The TIGERS 6 Principles Story

The year was 1987. The recession caused by the Arab Oil Cartel had cut thousands of people from the U.S. workforce.

You see, inflation also hit an all time high with long term interest rates reaching 18 percent and even higher for some industries. Companies couldn’t grow. As a result, many  employees were let go without warning.

This sent shock waves through the housing, oil and oil and housing supplier industries. Other businesses failed because of high interest rates with high inflation.  Times were hard.

The TIGERS 6 Principles were born.

Our founder, Dianne Crampton, took this time to answer the question, “What is necessary to build an ethical, quality-focused, productive, cooperative and successful workforce?” She qualified success to mean that not only were goals achieved, the people doing the work were also engaged and satisfied.  She studied all the research available in business, psychology and education group dynamics.  Out of this study, six principles emerged. They are trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk resolution and success (TIGERS®).

The next step was to determine if each of these six TIGERS principles could be isolated and identified in group behavior. Four years later and after two independent evaluations of the TIGERS Workforce Behavioral Profile by Gonzaga University and the Washington State Education Association, the results were conclusive. Not only could each principle be identified in group behavior, they also prescribed what to focus on to transform an adequate work group into an exceptional one.

The TIGERS 6 Principles emerged. 

Dianne was then invited to present the results of her study at conferences. At the National Institute of Applied Business Ethics Conference, she was approached by the head Ethicist from Northrop Grumman.

Dianne had designed an activity to teach the TIGERS six principles within one hour. It emotionally engaged participants and demonstrated effective group process.  Northrop Grumman needed to downsize thousands of employees in response to Russia deescalating  the arms race. As a result, Northrop asked to borrow this activity to engineer their downsize. On a handshake, Dianne coached Northrop’s executive trainer to facilitate her tool for C-suite executives.

One of the first U.S. outplacement systems was engineered by Northrop as one of many outcomes. Northrop then presented the demonstration of how TIGERS launched their process at a national conference. The result —  twenty-five companies requested the TIGERS facilitation tool to build their companies. Many were Silicon Valley start ups.  The TIGERS 6 Principles and TIGERS® Success Series were launched.

TIGERS 6 Principles comprehensive approach.

Over the following years, TIGERS served  committed leaders in post merger workforce stabilization and work community development. The simplicity that resulted in the TIGERS 6 Principles being embraced by these leaders and their employees was supported by common sense behaviors that make company roles, goals and relationships successful.

What we achieved together in transforming workplaces

• Inspiring Change: Empowered employees to embrace and drive meaningful transformation.
• Unified Understanding: Fostered a shared language and mutual clarity across teams.
• Aligned Goals: Ensured everyone was moving in the same direction toward a common purpose.
• Actionable Insights for Leaders: Provided leaders with measurable data to evaluate the ROI of workforce improvements.
• Eliminated Uncertainty: Took the guesswork out of building a thriving work culture and high-performing teams.

In July 2012, Dianne began to replicate the TIGERS multi-pronged approach so that any committed and trained leader could repeat this success.  As a leader with a creator and facilitator value structure, Dianne knew that in order to improve the world of work for millions of employees and their families, certain things needed to happen.

TIGERS vision and mission

• One day, how employees experience their work will be through cooperation to successfully compete in the marketplace.
• Workforce behavior is intentional – not random and arbitrary. Constructive behavior supports roles, goals and relationships and is measurable.
• High impact organizations are powered by engaged employees. These employees are facilitated by managers and supervisors who are skilled in building commitment, accountability and success so that employees are just as invested in the success of the organization as the leaders are.
• TIGERS® is the work community and employee engagement leader in the team-based culture movement.

By empowering committed leaders and independent consultants with the TIGERS comprehensive system, we can improve the world of work for millions of employees and their families.  Join us in making the work world a better place.