The Siena team has collectively worked with over 50 Fortune 500 companies, published over 100 scientific studies, presented research at dozens of professional conferences, authored over 20 book chapters, and provided expert witness testimony in over a dozen cases. This experience allows us to develop revolutionary ways of measuring psychological factors that help people and organizations better understand individuals, which results in stronger and more diverse pools of talent and allows individuals to optimize and enjoy the contributions they make to their work and their personal lives.
Back in early 1990’s, when they were still PhD students at the University of Maryland, friends Ken Yusko and Harold Goldstein were on separate trips to the Siena region of Italy. As deep thinkers, they came to the same conclusion: as Psychologists, we can do a better job measuring intelligence. There had been a long-held assumption that intelligence tests and others measures of cognitive ability will always result in whites, Asians, and males out-performing others. They believed individual test items and how they were developed were to blame. They felt this led to these tests favoring individuals based on their education and life experiences and not their raw ability.
So they asked themselves, what if “we pretended to put everyone on Mars?” – where we just need smart people and all of our experience from Earth is no longer relevant. How then would we measure intelligence? They became obsessed with finding alternative ways to view and measure cognitive ability. The result is a radical new approach to viewing intelligence in a broader, multi-dimensional way, as well as, finding innovative ways to measure this complexity.
Nearly thirty (30) years later, this vision has become a reality as the Siena Reasoning Test (SRT) has been used by Fortune 500 companies, roles in State & Federal Governments, and professional sports. Now companies and organizations make decisions selecting corporate executives, production workers in world-class manufacturing plants, and even NFL quarterbacks using Ken and Harold’s intelligence and personality tests. Today, as university professors and co-founders of Siena Consulting, they share and continue to advance this field of understanding through publications in scientific journals like the Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Resource Management Review, and Personnel Psychology. In 2011, their breakthrough work in measuring intelligence was recognized by the American Psychology Association when they were awarded the prestigious M. Scott Meyers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace. And this obsession continues today.