Conflict is a function of two positions in opposition. The Core Model suggests that when triggered people operate from the part of the brain that processes information as either/or, and black or white. Triggered states produce conflict, preventing employees from effectively listening to perspectives different from their own.

Effective collaboration encourages participants to have the willingness to explore new perspectives with a common intent to achieve resolution of the issue or find a new approach to the challenge.

Our on-site facilitation services help leaders and their teams learn a technology that enables quick conversion of conflict into the kind of conversations that inspire innovative thinking and novel action.

There is a restaurant in Seattle that is one of the oldest coffee shops in the city. They have a counter which is considered preferential seating even though the leather booths are far more comfortable. When seated at the counter you are treated to an extraordinary display. One of the short order cooks brings such a great spirit of vitality, aliveness, and humor it makes eating breakfast an adventure. He treats each person as if they are his best friend. You feel like you are sitting at the counter in your kitchen watching your favorite relative prepare the food while sitting around laughing and talking.

The man to whom I refer was not trained by an employee handbook to be that way. It is just who he is. He is fully and enjoyably engaged in what he is doing. He not only practices the E Factor, he is the E factor.

Let me contrast that experience with a very popular office supply store operating in hundreds of cities. The one in my home town has an employee stationed within about ten feet of the entrance. As you walk into the store you are shocked by someone saying (in an overly rehearsed manner), "Hello. Welcome to ____. How may I help you today?"

The words are fine. The timing is not. The spirit is rote and uncaring. The content of their training program was probably very good. However, the context in which the employee is using the information, when driven by the autoprotective consciousness, lacks meaning, purpose, and a caring spirit.

As mentioned earlier, two sources of motivation give rise to two different states of consciousness. When people are operating "authentically" they will read the energy of the person entering the store. Based upon their observation they will intend to be helpful and bring a caring spirit to the subsequent interaction.

During our on-site facilitation program, we place special emphasis on helping employees cultivate the kind of mindset that causes a beneficial shift in how both internal and external customers are treated.

The strength of your brand will be a function of the extent to which your stated core values are the consistently demonstrated values of your leadership team and employees.

The greatest source of stress for you and your management team will be found in the disparity between your stated core values and the values demonstrated through daily actions.

If one of your core values is "respect" and several members of your management team are disrespectful to other employees (which most people are when triggered) there will be a "disconnect" between stated and demonstrated values.

We have a client that has as one of their values "anything is possible." When a member of their management team is in a triggered state, "nothing is possible." In fact, any divergent thinking seems to them to be "impossible." When triggered we operate from a part of the brain that drives either/or thinking. Once recovered from their triggered state it is much easier to entertain different points of view and move toward an "outside the nine dots" kind of solution.

During our teambuilding process we help leaders and their teams learn how to "walk the talk" and live as the demonstration of the stated core values of their organization.

The more data points you have the faster you can calibrate.

High achieving organizations cultivate a feedback-rich environment. A key component of the Core Model includes the ability to calibrate behavior quickly based upon observations - not interpretations.

Leaders who easily access their Authentic State are able to share their observations with employees in such a way that inspires improvement. Other leaders collapse observations with interpretations. They often think their interpretation is the observation.

When triggered, opportunities become obstacles and make it impossible to access the part of the brain involved in objective assessment. Thus, the data we utilize is inaccurate so the subsequent decision-making process becomes flawed.

Our coaching process inspires authenticity, personal accountability, and aligned team focus generating massive growth for leaders, teams, and organizations.

Our programs have been successfully delivered to over 7,000 CEOs and such industry giants as:

• Southwest Airlines
• Verizon Wireless
• International House of Pancakes
• G 4 Media
• The Universal Picture Group
• Southern California Edison
• United Cerebral Palsy Foundation
• Vistage Member-owned companies

People have read and talked about the value of being "present in the moment" and the impact of that way of being on performance, communication, leadership, levels of stress. During the seminar you will learn practical and specific focusing skills that can be applied immediately such as: How to practice being present in the moment.

High performing individuals and teams thrive in a feedback rich environment. Learn how to utilize a specific feedback tool that fosters a faster calibration to performance than any other previously used modalities.

Compelling neuroscientific information about how triggered states undermine performance, morale, and one’s overall quality of life. During the seminar you will learn how to consistently move, at a greater speed than previously imagined, from triggered states to a more effective way of being in moments, causing a rapid decrease of stress and increase in performance under pressure.

Discover the relationship between happiness and productivity. Learn The secret to finding happiness at work regardless of your role.

• Our seminar teaches family members to:

• Reduce Stress
• Communicate More Efficiently
• Live Joyously

• Our seminar fosters:

• Aligned Focus
• Accelerated Learning
• Performance Breakthroughs
• Higher Levels of Accountability

• Our seminar teaches leaders:

• Disciplined Focus
• Accelerated Learning
• Triggered State Recovery
• The E Factor

"The Breakthrough Golf approach has given me a new philosophy for living and a methodology for leadership. I now have a profound understanding of the principle of "effortless power."
-Barry Moore President of Brandt Engineering

Transforming triggered states to inspired performances

"We may not always be in control over what occurs in life. We do have command of the mindset used, and the spirit we bring to what we choose to do about it."

Our work with Starquest began two years ago. Since that time we have seen a dramatic shift in our performance and profitability. We have accelerated our rate of converting breakdowns into breakthroughs and our atmosphere is consistently high spirited, mutually supportive and productive.
-Robyn Donahue CEO Intellisource Staffing Solutions

I have been in leadership positions for the past 30 years and attended graduate programs at Harvard and Stanford Universities. The Starquest Leadership Model will transform the possibilities for leadership.
-Robert Holmes Former CEO of Intrawest USA

During my 25 years at SCE I have attended hundreds of professional development seminars. The tools Starquest brought to our organization, especially in the areas of helping managers recover quickly from their triggered states, is unparalleled.
-Dave Mead, Vice President, Southern California Edison

The Extraordinary Performance Seminar

Rapidly changing business and economic climates demand successful leaders and their teams to be mentally agile, resilient and focused. This dynamic environment often generates heightened stress, which triggers highly reactive emotional states.  Triggered states increase stress and undermine performance, collaboration, creativity, and the company climate.

When we are triggered by emotional upset, anger, or fear, we are prevented from accessing the parts of our brain that can learn, rationalize, shift focus and produce desired results. These triggered states drive self-protective behaviors that undermine one’s ability to effectively cope with stress, find peace, resolve conflict, or manage people effectively.

In a significant part of this initial work, we will share an alchemy with you that will result in your teams consistently moving from triggered states to a more effective way of being at greater speeds than previously imagined!

  Recoverying quickly from triggered states will help individual and their teams to:

1. convert tension to inner peace.
2. move from conflict to collaboration.
3. shift from being stuck to being empowered.

Building High Performing Teams



A high performing team is a collection of individuals who are aligned to a common and compelling focus.  Members of these teams flourish in a "feedback rich environment" in which input is freely offered and welcomed, causing acceleration in the team's ability to convert breakdowns into breakthroughs.





Members of high performing teams demonstrate some key characteristics and behaviors which include:





• Disciplined and aligned focus


• Accelerated learning through the ability to quickly incorporate feedback

• Leadership behaviors aligned to the core values of the business

• An awareness of each other's strengths and weaknesses and a blending of these strengths in service to the company's mission

• An ownership mindset

• A leader who fosters learning, growth, and accountability challenging each member of the team to grow.





We have translated these characteristics, mindsets, and behaviors into a specific methodology that can be aquired through guided practice.

The Friends and Family Program

Our clients recognize the value of having a community of people you live and work with utilizing the same tools and information while interacting with one another.

The Friends and Family seminar grew from requests of several CEOs with a strong desire to share the Core Model with their family members and other business acquaintances but lacked a forum for effectively delivering the information.

This new program, a three and one-half hour seminar, is planned to coincide with our monthly visits to the various companies with whom we are working.  For instance, Intellisource, a staffing company in Denver,  has hosted programs on a quarterly basis for the past two years.   

The Friends and Family seminar provides the same technology learned during the Extraordinary Performance seminar with a special emphasis on the application of the tools learned toward:

• Resolving  Conflict
• Reducing  Stress
• Being  Authentic at home
• Improving  Relationships

"The undisciplined mind in the face of what is focuses on what is not. The disciplined mind in the face of what is focuses on what will be."

Breakthrough Golf was developed twenty-five years ago to help members of the UCLA Golf team, and several PGA players, strengthen their mental game. Over the past sixteen years we have extended this technology beyond golf courses and into businesses where individuals are taught to take command of their focus, actions, and emotions toward goal accomplishment. This program provides individuals and teams with tools to:

• Transform ineffective patterned reactions into novel action
• Rapidly shift from fear to inspiration
• Dramatically improve performance under pressure.
• Cultivate a new approach to performance coaching

The Starquest team has pioneered a model for understanding human behavior and motivation entitled The Core Model.
"what makes you tick and what ticks you off".
Key Principles include:

1. There are two sources of motivation that drive human beings rooted in different parts of the brain giving rise to two distinct states of being, perceiving, and behaving.
2. A real, imagined, or anticipated loss of any kind will trigger the autoprotective state preventing access to the part of the brain involved in creative thinking, collaboration, and well being.
3. A trigger will drive automatic pre programmed thoughts, feelings, and behaviors called coping mechanisms. These coping mechanisms, while driven for self protection, actually serve to undermine performance, collaboration, and creativity.
4. Behind the walls of our self protection lies the Unique Gift that each person brings to other people and projects.
5. A drive for active mastery, an exploration for meaning and purpose, and the desire to be the fullest expression of our unique gifts is referred to as the Authentic State.
6. Old behavior patterns are difficult to change however they can be interrupted with the right tools.
7. Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent. By practicing the “trigger recovery process” and the “disciplined focusing” tools individuals, teams, and family members can learn to live productive, meaningful, and happy lives.

The Starquest Leadership Model offers the following principles:

1. It is infinitely more effective to influence one’s focus than to attempt to manage behavior.
2. In order to consistently influence the mindset of others a leader must demonstrate a track record of being able to shift their own mindsets.
3. An effective leader generates a compelling vision, mission, or intentions (focusing statements) that mobilizes aligned action.
4. To the extent that a leader’s demonstrated behavior is consistent with their stated values is to the degree that trust is generated.
5. An empowering leader creates a feedback rich environment inspiring employees to reinvent their relationships to mistakes.
6. Effective leaders are able to effectively manage their mental and emotional states.
7. A leader’s transparency (authenticity) is a fundamental ingredient in generating an atmosphere of trust, empowerment, and dialogue.
8. Empowering leaders leverage their Unique Gifts in the service of others and are able to recognize and utilize the gifts of others to fulfill their vision.

• ©2010 Starquest
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