Examples
What this work looks like in real organisations
The examples below are composite scenarios drawn from patterns seen across twenty years of transformation, change and strategy work. They show how each service works in practice. They do not describe any specific client or employer.
Clarity
Get clear on what must change
-
Mining · Multi-site operations · Illustrative scenario
The situation: A mid-sized mining operation runs a three-year operational excellence strategy: eleven initiatives, a monthly steering committee and green status reports across the board. Ask the COO, the site GM and the head of maintenance what it is for, and you hear three different answers. Nobody can say whether the operation is better than it was two years ago.
How Clarity works here: Four to six sessions with the leadership team. A first draft like "world-class asset reliability" usually fails most of the six precision criteria. The work is to turn it into something anyone on site could see, for example: shift supervisors start each shift with the equipment they planned for. Every initiative is then mapped against that condition.
What you walk away with: A one-sentence condition statement your leaders describe the same way. A map of which initiatives contribute, which need redirecting and which can stop. A named steward to own it.
The lesson: When everything reports green and nothing feels different, the plan is rarely the problem. The missing answer is.
See how Clarity works →
-
Telecommunications · Customer operations · Illustrative scenario
The situation Billing, technical support and retention run as three separate teams, often handling the same customers about the same problem. A significant cost reduction means the current structure can't continue, and each team is making the case for its own budget.
How Clarity works here Instead of deciding which team to cut, the leadership team defines what all three exist to achieve. For example: a customer's issue is resolved in one contact, by one owner, and they stay. That condition becomes the design brief. Work that serves it is combined, and work that doesn't is stopped or handed elsewhere.
What you walk away with A condition statement that turns a cost-cutting exercise into a design decision. A map of which current work contributes, which overlaps and which can stop. A clear basis for the new structure.
The lesson: A budget cut forces the question most organisations skip. Once the outcome is clear, the structure almost designs itself.
See how Clarity works →
Focus
Get everyone pulling in the same direction
-
Forestry · Wood products manufacturing · Illustrative scenario
The situation A forest products company with several sawmills and a woodlands division faces rising fibre costs and tighter supply. Leadership agrees one priority: get more value from every log. On the ground it means different things. One mill chases volume, another chases grade recovery, and woodlands manages its own cost per cubic metre. The trade-offs land on the COO's desk every week.
How Focus works here With the condition defined, we take it to each mill team, woodlands and sales through conversation rather than cascade. Each group answers three questions. What in your work already contributes? What would you do differently if this were the clear measure of your success? What is in the way that you cannot resolve from where you sit? The answers build a contribution architecture that shows where work connects, where it is only assumed to, and where priorities compete.
What you walk away with Objectives rebuilt with the people doing the work. The competing priorities named, so leadership can resolve them once instead of weekly. A contribution architecture and facilitation guide your organisation keeps.
The lesson When teams pull in different directions, it is rarely a commitment problem. Each is usually serving a different reading of the same goal.
See how Focus works →
-
Engineering & construction services · Multi-region operations · Illustrative scenario
The situation: A firm that has grown by acquiring regional businesses now operates as one brand, but not as one organisation. Roles between head office and the regions are unclear, budgets and procurement are still separate, and standards drift from region to region. Clients get a different experience depending on which office they deal with.
How Focus works here: First comes a shared outcome both levels can serve, for example: clients receive the same standard of work, on the same terms, wherever they engage. Accountabilities are then translated around it. The centre owns strategy, standards, reporting and pooled purchasing. The regions own delivery and every operating decision that positions them to succeed. Each regional team tests the split against the three Focus questions before it is finalised.
What you walk away with: A clear division of accountability between centre and regions, built with the people who will work within it. The competing priorities named and resolved. A contribution architecture showing how each region's work connects to the shared outcome.
The lesson: Clear accountability is half the answer. The other half is one outcome that every level serves.
See how Focus works →
Results
Know whether it’s working
-
Financial services · Customer retention · Illustrative scenario, adapted from Outcomes Enablement
The situation A mid-sized firm has invested in customer retention for years: a loyalty programme, quarterly satisfaction surveys, a dedicated customer experience team and retention objectives in every function. The dashboards are busy. Retention keeps slipping, and the decline is put down to pricing and the market.
How Results works here We surface the assumption underneath the programme: that customers stay because of rewards and sentiment. Then we test it against the condition that matters, which is why customers actually leave. Existing metrics are audited against that condition rather than against activity. A small set of indicators is designed to show whether it is moving, such as complaints resolved at first contact.
What you walk away with The assumptions behind your programme tested. A few measures that track real change, and a list of metrics to retire. A pivot protocol: the agreed process for what happens when the evidence says an investment isn't working.
The lesson Measuring more doesn't help if you are measuring the wrong condition.
See how Results works →
-
Transport & logistics · Fleet maintenance · Illustrative scenario
The situation A generation of depot and maintenance leaders is approaching retirement. Each depot has been run its own way for years, so what good looks like lives in individual heads rather than in any shared measure.
How Results works here We surface what each depot assumes good maintenance looks like. Then we agree the few outcomes that matter every day, such as vehicles available when scheduled, and the data that shows them. Existing reports are audited against those outcomes, and the ones that only show activity are retired. A regular review lets depots compare performance and learn from one another, with an agreed protocol for acting when the numbers move the wrong way.
What you walk away with A small set of shared measures every depot is assessed against. A list of reports to retire. A pivot protocol, and a basis for handing leadership to the next generation without losing what the current one knows.
The lesson Shared outcomes and shared data turn separate teams into a system that learns.
See how Results works →
Reset
Unstick work that has stalled
-
Retail · Digital transformation · Illustrative scenario
The situation: A regional retailer launched a digital transformation three years ago with a clear promise to customers. The workstreams are still running, the budget is still being spent, and the reports say on track. There is no successor plan and no completion date, and people have stopped asking what done looks like.
How Reset works here: Phase 1 runs over two to three weeks: a scoping call with the sponsor, a half-day document review, and up to ten confidential interviews with delivery leads and the store and online teams living with the change. A short findings paper goes out 48 hours before a single two-hour decisions session with the executive. The question throughout: what must be observably different for customers for this to have been worthwhile?
What you walk away with: Clear stop, continue and redirect calls, agreed in the room. A purpose everyone can state in one sentence. If you want it, Phase 2 keeps me alongside your team while the reset happens.
The lesson: Work rarely stalls for lack of effort. It stalls when it stops pointing at a change and starts pointing at itself.
See how Reset works →
-
Healthcare · Population health strategy · Illustrative scenario
The situation: A health system launched a ten-year population health strategy with a bold vision, broad support and a launch people still remember. Three years in, the work is funded and the programme boards still meet, but it has become a grind. Teams can describe their projects, but not what the strategy has changed for anyone so far. Nobody is sure what the next phase should be, and attention is drifting to newer priorities.
How Reset works here: Phase 1 runs over two to three weeks: a half-day review of the strategy, plans and progress reports, then up to ten confidential interviews with sponsors, programme leads and the teams expected to deliver. The findings paper answers three questions plainly. What has actually changed for people so far? Which work is still pointed at the vision? What must be observably different by year five for the strategy to be on track? It goes out 48 hours before a two-hour decisions session with the leadership team.
What you walk away with: An honest account of progress to date that leaders can stand behind. Stop, continue and redirect calls for the current portfolio. A next phase anchored to a change people can see, not a refreshed slide deck. If you want it, Phase 2 keeps me alongside your team while the reset happens.
The lesson: Long strategies rarely fail at launch. They fade in the middle, when the vision is too far away to steer by and nobody has named the next visible change.
See how Reset works →