How we work
A conversation, a diagnostic that finds the gaps, and then your choice of what happens next.
What your team says, and what I see in the room.
Seven dimensions, scored twice — once by the leadership team in structured interviews, once from observation. Where the two reads agree you have a fact. Where they diverge you have the work.
How an engagement runs
The same five steps every time, whichever engagement you pick. Scope and fee are fixed at step two — nothing after that is billed by the hour.
- Introduction callThirty minutes on what is actually going wrong — and whether a diagnostic is the right instrument for it. No obligation.
- Engagement fixedWhich engagement, what it covers, what it costs. Agreed in writing before any work starts.
- DiscoveryConfidential interviews across the leadership team, scored against the seven dimensions.
- AnalysisThe stated scores reconciled against what was observed, and the gaps ranked by what they cost you.
- FindingsA PDF you can circulate, walked through in a working session — in my branding or rebadged in yours.
Then it's your call
- Observed in the room
- The team's own assessment
- The gap between them
Scored 0 at the centre to 10 at the rim, with a ring every 2.
| # | Dimension | Cluster | Stated | Observed | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trust & Candor | Culture | 8 | 4 | −4 |
| 2 | Decision Velocity | Execution | 6 | 3 | −3 |
| 3 | Strategic Alignment | Direction | 7 | 7 | ±0 |
| 4 | Unspoken Dynamics | Culture | 5 | 2 | −3 |
| 5 | Accountability Grip | Execution | 7 | 5 | −2 |
| 6 | Leadership Resonance | Direction | 8 | 6 | −2 |
| 7 | Adaptive Capacity | Direction | 6 | 5 | −1 |
Three engagements. Fixed scope, fixed fee, agreed before we start.
They ascend in depth and commitment. Each one stands on its own — you can stop after any of them, and people do — but the first credits toward the second, and the third only makes sense once there's a plan worth holding.
The Assessment and the Audit find the gaps. Support is the optional step where we build the fixes together.
The structured assessment a consultancy bills at thousands a day.
What a chief of staff would surface in six months. Without the headcount.
An embedded advisor while you execute. Ending when the plan does.
Your leadership team scored against seven dimensions of performance. Where you sit today, which gaps are real, and which of them actually constrain a team at your size and stage.
What you receive
- Seven dimensions, scoredA score against each dimension with the evidence behind it — a read you can check and argue with, not an opinion delivered from outside.
- The gaps that matterThe two or three genuinely constraining you, separated from the ones that are merely untidy. Knowing which is which is most of the value.
- A readout you can circulateA written version you can take to your own leadership and your peers without translating it first.
How the week runs
A structured questionnaire to each member of the leadership team, plus one conversation with you to frame what good would actually look like here.
Each dimension scored against defined criteria — the same criteria every time, so the result is comparable rather than impressionistic.
A 45-minute session walking the scores, the gaps, and the two or three that matter. The written version is yours to keep.
If you go on to an Audit, this fee comes off it.
Confidential interviews across the team, a review of how work actually moves, and the team's own read of itself. Not how the org chart says it works — how it works.
What you receive
- A ranked constraint mapThe three to five things actually costing you time, named specifically, with what each one costs in cycle time.
- The seams, not just the partsWhere factors collide: the handoff that fails because ownership and intake disagree; the decision that reverses because authority and trust don't match.
- A sequenced 90-day planWhat to fix first, second, third. Each with an owner, a definition of done, and an honest estimate of effort against return.
- A one-page readoutSomething you can take to your own leadership and your peers without translating it first.
How the three to four weeks run
Confidential interviews across the team, a review of how work actually moves between groups, and the team's own read of itself. Roughly an hour of your time, a few hours across your team.
The three to five things actually costing you time, named specifically, sequenced, and given owners — with an honest estimate of effort against return for each.
Delivered in a working session, not a deck drop — a plan nobody argued with in the room is a plan nobody owns. What you leave with is yours to run, with me or without me.
The plan is the easy part. I stay on while it takes hold — working the interventions with your team rather than handing over a deck and leaving.
What we work on
- Decision-rights mappingWho can actually say yes, at what threshold, without a second meeting.
- Priority arbitrationA single ranked order, and a way to settle ties that isn't volume.
- Handoff contractsAn agreed definition of ready and done at every seam between teams.
- Cadence redesignMeetings rebuilt around the decisions due, not the status available.
- Escalation thresholdsRules that surface a problem while it is still cheap to fix.
- Key-person de-riskingGetting the same three people off every critical path.
How the retainer works
A standing slot with you, plus working sessions with whoever owns the change in flight. Between those, available on the things that cannot wait a fortnight.
Whatever the 90-day plan put first. If the plan changes because reality did, the work changes with it.
Month to month, ending when the plan does. No notice period and no minimum term — the point is to leave.
Not a dependency — a resource you draw on while the changes hold.
Start with a conversation
30 minutes, no obligation on either side. If there's something I can help with we'll find it, and if there isn't, I'll say so.
Book a 30-minute call