One of the key purposes of a Feng Shui audit is to identify the problems that are affecting the organization or business. There are many ways in which a Feng Shui consultant can do this, and the techniques often depend on the scale of the audit. The bigger the space, the more sophisticated the techniques obviously. There is however some simple methods that can be used to obtain a very basic idea of what might be affecting one's organization or business, and I'm going to show you that technique in this week's article. I call this method of self-evaluation the Eight Squares of Business.
This method works best for start-ups or SMEs. I would not recommend this method for large business or organizations although the idea of Feng Shui as a tool to diagnose and determine challenges and obstacles within an organization remains relevant. If you have a very basic understanding of Feng Shui, and it is one that is centred around Favourable and Unfavourable Directions, I believe that the Eight Squares of Business method will offer you a different perspective on what it means to Feng Shui of your business.
GRID IT UP
In a Feng Shui consultation, whenever we evaluate a property, one of the first things we do is to super-impose a nine square grid on a floor plan of the property in question. This grid allows the Feng Shui consultant to determine which areas of the space correspond with the North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest and Southeast directions on the Luo Pan. The centre of the grid is simply known as 'The Centre'.
Each sector can relate to a person, a particular skill or ability, or a particular trait within an organization or department. By looking at which sector is negatively affected, or imbalanced, the problems of the organization can be ascertained. Here's a quick over-view of the individuals, items, traits or abilities each sector relates to within a corporation or department.
NORTH - this sector is governed by the trigram Kan, and the element of Water. The North's primary connection is to marketing departments, business intelligence units and the people who run or work within these units. It also relates to the ability to make wise and smart decisions, exporting power of a business and capacity to reach new markets, product and market reach.
SOUTH - this sector is governed by the trigram Li and the element of Fire. It has to do with the company or organization or department's reputation and status, or the brand value or goodwill that the organization or company has.
EAST - this sector is governed by the trigram Zhen and the element of Wood. This sector relates to action and execution, operations and implementation. It relates to the do-ers in the organization, the business development team, or the staff who delivers the produces or services that have been sold by the sales team. It specifically also relates to the position of COO in the company.
WEST - this sector also relates to the element of Metal but is governed by the trigram Dui. It relates to communications, direction, purposes, mission or goals of an organization, and the individuals who are connected to these aspects of the business. Public relations and communications for example, are governed by the West sector.
SOUTHWEST - this sector is governed by the trigram Kun and the element of Earth. This sector co-relates with a company or organization's assets such as physical goods, properties, accumulated earnings and the ability to achieve growth through compounding of earnings or by achieving increased profits from the same pool of customers or a limited pool of customers. It also relates to individuals entrusted with safekeeping the company's documents, finances or trade secrets.
NORTHEAST - this sector is governed by the trigram Gen and the element of Earth. This sector relates to the brains behind the scenes, strategists, thinkers and big-picture people, and divisions of an organization. It relates to the ability of an organization to engage in strategic action, and relates to the level of administrative competence in the organization.
NORTHWEST - this sector is governed by the element of Metal and the trigram Qian. Qian relates to leadership, CEO's, senior management, decision-making, decisiveness, authority and power in an organization.
SOUTHEAST - this sector is governed by the trigram Xun and the element of Wood. This sector closely relates to the areas of knowledge management, research and development, documentation and data. It also co-relates to intellectual property of an organization, and the company's market knowledge, research and industry information.
By looking at each sector and determining if it is a positive sector or a negative sector, you can get a quick snapshot of which aspect of your business process or department of your organization is most challenged or having the toughest time.
In next month's article, I'll show you how to determine if a particular sector is positive sector or a negative sector, and how it specifically affects that aspect or feature of your business or organization.
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