EEA Impact Academy: Training and Certification in Stakeholder Engagement That Drives Measurable Results
Whether you are the CEO of a large organization, head of a department or any sort of
team, or the director of a not-for-profit, you can benefit from the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) to accomplish any purpose, goals, objectives, and values. The 17-year-old Enterprise Engagement Alliance (EEA) is the only organization dedicated exclusively to applying TQM principles to people—aligning purpose, goals, values, and systems to improve engagement, performance, and financial outcomes.
TQM is a proven approach to engagement that addresses why customer and employee engagement remain at near record lows: the lack of a strategic and systematic approach at most organizations that is applied daily at over 1 million factories, laboratories, medical and engineering facilities worldwide that follow ISO 9001 quality standards.
- Test your current knowledge about TQM for people with this 12-question private preview of the full academy exam with an instant score and teaching notes. No one will share your results or contact you.
- Assess the maturity of your organization or that of a client using this private assessment tool from the Maturity Institute.
- Click here for an overview of the full curriculum.
Click here to sign up for the EEA Academy or read on for more details.
Why This Matters Now
Just as TQM transformed manufacturing quality, stakeholder alignment is redefining performance today. Despite billions spent on human resources, incentive and recognition programs, engagement and loyalty remain near record lows.
The issue isn’t effort—it’s a failure to harmonize the interests of stakeholders and to better align engagement and capability. That’s why we created the EEA Impact Academy in 2009, based on a decade of research indicating a clear connection between customer and employee engagement and financial results.
The Economics
Major research continues to validate the financial benefits of strong stakeholder engagement:
- The Human Capital Factor (validated six consecutive years by J.P. Morgan analytics): the HAPI ETF has outperformed the S&P 500 by over 4% annually since launch.
- Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre: Companies with happier, more purposeful and less stressed employees significantly outperform peers across financial metrics.
- JUST Capital ETF (Goldman Sachs): Companies scoring high in customer, employee, and community engagement have earned 14% annually since 2018—matching or exceeding the S&P 500.
Topics
- History and principles of stakeholder management
- The economics
- Framework
- Operating systems
- Tactics
- Metrics
- Continuous improvement processes
Applications
TQM principles can reset or strengthen:
- Organizational or team purpose
- Goals, objectives, and values
- Sales, HR, marketing, operations, and manufacturing alignment
- Measurement systems capturing both behaviors and outcomes
- The management of any type of organization, team, not-for-profit or even family issues
- The basics of meaningful sustainability reporting
Why the Impact Academy?
Most training on engagement teaches tactics: training, communications, voice, rewards
and recognition, job design, analytics, etc. We teach alignment based on the same principles that transformed quality in manufacturing based on the principles of W. Edwards Deming, Peter Drucker and the Japanese translation of these principles known as Kaisen for continuous improvement.
The Impact Academy shows how to integrate human resources, sales, marketing, learning, communications, recognition, rewards, sales, and operations into a single operating system—based on ISO 9001 quality management standards used by over one million organizations worldwide and the newer ISO 10018 people engagement standards designed for use in service industries and professional fields.
This is the only curriculum that directly connects engagement, performance, and financial results.
Faculty
The faculty of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance: The Roadmap textbook and nine-video program includes multiple contributors in all areas of the front-lines of engagement, as well as the authors of the following books included in the program.
- Enterprise Engagement for CEOs – Bruce Bolger, Author
- Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap – Bruce Bolger, Allan Schweyer, Richard Kern
- The Power of And – Responsible Business Without Tradeoffs – Edward Freeman
- Grow the Pie – How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit – Alex Edmans
- Building Corporate Soul – Ralph Specht
- Humanizing Human Capital – Dr. Solange Charas and Stela Lupushor
- The New ROI – Going Behind the Numbers – Dave Bookbinder
- 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace – Paul White and Gary Chapman
Membership and Certification Options
All EEA members receive RRN and ESM weekly newsletters and monthly members-
only newsletters offering previews of research and and other insights not featured in weekly newsletters and/or special offers or discounts shared by the Enterprise Engagement Alliance community.
- Free EEXAdvisors program. Sign up to receive:
- Core education, learning resources, and study guide for those seeking a low-cost way to earn the Certified Engaged Solution Provider credential demonstrating a basic understanding of TQM for people.
- A weekly newsletter with news and research and special offers for discounts on events, products, and services.
- A monthly insider e-newsletter with a preview of information to come in the month ahead and special offers.
- Basic Individual Academy Membership for Enhanced Professional Engagement Certification Support— $150 per year. Accelerated certification path, with:
- Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap textbook
- Study guide enhanced with nine videos with over two dozen experts in all areas of engagement, updated annually starting in 2026
- Online certification practice test
- Advanced Individual Academy Membership for Complete Support — $425 per year. Deep learning plus coaching
- Nine-part video curriculum with over two dozen expert speakers and panelists on all aspects of implementation
- 30 minutes of live coaching
- Five books out of eight book library offered for reference (print or e-books–see below)
- Discounts products, events, services and implementation tools, including access to the PVIC impact value calculator
- Includes one year of Academy membership
- Certified Engagement Professional Test ($150 every three years for non-members)
- A timed and recorded multiple-choice test from a randomized bank of questions—30 minutes
- A 15-minute live and recorded oral exam.
- Corporate Academy Membership — $1,075 per year. For organizations and internal leadership training.
- Training and certification for up to three team members
- Additional members: $350 each
- Discounts on measurement tools
- Optional People Value Impact Calculator (PVIC): $300 per year
- Solution Provider Membership — $1,500 per year. For consultants, agencies, and providers.
- All corporate benefits
- Certification and basic marketing support in EEA media
- Opportunity to publish thought leadership
- Optional PVIC impact measurement tool
- Professional Services Training & Support — from $2,500. Advanced implementation and commercialization support.
- For HR, consulting, marketing, incentive, and loyalty firms
- Enables new client value propositions
- Includes training, certification, and ongoing support
- Optional Appreciation at Work culture enhancement program
Start Free. Advance at Your Pace.
- Build expertise. Increase professional value.
- Create measurable impact for yourself, your organization or clients.
Paid Membership (advanced level and up) Includes
- Up to five books from pioneers in stakeholder management and people analytics
- Nine-part video series with leading academics and practitioners
- Advanced Excel templates and SPC tools for impact measurement
- Access to the PVIC platform for ROI and correlation analysis
- Advisory support and help desk access
- Thought-leadership publication opportunities
Book Library (Five included with Advanced academy membership and above.)
- Enterprise Engagement for CEOs – Bruce Bolger
- Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap – Bruce Bolger, Allan Schweyer, Richard Kern
- The Power of And – Responsible Business Without Tradeoffs – Edward Freeman
- Grow the Pie – How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit – Alex Edmans
- Building Corporate Soul – Ralph Specht
- Humanizing Human Capital – Dr. Solange Charas & Stela Lupushor
- The New ROI – Going Behind the Numbers – Dave Bookbinder
- 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace – Paul White and Gary Chapman
Other Member Benefits
- 15% off Appreciation at Work culture certification
- Access to People Value Impact Tools and Training for $300 ($600 otherwise).
- Free access to the Charity Choice charitable-giving platform
- One-hour onboarding session to map your goals
- One-year company license to the People Value Impact Calculator
- Others to come
Why Programs Fail — and How TQM Fixes It
| Common Pitfall | TQM Solution |
| No shared purpose or goals | Establish and align them across all stakeholders |
| Siloed engagement tactics | Integrate HR, sales, and marketing toward shared outcomes |
| Activity metrics only | Focus on ROI and SPC-based impact data |
| No feedback or accountability | Embed continuous improvement cycles |