Strategy
Understand and rethink.
Clarifying the problem, the context and the real possibilities before committing resources.
You end up with: the problem named precisely, what is feeding it, and a starting point the organisation believes in.
How We Think
Before looking for answers, we look to understand.
We do not have a methodology to sell. We have a way of looking, and it is that which decides where we begin.
Understand
Where do you start to understand a problem?
We start with what has not been said yet.
Every organisation has two versions of itself: the one that is written down and the one that happens every day. Documents describe the first. People live the second.
The distance between the two is almost always where the problem is taking shape. That is where we come in.
Question
What if the request already carries the wrong diagnosis inside it?
We question whether what is being asked for is what is really needed.
A well-framed request already contains a hypothesis about the cause. Accepting it without examination means inheriting someone else’s diagnosis.
We do not do this out of distrust. We do it because the right question saves months of work in the wrong direction.
What if the problem you are trying to solve is not the real problem?
We listen to what we are told. We observe what actually happens.
Observe
Is listening to the team enough to understand what is going on?
Listening is essential, but it is not enough. What a team describes in a meeting is what it is able to articulate; what it does on a Tuesday at eleven in the morning is what the organisation actually is.
We spend enough time with both to see where they diverge.
Five dimensions
People
Who decides, who executes, who knows what was never written down.
Processes
What was designed, and what actually happens.
Information
What exists, what circulates and what arrives in time.
Technology
What solves, and what merely adds another layer.
Management
What gets measured, what gets prioritised and what is left to happen.
Where is an organisation’s problem really located?
A problem rarely begins where it shows up.
A commercial symptom can be an information problem. An information problem can be a process problem. A process problem is, very often, a decision problem.
We look at all five dimensions at once, because they do not work apart.
Technology
Where does technology actually add value?
We do not start with technology. We start with the problem.
None of these words is an answer until there is a question.
The best technology is not the most advanced. It is the one that solves the problem. Sometimes the honest conclusion is that no technology is needed at all.
The method, applied
What does this look like in a real situation?
Something is not working, but I cannot tell exactly what.
What may sit behind it
The symptom almost never coincides with the cause. Margin slipping, teams wearing down, decisions taking longer: these are usually the effects of a silent build-up of complexity nobody decided to create.
What we help you do
We look across people, processes, information, technology and management, separate symptom from cause and give back a clear reading of what is actually happening, even when it is uncomfortable.
The outcome we look for
A problem named precisely, a short list of what is feeding it and a starting point the organisation believes in.
All the way
What happens once the strategy is decided?
We do not stop at strategy. Understanding is the beginning. After that it has to be structured, transformed and made to happen, and that is where most ideas are lost.
Transformation
Simplify and unblock.
Reorganising what has become complex and removing what blocks the decision.
You end up with: a path in stages and the reasoning behind it. What comes first because it unblocks the rest, and what should not be done at all.
Execution
Build and implement.
Staying until the change exists in the operation, not only in the presentation.
You end up with: the change working day to day, and a team able to keep it after we leave.
Bring us a problem you cannot yet name.