About Us

Contact Information

Insight Principles, Inc.
9 Butler Avenue, Lexington, Massachusetts 02421-6209, USA
Tel: 508-788-9890
Fax: 206-339-9396
E-mail: info@insightprinciples.com

Genesis of Insight Principles

During our respective careers in business and the field of human potential, we have always been curious why people did what they did. Existing theories and approaches, whilst helpful, were not adequately robust and in many cases were very complex to use. It was clear that people could be brilliant and produce remarkable results with ease. What was less obvious was why the occurrence of these phenomena seemed ethereal and capricious.

The discovery of the basic set of ideas we call insight principles was, for each of us, the genesis of our starting to look in a different direction for the answers to our curiosities. We saw that whereas behavior is obvious and most often the target of attention, it was more effective, efficient and easier to look at what was behind behavior – primarily thought - and from where thoughts emanate.

As we deepened our understanding of these principles, we saw them as the missing link for realizing human potential and therefore, improving business performance. We saw that educating people on how their mind works, versus telling them what to think, allowed each person to access their own deeper intelligence, wisdom and common sense. We saw that everyone, absolutely everyone, has in them all the resources they need to get done what they wish and need to get done. They simply need to know how to enable that access. When pointed towards the three simple principles that lie behind human psychological functioning, almost everyone we have met has been able to have powerful insights that have revealed new understanding about a situation, shown them what to do and how to go about it. Given the wealth of information that is now readily available to most people, we think having the ability to have more insights is almost all that anyone needs.

We started out as two separate entities, Ken Manning Associates and Insight Management Partners, Inc.. As we partnered more and more, we saw the unique and powerful combination of melding business understanding with a deep knowledge of what it is to be a human being at a psychological level. After 7 years of working together, we decided to form a combined entity, with a name that reflects the precious understanding that we help people see.

Bios

Robin Charbit - Robin began his career as a chemical engineer with Exxon, eventually running one of their international plastics businesses. Though he enjoyed Exxon, Robin was drawn to the broad scope, learning environment and problem solving nature of Management Consulting. This took him to Arthur D. Little for 10 years - first in Europe and ultimately, in Boston, where he led and managed the North America Chemicals Practice. During these 20 years, Robin had found himself consistently curious about the variability of performance among many of the great leaders he was fortunate to work with. In 2001, he came across an understanding of the human dimension that seemed to scratch that itch. With a colleague, Charlie Kiefer, he left the more classical consulting world and founded Insight Management Partners, to bring this understanding to business. Along the way, he met Ken Manning, ultimately joining forces to create Insight Principles. Robin was born in the UK to French parents and met his Belgian wife Sabine, in Switzerland. They now live in Boston with their three soccer-crazed children. When time permits, Robin enjoys all things mechanical (cars, wood-working, home projects) and is an avid movie go-er.

Ken Manning, Ph.D. - Integrating 15 years of innovation in a variety of start up businesses with almost 30 years of coaching, training, consulting and psychology, Ken has a unique gift for helping people and organizations achieve success through access to their innate capacities. He began his professional career in a variety of roles in start ups including head of sales and marketing for a national publication. He then went back to school to get a doctorate degree in psychology. During his two decades as a licensed psychologist, he became a faculty member of the Three Principles Foundation basing its groundbreaking work on the insights of Sydney Banks. Ken pioneered the integration of three simple principles about the human operating system into an entirely new approach to leadership development, coaching and psychotherapy. He co-developed an advanced training for executive coaches called “Coaching from Within” which he taught throughout the US, Europe and Australia. He has been a faculty member of the Massachusetts School for Professional Psychology in their Executive Coaching Masters Program. In 1999 he began innovating ways to bring these principles into the corporate world. He joined with partner Robin Charbit in 2005 to form Insight Principles, developing and teaching leadership programs designed to bring out innate qualities in people, not promote techniques which require effort. These programs are now being taught in Fortune 100 companies. Ken's genuine warmth, eloquent style and wisdom have unparalleled impact. He has been married for 27 years to Kailia, he has an adult stepdaughter and a 15 year old son with whom he loves to play music and sports. Ken and Kailia have three active grandchildren. With his son-in-law, Ken started a software development company, MedAcuity Software. Ken loves the outdoors, music, photography, woodworking and spending time with family and friends.

Sandy Krot - Sandy's vision is to make the workplace a setting for creative performance as well as the elevation of the human spirit. She is a pioneer in translating a principled understanding of human thought to leadership and organizational effectiveness. She is a graduate of Bates College and the University of New Haven. The early years of her career were dedicated to counseling and human development. She founded and served as Executive Director of one of the first principle-based programs in the US located in Tampa Florida. She played a critical role in the earliest attempts to formulate an understanding of human thought into a working psychology and to train principle-based practitioners as a founding member of the first national faculty. She has consulted with executives, leadership teams and working groups in several Fortune 100 companies for more than ten years. Sandy joined Insight Principles in 2010. She shares her life with her partner Peter Remick and together they just finished building their (almost) zero-energy home in rural Washington. They get out into the awesome Pacific Northwest wilderness as often as they can, sea kayaking, backpacking, and biking.

Acknowledgements

We very much want to extend our sincerest thanks to a large number of people who have helped us along the way:

Syd Banks, for the gift he uncovered that has already changed thousands of lives and that holds great promise for humanity
Our clients, who liked what they heard and followed their instincts as we developed our approaches and products
The many thought leaders in the fields of psychology and human development, in particular: Dr. Dicken Bettinger, Dr. Keith Blevens, Leslie Miller, Dr. Roger Mills, and Dr. George Pransky

We would also like to thank Norman Sheppard (Web Design Pittsburgh) for his help, skill and effortless way of working on the construction of this site, Debra Simes (debra@wordslinger.net) for her kind and generous review of our attempts to write about our work, Mark Guarino (www.guarinodesign.com) for the design of this site and the ease with which he extracted ideas from us and turned them into something elegant and beautiful, Michael Goodman (Mrginhop@aol.com) for allowing us to use his spectacular pictures, and of course, all our friends and colleagues who have unselfishly and constructively reviewed our ideas and developments.