Henry L. (Dick) Thompson, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized consultant, educator, speaker and author. Over the past 30 years, he has gained valuable experience developing and leading teams—from the battlefield to the boardroom. He uses his vast experiences and knowledge to help leaders and organizations improve performance.
Dr. Thompson is the founder, president and CEO of High Performing Systems, Inc., an international management consulting and training firm he founded in 1984 to help leaders, teams and organizations achieve high performance. The philosophy of HPS is based on a systems approach to performance improvement. Clients are Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and a diverse group of public, private and international firms. These include AT&T, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Shell Oil Company, Johnson & Johnson, Apple, Owens-Corning, Delta Airlines, Wipro Technologies, Mohawk Industries and Titan America, to name a few.
Numerous command and staff positions during his 21-year military service have resulted in exceptional management insight and expertise. During that time, he trained and led some of the most elite special operations teams in the world. He served as an officer with the U.S. Army Special Forces Group (Green Berets) in Vietnam and other southeast Asian countries and was decorated on several occasions for his heroism. His work for the military on high performing battle staffs and continuous operations played a key role in the success of U.S. forces in the Gulf War.
He holds a BA in sociology from Methodist University, an MA in continuous operations from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and an MS and Ph.D. in psychology from The University of Georgia. Dr. Thompson was also a department chair and professor at The University of Georgia where he taught advanced courses in leadership and team dynamics.
Dr. Thompson is a frequent speaker for business and professional groups around the world on topics related to leadership, team development, systems and high performance. He has also published numerous articles and training manuals on these topics. He is the author of The Stress Effect: Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decisions—And What To Do About It, The CommunicationWheel®: A Resource Book, Jung’s Function-Attitudes Explained, Introduction to The CommunicationWheel®, Introduction to FIRO Element B™ in Organizations, the CommunicationWheel® Software System™ and the Human Element Software System™. Other books and assessments are listed below.
Teams: Dr. Thompson designs and leads customized teambuilding sessions, including outdoor adventures. He is the creator and exclusive instructor for TeamDynamics™, the premiere train-the-trainer course for team development. He works with executive teams around the world to enhance their team skills and improve performance. Dr. Thompson is also the author of the TeamWork Questionnaire™, Team Compatibility Report™, Team Compatibility Assessment™, and co-author of the Team Emotional and Social Intelligence Survey® Technical Manual, Collaborative Skills Climate Survey™ and the Collaborative Skills Climate Survey™ Technical Manual.
Organizations: Dr. Thompson works with organizations around the world to enhance performance through organizational development consulting, designing and implementing new organizational structures, executive coaching and strategic planning. He is the creator and exclusive instructor for OrganizationalDynamics™, the premiere train-the-trainer course for organizational consultants. He is a member of the Academy of Management Sciences and the author of the Organizational Assessment Questionnaire™.
Leadership: Dr. Thompson is the creator of the Leadership Potential Equation™—the most effective technique for determining leader potential across time at each organizational Level. His vast research and experience as a leader have resulted in High Performance Leadership™ (HPL), Levels I-IV, a completely integrated program for leaders at successive organizational Levels. Dr. Thompson is the author of the powerful ABLE® (Assessment of Basic Leader Effectiveness®), a 360° leader evaluation, ABLE-II® (Assessment of Basic Leader Effectiveness-II®) as well as the LEAD Survey™, TEAM Survey™, LEAD Model™ and TEAM Model™.
FIRO® Theory and The Human Element®: In the early eighties, Dr. Thompson was a student and colleague of legendary FIRO® creator, Will Schutz, Ph.D. He partnered with Dr. Schutz to expand the use of FIRO® theory and instruments in organizations. He developed the first Human Element® Software System™, the first Elements B™, F™ and S™ online assessment system, the Team Compatibility Report™ and the Element B™ Interpretive Report™. Dr Thompson has continued to develop FIRO® theory, instruments and materials through his research. He is the author of numerous FIRO® and Human Element® related articles, materials and assessments, including Introduction to FIRO® Element B™ in Organizations, and is the leading researcher in the world on FIRO® theory.
Personality/Psychological Type: Psychological Type theory is an integral part of Dr. Thompson’s work and ongoing research. The CommunicationWheel® is just one of many useful tools he has developed to facilitate the use of psychological Type in organizations. In 1996, he published the first book devoted to an in-depth exploration of the function-attitudes in C.G. Jung’s theory, Jung’s Function-Attitudes Explained. Dr. Thompson is also the author of The CommunicationWheel®: A Resource Book and Introduction to The CommunicationWheel®. He has served as the president of the Georgia Association for Psychological Type (APT) twice, served on the APT International (APTi) Board of Directors twice, and is a frequent keynote speaker and presenter at international conferences. Dr. Thompson conducts psychological Type research and is the author of numerous Type-related articles. He has won various APTi awards, including the prestigious Mary McCaulley Lifetime Achievement Award for work with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® assessment.
Emotional Intelligence: Dr. Thompson’s work and ongoing research with Emotional Intelligence (EI) are well known in the EI community. His innovative approaches to EI research, training, certification, feedback and materials development make him a highly sought-after EI speaker and consultant. He is the leading researcher on the interaction of EI, stress and leadership and is the creator of the Catastrophic Leadership Failure™ model. He has pioneered the Tandem Model of using the EQ-i 2.0® and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test® (MSCEIT®) in combination. His research continues to explore the validity of EI models; EI and stress, IQ and leadership; EI’s role in success models; the relationship of EI to other models; and building Stress Resilient Emotional Intelligence™. Dr. Thompson is co-editor of Handbook for Developing Emotional and Social Intelligence.
Stress Management: Dr. Thompson’s work with stress management began with personal experience on the battlefield and evolved into a lifetime of study. He has held the honor of being one of the U.S. military’s subject matter experts (SME) on stress on the battlefield. His research has covered the impact of stress on decision making, cognitive performance, aggressive behavior, sleep deprivation, leadership and emotionally intelligent behavior. He has published numerous articles and books on the topic, including his book The Stress Effect: Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decissions—And What To Do About It, and continues to conduct cutting-edge research on the impact of stress. His ARSENAL™ program for managing stress is setting a new standard for individual, team and organizational stress management.
Artificial Intelligence, Chaos, Complexity and Nonlinear Dynamics: Research and application of artificial intelligence continues to be an integral part of Dr. Thompson’s work. He co-created with his son, Stephen Thompson, the first artificial intelligence simulation incorporating the Myers-Briggs personality Types, languages and topics of interest. Dr. Thompson continues to conduct research on the nonlinear dynamics of personality, leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive Ability, stress and team dynamics. His Catastrophic Leadership Failure™ model has received international attention. He is a member of the Board of Directors for The University of Georgia’s Artificial Intelligence Institute, member of the New England Complex Systems Institute and served as president of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life Sciences.
American Psychological Association, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Association for Psychological Type International, American Society for Training and Development, Academy of Management, New England Complex Systems Institute, Global Organizational Design Society, National Honor Society in Psychology, Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life Sciences, Diver’s Alert Network, Seacology and Mensa.
In addition to his family and professional interests, Dr. Thompson has found time to become a master SCUBA diver, make over 900 freefall parachute jumps, earn a black belt in karate and is an Ironman®. He competes throughout the year in Ironman® races.
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