Problems we solve · Stalled transformations
The transformation was supposed to be delivering by now.
Milestones slip. Costs rise. Steering committees get longer and the confidence in the room ebbs away.
What’s Really Happening
A stalled transformation is rarely a failure of effort or commitment.
The constraint usually lies in priorities, decision-making, or the organisation’s ability to absorb change.
A 20-minute conversation. No pitch.
01 / Recognition
You may be hearing yourself say…
01
“We’ve spent a lot and still can’t show the value.”
02
“The dashboard is green. Nobody believes it.”
03
“Every review adds another workstream and another month.”
04
“The people who could tell us what’s wrong aren’t in the room.”
Different symptoms. The same underlying question: what’s stopping the work from moving?
02 / Diagnosis
It’s probably not the thing on the slide
When a transformation stalls, the visible problems are rarely the underlying constraints. More reporting, tighter deadlines, and additional governance can make the situation worse.
The Central Problem
The organisation is optimised for keeping work moving locally, not delivering outcomes collectively.
Teams can be busy, milestones can appear healthy, and individual functions can meet their targets while the overall transformation makes little progress.
01
Too much work in flight
Competing priorities dilute capacity and make progress unpredictable.
02
Decisions without ownership
Critical trade-offs wait in governance forums or are pushed between functions.
03
Activity mistaken for progress
Status reporting measures effort and milestones rather than outcomes.
04
The plan no longer fits reality
The business has changed, but the transformation continues to follow the original assumptions.
Adding resource before resolving these constraints can make progress slower by feeding more work into the same bottlenecks.
03 / Intervention
Diagnose first. Then fix the constraint, not the symptom.
We don’t arrive with a framework, a reorganisation, or a replacement programme. We start by establishing what is actually happening, then put the evidence in front of you.
01
An honest picture
In the first one to four weeks*, we examine what’s in flight, where work waits, how decisions are made, and which constraints are binding. You get a written, board-ready diagnosis of what needs to change.
* More complex organisation-wide transformations may require longer discovery. If that’s the case, we’ll tell you how long we think it will actually take on an initial call and why.
02
Two-week outcomes
Every fortnight, we agree what will be different and work towards that outcome. That may mean stopping competing initiatives, resolving deferred decisions, or giving the highest-priority work a clear run.
03
Methods that earn their place
We might use flow metrics to expose delays, Cost of Delay to inform trade-offs, OKRs to reconnect work to outcomes, or Wardley Mapping to test strategic assumptions. The method follows the problem.
The objective isn’t to rescue the original plan. It’s to restore the organisation’s ability to deliver the outcomes the transformation was intended to achieve.
04 / Typical Engagement
What working with us looks like
Clear expectations. Defined outcomes. Accountability on both sides.
01
Diagnostic first
We start with a short, structured assessment. We agree scope, duration and executive involvement upfront. Complex work may need a longer assessment; we explain why before you commit. Executive involvement is kept as light as possible but will be more for more complex scenarios and may be front-loaded.
02
Two-week outcomes
We agree a three- or six-month direction, but commit to specific outcomes every fortnight, working with the people sponsoring and delivering the change.
03
Commercial alignment, not just day rates
We combine a baseline fee with payments linked to agreed outcomes. We take responsibility for our delivery, and put our mistakes right at our cost. Your commitments and dependencies are agreed upfront, so accountability works both ways.
04
Senior on every engagement
Every engagement is founder-led, with direct senior involvement throughout. Where specialist expertise or additional capacity is needed, we bring in trusted people with the right capabilities. You retain a single point of accountability.
05
Your strategy stays yours
We bring diagnosis, challenge, and intervention. Accountability for the strategic direction of your business remains with your leadership.
05 / Evidence
What this looks like in practice
Case Study
From internal activity to customer outcomes
Shell Recharge Solutions
Between 2020 and 2023, Shell Recharge Solutions grew its headcount sevenfold while integrating into a global parent. Yet customers were waiting over a year for home chargers. Teams were busy, but progress was limited.
A ten-week discovery exposed the underlying constraint: no effective mechanism connecting strategy to delivery. Specialist teams operated in silos, each managing its own backlog, with no shared basis for prioritising work around customer outcomes.
The intervention established customer-facing outcomes for each value stream, connecting day-to-day decisions to strategic priorities. Teams gained a clearer basis for deciding what mattered, what could wait, and what to stop.
Client Perspective
“The biggest shift was moving from internal activity to customer outcomes.
“By introducing Flow and OKRs, we were able to focus on what actually improved the customer experience, not just what kept teams busy.”
Hannes Rupprecht
Head of Public Charging Value Stream for Europe
Additional Sector Experience
Capital markets · Insurance · Fintech · EV charging · Telecoms · Data centres
06 / FAQ
Questions people ask
We don’t, until we’ve looked. The diagnostic’s first job is an honest answer to that question, including the possibility that the right move is to stop, rethink the scope, or restart on a smaller scale. We’ll say so if that’s what the evidence shows.
Alongside, not instead. We work with the leadership team on the system the programme operates within – priorities, decisions, incentives, and flow. These are areas where a PMO may lack the authority to intervene and a delivery partner may have competing commercial interests.
It might be, at least in part. Deferred decisions, competing priorities, conflicting incentives, or an operating model that growth has outpaced can all undermine execution. We’ll tell you plainly and privately, then work with you to address the underlying conditions rather than assign blame.
The diagnostic typically requires eight to ten hours from each executive over its first few weeks, mostly in structured conversations. After that, we work to a fortnightly outcome review of approximately one hour, alongside the decisions and interventions the work requires.
Yes, provided you have someone with the standing, experience, and independence to challenge the executive team, question the existing plan, and help change how decisions are made.
If you have that person, use them. We can still help you think through how to structure the intervention.
We combine a baseline fee with payments linked to agreed outcomes. This creates commitment on both sides while keeping the commercial focus on results rather than activity.
If we miss an agreed outcome through our own fault, we put it right. Where delivery depends on information, decisions, or commitments from your organisation, those dependencies and their commercial implications are agreed upfront.
We can also consider bespoke arrangements, including fees linked to measurable savings or other commercial benefits.
07 / Next Step
Tell us what’s stuck
A 20-minute call with Toby Corballis about your situation. Not a pitch, a demo, or a discovery call delegated to someone junior.
We’ll follow up with a short written view of what we’ve heard and where we’d look first.
There’s no proposal unless you ask for one, and “not now” is a perfectly good outcome.
Prefer email? [email protected]
Or call +44 (20) 8088-5705