For a change initiative to be successful, we need to understand where you are and where you want to get to. This sounds obvious, but too many consultancies start with a solution and inflict it on your organization regardless of whether it will achieve any results.
TODO content
It needs focus and accountability. Where are the current bottlenecks? What could we start doing tomorrow that would have the maximum benefit to the organization, without disenfranchizing people or making them more anxious than they already are?
TODO: We use an Initial Assessment
. This is a short, targeted engagement that involves meeting a cross-section of people over a couple of days and then playing back my observations and recommendations. It gives me a sense of the organization and its challenges ‘from the horse’s mouth’ and provides an initial idea of where we can have the most impact.
The hardest part of any change can be knowing where to start. An Initial Assessment is an exercise we use to
where we interview a cross-section of your organization and play back our findings along with recommendations.
There are three parts to the playback:
- General observations and themes
- Immediate recommendations you can explore yourself
- Strategic recommendations where you are likely to want some external help
Based on this, you can decide where you want to start, either on your own, with us, or a combination of both. We can accelerate this arc of change by embedding trusted associates into specific teams, who act as local catalysts while establishing and maintaining a consistent approach.
Structure
The assessment comprises ten 45-minute interviews over two days, with six on the first day and four on the second day, ideally in person. Then we review our notes and play back our findings, either to yourself or to a wider audience if you prefer.
This is an informal exercise: the interviews are organic rather than formal and structured, and any playback is anonymized. While the playback itself is structured, there will not be a formal report as such.
Preparation
What we learn will depend entirely on the people we meet! It is up to you whether to go broad or deep. The participants do not need to prepare anything in advance, just come along with an open mind and ready to share some opinions. The main preparation is around scheduling people to be available across the two days.
The interviews can be 1-1 or with small groups. One thing to be aware of is power dynamics, so for instance we do not recommend having someone in the same session as their immediate manager.
Sometimes it isn’t possible to get all the people lined up so it can go into a third day, but this doesn’t happen very often.