The Why. The How.

Why do you need this?

Teams who are moving fast often don’t develop and embed understanding throughout the business.  

Presumptions, misunderstandings, biases and silos limit our shared understanding.  Overcoming this brings clarity and gives everyone confidence that they’re aligned.

(That’s ‘The Why‘.)

Result: It saves time and money and means we have a clear view of the bumps in the road before we hit them.

Nobody needs to understand everything but everyone needs to understand enough*.  And then embed it in:

• deliverable plans which forge alignment through genuine clarity
• information for leadership which gives confidence
• governance which is workable and comforts stakeholders

(That’s ‘The How‘).

Again… it saves time and money and means we have a clear view of the bumps in the road before we hit them.

(* If your issue is a clever entrepreneur whose ideas run ahead of everyone else, have a look at my thoughts on The Necessary Curse of a Butterfly Mind.)

An independent, egoless* eye on all this, ensures enough understanding throughout the team to:

• Shorten change and development projects
• Prevent wasted internal and external costs
• Build confidence, clarity and resilience
• Embed ways to avoid pot holes (and brick walls)

* I don’t want your job, I don’t want the credit, just show a little love.

How do I work?

Unlocking and capturing your team’s knowledge and understanding by using an intentional framework to:

• Bring creative, strategic thinking to complex issues
• Be clear about what we need and expect to achieve
• Ensure the whole team* can add value
• Capture, prioritise and align ideas from everyone*
• Feedback to give the team and leadership confidence

(See my thoughts on information within the business, running meetings, effective decision-making, and the importance of persistent competence.)

* By catering for biases and diverse thinking and communication styles.

I’m happy to play the idiot* and ask the stupid questions.  (Let’s pretend there are stupid questions.)

Then we get wise, embedding our findings in great:

• deliverable plans which forge alignment through genuine clarity
• information for leadership which gives confidence
• governance which is workable and comforts stakeholders

* Really, I’m just ‘playing’… honestly!

(But Where’s The What?).

Where does this work?

Within tight teams in any business and sector who want to: 

• Have confidence they’re aligned and clear
• Stay lean and avoid unnecessary cost
• Manage rapid growth or complex change
• Ensure leadership have actionable insights
• Give comfort to their stakeholders
• Utilise their (wider) team’s talents and knowledge
• Embed a culture which gets the best out of everyone

Yes, “any business and sector”.  It’s the value of fresh ideas and a new perspective.  But, two things I should mention:

1. I want to work with businesses which are contributing to the fight against climate change; and
2. A lot of my recent work has been in:

This works when a tight team is managing significant change (growth, new projects, new product, or crises) and when they want to deliver it well for the sake of themselves and others (investors, shareholders, group management or regulators).

These teams can be in start ups, scale ups, large companies or multinationals. See ‘About Me‘ for the global, listed, private & start ups companies I’ve helped.

* See here for my latest report on the deals in the UK smaller funds services space.

What do we call this?

Well, definitely not ‘Management Consulting’*  

• I get my hands dirty (I’ll sit in with your advisors)
• This isn’t MBA theory, this is deep understanding
• It’s not a drain on management, it’s a reassurance
• I’ve worked with some teams for a decade 

* Perhaps it’s Chief Development Officer… or COO… Swiss Army Knife… oh, how about ‘Head of Our Wisdom’?! No, maybe not… I don’t much care. (How about ‘Simon’?)

“Advice is abundant, execution is scarce” (and I’m in it for the execution).