Module Five Description
In this fifth Module of Business Impact Accelerator©, you and your team will accelerate the transformation of your impact-driven business or social enterprise. By making these organization development processes a part of your daily operations, you’ll create an entrepreneurial culture and high-performance workplace that generates sustainable 10X impact.
You and your team will complete four Activities …
- Develop an Entrepreneurial Culture
- Increase Change Management Capability
- Improve Project Team Effectiveness
- Develop Business and Financial Acumen

… and produce ten Deliverables:
- Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™
- Culture Map
- Core Values Interview Guide
- Change Accelerator Project Dashboard
- Change Assessment Profiles
- Executive Sponsorship Assessments
- Progress Reviews
- Team Effectiveness Assessments
- Marketplace® Live Business Simulations
- Conscious Capitalism® Simulation
These Deliverables will enable you and your team to build a sustainable, high-impact enterprise that differentiates you from competitors focused only on maximizing short-term profit.
For each Deliverable, we provide step-by-step instructions and coaching tips for completion. We also feature a Certified B Corporation to benchmark and offer a list of resources to help you manage the transition of your enterprise from one stage of growth to another. If you have any questions, please contact us directly through this website.
Develop an Entrepreneurial Culture
Activity Description
In this Activity, you and your team will develop an entrepreneurial culture within your business or social enterprise. You’ll do this by completing the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™, designing a Culture Map, and creating a Core Values Interview Guide.
Establishing and developing an entrepreneurial culture is important because as you learned in Gender Wealth Strategy©, executing strategic priorities and achieving sustainable growth is very challenging. As one of the leaders of an impact-driven enterprise, it is incumbent on you to activate and unleash the entrepreneurial talents of your entire team to fuel sustainable growth.

Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™ will help you develop entrepreneurial thinking and skills across your organization. Culture Map will help you design a work environment that prizes and rewards entrepreneurial action. Core Values Interview Guide will help you hire the right people aligned with your culture, values, and vision of the future.
Together, these Deliverables will enable you to build an army of entrepreneurs and accelerate sustainable 10X impact.
Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile
Required Materials:
To complete the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™, you will need to visit the Eckerd College Leadership Development Institute website.
To Do List:
There are five actions for you and your team to complete:
- Review the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™ website and download several reports on this innovative assessment, including one titled Why Entrepreneurs Matter.
- Open an account on the Eckerd College website and take the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™.
- Download and review your personal Assessment Report as well as the 67-page Development Guide.
- Identify one Skill Dimension and one Personality Dimension to improve in the next 9–12 months.
- Compare assessment results with other team members and identify one individual to assist you as a coach over the next year.
Coaching Tips:
The environment your business or social enterprise operates within is in a constant state of flux. In order for your team to respond effectively to this flux, it’s essential to break away from habitual patterns of thinking and behavior. This is a critical requirement for entrepreneurial thinking and behavior inside organizations of all types, sizes, age, and industry. In fact, a study by Deloitte Consulting found that enterprises identified as entrepreneurial grew at a faster rate with increased capital investment, higher profit margins, and greater productivity.
We believe that establishing and developing an entrepreneurial mindset across your organization is a major driving force for generating sustainable 10X impact and accelerating business transformation. But what is “entrepreneurial mindset” and how do you measure and develop it?
These are the questions answered by the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™. This cutting-edge assessment tool is a research-based instrument that examines the skills and capabilities required for entrepreneurial success in the 21st century. The Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™ (or EMP) is an online assessment instrument originally tested and validated with two groups of corporate managers and entrepreneurs.
The 14 dimension of an entrepreneurial mindset measured by the EMP include:
Personality Dimension
Independence | The desire to work with a high degree of independence. |
Preference for Limited Structure | A preference for tasks and situations with little formal structure. |
Nonconformity | A preference for acting in unique ways; an interest in being perceived as unique. |
Risk Acceptance | A willingness to pursue an idea or a desired goal even when the probability of succeeding is low. |
Action Orientation | A tendency to show initiative, make decisions quickly, and feel impatient for results. |
Passion | A tendency to experience one’s work as exciting and enjoyable rather than tedious and draining. |
Need to Achieve | The desire to achieve at a high level. |
Skills Dimension
Future Focus | The ability to think beyond the immediate situation and plan for the future. |
Idea Generation | The ability to generate multiple and novel ideas, and to find multiple approaches for achieving goals. |
Execution | The ability to turn ideas into actionable plans; the ability to implement ideas well. |
Self-Confidence | A general belief in one’s ability to leverage skills and talents to achieve important goals. |
Optimism | The ability to maintain a generally positive attitude about various aspects of one’s life and the world. |
Persistence | The ability to bounce back quickly from disappointment, and to remain persistent in the face of setbacks. |
Interpersonal Sensitivity | A high level of sensitivity to and concern for the well-being of those with whom one works. |
Taking the EMP

To begin developing your entrepreneurial mindset, we recommend taking the EMP on an individual basis and then comparing results with other members of your team. You’ll find the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™ at a website hosted by the Leadership Development Institute at Eckerd College. Click on the Home page video from Dr. Jennifer Hall, one of the EMP developers. You can also watch this video on YouTube at The Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile (EMP) by Eckerd College.
Next, click on Resource Center in the top navigation menu. This page will provide you with a quick overview of the assessment. There are three reports you’ll find of interest:
- White Paper: Measuring the Entrepreneurial Mindset
- EMP Scales & Guide Tips
- Case Study: Sales Leadership & Future Focus
After downloading these documents, look for the section titled EMP in Action in the top navigation menu. Click on the sub-menu labeled Individuals & Corporate Leaders. Here, you’ll find a link to the study conducted by Deloitte Consulting titled Why Entrepreneurs Matter. Then, go to to the top right of the Home page where you’ll see a blue Take the EMP button. When you click this button, you’ll find a sign-up page for registering, purchasing, and completing the assessment. Individual assessments are priced at $45 and will take less than 20 minutes to complete.
Your Assessment Results
After finishing the EMP, you’ll receive a personal Assessment Report via email plus the EMP Development Guide, a 67-page document brimming with ideas for improving your entrepreneurial mindset. As you review this Report, look for the two graphs comparing your scores with the norm group of corporate managers and entrepreneurs who participated in the initial validation study. The EMP Development Guide will help you understand the “why” and “so what” behind your scores.
Look for one Personality Dimension and one Skill Dimension to develop during the next 9–12 months. Aim to keep your plan simple for this first round of personal development. A good place to start is to identify those dimensions where you are either way above or way below the two norm groups.
For example, we often see the case where an entrepreneurial leader (perhaps the founder) is way above the scores of the norm group and her/his team. You might think this is good, right? But not so fast. Sometimes, “too much of a good thing” can create chaos and havoc inside an organization through constant changes or pivots in direction that drive team members crazy.
Conversely, we’ve also seen profiles of individuals in a leadership team with very low Risk Acceptance scores. Imagine the dynamic if you combine a leader with high entrepreneurial skills with someone displaying high risk-aversion (a low Risk Acceptance score). There might not be overt conflict between these individuals, but the differences may show up in the form of over-analysis and fear of making decisions.
As you’ll learn in the next section about the Culture Map, it’s important to surface these behaviors and “have a conversation.” This is one of the benefits for using the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™. You’ll not only develop the entrepreneurial mindset of your team, but you’ll understand how each team member demonstrates this mindset in their thinking and actions.
Schedule a meeting with your team when everyone has completed the EMP. Facilitate a discussion about the assessment. Have each team member share their results by either displaying the two graphs or talking generally about their scores. Be sure each individual provides some information about their personal development plans.
The final step is to partner up and identify one individual to assist as a personal coach or mentor. The idea here is to match areas of strength with areas that a person would like to strengthen. The goal would be to meet periodically over the next 9–12 months to discuss progress, share observations, and support each other in building and developing an entrepreneurial mindset.
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- Did everyone on the team complete the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™?
- What do the results say about the entrepreneurial mindset of our team?
- What can we do to activate and unleash the entrepreneurial talents of everyone in our business or social enterprise?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 2–3 hours to review the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™ website and complete the online assessment. It will take another hour to discuss results with the team and identify an individual to serve as a personal coach or mentor.
Featured Certified B Corporation:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about instilling and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit of an organization, we recommend the following:
- Army of Entrepreneurs: Create an Engaged and Empowered Workforce for Exceptional Business Growth by Jennifer Prosek, CEO and business owner of CJP Communications.
- “Army of Entrepreneurs Create an Engaged and Empowered Workforce” (free, hour-long webinar sponsored by the Canadian Management Center and presented by Ms. Prosek).
- Strategyzer Blog (this blog provides articles about innovation, culture, and change along with articles about business model innovation and value proposition design).
- Conscious Capitalism Field Guide: Tools for Transforming Your Organization by Raj Sisodia, Timothy Henry, and Thomas Eckschmidt.
Next Step:
Culture Map
Next Step
Culture Map
Culture Map
Required Materials:
To develop a Culture Map for your enterprise, you will need to visit several websites, including those of Dave Gray and Strategyzer. Also, you will need the Change Accelerator© platform.
To Do List:
There are five actions for you and your team to complete:
- Learn about the Culture Map by visiting Dave Gray’s website and watching his “Culture and Change” webinar.
- Download the Culture Map tool from Strategyzer’s website and review several articles from the Strategyzer Blog.
- Review four short videos from the Canadian Management Center featuring Jennifer Prosek, CEO of CJP Communications and best-selling author of Army of Entrepreneurs.
- Review Best Practices: How to Use the Culture Map from the Strategyzer Blog and plan/conduct a four-hour Culture Map workshop.
- Develop an action plan and timetable for creating your version of the Commission for Life system implemented by Ms. Prosek as described in Army of Entrepreneurs.
Coaching Tips:
Entrepreneur and author Dave Gray is right on the mark with his mantra: “your company’s culture is your operating system.” We believe one of the fastest ways to accelerate sustainable 10X impact is to unleash the talents of your workforce in a culture where entrepreneurial action is incentivized, rewarded, and prized.
This section of Business Impact Accelerator© provides you with a tool (Culture Map) and a system/process (Commission for Life) to reinforce the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™ and develop a spirit (or culture) of entrepreneurship across your organization.
To get started, go to Dave Gray’s website and find the page titled Culture Mapping. Read this article to learn more about The Culture Map. Then, with fellow team members in attendance, watch the 30-minute webinar titled Culture and Change on Mr. Gray’s website (it can be found in the Keynotes section on the main navigation menu). Facilitate a discussion about the webinar’s key points. Be sure to make copies of the Culture Map for everyone to look at during the webinar. The Culture Map is available as a download from the Strategyzer website in the Tools/Resources/Other Tools section (at the very bottom).
Over the next week, ask team members to review several other posts in the Strategyzer Blog, including a podcast between Alex Osterwalder of Strategyzer and Dave Gray, creator of the Culture Map:
- The Culture Map: A Systematic & Intentional Tool for Designing Great Company Culture
- 8 Concrete Tips on How to Intentionally Design Great Corporate Culture
- Best Practices: How to Use the Culture Map
Note the definition of organization culture provided by Mr. Osterwalder: “the values, beliefs, and behaviors practiced in an organization formed over time because they are rewarded or punished (i.e., by formal and informal rules, rituals, and behaviors).” Be sure to study the workshop agenda outlined in the Best Practices post. You’ll be using it in your Culture Map workshop.
Then, on an individual basis, plan time to review four short videos from the Canadian Management Center, featuring Jennifer Prosek, CEO of CJP Communications and best-selling author of Army of Entrepreneurs:
- “Building an Army of Entrepreneurs”
- “Nudging Your People Towards Entrepreneurship”
- “Creating a Strong Army of Entrepreneurs”
- “Success Mantras”
Commission for Life

In these videos, Ms. Prosek offers several ideas we think are relevant for your growing impact-driven enterprise. We applaud the results she has achieved with an innovative lead generation system established in her business called Commission for Life. We recommend reading Army of Entrepreneurs and developing a version of Commission for Life for your business or social enterprise.
It’s a strategy that shares the revenue with employees who open the door to prospective customers. In essence, it’s a form of revenue sharing similar to the 3X-in-10™ Revenue Sharing Offer you made (or are planning to make) to women and HeForShe investors.
Be sure to catch Ms. Prosek’s comments about (1) insurance policy, (2) people dependency, (3) providing a nudge, (4) teaching the business, and (5) clear path to success. The comment about people dependency refers to a section in the book where she describes life in her business before Commission for Life. It involved Ms. Prosek not only serving as CEO but also as the main source of new customers and sales revenue. Before Commission for Life, Ms. Prosek brought in 79% of the revenue. After implementing Commission for Life, the percentage dropped to 29% while growth significantly increased. Ms. Prosek does not report on her stress level, but we imagine it dropped significantly too!
Does this situation remind you of anyone (perhaps yourself)? Here are the major benefits of Commission for Life as described in the book, Army of Entrepreneurs:
- “It enables employees to earn money over and above base compensation, offering a competitive advantage over your competitors and a retention tool for the company.
- It can be done by anyone at any level since the reward goes to the employee who identified the opportunity and booked the initial meeting. Junior folks might not be able to write the proposal or do the presentation, but they can—just like their senior colleagues—identify an opportunity and book the first meeting.
- It reinforces teaching them the business, since the commission is paid only when the client pays the bill (that’s a receivable), and there is shared celebration (and shared pain) when that business moves in and out of the company.
- It adds another set of eyes on the client. Even if the business generated is not managed by the person who identified it, the commission recipient has every incentive to police and support the success of that customer relationship.
- It spreads the task of business and idea generation across the firm, which takes the burden off the primary rainmakers.
- It also decentralizes power from the primary rainmakers, who in many firms are overrewarded for their contributions, and helps to spread financial gain.
- It helps identify “natural entrepreneurs” who love the hunt and can be cultivated and nurtured over time to become people who run practices within the firm.
- It is contagious, and success feeds upon itself. Believe me, once the intern brings in the largest account of the summer, everyone gets on board!”
Plan to finish these four videos by Ms. Prosek in the next 7–10 days. Then, meet with 1 or 2 of your trusted team members and plan/schedule a Culture Map workshop using an agenda from the Strategyzer Blog post titled Best Practices: How to Use the Culture Map. This 4-hour workshop should give you and your team adequate time to design a Culture Map specific to your business or social enterprise.
Be sure to use the Statements of Core Purpose and Values developed in Module 2 of Business Impact Accelerator along with your Vision of Sustainable 10X Impact. Also, you may find value in using one of the tools from Change Accelerator© titled Behavior Targeting.
We recommend establishing a version of Commission for Life for your organization. You can build the behaviors and outcomes generated by Commission for Life right into your Culture Map. Of course, you’ll need to do careful planning and pilot testing before you finalize a Business Process Map for the system and begin full-scale implementation. And, be sure to visit the Change Accelerator platform and Accelerating Change and Transformation (ACT™) Model for ideas on how to introduce this new process (and change) to your team and organization.
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- Did we create a Culture Map that describes the values and behaviors we want to see demonstrated in our organization?
- Do we have a plan of action for developing a Commission for Life program unique to our organization?
- Do we have a plan of action for developing the entrepreneurial spirit and culture of our enterprise?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 2–3 hours to review and study the videos and blog posts along with another 4 hours to conduct the Culture Map Workshop. You and your small team will need an additional 2–3 hours to prepare for this workshop.
Featured Certified B Corporation:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about Army of Entrepreneurs and Commission for Life, we recommend the following:
- Army of Entrepreneurs: Create an Engaged and Empowered Workforce for Exceptional Business Growth by Jennifer Prosek, CEO and business owner of CJP Communications.
- “Army of Entrepreneurs Create an Engaged and Empowered Workforce” (free, hour-long webinar sponsored by the Canadian Management Center and presented by Ms. Prosek).
Next Step
Core Values Interview Guide
Core Values Interview Guide
Required Materials:
To create a Core Values Interview Guide, you will need to visit several websites. You will also need Change Accelerator© and the Culture Map you and your team developed in the previous Deliverable. Also, you will need the Statements of Core Purpose and Values and Vision Story of Sustainable 10X Impact developed in Module 2 of Business Impact Accelerator©.
To Do List:
There are five actions for you and your team to complete:
- Visit the ZapposInsights website to learn more about the innovative work culture at this unique and high-performance organization.
- Review interview questions and assessment tools used by Zappos and other organizations to hire team members aligned with your organization’s core values.
- Download and review the Behavior Targeting tool from Change Accelerator and review your Culture Map, Statements of Core Purpose and Values, and Vision Story of Sustainable 10X Impact.
- Create a structured Core Values Interview Guide appropriate for your business or social enterprise.
- Review, test, and deploy your Core Values Interview Guide as you begin hiring team members to help your enterprise scale impact and grow sustainably over the next ten years.
Coaching Tips:
In 2009, Mark Livingston had an opportunity to hear Mr. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, speak to an audience at the Net Promoter® Conference in San Francisco. Amazon had just purchased Zappos, and Hsieh captured the audience’s attention with stories about the unique culture of his organization.
Hsieh talked about the importance of workplace culture in a book he wrote the next year titled Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. Here’s one important point he makes about the link between your enterprise’s brand and culture:
“What’s the best way to build a brand for the long term? In a word: culture. At Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff—like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers—will happen naturally on its own.
Your culture is your brand.”
Several years ago, the team at Zappos began sharing their expertise with the world through a website called ZapposInsights. When you visit ZapposInsights, click on the video from Tony Hsieh on the Home page. Then, click on the Start Here button to learn more about this innovative, progressive, and profitable enterprise.
One of the processes used by Zappos to reinforce and sustain their core values is the Core Values Interview. They use a set of structured questions based on the ten core values of their progressive organization. You can do this for your organization as well. Here is a list of eighteen interview questions to begin applying this strategy to your new hire selection process.
Your Core Values Interview Guide
To create a structured Core Values Interview Guide for your enterprise, bring the entire team together to discuss the approach used by Zappos. Make sure everyone has reviewed the ZapposInsights website as well as the article from thebalance.com. Then, facilitate a discussion about the pros and cons of using core values and culture fit interview questions in your business or social enterprise.
One of the first questions you may receive from your team is whether these core value questions are the only ones to ask during a new hire interview. The correct answer is “of course not.” However, Zappos is sending us a powerful signal that organization culture matters. So yes, ask different types of questions during the new hire job interview, but why not funnel the design of these questions through the lens of your Statements of Core Purpose and Values, Culture Map, and Vision of Sustainable 10X Impact? In essence, that’s what Zappos and other organizations committed to hiring the right people are doing.
The question we recommend you and your team answer is this: how can we create a version of the Zappos Core Values Interview process for our enterprise? You may only replicate 50% of what Zappos has achieved at the start, but they offer an excellent blueprint for how to build a culture of high engagement.
If you want to learn more about the approach Zappos uses to build a high-performance culture and organization, we recommend reading Delivering Happiness and subscribing to ZapposInsights.com. We also recommend a recent publication titled Conscious Capitalism Field Guide: Tools for Transforming Your Organization.
Alignment is a Beautiful Thing

One of the key elements Zappos incorporates into their Interview Guide is the “behaviors we are looking for.” These behaviors are defined for each of the ten core values of the Zappos organization. In practical terms, these behaviors are evidence of the Zappos core values in action. As with any behaviorally-based interview, Zappos interviewers are looking for evidence from candidates that core values have been demonstrated in past jobs and employment experiences.
Here are two examples of question sets you can apply to your organization:
Why is this important? Well, think about the times you’ve supervised an employee or worked with someone who was the proverbial “square peg in round hole.” Not very productive or fun, was it? If you’re going to accelerate the growth and impact of your enterprise, then you must have a team that is “ready, willing, and able” to set sail with you on a ten-year journey of sustainable growth, change, and transformation. You can’t afford to have less than 100% commitment, alignment, and engagement. The stakes are just too high.
So, what are the key behaviors driving your Core Values, Purpose, Vision Story, and Culture Map? And, how can you use these to create an Interview Guide to identify the right people aligned with your enterprise’s values?
To help you and your fellow team members flesh this out, go to the Change Accelerator toolkit and download the Behavior Targeting tool. You may have already used this tool previously in Business Impact Accelerator. But if you haven’t, this tool will help you identify specific actions and behaviors that support (or detract from) the core values of your enterprise.
Ask change coaches to plan and facilitate a workshop of 2–3 hours following the steps outlined in the Behavior Targeting tool. Refer back to all previous documents and Deliverables created or developed in Business Impact Accelerator to compile a list of “the behaviors we’re looking for.”
Then, identify a small team to develop a set of interview questions supporting each of the values and behaviors you’ve just identified. Be sure to involve frontline team members in this process, as they will have the most relevant insight and experience. And, make sure your questions align with the Culture Map, Statements of Core Purpose and Values, and Vision Story of Sustainable 10X Impact. Remember–alignment is a beautiful thing!
Bring the draft questions back to the entire team for review before test and validation. You’ll want to assess the impact of your Core Values Interview Guide on the engagement and performance levels of your work and project teams. One final tip: take small steps as you begin to develop this Guide. A Core Values Interview Guide is not an item on your “to do” list to be accomplished in six months and then forgotten. Building a high-engagement culture is a long-term proposition that is never finished.
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- Did we create a Core Values Interview Guide aligned with our Culture Map, Statements of Purpose and Core Values, and Vision of Sustainable 10X Impact?
- Are the behaviors supporting our Core Values described?
- Did we create an action plan for testing and improving our Core Values Interview Guide?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 2–3 hours to conduct a mini-workshop focused on the behaviors supporting your Core Values. It will take about 8–16 hours (over several sessions) for the small team to develop interview questions. It will take around 1–2 hours for the entire team to review and improve the Core Values Interview Guide.
Featured Certified B Corporation:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about building high-engagement and high-performing workplace cultures, we recommend the following:
- Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.
- Conscious Capitalism Field Guide: Tools for Transforming Your Organization by Raj Sisodia, Timothy Henry, and Thomas Eckschmidt (see Chapters 11–13).
- Uncontainable: How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrivesby Kip Tindell, Chairman, and CEO of The Container Store.
- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.
- Invisible Advantage: How Intangibles Are Driving Business Performance by Jonathan Low and Pam Cohen Kalafut.
- Exemplary Performance: Driving Business Results by Benchmarking Your Star Performers by Paul Elliott and Al Folsom.
Next Step:
Increase Change Management Capability
Next Step
Increase Change Management Capability
Increase Change Management Capability
Activity Description
In this Activity, you and your team will increase capability to manage organizational change and business transformation. You’ll do this by utilizing the Change Accelerator© Project Dashboard, creating Change Assessment Profiles, and implementing Executive Sponsorship Assessments.
Increasing change management capability is important because as you learned in Gender Wealth Strategy, 40–70% of strategic change initiatives fail to deliver expected results. As one of the leaders of an impact-driven enterprise, it is incumbent on you to effectively navigate change and manage the transition of your business from one stage of growth to another.

Change Accelerator Project Dashboard will help you monitor employee engagement, organization health, and progress of your transformation efforts. Change Assessment Profiles will help you improve change management skills. Executive Sponsorship Assessments will help you develop more effective sponsors of change across your enterprise.
Together, these Deliverables will enable you and your team to accelerate business transformation and achieve your Vision of Sustainable 10X Impact.
Change Accelerator Project Dashboard
Required Materials:
To utilize the Change Accelerator Project Dashboard, you will need access to the Change Accelerator© platform.
To Do List:
There are six actions for you and your team to complete:
- Watch three short videos about change management and the Change Accelerator platform.
- Purchase a subscription to the Change Accelerator© platform from Emergent Consultants.
- Review the structure and design of Change Accelerator, including the six-phase Accelerating Change and Transformation Model (ACT™) Model.
- Add new projects or strategic initiatives to the Project Dashboard starting with Module 1–Assess Business Impact–of Business Impact Accelerator.
- Use appropriate Activity Checklists and Phase Health Checks from the Project Dashboard to update the progress, health, and effectiveness of your enterprises’ strategic change and business transformation initiatives.
- Review Project Dashboard status after completion of each Deliverable in Business Impact Accelerator as well as during operational and quarterly strategy reviews.
Coaching Tips:
If you’re new to Business Impact Accelerator©, then this section of Module 5 will provide you with an overview of the Change Accelerator platform and its Project Dashboard feature.
Let’s start with some background about Change Accelerator©. Change Accelerator is a web-based change management methodology and toolkit developed by Emergent Consultants to help leaders facilitate change in support of priority strategic objectives and business transformation initiatives.
Change Accelerator© will help your business or social enterprise accomplish the following:
- Increase readiness for sustainable growth and impact investment (if you’re seeking to raise flexible growth capital with a 3X-in-10™ Revenue Sharing Offer).
- Effectively navigate through the six major phases of change and reduce or eliminate the resistance that often accompanies growth (review the six Organizational Change Infographics in the BIA Library).
- Assure women and HeForShe investors that your enterprise is ready for investment and ready to deliver sustainable results during a ten-year revenue-based investment period.
- Accelerate the growth and transformation of your organization into a business or social enterprise driven by sustainable 10X impact, not short-term 10X profit.
The Change Accelerator Project Dashboard is a tool for gaining insight into the health (and effectiveness) of your strategic initiatives as they progress through the six phases of the Accelerating Change and Transformation (ACT™) Model. Before purchasing a subscription to Change Accelerator, watch these three YouTube videos:
It’s About Sustainable 10X Impact
As discussed in Gender Wealth Strategy© Key Finding #8, 40–70% of organizations fail to achieve expected results from their strategic change initiatives or business transformation investments. This performance improvement opportunity (PIO) is what drove us to focus on “sustainable 10X impact” in developing Business Impact Accelerator©.
After reviewing these videos, sign your enterprise up on the Emergent Change Accelerator platform. Once a subscription is purchased, you will have a username and password to share that will allow your and your team to access the ACT™ Model, 60+ change management tools, and Project Dashboard with its Activity Checks and Phase Health Checks.

Start your review of Change Accelerator’s design by clicking on “ACT Model” in the main navigation bar. You’ll go to the Accelerating Change and Transformation Model (ACT™ for short). The model is research-based and reflects the expertise and 25+ years of change management experience of Jesse Jacoby, Founder and Managing Principal of Emergent.
Next, review over the sub-menus titled Activity Checks and Phase Health Checks. You and your team will use these checklists and assessments on a regular basis. Take a few minutes to look at the broad range of tools available to help you and your team navigate a ten-year journey of sustainable growth, organizational change, and business impact.
Project Dashboard
Then, visit the Dashboard page and see how the results of Activity Checks and Phase Health Checks are displayed. A relational database powers this Project Dashboard. The database automatically tabulates and updates results from Activity and Phase Health Checks. As a result, you and your team will always have visibility into the current progress and health of your organization as it implements key strategic and business improvement projects. Plus, everyone who accesses the Project Dashboard will be on the same page, which fosters alignment across the enterprise.
Note the integration of the six-phase ACT™ Model into these Phase Health Checks. Think of these Checks as an early warning system enabling your team to respond quickly to issues that could negatively impact employee engagement and/or organizational health.
Here’s an example of questions from the Align Systems Health Check:
- We have a set of metrics against which we can assess the effectiveness of the change effort.
- We have the right rewards (financial and non-financial) in place to motivate people to make this change, successfully and in a timely fashion.
- We have the right data/information systems and technology to implement our initiative.
- We have modified roles, authority, positions and reporting relationships to reinforce the behavior change required to make this initiative successful.
- We have identified the long-standing assumptions, policies, rules and operating procedures that are roadblocks to this change.
- We have a plan to develop new competencies and skills in our people, so they will be able to perform in the new environment.
Go ahead and add your first project to the Change Accelerator Project Dashboard. If this is the first time you’re using the Project Dashboard, create a project for Module One of Business Impact Accelerator (Assess Business Impact). If you’ve just completed Module 4 of Business Impact Accelerator, the Project Dashboard is where you will add all of the strategic projects and initiatives found on the far right side of your new One Page Strategy Map and Plan.
As discussed in Module 4, Execute and Align Strategic Priorities, you’ll be using the Project Dashboard during monthly or quarterly strategy reviews to track progress, update results, and learn about the change management capability and health of your organization.
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- Are there any questions about the six-phase ACT™ Model?
- Do we all understand the purpose of Activity Checks and Phase Health Checks?
- Are there any questions on how to use the Project Dashboard in tracking project progress or assessing organizational health or reviewing strategy?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 1–3 hours per month (across the organization) to update the Change Accelerator Project Dashboard, including time for reviewing Activity Checks and administering and evaluating the results of Phase Health Checks.
Featured Certified B Corporation:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about Emergent Consultants, change management, and strategic business transformation, we recommend the following:
Next Step
Change Assessment Profiles
Change Assessment Profiles
Required Materials:
To create Change Assessment Profiles, you will need Change Accelerator as well as your Sustainable 10X Impact Business Plan and One Page Strategy Map and Plan.
To Do List:
There are five actions for you and your team to complete:
- Download, review and individually rate all 21 questions of the Change Assessment tool found in Change Accelerator.
- Develop consensus ratings for the team and create a Change Assessment Profile using the spreadsheet provided in the tool.
- Analyze results for each of the six phases of the ACT Model using discussion questions in the Change Assessment tool.
- Identify opportunities for improving change management skills and develop a plan to address these priority areas; schedule another round of assessment in 3–4 months to track and update progress.
- Identify other teams in your business or social enterprise who could benefit from a periodic assessment of their change management capability.
Coaching Tips:
There are five change management tools we’re highlighting in Module 5 of Business Impact Accelerator. We introduced you to the Change Accelerator Project Dashboard in the previous section. Here, we focus on the Change Assessment tool and Profile.
To create a Change Assessment Profile, download the tool from the Change Accelerator platform. Be sure to print out both the instructions and spreadsheet for recording assessment scores. The tool is an individual assessment to begin with; follow the steps and rate all 21 questions of the assessment on a scale of 1–10 (1 is a rating of “strongly disagree” and 10 is a score of “strongly agree”). For each of the 21 items in the assessment, list the 1–2 reasons for that score.
Then, schedule a meeting with your entire team to compare and discuss ratings. Your colleagues will have done the same analysis. Ask change coaches to moderate the discussion and facilitate a consensus rating for each of the 21 questions. Remember the definition of consensus: “a decision we can all live with.” If there’s a score you can’t live with, then speak up and make your case.
Be sure to enter consensus scores (not average scores) into the Change Assessment spreadsheet. After entering all items, generate a Change Assessment Profile similar to the example provided in the instruction sheet.
Analyze the results for each of the six phases of the ACT Model using the four discussion questions found on the last page of the instruction sheet. These questions are:
- What are our strengths? How do we leverage them?
- What are our deficiencies? How do we eliminate or overcome them?
- What consistencies/inconsistencies exist across groups (if comparing more than one team). Why are the perceptions of our effectiveness different? Do we need to address these inconsistencies? How?
- What is the single most serious threat to our success of assuring our solution/results are accepted and implemented? Who needs to address this threat, when, and how?
Are You Taking Responsibility?

There is one more question we’d like you to add: Are we taking responsibility for leading the change management and business transformation process within our enterprise?
If you are one of the leaders of an impact-driven business or social enterprise, then it is your responsibility to ensure any low-scoring items on the Change Assessment are addressed and resolved promptly. Learning how to think and act more systematically when it comes to leading yourself and others through change is a critical skill. Because of the challenges posed by change, you and your team need to summon the courage to start addressing issues, concerns, challenges, or pain points that lie below the surface. Remember the iceberg example from Dave Gray’s webinar on Culture and Change?
Prioritize your list of improvement opportunities and develop an action plan (use the Action Plan template from Change Accelerator). Set a date to retake this Assessment in 3–4 months and continue the process throughout the ten-year journey of sustainable growth, change, and transformation. This action plan may also need to become a strategic project or initiative on your One Page Strategy Map and Plan.
We encourage you to implement one of the tips provided by the Change Assessment tool. This tip relates to posting your Profile during meetings and/or quarterly strategy reviews. You could even take it one step further and create a space within your work environment to display results on a bulletin board. By doing this, you send a strong signal to your organization that you’re serious about achieving the Vision of Sustainable 10X Impact and delivering on 3X-in-10™ Revenue Sharing Offer commitments to women and HeForShe investors.
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- Did we have an honest, authentic discussion about our change management strengths and deficiencies?
- Did we reach consensus on our Change Assessment Profile?
- Do we know how to improve our change management capability and skills during the next 3–4 months?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 3–4 hours to implement the Change Assessment process, create/update/review Change Assessment Profiles, and develop an action or improvement plan.
Featured Certified B Corporation:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about Emergent Consultants, change management, and strategic business transformation, we recommend the following:
Next Step
Executive Sponsorship Assessments
Executive Sponsorship Assessments
Required Materials:
To implement Executive Sponsorship Assessments, you will need to visit the HBR.org website. You will also need Change Accelerator© as well as your Sustainable 10X Impact Business Plan and One Page Strategy Map and Plan.
To Do List:
There are five actions for you and your team to complete:
- Watch a short video on change management and review an article from HBR.org on effective sponsorship of change.
- Download and review the Executive Sponsorship Assessment tool from Change Accelerator.
- Develop a plan to pilot test the Executive Sponsorship Assessment in your business or social enterprise with strategic owners identified on the One Page Strategy Map and Plan.
- Implement and evaluate this test; incorporate improvement suggestions into the next rounds of deployment in your organization.
- Meet with strategic owners, executive sponsors, and project leaders 1–2 times per year to review assessment results and identify opportunities for increasing change management capability.
Coaching Tips:
In this part of Module 5, we examine the role of Executive Sponsor more closely and introduce you to a tool from Change Accelerator called Executive Sponsorship Assessment.
Many enterprises realize the need for this role to navigate change and implement major strategic investments. However, some of these same organizations will not spend the time or resources to identify key behaviors required for success or provide feedback and coaching to improve performance in the role. If you’ve ever been a project lead working under the direction of an ineffective executive sponsor, then you understand the stress and frustration this situation can create. In study after study over the last twenty years, “lack of effective executive sponsorship” has been cited as the primary root cause for failure of major organizational change or business transformation initiatives.
To provide more context about this important role, take a few minutes to review this short video on change management and to read a short article from HBR.org:
Executive Sponsorship Assessment
After reviewing this information, download the Executive Sponsorship Assessment tool from Change Accelerator©. Be sure to review the ten key sponsor behaviors on the third page of the tool’s instructions. Consider the Steps and Tips sections carefully. We agree with Change Accelerator that the Executive Sponsorship Assessment needs to be carefully managed by you and your team before deployment.
However, we also know from years of experience in facilitating strategic transformation efforts that senior leaders of an enterprise need authentic feedback if they’re going to improve performance and effectiveness. Just as you learned in other Modules of Business Impact Accelerator that customers will “say one thing and do another,” it’s the same with you and your fellow team members. Hey, we’re all human beings with strengths, weakness, and foibles. Obtaining honest and authentic feedback from others in your organization is invaluable. Do you think top-performing athletes like Mia Hamm or Michael Jordan never received honest and direct feedback from their coaches?
Next, schedule a meeting with your fellow team members to discuss the Executive Sponsorship Assessment and develop a plan for pilot testing with owners identified on the One Page Strategy Map and Plan. Moderate this discussion and help develop an action plan for the test. You want to keep it simple at this stage and consider all of the issues (pro and con) for proceeding down this path. As always, keep the six-phase ACT™ Model in mind.
Lead by Example

Perhaps the first place to start with piloting the Executive Sponsorship Assessment is with you and your team. You’ve been working with Business Impact Accelerator for some time now. Have you asked the rest of your organization for feedback on “how” you’ve been leading and managing this business development and improvement effort?
However, before going down this path too far, remember the mantra “be careful what you ask for.” You and your team will need to establish a clear set of standards or ground-rules for the administration and processing of assessment feedback. Keep the list of standards short and sweet, but everyone needs to stay focused on the ten sponsor behaviors and evidence discussed in the Executive Sponsorship Assessment tool.
After implementing this initial test, meet as a team to review lessons learned and plan for the next round of deployment. Be aware it gets easier over time as people learn they can speak directly and authentically to each other in a spirit of collaboration and continuous improvement. Also, use the opportunity to call a summit 1–2 times per year to talk about your overall level of effectiveness in sponsoring and managing change. This is a session where you should ask all of your strategic owners, executive sponsors, project leads, and process owners to talk about what’s going well and what needs to be improved.
One final tip. Keep your Vision of Sustainable 10X Impact in plain sight as you implement the Executive Sponsorship Assessment. This Vision Story is your “True North” and any behavior not in alignment with the purpose, vision, and values of your business or social enterprise needs to be called out and discussed. No repercussion. No retaliation. No penalty. No hard feelings.
If you want to learn more about the mindset and behavior of senior leaders in building a high-performing enterprise, we recommend Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras (Collins is also the author of Good to Great). In particular, read Chapter 9 (Good Enough Never Is).
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- Did we establish a clear set of ground-rules or standards for administering the Executive Sponsorship Assessment?
- Did we pilot test this process on ourselves first?
- What did we learn about our sponsorship behavior and overall change management skill? Do we have a plan to improve?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 4–8 hours for implementation of the first pilot test, including time to provide feedback and review lessons learned.
Featured Certified B Corporation:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about Emergent Consultants, change management, and strategic business transformation, we recommend the following:
Next Step
Improve Project Team Effectiveness
Improve Project Team Effectiveness
Activity Description
In this Activity, you and your team will improve the effectiveness of project teams in your business or social enterprise. You’ll do this by conducting Progress Reviews and Team Effectiveness Assessments.

Improving project team effectiveness is important because as you learned in Gender Wealth Strategy©, 60–80% of businesses fall short of the targets identified in their strategic plans. As one of the leaders of an impact-driven enterprise, it is incumbent on you to develop high-performance teams that execute strategic priorities and deliver sustainable results.
Progress Reviews will help you evaluate the progress of your strategic projects and initiatives. Team Effectiveness Assessments will help you identify and eliminate barriers in the way of top performance.
These Deliverables will enable you to build effective teams and accelerate the Sustainable 10X impact and results promised to the stakeholders of your business or social enterprise.
Progress Reviews
Required Materials:
To conduct Progress Reviews, you will need Change Accelerator©. You will also need your Sustainable 10X Impact Business Plan, One Page Strategy Map and Plan, and Business Impact Accelerator Library.
To Do List:
There are four actions for you and your team to complete:
- Watch a short video about building high performing teams.
- Download and review the Progress Review tool from Change Accelerator’s Toolkit.
- Develop a plan for deploying the Progress Review tool, starting with strategic project and process improvement teams identified on the One Page Strategy Map and Plan.
- Keep track of and review Progress Review documentation to identify opportunities for improving team effectiveness in your business or social enterprise.
Coaching Tips:
In Module 4 of Business Impact Accelerator, you learned about the cross-functional design of the Balanced Scorecard and One Page Strategy Map and Plan. You also learned about the importance of having cross-functional and high-performing teams develop metrics and implement key strategic initiatives or projects. But what is a high-performance team?
To answer this question, watch a short video on the topic of building a high-performing team:
Ms. Schwartz makes four good points in her video about: (1) self-management, (2) consensus decision-making, (3) delegating management responsibility, and (4) the myth of motivation. She also discusses these four building blocks for developing high-performance teamwork:
- They need to have access to information.
- They have to have the ability to solve problems when and where they occur.
- They have a meaningful involvement in decision-making that affects them.
- They have broad roles and responsibilities within and outside of their job descriptions.
We would add a fifth building block: a regular self-assessment of progress and performance as a team. Too many times, we’ve seen hard-charging projects leads and managers walk into a project or strategy review meeting and dominate the agenda and airtime. As a result, engagement and commitment levels of team members plummet. Then, the cycle repeats itself until someone gets fed up and quits. What is painful to observe is when team members “quit in place” and do the bare minimum to stay employed.
As a counter-measure to this occurring in your enterprise, go to the Change Accelerator toolkit and download and review the Progress Review tool. The assignment for you and your team is to develop a plan for deploying the Progress Review across your enterprise, starting with the strategic projects and process improvement teams identified on your One Page Strategy Map and Plan.
Schedule a meeting with the entire team and ask the change coaches to facilitate a discussion regarding Ms. Schwartz’s video and the Progress Review tool. Carefully review each of the four parts of the Progress Review:
- Action Review
- Learning Review
- Change Review
- Planning Review
Let the Team Do It

A total of sixteen questions need to be reviewed and answered by strategic initiative or project team members. As a group, team members need to take accountability for conducting their own self-assessments while owners, sponsors, and managers take notes, provide information, but refrain from taking over the meeting. Does this mean project owners or managers are not to interact during the session? Of course not. They just need to moderate the airtime and encourage maximum participation from the team.
Typically, Progress Reviews by strategic initiative or project teams take place 2–3 weeks before quarterly sessions conducted by the enterprise-wide Strategy Review Team. This provides time for results to be compiled by strategic owners. If you’ll recall, preparation is essential for successful strategy reviews. The most important information and lessons learned from the Progress Review can be shared in the quarterly strategy updates.
We recommend notes from each Progress Review be recorded directly on the assessment tool and copies provided to owners, sponsors, or managers for reference. It is these individuals who will be identifying opportunities for improving team effectiveness and developing more efficient teamwork within the enterprise.
One final tip about the Progress Review tool. Note in the third section there is a reference to the Change Assessment tool. This is the same Change Assessment completed in the previous Activity of this Module. By aligning the team’s effort with the ACT™ Model, you’ll be on the way to developing more effective teams that skillfully navigate change and accelerate the transformation and growth of your enterprise.
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- Are we conducting regular Progress Reviews of priority strategic initiatives, projects, and/or process improvement initiatives?
- What are we learning about our ability to execute strategic priorities while managing change effectively?
- Are teams developing the capability to manage on their own and deliver sustainable results?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 1–2 hours to conduct a Progress Review session, including 30 minutes of pre-work for each member of the strategic project or process improvement team.
Featured Certified B Corporation:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about motivating and leading people, we recommend the following:
- Leadership and Motivation (free 10-part video series from the Kauffman FoundersSchool YouTube Channel).
Next Step
Team Effectiveness Assessments
Team Effectiveness Assessments
Required Materials:
To conduct Team Effectiveness Assessments, you will need Change Accelerator©. You will also need your Sustainable 10X Impact Business Plan and One Page Strategy Map and Plan.
To Do List:
There are four actions for you and your team to complete:
- Watch four short videos about team development and organizational effectiveness.
- Download and review the Team Effectiveness Assessment tool from Change Accelerator.
- Develop a plan for deploying the Team Effectiveness Assessment tool, starting with strategic project and process improvement teams identified on the One Page Strategy Map and Plan.
- Keep track of and review assessment results to determine opportunities for continuously improving team effectiveness in your business or social enterprise.
Coaching Tips:
Over the years, Mark Livingston has worked with many teams at all levels of large and small organizations. Some were more effective than others, and then there were a couple that … well, we won’t go into details.
Every one of these teams had one or more “issues” that needed to be addressed and resolved to improve team performance and effectiveness. Even if you think a team is functioning well, sustainable growth of 5–10% or more per year for ten years can and will throw you and your colleagues a few curves. And these positive and/or negative impacts will cascade down and throughout your business or social enterprise.
If you’re going to accelerate impact and navigate change effectively, then you must improve your team’s effectiveness first and then improve the effectiveness of each strategic project or process improvement team in your organization.
To ensure you and your team are on the same page regarding team effectiveness, schedule thirty minutes of individual study time to watch four short videos on this subject. All of these videos are from the free Alanis Business Academy Channel on YouTube:
- “Episode 157: The Benefit of Teams”
- “Episode 158: Tuchman’s Stages of Team Development”
- “Episode 155: Establishing Creative Work Environments”
- “Episode 112: Introduction to SMART Goals”
We have used Tuchman’s Model for forty years and can verify these stages of team development. Your aim is to accelerate through the stages as quickly as possible, without taking shortcuts, to reach the performing stage. This a critical task for you and your colleagues if you’re going to accelerate the sustainable 10X impact promised to stakeholders, including women and HeForShe investors on your funding portal-of-choice.
A Failure to Launch
We have seen far too many project teams come together to work on One Page Strategy Map and Plan initiatives and waste time getting through the first three stages of Tuchman’s Model. It negatively impacts progress and makes it difficult to execute strategic priorities. We label this situation a “failure to launch.”

Also, be aware that when you add new individuals to a team that has progressed through the Tuchman Model, the team will “start over” through each of the four stages. This is not right or wrong, it just is. You and the strategic owners, project leads, and process improvement owners in your organization need to orient and bring new team members on board as quickly as possible to maintain team effectiveness. When this doesn’t happen, you lose time and momentum as the team works once again through the phases of forming (reforming), storming, norming, and performing.
You Must Address Team Dysfunction
Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, identified major issues that teams must deal with, including (1) absence of trust, (2) fear of conflict, (3) lack of commitment, (4) avoidance of accountability, and (5) inattention to results.
To address these and other barriers, go to the Change Accelerator toolkit and download and review the Team Effectiveness Assessment tool. Note the twelve elements in the tool separated into four categories (Goals, Roles, Processes, and Interpersonal). In a way, you can look at the Team Effectiveness Assessment as a “competency model” describing the expectations and standards for high-performance. As 50% of performance problems inside teams and organizations occur because of a lack of clear expectations and standards, then the Team Effectiveness Assessment can light the path to high performance.
The twelve expectations and standards measured by the Team Effectiveness Assessment are:
- Purpose and Outcomes: We understand and agree on our project mission and the desired outcomes.
- Project Scope/Definition: We understand and agree on what is in/out of our project scope and tasks; the project scope is “set.”
- Customer’s Needs: We know who the project stakeholders are, what they require and why this project is needed.
- Goals and Deliverables: We have identified specific, measurable and prioritized project goals and deliverables, linked to our business goals.
- Roles and Responsibilities: We have defined and agreed on our roles and responsibilities and on the skills and resources the project team needs.
- Authority and Autonomy: Our team knows and has the degree of authority we need to meet our project mission.
- Critical Success Factors: We know are focusing on the key factors needed to meet the project goals and mission.
- Plans and Activities: We are following an effective game plan that includes the right tasks, clearly defined and assigned to the right people.
- Monitoring and Measures: We have an effective monitoring process and specific metrics linked to progress and goals.
- Schedule and Milestones: We have defined our project schedule and know what the key phases and milestones are.
- Team “Operating Agreement”: We have shared expectations and agreed upon and follow guidelines to how our team works together.
- Interpersonal: We have the necessary relationships, trust, openness, participation, and behaviors for a productive team.
Putting the Assessment into Action
To put the Team Effectiveness Assessment into action, meet with your entire team to discuss the assessment tool as well as the four videos. Facilitate a discussion about the pros and cons of using the Team Effectiveness Assessment with teams identified on the One Page Strategy Map and Plan.

Then, develop an Action Plan for deploying the Team Effectiveness Assessment, using your group as the “guinea pig.” Follow the steps in the assessment tool and use the 1–10 rating scale. Be sure to average the scores for each category. Use the Net Promoter® approach by segmenting scores into three groups: (1) scores of 9–10, (2) scores of 7–8, and (3) scores of 6 and below.
Focus on the reasons for the scores, especially if a category score is six or below. Identify any opportunities for improving team effectiveness and create an action plan using the template from Change Accelerator.
Next, discuss how you will deploy the Team Effectiveness Assessment across your organization, starting with teams identified on your One Page Strategy Map and Plan. This is where strategic owners or process owners need to think through the best time and place to introduce this assessment. Be sensitive to the fact that people interpret “assessment” in many different ways, sometimes negatively.
You will also need to develop a process for keeping track of Team Effectiveness Assessment results. The aim here is to track progress of teams toward the high end of the scale (scores of 9 and 10). This will be one indicator, along with results from Progress Reviews, Change Assessment Profiles, and Phase Health Checks, that your project teams are moving through the Tuchman Model and arriving safely at the performing stage.
We’d like to share one final tip with you on the topic of team effectiveness. Now and then, there is a team that just doesn’t click for one reason or another. The team can’t seem to move through the storming and norming phases and about the only thing they generate is “drama.” So, how do you handle this difficult situation?
In our experience, you need to carefully diagnosis the reason or reasons for why the team is not in alignment. Typically, it comes down to conflict and a lack of trust between the team and its leader or between two individuals on a team (maybe the team leader and a team member). You need to work very diligently through each of the twelve categories of the Assessment to determine the root cause or causes.
And, it may be the case that you just can’t build the trust or resolve the conflict. In this situation, you will need to take action to get the team back into alignment. And that may involve making a change in team membership. Hopefully, you can transfer that individual to another role in the organization. At other times, you may have to bite the bullet and make a hard decision about employment.
But before you go to DEFCON 5, use all of the tools in Change Accelerator to preserve the relationship and rebuild trust. It’s not impossible, but you will have to be patient and resolve not to give up on others (or yourself). In the end, you’ll have a stronger relationship and more reliable team who knows how to work through adversity. And yes, you will experience adversity during a ten-year journey of sustainable growth, change, and transformation. This is one thing you can count on!
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- Do we all understand the Tuchman Team Development Model?
- What did we learn about our team’s level of effectiveness?
- Did we create a plan for conducting the Team Effectiveness Assessment with groups identified on the One Page Strategy Map and Plan?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 2–3 hours for you and your team to review the four videos and conduct a Team Effectiveness Assessment. It will take your strategic project and process improvement teams 1–2 hours per quarter to conduct Team Effectiveness Assessments.
Featured Certified B Corporation:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about team development and effectiveness, we recommend the following:
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.
- Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen.
- Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen.
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink.
- Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, & Working Smarter All Day Longby David Rock.
To learn more about business and management in general, we recommend the following:
Next Step
Develop Business and Financial Acumen
Develop Business and Financial Acumen
Activity Description
In this Activity, you and your team will develop the business and financial acumen of your team and organization. You’ll do this by participating in Marketplace® Live Business Simulations, including the Conscious Capitalism® Simulation.
Developing business and financial acumen is important because as you learned in Gender Wealth Strategy©, delivering sustained growth and positive impact is challenging. As one of the leaders of an impact-driven enterprise, it is incumbent on you to develop a team and organization that is financially literate and business savvy.

Marketplace® Live Business Simulations will develop the knowledge and skills your team needs to grow a successful business or social enterprise. Conscious Capitalism® Simulation will introduce you to the four principles of Conscious Capitalism® and reinforce the entrepreneurial, impact-driven culture you’re aiming to develop.
Together, these Deliverables will enable you and your team to build a sustainable, high-impact enterprise that creates enduring social and economic value.
Marketplace® Live Business Simulations
Required Materials:
To participate in Marketplace® Live Business Simulations, you will need to visit the website of Marketplace® Live.
To Do List:
There are four actions for you and your team to complete:
- Watch a short video about Marketplace® Live Business Simulations.
- Visit the Marketplace® Live website to become familiar with their suite of online business simulations and micro-simulations.
- Watch a short demo about the Introduction to Business and Strategy simulation.
- Follow-up with participants between “decision rounds” to reinforce and link learning with the strategy and operations of your business or social enterprise.
Coaching Tips:
In this Activity of Module 5, you will participate in one or more learning simulations from Marketplace® Live. These online business simulations provide an opportunity to gain first-hand experience in starting and growing a business in a safe, simulated environment. Dr. Ernest Cadotte and the team at Innovative Learning Solutions (ILS) in Knoxville, Tennessee created these experiential-based simulations. Dr. Cadotte is an entrepreneur and business professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and established ILS in the 1980’s to help students and later, business professionals, hone their business and financial acumen in a learn-by-doing environment.
So, why are we recommending Marketplace® Live Business Simulations? The answer is straightforward. If your enterprise is going to generate more positive impact in the world and grow sustainably over a ten-year period, then everyone in your organization will need to have an understanding of basic business and financial concepts. This is consistent with the advice of Jennifer Prosek (author of Army of Entrepreneurs) who advised us in the Culture Map Activity to “teach the business.”
Yet, this doesn’t take place in most organizations, large or small. Typically, only a few members of the management team have a formal business education or have held line and staff roles. This is not optimal, as the One Page Strategy Map and Plan requires leadership and management teams to think cross-functionally and be familiar with core principles that drive success in the business world.
For example, Mark Livingston has facilitated numerous strategy review sessions where one or more team members “checked out” because they didn’t have the financial literacy or business acumen to follow along and actively participate. As a result, these managers could not go back to their teams and accurately explain the logic or rationale for decisions and plans.
To learn more about the innovative simulations from Marketplace® Live, watch a short video about their learning solutions. Then, visit the Marketplace® Live website to learn why simulations increase knowledge acquisition and retention by a factor of four times (4X). Here are the links:
While visiting the Marketplace® Live website, look for and watch the Introduction to Business and Strategy Demo. This demo will give you an overview of the simulation, including the computer-based evaluation you’ll receive at the end. Note how this learning experience uses the Balanced Scorecard to report results during the problem-solving and decision-making rounds.

Self-Paced Learning Option
Marketplace® Live offers eight self-paced business simulations with 4–6 decision rounds of varying length (30–120 minutes). There are 20 different simulations in all; some are self-paced where you compete against the computer and others are team-based where you compete against colleagues. Here are the eight self-paced business simulations we recommend exploring and using across your organization:
- Introduction to Business and Strategy
- Introduction to Accounting and Finance
- Introduction to Marketing
- Strategic Marketing
- Business Primer
- Business Fundamentals
- Venture Strategy
- Strategic Management
We also recommend Conscious Capitalism® Simulation, which brings all of the simulations together in a capstone-like learning experience. We’ll talk more about this simulation in the next section of this Activity. In addition, there is a family of Marketplace® Microsimulations that cover specific topics in shorter periods of time. You even have the option of bundling these microsimulations to address specific learning needs within your organization.
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- Who would benefit from developing their financial literacy and business acumen?
- How do we provide support as participants go through the various “decision rounds”?
- How do we link the learning from these simulations to our One Page Strategy Map and Plan, Sustainable 10X Impact Business Plan, and 3X-in-10™ Revenue Sharing Offer?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 2–16 hours per person to complete one of the Marketplace® Live Business Simulations (refer to the Marketplace® Live website for more precise estimates). Completion of Marketplace® Microsimulations can be completed in less than an hour.
Featured Certified B Corporation:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about increasing financial acumen, we recommend the following:
- Visual Finance: The One Page Visual Model to Understand Financial Statements and Make Better Decisions by Georgi Tsvetanov.
- Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs: What You Really Need to Know About the Numbers by Karen Berman and Joe Knight.
Next Step
Conscious Capitalism® Simulation
Conscious Capitalism® Simulation
Required Materials:
To participate in the Conscious Capitalism® Simulation, you will need to visit the website of Conscious Capitalism®. You will also need to visit the website of Marketplace® Live to watch a short demo.
To Do List:
There are four actions for you and your team to complete:
- Watch five short videos on the core principles of Conscious Capitalism®.
- Visit the Marketplace® Live website to watch a short demo of the Conscious Capitalism® Simulation.
- Identify the individuals and teams to participate in the Conscious Capitalism© Simulation.
- Follow-up with participants between decision rounds to reinforce and link learning with the strategy and operations of your impact-driven enterprise.
Coaching Tips:
Is business only about profit and the financial return to investors or shareholders? Or does business serve a higher purpose and create social and economic value for stakeholders (including investors, customers, employees, community, and society)?
The Social Impact Foundation rejects the premise behind the first question and embraces the second. That is, we embrace the “stakeholder theory” of business and believe business and social enterprises create enduring value by generating compelling social and financial returns for all stakeholders, not just a few shareholders or investors. As explained in Gender Wealth Strategy Key Finding #1, this “X and Y” thinking is driving significant growth in impact investments which aim to produce a competitive market return while generating positive impact.
But as Gender Wealth Strategy also explained, our finance and investment system is biased toward the “10X profit” mindset. And in our experience working with profit-only enterprises over the years, this mindset is very difficult to change. That is, unless you work diligently to reinforce your Core Purpose, Values, Culture, and Vision of Sustainable 10X Impact at every level of the organization.
One way to enhance and sustain the entrepreneurial, impact-driven culture you aim to build is to give your people an opportunity to participate in the Conscious Capitalism® Simulation. The team at Innovative Learning Solutions has created this simulation in collaboration with the nonprofit Conscious Capitalism® organization. This simulation challenges participants to start and build a new venture that operates as a Conscious Business instead of profit-only or a profit-at-all-cost enterprise.
But what is Conscious Capitalism and how do you know a Conscious Business when you see you? To answer these questions, we recommend you bring the entire team together to watch five short videos on the core principles of Conscious Capitalism® and then watch the Conscious Capitalism® Simulation Demo from Marketplace® Live. Then, moderate a discussion about the principles of Conscious Capitalism®.
Here are the video links:
- “Conscious Capitalism Overview”
- “Conscious Capitalism: Higher Purpose”
- “Conscious Capitalism: Conscious Culture”
- “Conscious Capitalism: Stakeholder Orientation”
- “Conscious Capitalism: Conscious Leadership”
- Conscious Capitalism® Demo
Organize Your Simulation Teams
The Conscious Capitalism® Simulation consists of six “decision rounds” of 2–3 hours each. You’ll compete in this simulation against other teams of four members each. The Conscious Capitalism® Simulation brings together all of the business and financial decisions that need to be considered when you start, launch, and grow a profitable venture driven by impact. But, there’s one big difference. You’ll not only receive a Balanced Scorecard at the end of the simulation reporting standard business results, you’ll also receive a Conscious Scorecard that describes your impact on stakeholders.

As you progress through decision rounds, the simulation automatically adjusts and provides new information about what profit-only firms are doing to compete against you in the marketplace. Make no mistake; this simulation will get your juices flowing and test everything you’ve learned in other Marketplace® Live Simulations and throughout your career.
How do we know this? Mark Livingston participated in a three-day Conscious Capitalism® Simulation Train-the-Trainer in 2016 with twenty business and marketing professors from around the United States. To describe it as “intense” would be an understatement (yes, professors are very competitive!). Plus, it was a sobering experience, as we all faced the challenges and difficulties entrepreneurs and business owners experience every day in growing a successful enterprise driven by impact.
Scheduling Your Online Experience
You will need to identify the teams to participate in the Conscious Capitalism® Simulation. You can have up to four people on a team and have as many as six teams. You’ll need to schedule the six decision rounds in advance to allow teams to complete rounds within the allotted time, generally one week per round.
We have one final tip about this learning experience. You can use the Conscious Capitalism® simulation as a team-building exercise too. Allow the competitive juices of teams to emerge (within reason)! At the conclusion, have change coaches moderate a “debrief” session about lessons learned, challenges, and how to bring learning back into your business or social enterprise. Without linking the Conscious Capitalism® Simulation to the work you’re doing to build a sustainable, high-impact enterprise, it’ll be just another training experience with no lasting impact on the entrepreneurial mindset and spirit of your enterprise.
Review Questions:
Before moving to the Next Step, ask these questions:
- What did we learn about building a Conscious Business?
- How would we approach decisions differently if we could do it all again?
- How do we link the learning from this simulation to our One Page Strategy Map and Plan, Sustainable 10X Impact Business Plan, and 3X-in-10™ Revenue Sharing Offer?
Estimated Time:
It will take approximately 12–18 hours to complete all six decision rounds for teams of 2–5 participants.
Featured Certified B Corporations:
Recommended Resources:
To learn more about using business as a force for good, we recommend the following:
- “Episode 150: Social Responsibility Perspectives – The Shareholder and Stakeholder Approach”
- “Business is About Purpose”
- “Stakeholder Theory – R. Edward Freeman” (free series of 19 YouTube videos from one of the most engaging and respected professors in the United States).
- “TEDx Philly – Jay Coen Gilbert – On Better Business”
- Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey (Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market) and Raj Sisodia.
- Conscious Capitalism Field Guide: Tools for Transforming Your Organization by Raj Sisodia, Timothy Henry, and Thomas Eckschmidt.
- Conscious Capitalism® Website
Next Step
Module Five Review
Module Five Review
Module Five Review
Module Five of Business Impact Accelerator© focused on these Deliverables and Outcomes:
- Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile™ (develop entrepreneurial thinking and skills across your organization)
- Culture Map (design a work environment that prizes and rewards entrepreneurial action)
- Core Values Interview Guide (hire the right people aligned with your culture, values, and vision)
- Change Accelerator Project Dashboard (monitor employee engagement, organization health, and progress of your business transformation efforts).
- Change Assessment Profiles (identify opportunities for improving change management skills)
- Executive Sponsorship Assessments (develop more effective sponsors of change across your enterprise)
- Progress Reviews (evaluate the progress of your strategic projects and initiatives)
- Team Effectiveness Assessments (identify and eliminate barriers in the way of top performance)
- Marketplace® Live Business Simulations (develop the knowledge and skills your team needs to grow a successful business or social enterprise)
- Conscious Capitalism® Simulation (learn about the four principles of Conscious Capitalism® and reinforce the entrepreneurial, impact-driven culture you’re aiming to develop and build)
So, how did you and your team do? Were you able to complete all of these deliverables and generate these intended outcomes? Did you remember to update the Change Accelerator© Project Dashboard?

Now, on to Module 6, Fund Business Impact!