasten that
transformation in all four venues is recognition that every student, employee,
congregant is unique and can achieve their glorious destiny if their uniqueness is respected
by their teachers, employers, clergy, parents (and coaches),
Biographers who helped Art
develop the new science and technology are Art Miller III, Don Kiehl, Rick
Wellock, Kim Miller, Ralph Mattson, John Paris, Nick and Judy Isbister, Joshua
Miller, Steve Darter, Suz Grimes and Mark Stevenson. Funding of the work has
only been possible through the success, prayers and patience of Rob Stevenson,
Tommy Thomas and ‘get the job done’, Ron Evans. Art’s’ clients during the discovery
and development period, (heavy lifting performed by the Biographers and many
intrepid unnamed Consultants), were the following:
·
NASA – assessed 150 mid- and upper-level managers at
headquarters, Langley, Ames, and Goddard Research Centers, and Wallops Flight
Center; simplified the national program for recruiting 3,000 scientists and
engineers for the space program.
·
McDonnell Douglas – provided a “content-rich method” of
generating data to use in promotions, succession, and organizational planning
of several hundred executives.
·
DuPont – provided a method for determining suitable career
direction of engineers hired to be on a fast-track.
·
Merck – used SIMA® in a significant
reengineering effort, and counseling of executives.
·
IBM – in workshop settings over a decade. enabled engineers to
identify their suitability for management.
·
Illinois Blue Cross – used SIMA®
·
London Bus and The Anglian Water Authority – enabled transition
from public to private ownership of key managers
·
Amoco – used SIMA®
·
Monsanto – used over a period of years in evaluating key
personnel and facilitated the opening of a new plant and product line.
·
Connecticut General – provided the basis for more reliable
hiring and promotion decisions, career planning and development, diagnosis of
performance failures, and conflict resolution.
·
New York Life – identified the motivated competencies unique to
successful large city managers.
·
Wesley Medical Center – identified the motivated competencies in
candidates for the head nurse role.
·
North American Philips – evaluate candidates for executive
roles.
·
Upjohn – made significant contributions to career planning
applications, and trained staff in the use of SIMA®
·
Rohm & Haas – improve the understanding of key scientists;
trained staff at the general management level to use SIMA®
·
The American Society for Quality and Disney Development–
provided SIMA®
Art is the author of a
variety of articles and essays. He is best known as co-author with Ralph
Mattson of The Truth About You (two
seperate editions) and Finding a Job You Can Love, and The Power of Uniqueness (with
Bill Hendricks)
Art Miller’s Education
included: Northwestern University, Bachelor of Science; juris Doctor of Law and
advanced aptitude, judgement and wisdom.
Comments
I completed the SIMA
Program at Monsanto in 1969. It explained a lot about my personality,
motivation and direction. I took it
again in 1993 before I opened my own private consulting practice and it
confirmed the wisdom of this move. The SIMA staff was delighted to be able to
see my progress and get feedback on the accuracy of their system.
I was Inner-Directed
(David Riesman), Self-Reliant and believe that work is fun. I was drawn to High
Impact projects and had the necessary tendency to “influence”. I had no “other directed” tendencies. I read
“Pack Your Own Chute” by Eden Ryl in 1972. My focus was on the “big picture”.
As a Personnel
Director, I never used consultants. I learned how to do everything myself. I
wrote plan documents using CCH books and policies using BLS and the
Congressional Quarterly. I eliminated unions, implemented automation, hired the
best employees, terminated pension plans and adopted self-administered major
medical plans.
I started my private
consulting practice in 1993 with 6 companies and ended up with 46 companies. I
operated from my home office. I went to customer sites as necessary. All my project work came in by referral. I
never made a sales call.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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