Why Preoccupation with 8's ?
Why do these 8 tool sets help organizations?
Regarding performance improvement, what do Boomers, 30 somethings, Gen X and Gen Y managers and project leaders have in common?
Why Worksheets for Enhanced Engagement of Stakeholders?
What is the Affective Domain of the brain?
What is The Engagement Quotient™ (EQ)?
What are the key factors that can contribute to high EQ?
What is the "The Q Factor™"?

Why Preoccupation with 8s ?

An "Octant" is also an ancient navigation device similar to the sextant. Our tools will help your organization navigate through the shoals of unforgiving markets, challenging fiscal constraints and demanding customers.

Our 25 years of experience demonstrates the power of connecting to stakeholder emotions, as well as their experience; to generate not only better strategy, but strategy and change that is actually implemented, and is more sustainable.
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Why do these 8 tool sets help organizations?

In the new-new economy; in the post dot.bomb era; in the dawning of the age of the knowledge-worker, why do these tool sets assist executives and project managers achieve more engaged workers, and better results using faster and smarter performance improvement interventions?

Answer:
Because they focus on, and leverage up the unique personalities, psychologies and performance needs of workplace players, from Boomers to Gen X'ers.

In the new economy enterprise, leaders are searching for new strategy and action planning tools to harness and focus the eclectic energy and insights of new planning players; players who are all scrambling to build value, earn market share, enhance productivity and raise the bar for peak performance in unforgiving markets.
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Regarding performance improvement, what do Boomers, 30-somethings, Gen X and Gen Y managers and project leaders have in common?

• They're hungry to be more fully engaged in meaningful business planning;
• they're skeptical about traditional strategy development tools, such as SWOT analysis, brainstorming and nominal group processes;
• they're impatient to see faster results in turbulent and warp speed change environments;
• they want not just out-of-the-box thinking, but out-of-the-box action;

They've come to realize that balanced score card results often demand unbalanced strategy development processes, and a new generation set of tools for a new generation set of challenges and opportunities.
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Why Worksheets for Enhanced Engagement of Stakeholders?

Worksheets help focus and clarify faster and smarter group decision making.

As org charts flatten, and as organizations rush to empower and unleash performance improvement teams, you must increase your potential to involve employees and stakeholders with modest training or experience in group problem solving, process improvement, and strategy development. Even experienced players may be dropped into teams and processes with new colleagues from diverse backgrounds, other industries, or other parts of the enterprise. These eclectic groups need to be able to focus fast and get moving in their idea exchange activities. Standardized worksheets can help facilitate this need for fast focus and cross-fertilization of thinking and planning from groups with variable experiences with alternate processes.

Most leaders use our PowerPoint™ worksheet templates by adding your unique brand, printing them out and engaging stakeholders to use them to focus and accelerate their involvement in performance improvement.
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What is the Affective Domain of the brain?

The affective mind is that portion of the brain that deals with feelings, that part of the brain that deals with the softer-side of business strategy development and with people's willingness to embrace, then sustain change. The softer variables most commonly pulled from top selling leadership and change management texts include:

• sense of pride with SBU role and mission
• sense of belonging and mattering
• having your ideas listened to and valued
• having real friends among your co-workers;
• fear forced out by fun; and
• meaningful engagement and sense of control over your work and the potential to achieve personal and professional goals.

Our research shows that if you want great results that are lasting, and are results that are achieved in the most cost effective use of time and money, you must have greater engagement from all players. You must start their engagement at the beginning - by engaging them to help address the basic definitions of who you are, where you're going and how you intend to get there. Great engagement comes from having interdisciplinary and interdepartmental teams probing and answering your most challenging business questions.
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What is The Engagement Quotient™?

Engagement Quotient: "EQ" : Your measure of performance potential.

"Engagement" the amount and quality of participation that people (stakeholders) have in the strategic business planning and operational affairs of your enterprise, project or organization. The higher the EQ, the higher the sense of ownership in the plans, and the greater their willingness to help implement them.
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What's Your Engagement Quotient?
The Big 8 Results of Peak Performance Improvement

If high EQ: Congratulations you are dramatically more likely to achieve:

1. more ideas for performance improvement
2. better ideas
3. more ideas implemented
4. implemented ideas are sustained for longer periods
5. closer scrutiny of performance progress
6. faster adoption of contingency plans
7. smarter contingency plans
8. greater commitment to continuously enhance results

If low EQ: Shame on you! You're more likely to experience the flip side of The Big 8: life in the slow lane, a life less fun and results less robust.

High EQ is also directly associated with the most positive leadership styles and the most positive followership styles.

How ready are you for quantum change and peak performance through high EQ?

On a scale of 1-8, with 8 being a very high degree of engagement, and 1 being a very low degree of engagement, how would you assess the degree of "engagement" among employees of your organization?

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What are the key factors that can contribute to high EQ?

There are 8 critical success factors to manage for high EQ as you launch your use of these 8 tool sets for greater performance improvement:

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What is the "The Q Factor™"?

The power of our tool sets builds on two important premises: First, stakeholder engagement is essential to better plans that actually get implemented, and the key to effective stakeholder engagement (ESE) is connecting with the emotional side of your stockholder's minds. Engagement needs emotional connections. Second, engagement is a hollow promise of performance improvement unless it is coupled with processes that ask questions. The art and science of asking questions is "The Q Factor™"

The more the questions you ask and the smarter the questions you ask, the greater your potential to exponentially improve your performance. Great questions increase your prospects for great results.

The best managers and leaders are not so much great "problem solvers", as they are great "problem probers". They are not so much great question answerers as they are question askers.

Ask 8 key questions, such as:

• Why do we do it this way?
• What would happen if we did it this way?
• What are we really trying to do or achieve?
• What is most likely going to block or frustrate our ability to achieve our goal, or do our project?
• What are the best and fastest ways for us to remove, reduce or work around those things that will block or frustrate our performance improvement?
• Which of our competitors offer better product or service features than us, and how have they generated these features?
• How could we best develop website portals for our best customers to improve their use of and loyalty to our products?
• How should we harness the knowledge of our employees and supply chain partners to enhance the quality and economic vitality of our goods and services?

It is hard to ask too many questions. Most questions posed by inter-disciplinary teams of frontline workers are rarely foolish and usually represent essential building blocks for your ultimate performance improvement success.

The Q Factor™ encourages stakeholders to ask the classic who, what, where, why, how, and how much questions before most meetings, planning sessions and even report writing initiatives. The human genome seems to be stimulated to higher levels of thought and performance potential by the rigorous and creative use of questions. Inquiring minds really do want to know!
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