Method
Find the constraint.
Receptivity, then constraint, then a decision, then repetition. Four stages, and the first one can end the engagement.
Receptivity decides whether anything else matters
An intervention only takes hold if the organisation can receive it. A correct recommendation introduced into a business with no sponsor, no capacity and no ability to sustain a change past our departure produces exactly the same visible result as a wrong one: nothing happens.
So receptivity is tested first, and it is a gate rather than a section of the report. Sponsorship. Capacity. Decision rights. What happened the last time this organisation attempted a comparable change. Whether success could be measured with data already being collected.
The assessment stops there. Ranking six dimensions for an organisation that cannot act on any of them produces a report that is precise, evidenced and useless, which is what a great many reviews deliver. The recommendation becomes preparation, and the fee stands, because knowing a business cannot yet act is expensive to establish and valuable to own.
Six dimensions, one of which binds
Symptoms are not constraints. Low conversion is a symptom; weak positioning may be the constraint. Slow delivery is a symptom; broken decision rights may be the constraint.
Market
Is there enough demand to justify the programme at all?
Offer
Is the proposition strong enough that delivery would matter?
Brand
Is the organisation understood and trusted by the people it needs?
Experience
Can customers or users actually complete the action?
System
Can value be delivered without heroics from specific individuals?
Growth
When something works, can it be repeated deliberately?
Candidates are prioritised on impact × confidence ÷ effort. Three honest variables beat five that interfere with one another.
One of five, named explicitly
| Fix | The programme is sound and something specific is blocking it. |
|---|---|
| Rescope | The ambition exceeds what the organisation can absorb. Decide what survives. |
| Restart | The foundations are wrong. Continuing costs more than beginning again. |
| Prepare | The gate failed. Build the conditions before attempting the change. |
| Stop | The programme should not continue. This is a real output, priced like the others. |
Multiply, and the lag phase stated in advance
Whatever is done is measured, and what works is made repeatable. An intervention that is not connected to the surrounding business does not propagate; it simply sits there.
An intervention that is working looks identical to one that is failing, for as long as it takes the organisation to adapt around it. Programmes are cancelled inside that window every day. We name where it starts, roughly how long it runs, and what the first real signal will be, in the proposal rather than the post-mortem.
The method is published in full
You can use it without us. That is deliberate.