Typical
intervention

Focusing and Aligning an organisation around explicit mission and vision, through any or all of:

• Developing – and Embedding – Organisational Purpose, Values and Vision
• Strategy Process Facilitation
• Operating Model Design
• Cultural and Behavioural Change

How it creates
great performance

The 21st century is accelerating the necessity that organisations are driven by explicit purpose; Organisations failing to identify a purpose are failing to tap into the motivation of leaders, managers and staff which purpose makes available. Those failing to align all their aspects around a purpose and with each other are likely neutralising a higher proportion of their energy and underachieving.

Typical
intervention

Depth interviews and Focus Groups - addressing the heritage of both the organisation and key leaders - gradually to surface the visceral purpose and values of the organisation. Vision, Customer Proposition, Metrics and Operating Model aligned to the purpose in an engaging design process. Purpose and Vision communicated by leaders both explicitly and implicitly through their decision-making and leadership behaviour.

How it creates
great performance

Flow of a purpose-driven organisation creates super-productivity,
e.g. by:

• Aligning customer proposition and operating model to purpose removes institutional waste.
• Explicit purpose guides recruitment and prompts people to contract into and out of the organisation so it “automatically” attracts and retains those who fit.
• The motivational impact of purpose taps into organisation members’ intrinsic motivation and secures long-term discretionary investment of effort from those who have opted in.

Typical
intervention

• Clarification of Purpose and Vision of the client organisation/team.
• Design of the sequence of interventions required to define and agree strategy.
• Driving and Guidance of that process through team event facilitation and coaching and support of team members.
• Stimulation and direct development of materials to contribute to strategy content formulation.
• Challenge to the strategy content as it emerges.

How it creates
great performance

Clarity of strategy focuses scarce resources and attention. A managed process allows tough decisions about strategies NOT to be adopted – so the best strategy beats our good strategies. External facilitation and process design, for example:

• Liberates leaders to focus on making key strategy calls at key moments in the process.
• Enables greater collective ownership of strategies by a leadership team.
• Builds strategic agility in teams.

Typical
intervention

Formation of a design team of high-potential senior/mid leaders. Direction to/facilitation of the team to define the work processes, systems, organisation structure, skills, behaviours, people etc. required to deliver the defined “givens” such as: purpose, proposition, success metrics. The design team reports to (and/or co-designs with) a team of Executives/Board members who hold the “givens”. 

How it creates
great performance

An operating model designed to be consistent both internally and with the purpose, value proposition and metrics it must deliver removes institutional friction (which is often massive) and facilitates organisational flow and productivity.

Typical
intervention

Definition of the behaviours/ values/ways of working required to make an operating model work. Embedding key behaviours in the most senior organisational leaders and members by: 

• Examining the need for the behaviours and what they look like in practice.
• Gathering 360 feedback (incl. from leaders’ direct reports).
• Working the feedback with individual leaders, coaching to deepen defined behaviours.

How it creates
great performance

It is well established that ways of working are the oil necessary for the machine of an Operating Model to function smoothly - or even to function at all. As Peter Drucker put it: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.

As is well attested in merger integration contexts, for example, benefits of new strategies and operating models are frequently not realised because of a misaligned – or destructive - culture. Constructive, aligned cultures allow benefits to be fully realised and can be explicitly cultivated.