The IAM collection of services and online learning is an offering of Karen Tax & Associates (KT&A). We use IAM approaches and ideas everyday in our own journeys – we are personally transforming all the time.

We use “The Maps” – the IAM frameworks and models – to guide our work together with each other and our clients. The full IAM business plan is a result of many detailed cycles through the these maps. We continue to use IAM as a guide for ourselves … the highlights are here:

Essential Best

Our Essential Best is comprised of our Values, Strengths and Passions. You can also look at this as our Core Ideology or Core Purpose: what guides and inspires us.

Values

• Freedom - We value the freedom to choose exactly what we want at any given moment – for ourselves and others. Freedom is what allows us to be at our best ongoing.
• Joy - We value the fun, humor and ecstasy that are a natural and normal part of everyday life. The joy we experience is the most important indicator of our success.We value joy for everyone; the more joy we give, the more joy we’ll all receive.
• Excellence - We are committed to stretching into our Essential Best everyday. We love the innovation and creativity this stretching inspires! We love the quality and excellence that results – even as we “live life in beta” knowing we never arrive at perfect excellence.
• Reciprocity - We insist on working with people (clients and colleagues) who are likewise committed to meeting us with their Essential Best. We insist on 100% personal responsibility in working with others – where all involved participate in giving and receiving as fully as they possibly can.
• Compassion - We experience passion with others during those times when we are not at our best, knowing every experience is a challenge or opportunity to discover more about our Essential Best.
• Curiosity - We focus on abundance as a natural state of being and we value radical curiosity as a way to explore the infinite possibilities that are available to us in fulfilling our purpose and achieving our vision.
• Integrity - We work on aligning our values, words and actions ongoing. We understand that the work of transformation takes us to the edges of our integrity; we expect a lack of integrity as we explore new territories and find our way home to our Essential Best, ongoing.
• Simplicity - We value the simple ways we can make sense of the uncertainty and complexities of our times. Our guiding light in keeping things simple is knowing that “what is essential is invisible to the eye” (from The Little Prince).

Strengths

• Transformative conversation – We create value via coaching conversations,  discussing current realities in the context of people’s hopes and dreams – using the tension between what’s real and what’s imagined to unleash the fuel of creative energy needed to transform “what is” into “what could be.”
• Strategic and systemic thinking – We create value by connecting the most practical business/organizational needs with people’s personal best with the natural rhythms of the planet and life – to find fun, easy and sustainable ways forward.
• Challenging and maximizing others – We have a knack for seeing and naming the Drama that is keeping individuals and organizations from being at their best – relentlessly focusing on what is good, true and whole in everyone.
• Learning and input – We are voracious consumers of information from our clients, each other, and the world around us. We aggregate our learning using simple structures and concepts that allow us to easily handle the complexities of the Abundance Economy.
• Design and collaborative connections - We are skilled at designing simple structures and constructs that dissolve the boundaries between us. Free from limitations that divide us, whether these are solid forms or patterns of belief, we can then connect to and collaborate from our Essential Best, toward a common purpose and vision. In other words, we eliminate what drags us down!

Motivations and Passions

We are passionate about:

• learning, and growing with others,
• creating  new ways of learning and working,
• collaborating with people who appreciate and delight in us,
• having fun,
• having open and honest conversations,
• getting excellent and quality results,
• doing and being our very best … everyday.

Leadership Approach

We show up as leaders and we expect others to meet us as leaders. See more about our Leadership Approach in “How We Collaborate.”

• We share leadership in the creation and delivery of IAM with everyone involved.
• We each participate where we demonstrate competence and in ways which stretch our Essential Best.
• Karen Tax is the point person, owner, prime risk taker and visionary of IAM.

Vision

Transforming work and life so we can all be at our best.