TROPOS Success Systems employs several critical concepts in our approach to make you successful. The core includes - 

	Alignment of plans, people, processes
	Personal development
	Your ownership of the results

Alignment

It's a simple, yet very powerful concept - align plans, people, and processes.  Get everybody and everything working in the same direction - the direction you want them to work.  

Too many organizations fail to realize this, yet alone implement it.  They leave things to chance.  "We don't need to plan."  "Our people know what to do, we don't need to tell them."  And maybe they're profitable.  But think how profitable they could be if they aligned everybody and everything. 

The process is simple.  Just follow these three simple steps -   

	First, set the direction you want your business to move and determine what the business needs to do to get there.  These are your Strategic and Business Plans.  Without a plan, anyone doing what you expect is purely coincidence.
	Next, get the people moving in that direction.  And it's not enough to just say "work to this plan."  Too much is left to interpretation.  There's too great a chance of duplicated effort, missed opportunities, and/or people moving in opposite directions (see example below).  The business goals must be translated into individual goals through the organization.
	Finally, improve the tools your people use to get their work done - the business processes.

Let's look at a company that set their business goal based on "Increase sales", but didn't translate it into individual goals.  The individual departments set off to do their part without further translation.  

ö Marketing developed an ad campaign for their current products.  
ö Despite quality problems with the current products, Engineering started working on the next generation of products.  
ö Sales started selling more custom products.  
ö Manufacturing increased capacity by increasing efficiency at the expense of flexibility.  

Every department was focused on increasing sales, but all in conflicting ways.  

A few outcomes when you align plans, people, and processes - 

	The focus on a known business goal ensures the dollars you spend are returned directly to you.
	Starting with your business' goals ensures everyone and everything are working in the same positive direction.
	Our top-down delivery ensures goals are aligned through the organization.
	Processes are designed to support your people working toward your business goals.
	Reduced time wasting conflicts save you big money!
	Results producing cooperation increases your profits!

Personal Development

Development Versus Training 

Becoming aware of a bad habit doesn't change it.  Knowing how to change a bad habit doesn't create lasting change.  Lasting change doesn't happen overnight, over a weekend, or even over a week..  

Knowledge is not power!

Yes, that is a bold statement, but if that's all we needed to change out lives, we simply would read a book or attend a seminar and, voila, our lives are changed - we are now leading the ideally productive life.  That's why traditional training, such as books, audio and video tapes, seminars, lectures,  motivational events, and even  two or three day workshops fall short of creating lasting changes.  

I'm sure we all know that person who is extremely smart, but hasn't accomplished a thing.  They haven't taken that knowledge and applied it to achieving a goal.

You must work at change.  You replace bad habits with a good habits.  Our approach is an inside-out development process that makes change stick! 

Applied knowledge is power!

That's why we make a distinction between training and development.  

	Training is the dissemination of information to provide an intellectual understanding or teach a new skill.
	Development is getting people to use their skills, abilities, and training more often and more effectively.

Our materials, workshops, and processes ensure that the information is understood, retained, and applied in everyday situations.  

Changes occur within both the individual and the organization — changes that build and take hold over the course of the program . New expectations, new approaches to people, situations, and events; and new skills are strategically introduced to enhance overall effectiveness and prevent information overload. We work with you over a period of time to maximize effectiveness.

Development is a process, not an event. 

Individual Change

For the participants of our Personal Development Processes - 

Warning!!! This is not a seminar vacation! Participants will not sit back and listen, daydream, or doodle.  Participants will work; in fact, they will work hard!

What to expect -

	One 2 - 3 hour session per week, so your work isn't disrupted and it doesn't pile up; you have time to learn and apply your learning.
	Usually 8 - 10 content sessions where new information is learned and practiced and progress is tracked.
	Reading and listening homework to learn new information - six times per week.
	Repetition! Repetition! Repetition! You will remember what you learn.
	Practice! Practice! Practice! You will do activity homework to turn your new learning into the new good habits that replace your old, bad habits.
	Practical application of what you learn to everyday workplace situations.
	Facilitated workshop discussions and practice to reinforce your new learning.
	Participation as discussion leader and in break-out groups drives the concepts home.
	Built-in motivation - the combination personal and business approach creates individual motivation to succeed.
	Frequent assessments of your progress.
	Up to two review sessions that focus on goal achievement.
	Follow-up sessions at 3, 6, and 12 months to ensure you're still on track.
	Peer pressure to keep you going.

You will examine your attitudes, discard limiting beliefs and habits that aren't working anymore, develop new attitudes and habits to further your success, learn how to incorporate and integrate them into your personal and professional life, acquire new behaviors, set goals, and develop customized action plans to achieve your goals.

If this doesn't sound like your typical training session or seminar, 
you're absolutely correct!

Some "training programs" are like a black hole. You keep pouring more and more money into them, but you never see anything emerge.  This program actually gives you a return on your investment.

Organizational Change

It's great that the individuals in your organization improve, but what about the organization?  This is what you really need, since it's the organization as a whole that must be successful.  

Your organization will achieve the success you expect because TROPOS Success Systems helps improve the individuals and adheres to certain successful change principles in our processes.  For more information, read Organizational Change.

We help your organization improve one individual at a time. 

Results Ownership

We deliver our services differently than many large consulting companies do.  

What Many Other Consulting Companies Do

Many consulting companies bring in their "big guns" who purportedly know everything about everything based on the research they've done.  This even includes knowing your business better than you know it. Sure!  The "big guns" develop your strategic and business plans and/or create your improved processes.  After weeks of high priced work, they document these results and place them in large binders.  (Is this the same document they provided their prior clients?)  They expect you to read and implement what they documented.   If you don't, it's your fault the plan or process didn't work, even if you don't agree with the results. 

What We Do

We start with the expectation that you know your business better than anyone else.  Therefore, we expect you to know what's best for your business.  So, we don't present a plan or improved business process to you that we developed in a dark closet.  What do we do?   We guide you through a discovery process.  

We guide you through a proven process - be it planning or process improvement - that results in actionable items.  That means you provide the content.  You develop the plan; you create the improved process.  Why?  This approach creates ownership and commitment within your organization.  These results have the best chance to be successfully implemented.  

What does TROPOS Success Systems do?   Beside providing the proven process and guiding you through it, we will review best practices, cajole you, challenge you, and push you to create the best plan or process possible.  In the end, we leave you with the capability to be self-sufficient.  Yes, that means you will not be as reliant on consultants.  Do you know other consulting companies that have goals to work themselves out of future business?

We guide you through a discovery process where you develop the results that you implement!

Continue the tour to Why Do This.