FIRO

The FIRO-B^{® (}Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation–Behavior™) tool was developed by William Schutz, PhD over 50 years ago and was initially developed to aid in understanding and predicting how high-performance military teams would work together. In developing the theory, he identified that “people need people” and that interpersonal needs could be grouped into three categories:

1)    Inclusion (refers to the extent to which individuals need to have social interactions and associations with others).

2)    Control (refers to the extent to which individuals want to lead and influence others as well as the extent to which they prefer to be led and influenced).

3)    Affection (refers to the emotional connections between people and the extent to which individuals seek to establish relationships with others, particularly one-on-one relationships).

The FIRO-B^®model describes the interaction of these three categories of interpersonal need with two dimensions: expressed or wanted.

It is used in a wide variety of applications including:

• Management and Supervisor Development
• Leadership Development (used with MBTI as part of the Leadership Report)
• Identifying Leadership preferred operating styles
• Employee Development
• Team Building and explaining team roles
• Improving Team Effectiveness
• Advancing Career Development
• Retention