The most common response we hear after delivering an organisational diagnostic is some version of: 'We knew this, but we had not said it out loud.' That is not a failure of the diagnostic. It is the point of it. The value is not in discovering something nobody knew. It is in producing a written account of what everyone knew privately but had not yet made official.
What We Are Actually Measuring ¶
An organisational diagnostic is not a staff survey and it is not a culture audit. It is a structured investigation into how decisions get made: who has formal authority, who has actual influence, where information flows freely and where it gets stuck, and what happens when a decision turns out to be wrong. These are not abstract questions. They have specific, observable answers, and those answers tend to be consistent across the organisation even when people think they are describing something unique to their own team.
The Interview Process ¶
We conduct confidential interviews with eight to twelve people across levels and functions. The interviews are semi-structured: we have a consistent set of questions, but we follow the conversation where it goes. We are looking for patterns, not individual opinions. A single person's account of how decisions get made is an anecdote. The same account from seven people independently is a finding. We take detailed notes and do not record or transcribe calls.
What the Report Contains ¶
The diagnostic report is typically twelve to sixteen pages. It contains a description of the current decision-making structure, including the gap between the formal and the actual. It contains a set of specific findings, each supported by evidence from the interviews and document review. It contains a section on the decisions that have been deferred or avoided, which is often the most useful part. And it contains a small number of specific recommendations, written as choices rather than as actions.
When a Diagnostic Is Most Useful ¶
The diagnostic tends to be most useful after a period of rapid growth, after a significant leadership change, or when an organisation has made a series of decisions that did not produce the expected results. It is least useful when the leadership team already has a strong hypothesis about the problem and is looking for confirmation. In that case, a Strategic Clarity Engagement, which includes the diagnostic as one component, is usually a better fit.
What Happens After the Report ¶
We deliver the report in a working session with the leadership team, usually two to three hours. We walk through the findings, answer questions, and note where there is disagreement with our conclusions. Disagreement is useful data. After the session, the client receives the final version of the report. What they do with it is their decision. We are available for follow-up conversations, but we do not manage the implementation.
The Organisational Diagnostic is available as a standalone engagement from £3,600. It can also be commissioned as the opening phase of a Strategic Clarity Engagement.