How we work
An agreed operating model, built with the people who will run it.
The situation
The cost becomes evident late in the program, when correction is most expensive.
The implementation of large projects or initiatives is generally planned based on a description of how the work is currently done, whether that is a process document, a contract, an organisational chart or a delivery schedule. In most operations the initial description and the current work have drifted, and the separation is usually not recorded anywhere.
Procedures are written once at the beginning, based on the expected outcome. The work then adapts to circumstances the procedure did not anticipate, authority migrates to the point of execution, and the recorded version and the operating version diverge without decisions being documented. In practice, neither version is what the work now requires, because the conditions that shaped both of them have moved on.
The cost becomes evident late in the program, when correction is most expensive. A change specified against the originally documented version is funded, built and deployed into conditions that no longer apply, and the program reports being on track against every measure, because the measures test delivery against the plan, not whether the plan is the right one.
What we do
We establish how the business operates today, with your people, so the change you are investing in is designed around the real conditions and delivers what was expected of it.
Establish the real starting conditions.
We review what is documented, observe what happens in practice, and examine the difference with the people who do the work.
Define how it needs to work.
We design the target operation with the teams that will run it, and test it against situations that have already occurred.
Set the sequence and the measures.
We define the order of implementation and what each step depends on, the choices to be made and their trade-offs, and the measures that come out of the model.
What you get
A documented current state.
What the procedures describe, what happens in practice, and the difference between them, recorded and confirmed by those who operate it.
A baseline.
The measures as they stand at the start, so later improvement can be demonstrated against a known position.
The target operation.
How the work needs to run to deliver the outcome, with the decisions, what triggers each one, who is responsible, and the working agreements that hold it together.
The model tested against real cases.
Where it applies, situations that have already occurred are run through the target model, so its behaviour is known before anything is built on it.
The decisions that are yours.
The options on structure, sequencing and scope, each with its trade-offs and its cost, so the consequences are visible before the choice is made.
The measures.
The KPIs that derive from the model, each with its data source identified, and where the data does not yet exist, what it takes to create it.
The implementation sequence.
The order of the work, the dependencies between the steps, and what each step has to prove before the next begins.
All of it in one place, so it can go directly into a tender, a build, or the plan your team runs the change on. Every assumption in it is tested and every decision is traceable to the evidence behind it, and because it was built with them, implementation begins with commitment already in place.
How it runs
We agree the scope and fee up front.
Every engagement is shaped around the specific program and the organisation running it, and generally runs between six and twelve weeks.
It is organised in stages.
Each stage closes at a checkpoint with a date, where you review what has been produced, provide comments, and approve before the next stage proceeds on that basis.
The sequence holds across different situations.
What happens inside it is determined by the program, the organisation and what has already been committed.
It requires access and protected time.
Access to the people who run the work day to day, and protected time for the sessions where the model is built, both confirmed at the outset.
When
The same work applies at three moments.
Before
Before mobilisation, while the structure, the plan and the measures are still being set, so the work begins from the conditions it will meet.
During
During delivery, when the arrangements need realigning on what the work is there to achieve and who does what, before the gap between the plan and the current state becomes more expensive to close.
After
After completion, when a retrospective with the people who delivered the work carries what was learned into the next phase or the next program, including where a contract carries a continuous improvement obligation.
To start that conversation, get in touch.
The first step is a conversation about the program, what has been committed, and where the open questions are. It takes about an hour and it produces a view on whether this is the right work to do.
The first stage can also be commissioned on its own. It sets the starting conditions and defines what the rest of the work would involve.
Get in touch