This stage focuses on: removing pain and managing fear; identifying problem people, behaviours and beliefs; and stopping unproductive processes and habits.

After initial briefings with you to establish and formally agree the starting point, we familiarise ourselves with all relevant documentation.

We create real business pressure on the team to deliver a plan through live working with executives and other staff. We drive them to identify the real issues and provide realistic potential solutions, which are then formally presented to you. This is undertaken in as short a timeframe as possible. While they still have to perform their day jobs.

Through observation and interaction, we identify existing capabilities and gaps. We are fully transparent with the staff about the problem and your intention to fix it. We issue an invitation to key people and teams to participate in the process.

During this pressure test, we break down the rumour and innuendo and show them how to deal with the facts and not opinion or rank.

This always generates genuine responses from people, with both good and bad behaviour exhibited in full view.

We deal with both and continue to keep the pressure on to deliver the plan and presentation.

At the start of this stage, we ensure that there is clear and unambiguous agreement between you and management on the real issues to be resolved, and that there is a real commitment on both sides to fix them.

Any key staff changes are agreed and implemented at this time.

Then, we work with your team to refine the options and develop a concrete, fact based plan with documented and agreed costs, timeframes and outcomes.

We develop and agree suitable measures to monitor and drive progress.

We drive the development of sustainable organisational capability across people, process and technology.

A critical element is building business problem solving capability.

This is achieved by working with your team to:

• Identify and build new leadership throughout the organisation
• Build effective behaviours, processes and systems
• Identify and eliminate barriers - people and processes
• Build sustainable business problem solving skills for the future
• Teach your people to solve some real problems
• Guide the implementation of new processes, systems and structure

You and your people will have:

• The right people in place in the correct roles, and the others will have left
• Better business decision making capability built on gathering fact based data, rationally analysing it and effectively executing sound commercial decisions
• Review and reward systems linked to business objectives
• Appropriate business monitoring and performance evaluation tools
• New ways of working which focus on customers, understanding your competitors and a realistic view of your organisational capabilities

You are left in charge of your own destiny with the capability to successfully manage your business into the future, and the agility to thrive in changing times.