The Pain Point
Long cycles of meetings that do not produce results
that are expensive, frustrating, demoralizing, exhausting and that
prevent the benefits sought by the meetings
The Solution
Better Faster Collaboration Results
From Fewer and Faster Meetings
- One of the biggest sources of delay in project benefits is the amount of time required to develop the collaboration results of strong shared understanding, agreement and commitment that are required for effective action.
- This delay can occur in all project scales, all project content areas, and all project project phases, starting with initial engagement.
- The delay typically shows up in long cycles of meetings that are trying to produce those collaboration results.
Solution: ActionMap systematically and reliably accelerates those collaboration results, reducing the number and duration of meetings, resulting in earlier and therefore greater project benefits.
Challenge: workflow modeling is critical,
however, it often changes stakeholder perceptions, resulting in changes to workflow, leading to lengthy iterations
Solution: ActionMap combines workflow modeling with stakeholder alignment, accelerating collaboration and reducing meeting time
How much clock and calendar time do you spend in meetings to achieve the required collaboration, workflow modeling and stakeholder alignment results?
Value Accelerator Package Summary
- A subscription to the ActionMap® Toolkit™ SaaS application for conducting high-impact online process workshops
- 30 day free trial, $24/month, $49/quarter, $98/year
- Free online training - learn the mechanics in under an hour
(includes training in the "manual" version of the method) - Optional training and coaching sessions
- Using the software in workshops
- Applying the workshops to business development and projects
ActionMap’s goal is to significantly increase your capability to produce value and earn revenue within a few weeks or less.
How? By adding a software-based, multi-purpose “utility service” to your practice that increases your ability to deliver what your clients want.
This “utility service” is based on the ActionMap Toolkit, a “process workshop in-a-box” SaaS application for delivering fast-paced, high-engagement, high value workshops for process improvement, problem solving, decision making and team building.
One page format covers an entire online process workshop
ActionMap is designed to produce strong shared understanding, agreement and commitment in hours and days
instead of weeks and months
ActionMap’s better faster collaboration results lead to better faster process change in a wide range of business, technology and organizational situations
Where can better faster collaboration in process change add value in your work?
The ActionMap method has been used in over 100 engagements with organizations including HP, ConAgra, Target, Chevron and The Gap, in a wide range of business, technology and organizational change situations.
A high level view of formats, procedures and results.
The workshops:
– Create a unique, powerful and highly-engaging group learning environment.
– Capture, organize and display personal tacit knowledge and interests, immediately converting that into explicit shared knowledge and interests.
– Rapidly and systematically create strong shared understanding among stakeholders of tasks, values, ideas and plans. This shared understanding is most of the value in most workshops.
– Further stages in the method systematically convert the shared understanding into strong agreement on priorities and strong commitment to take well-defined actions.
A view of the main page, a quick demo of the interface, rate of information capture and exported outputs.
(Please use full page view for the video below.)
We believe there is a large underserved market for providing process-related services to small and medium-sized businesses and departments in larger organizations.
What do consultants want? Happy clients!
ActionMap delivers values that your clients want:
– clarity
– speed
– staff engagement
– strong lasting impact
– ongoing capability.
ActionMap delivers values that enhance your practice:
– broader markets for your skills and services
– shorter sales cycles
– faster and more complete discovery
– an “on-ramp” for more complex methods
– increased adoption of recommendations by clients.
Specific factors in how ActionMap process workshops contribute to consulting revenue include:
– high intrinsic value
– wide application
– door-opener for new business
– fast client engagement
– the value of online meeting facilitation
– stronger solution buy-in => repeat business
– Process Workshop Software Subscription
– Optional Training and Coaching Sessions
– Goals, Deliverable, Curriculum and Pricing
– Value Accelerator – More Detail
– FAQs – Value Accelerator
– Testimonials
– Sample Engagements
– Benefits by Type of User
– ActionMap Help and Support Pages
– Workshop Introduction Page
– Software Subscription Signup
– FAQs – Software Subscription
Background
ActionMap is based on a method that has been used in over one hundred meetings with organizations including the ones shown here, covering a wide range of business, technology and organizational change situations.
For testimonials and example engagements see
Method Overview
The value of the ActionMap is created in
fast-paced, high-engagement online workshops, creating diagrams that look like the one below…
…while capturing people’s goals, issues, change ideas and notes and connecting them to the map parts…
…as part of compact process improvement cycle
How the Method Produces Value
ActionMap workshops deliver a unique, powerful and highly engaging shared learning experience…
…which rapidly converts personal tacit understanding and into explicit shared understanding.
People and teams rarely if ever get such complete, structured and detailed views of their workload, interdependencies, and diversity of interests. The revealing, organizing and sharing of this “hidden knowledge” is a powerfully transformative experience. It provides an outstanding basis for building relationships and the immediate application of subject matter expertise and other methods. And it can be often be accomplished in a single two hour workshop, with virtually no preparation except for scheduling the meeting.
That knowledge is carried through a set of structured procedures..
…to systematically produce strong collaboration results…
…that can be applied to a broad range of purposes.
How the Method Produces Value:
Modeling at the Transaction Level of Detail
A large part of the value of the ActionMap method comes from modeling at what is called the “transaction” level of detail. “Transactions” are movements of real “stuff” (goods, money, information, service actions) between distinct entities (people, organizations, computer systems).
Transactions are recognizable,
tangible and measurable
Transactions help in focusing meetings on what is objectively real and can be universally agreed on.
Transactions are where stakeholders experience value and have their interests fulfilled
Focusing on transactions helps in evoking feelings and tacit knowledge that can be translated into goals, issue and ideas.
Transactions are the basis for understanding complex issues
Transactions can be described in
simple action sentences, the basis of clear, detailed understanding.
Transactions are where real external change happens
Actual change in the production of value does not happen with culture, strategy or objectives. It only happens when the transactions change.
Using Transaction-Level Models in Collaborative Process Change
If the team knows the transaction set, use it to focus the conversation.
If the team does not know the FULL transaction set, work to discover & share it.
Software Overview
We converted the ActionMap method to software for conducting structured, high-engagement online meetings. The software uses a single page layout to lead a group thorough a compact process change cycle, up to assigned, scheduled action items.
The 1:44 minute video below offers a preview of how the software works.
Complete ActionMap workshops are conducted using this one page layout.
(Please consider using the full screen view.)
Workshops using the software typically capture, organize and share about one map element, evaluation or note per minute. An online workshop focused on the “Pizza Parlor” example above would typically take 90 minutes to 2 hours.
In addition to the “people” results of understanding, agreement and commitment to take action, the software generates supporting work products for immediate download in PowerPoint and Excel.
A free trial of the software plus the free online training will provide with training in how to use the ActionMap method with tools such as PowerPoint and Excel, without further need for the software subscription. Free training in using the method without the software is also available at howtomapyourjob.com.
A detailed description of the software can be found at support.actionmap.org
A Large Underserved Market = A Market Opportunity
We believe there is a large underserved market for providing process-related services to small and medium-sized businesses and departments in larger organizations.
While skills with process methods can be beneficial to many small and medium-sized businesses, as currently offered most methods:
– are too complicated for those organizations’ needs
– are too costly to learn in terms of staff time and training fees
– require too much culture change for smaller organizations’ workplaces.
ActionMap directly and effectively addresses this opportunity
At the same time, ActionMap workshops
provide a direct “onramp” to more complex methods
ActionMap workshops:
– quickly capture, organize and share detailed workflow information
– quickly surface and share goals, issues, change ideas and facts with respect to the workflow
– create a team building environment by giving staff from different areas the opportunity to do real work together
– demonstrate that employees have insights and ideas to contribute
– demonstrate to managers and employees that employees can be trusted to improve workflow and working environments.
What do consultants want?
Happy clients!
What do clients want?
In addition to:
– Results and deliverables and
– the “Three A’s”: Ability, Affability and Availability,
things that your clients want include:
Clarity: Clients are in a situation where they do not fully understand what’s going on, or they would not be hiring a consultant. First and foremost they want clarity about their situation and the methods proposed to help them achieve it.
Speed: Time is money, in both consulting costs and delayed project benefits.
Engagement: Must have staff buy-in to support all the rest.
Strong lasting impact: Or else why bother with the cost and overhead of engaging a consultant?
Ongoing Capability: Not just change, but knowledge, processes, skills and tools.
ActionMap delivers these value in you client engagements.
For more detail on how ActionMap delivers these values, see this link.
ActionMap delivers value to your consulting practice.
Broader markets for your skills and services
– The more you have to offer, the greater your opportunity to make a sale.
– ActionMap workshops are a straightforward, add-on offering with a broad range of uses.
Shorter sales cycles
– The best way to generate interest is to show interest in the client. The best way to create trust is to start adding value.
– Low overhead, quick-starting, fast-paced, high-impact process review workshops deliver both.
Faster and more complete discovery
– The core work in discovery is to capture “tacit personal knowledge” and turn it into “explicit shared knowledge”.
– What would it be like if you could to that across an entire group in hours instead of days and weeks?
An “on ramp” for more complex methods
– Clients may resist complex methods with long startup and training times.
– ActionMap’s high-engagement workshops quickly produce strong analytic results that can be carried directly into more complex methods, AND at the same time provide a teamwork experience that can be leveraged for organizational change.
Increased client adoption of recommendations
– Lots of things can prevent your recommendations from being implemented.
– Consensus among key stakeholders should not be one of them.
– What would it be like if you could create detailed consensus, to the fullest extent possible, in reliable, systematic way?
How ActionMap Process Workshops Increase Consulting Revenue
ActionMap workshops have high intrinsic value and are competitively differentiated.
Rapidly creating strong shared understanding, agreement and commitment in hours instead of days and weeks, supported by high quality process maps, evaluations and action plans.
ActionMap workshops are widely applicable.
– There are many opportunities to utilize them.
– They are compatible with virtually any other methodology.
ActionMap workshops are powerful “door opener” offerings in new business development.
– They rapidly and reliably generate interest and create trust.
– They are inexpensive in terms of time and overhead to deliver free or with significant discounts
ActionMap workshops are fast to engage clients with.
– A short demonstration of the method very often engages interest.
– The low overhead, fast startup time is attractive.
– The ability to rapidly produce value makes an easy closing point.
Virtual meeting facilitations are needed and valued.
– Virtual meetings are the “new normal”.
– Facilitations are an important way to speed up project results and overcome “Zoom fatigue”.
– Online meeting facilitation rates range from $125 to $300+ per hour.
ActionMap workshops create stronger solutions and greater client team buy-in, resulting in higher adoption of recommendations.
– This contributes to more repeat business, stronger testimonials and more frequent referrals.
Consultant & Client Value Accelerator
Software, Training and Coaching Package
for increasing Client and Consultant Value
using the ActionMap Toolkit Process Workshop SaaS application
Training and Coaching Goals
■ Consultant has confidence to:
■ Apply the application to different client situations
■ Communicate the value of ActionMap workshops to clients
■ Use the application effectively in online meetings with client groups
Deliverables and Curriculum Overview
■ 1-year software subscription
■ Free online startup self-training
■ Solo by the Consultant, takes about an hour
■ Required for further training/coaching
■ Assignment prior to training/coaching Session 1; create a map of a process that has at least 8 process flows (e.g. your job, a project, an organization)
■ Online Training/Coaching Session 1
■ 75 minutes of online interactive training on using the ActionMap Toolkit software application, covering:
■ Facilitation: practice using the software in a simulated workshop facilitation run by the consultant, with the trainer acting as the client
■ Mechanics: Q&A on software operations, during the simulated workshop
■ Solo practice by the Consultant (between Sessions 1 and 2)
■ Online Training/Coaching Session 2
■ 75 minutes of online training and coaching, covering:
■ Application: how to apply the Toolkit in different situations, using your current consulting opportunities as examples
■ Client engagement: how to present the value of using the software to clients
■ Ongoing free self-training, Q&A email support and community forum at the ActionMap support site
Price
Discuss at the consultation
Currently offering significant discounts for early adopters!
What is your hourly consulting rate?
■ Payment Schedule
■ $78 for the annual subscription (with $20 discount coupon)
■ (or $24 per month, or $49 per quarter All subscriptions come with a 30-day free trial)
■ Online Session 1 – (optional) (75 minutes – what is your hourly consulting rate?)
■ Online Session 2 – (optional) (75 minutes – What is your hourly consulting rate?)
Need more?
After selling and conducting 100+ workshops, and hundreds more ad hoc uses, we have found that people most effectively understand ActionMap when they see a demo, at which point they usually get it right away (and can quickly decide whether of not it is of value to them).
To see a demonstration of ActionMap focused on a topic of interest to you now, and a conversation about how ActionMap can add value to your specific practice, please click below
Jim Johnson, Co-Founder, ActionMap Inc.
My goal is to increase your consulting revenue by providing you with a tool and skill that expands your capability to add value to your clients’ business operations.