What is the ActionMap Toolkit?
	Why is the ActionMap Toolkit different from other tools?
	What are ActionMap Toolkit sessions like?
	How can I get more detailed information about the ActionMap Toolkit?
	What are demonstration sessions?
	How does the ActionMap Toolkit produce value?
	Where can the ActionMap Toolkit be applied?
	Who can participate in the sessions?
	How does a mechanical process development approach support better teamwork?
	Why do we take a standardized approach to client engagements?
	What if a more extensive engagement is required?

What is the ActionMap Toolkit?

The ActionMap Toolkit a set of "mechanical" steps for prompting for and recording information from group participants.  It is based on systems engineering techniques that have been used in everything from electronic circuit design to global logistics planning.  We have enhanced these techniques so that they can be efficiently used in group sessions while continuing to provide their full analytic capabilities.

These systems engineering techniques have been integrated in a unique and proprietary way with brainstorming, planning and decision making techniques.  We have continually refined these procedures over hundreds of sessions and engagements. The result is both a powerful process development "utility", and a powerful knowledge development experience.

As a "bridge language" between Business and IT, the ActionMap Toolkit has a unique set of critical qualities:

	Reliable and effective
	Fast and easy to start, learn and use
	Widely applicable and highly scalable
	Combines rigorous process development with strong consensus building
	Translates rapidly across languages, cultures and areas of expertise

The ActionMap Toolkit is sufficiently "procedural" that we've developed software to guide groups through entire sessions with only a few minutes introduction and minimal "operator" intervention.

At the same time the Toolkit is highly effective as a "whiteboard" skill that
can be used in situations ranging from ad hoc discussions to formally planned work sessions.

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Why Is the ActionMap Toolkit different from other tools?

The ActionMap Toolkit provides detailed support for collaborative solutions development
at the point of doing the work in group sessions. This can be illustrated by the following hierarchy of activities in process development.

Activities in Process Development

	General Business Activity of Organizing Projects							ActionMap Toolkit Supporting Focus
		Project Management
			Business Process Management (if used)
				General Guidelines for Organizing and Holding Meetings, Real or Electronic
					General Meeting Facilitation Skills and Techniques			ActionMap Toolkit Primary Focus
						Individual Skills in Process Analysis, Design, Communication and Consensus Building
							Detailed Group Collaborative Solutions Development Efforts

The challenge in collaborative solutions development is that the results depend on
actually doing the work of process analysis, design, communication and consensus-building in group sessions. Other activities establish the projects, organize and distribute the workproducts, set up the meetings, and lead group discussions. However, the doing the work is then usually left up to the individual contributors, and their individual skills in the above areas, as they face the standard challenges of collaborative solutions development.  These include:

Standard Challenges of Collaborative Solutions Development

	Multiple lines of authority / lack of a single authority
	Hidden agendas, domineering and grand standing, resistance to change
	Different organizational and cultural backgrounds and languages
	Different levels of process development skill and areas of process expertise
	Partial, non-overlapping knowledge of the target process area
	Actual conflicting interests and priorities
	Maintaining focus and direction
	Lack of a clear agenda and step-by-step instructions to follow
	The actual hard work of process analysis, design and implementation planning

The result is often a long cycle of meetings that produces more frustration and loss of interest than project progress.

The Major Difference with the ActionMap Toolkit

In comparison, the ActionMap Toolkit goes the whole distance, by providing step-by-step procedures that increase each participant's capabilities to do the work of collaborative solutions development. This support is provided right in the meetings, where the work is being done, without any prior training requirements for the participants. This allows each participant to apply their knowledge, intelligence and motivations to the particular challenges of collaborative solutions development on an equal footing and in a more productive way.

The Toolkit provides a flexible, structured path of activities that focuses on producing work products and consensus about those work products at the same time. It includes built-in techniques for meeting the standard challenges in collaborative solutions development. This transforms the role of the meeting facilitator into what we call the procedures "operator".

Because the procedures are robust, intuitive and reliable, the steps of the procedures can be taken very quickly. This allows groups to work "flat out" on the goals of the meeting, without getting delayed by questions about what to do next. The procedures provide
"next steps" for literally for every minute of the session.

Finally, the procedures focus continuously on the knowledge, ideas and interests of the participants, while driving relentlessly toward actions that are personally and professionally important to the participants. The combination of these and other factors ensures that the participants pay rapt attention to the progress of the meeting, and vigorously contribute.

The result is the rapid creation of high-quality:
>  Understanding, agreement and commitment to action, and
>  Detailed process models, evaluations and action plans.

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What are ActionMap Toolkit sessions like?

A Collaborative Solutions Development "Utility" Aimed at Getting to Action

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ActionMap Toolkit sessions operate within the framework of standard business meetings. The "doing" in a Toolkit session is using the Toolkit procedures to develop and improve the business, technology and/or organizational area you are interested in.   After meeting startup activities and a brief introduction, the Toolkit procedures take over.  The procedures rapidly capture information from participants and record the information for review on flip charts or other media, providing a "collaborative solutions development utility" that is aimed relentlessly at getting to action.
	The Toolkit procedures follow a flexible, well-defined work plan that includes process modeling, evaluation and action planning.  The procedures are guided by the session objectives, the clock, participant feedback, and the findings from the session itself.
	Literally every minute of session work time is spent aggressively operating the procedures.
	The procedures focus on the details of the participants' work, knowledge, issues and interests; everyone pays rapt attention.
	Toolkit procedures focus on the process, not the people, while at the same time allowing each participant to fully express their knowledge, concerns, interests and priorities.  Because of this, sessions can delve into sensitive areas while treating each participant with full respect and channelling potential conflicts into constructive knowledge sharing.
	The focus of the procedures is on relentlessly getting to action, by systematically creating understanding, alignment and commitment to action, supported by detailed, analytic work products.
	Sessions often include the use of breakout groups, where team members use the Toolkit procedures on their own after a few minutes introductory training.

One-day sessions are aimed at producing detailed action plans with names and dates assigned, backed by engineering-grade process models and complete reviews of stakeholders' ideas, interests and priorities.

Attendees often describe the meetings as both exhausting and exhilarating.

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How can I get more information about the ActionMap Toolkit?

The values and effects that are created by participating in a Toolkit session need to be experienced to be fully understood. That's why we offer demonstration sessions* in which we apply the procedures to a situation of current interest.  These demonstration sessions have immediate impact in terms of 1) providing actual business value, 2) showing the details of the procedures, and 3) conveying the strong group learning and process development experience created by the operation of the Toolkit.

The proven ActionMap Toolkit procedures produce strong results in "live" sessions using flip charts, where there is the high group communication bandwidth. Seeing other people express their knowledge, ideas and interests "in person" is in some cases the best way to evaluate alternatives, sort priorities and develop commitment to action.  

Our new "ActionBuilder(tm) software (currently in early beta release) delivers the operation of the Toolkit procedures in an online interactive environment. The software can be used by groups in a single location to conduct sessions even more quickly, or by geographically distributed groups to reduce scheduling and travel requirements.

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What are demonstration sessions?

	A demonstration session is an on-line "mini-session" that is focused on a business, technical and/or organizational area that is of interest to you now, using our ActionMaptm ActionBuildertm software.
		Demonstration sessions are currently offered to qualified prospective customers, partners and investors.
		Demonstration sessions can take as little as 15 minutes to review the software functionality, plus additional time for discussion, with an evaluation group of from one to several people.
		In an electronic meeting, you see the procedures in operation, and also how your colleagues respond to them.
		Demonstration sessions regularly produce valuable insights about the problem at hand.  They also quickly qualify whether ActionMap services will be of value to you.
		Demonstration sessions also show how the ActionMap Toolkit can be used to support ad-hoc discussions, on the spot, with no planning or preparation.
		For qualified organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, we can also provide an in-person demonstration session using the "flip-chart" version of the ActionMap Toolkit procedures.
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How does the ActionMap Toolkit produce value?

The ActionMap Toolkit is a fully integrated combination of highly directive procedures for process engineering, brainstorming, action planning and decision making.

The Toolkit has been fine tuned through many iterations to produce the key elements
of getting to better action faster, namely, understanding, agreement and
commitment to action, backed by detailed, validated process models, evaluations and action plans.

The ActionMap Toolkit focuses, amplifies and directs people's natural problem solving and process thinking abilities.
	The Toolkit procedures are the framework.
	People's natural problem solving and process thinking abilities are the engine.
	Together, they do the work of driving toward the targeted development results.

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Where can the ActionMap Toolkit be applied?

The Toolkit is based on formal process engineering techniques that have been simplified for use in fast-paced group sessions.  Because of this, the Toolkit can be applied to essentially any business, technology or organizational situation in which process is a key factor.

This includes both the standard view of process as business and technical workflow, and a broader view of process as plans, one time projects, and organizational communications.

The Toolkit is robust and flexible, and can be combined with and used in support of other process-oriented procedures, including systems engineering, project management, BPM, BPR, six sigma, organizational change, team building and audit.

Please see our pages on Focused Messages and Service Areas for more information on where the ActionMap Toolkit can provide value.

Who can participate in the sessions?

Sessions can include managers, employees, partners, customers, and third party
subject matter experts.  We work with you to ensure that the session attendees represent the best available mix of knowledge and decision making, with sensitivity to different parties' relationships and to the information and decisions being reviewed.

"In person" sessions work best with a maximum group size of 12 to 16 active participants, with room for additional observers.  Larger groups can be accommodated through the use of multiple sessions and electronic media.  (Please see our page on large scale change initiatives for our approach to working with large groups.)

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How does a mechanical process development approach
support better teamwork?

The best way to develop teamwork is to work together as a team.  ActionMap Toolkit sessions are energetic team work environments, in which knowledge, abilities, ideas and interests are freely and extensively shared.

These sessions focus specifically on building understanding, alignment and commitment
to action, as well as detailed analytic work products.  These are the key ingredients in building strong teamwork.

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Why does ActionMap take a standardized approach
to client engagements?

We use our engagement approach because the ActionMap Toolkit procedures have been proven to work in a highly reliable and effective way in hundreds of sessions and engagements.
	While the content of each situation is different, the basic mechanisms of process development are the same in every case.
	That's because process development ultimately depends on people's natural problem solving and process thinking abilities.
	The ActionMap Toolkit has been fine-tuned over many iterations to support those abilities in group sessions.