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RESULTS
Personal & Business Benefits of
The Inner Quality Management® Programme
IT Company - Case Study 11
by Alan Watkins, M.D. and Chris Sawicki
of Hunter Kane Management
I would like to thank Dr. Alan Watkins and Chris Sawicki of Hunter Kane Resource Management for allowing me to share one of the case studies of their IQM program. They work mainly with executives in the European Economic Community.
Background
The IT industry is characterised by phenomenal and increasingly rapid change. The life expectancy of many IT products gets less each year, and the price realised for such products continually falls. Companies that cannot keep pace with the changes and are not sufficiently adaptable, quick witted and creative inevitably suffer. If responsiveness and flexibility became chronically impaired, individual IT companies, no matter how large, can actually disappear altogether.
Because of the unique set of environmental pressures in the IT industry - continuous re-engineering, outsourcing, more sophisticated markets requiring more creative sales strategies, more demanding customers, more competition, and general information overload - many IT employees are suffering. Successful individuals can enjoy great rewards, but such individuals are few and the rewards often come at a price. The price is paid by many in terms of stress related problems.
For example, an estimated 270,000 people across all industries take time off work every day because of work related stress: this represents a cumulative cost in terms of sick pay, lost production and NHS charges of around £7 billion annually. In a 1991 survey of 600 workers, one third thought about quitting their jobs and 14% actually did. A recent Institute of Management survey indicated that over 80% of the 1,100 managers who responded experienced symptoms of stress such as tiredness, irritability and disturbed sleep.
Science
Recent research by cardiologists and neuroscientists has shown that powerful techniques are available that can generate rapid and significant improvements in...
- mental clarity, creativity, and decision making
- cardiovascular flexibility
- hormone balance
- immune function
Specifically, this research has demonstrated that there is a profound link between productivity, brain function, cardiovascular health and stress. Individuals can learn how to consciously change the quality of the internal signal from the heart to the brain. This enhances brain function by a process called cortical facilitation. Cortical facilitation enhances clarity, creativity and insight. As a result, these techniques can help individuals achieve their peak performance by being more flexible, adaptable and effective in stressful or challenging environments.
The Inner quality Management Programme
The Inner Quality Management® (IQM) programme is based on this scientific research and has been shown to impact a wide variety of health and business performance indicators.
Study Design
Because of this compelling scientific evidence, a major IT Company organised a series of pilot studies to evaluate the efficacy of this new technology within a corporate setting. This case study reports the combined results of more than 12 "open" one-day IQM programmes offered to all employees within the organisation during 1997 and 1998. Many individuals have reported how highly they valued the IQM programme. "I thought it was the most beneficial day at work in my 14 years at the company. Using the techniques really does make a difference," said one business leader. A main board member, who has put her entire team through reported, "It has made an amazing difference to team morale."
Over 200 individuals from all levels within the organisation and from a variety of different business units have now attended the open one-day programme in the UK and Europe. This data summarises the changes experienced by the first 158 attendees.
Psychometric Results
Prior to attending the course, all participants completed an extensive psychometric questionnaire, the Personal and Organisational Quality Assessment (POQA). The POQA addresses individual and business performance issues. It has 58 items scaled to represent 12 constructs. There are five potential responses to each question, ranging from almost never, rarely, occasionally, often or most of the time; or alternatively from strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree or strongly agree. The POQA was repeated after six weeks to determine the impact of the IQM programme. The main findings of the POQA are presented below and on the next page. Scores shown are for responses of Often/Most of the Time (OMT) or Agree/Strongly Agree (ASA).
Personal Data
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Business Data
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The Benefits of Inner Quality Management
- By the end of the one-day programme attendees will learn and be able to use four scientifically based techniques that are highly effective in preventing the negative impact of stress, both psychologically and physiologically.
- In addition to preventing stress the moment it occurs, these tools will help attendees to achieve peak performance by enhancing their creativity, productivity, and decision making.
- 25% of the adult population has high blood pressure (BP). IQM programmes conducted at Motorola in the US, plus the data cited here show that IQM can significantly reduce blood pressure in all individuals without the need for medical, dietary or exercise interventions
- After one day's training, 85% of attendees will be able to use these tools successfully and see for themselves, using computer aided cardiovascular equipment, how their own physiology improves while using the techniques.
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