First conversation
You tell me about the situation. I ask where it shows up, who is affected and what has been tried. We agree on what to look at.
Method
Before proposing a solution, I find out where the work gets stuck.
A team may ask for automation when the problem is a decision nobody owns. It may ask for training when the rules are unclear. It may ask for mediation when the workflow is what creates the conflict. That’s why I start by understanding the situation, not by answering the request.
How it works
01 02 Diagnosis
I talk to the people living the problem and follow the real work. You get a short picture: where the work gets stuck, why, and what is worth changing first.
03 Change
I make the change with the team: a facilitated conversation, a redesigned process or a tool I build, depending on the diagnosis.
04 Handover
I leave the change running with an owner, documentation and a review point, and I stay until it holds without me.
What I try to understand
Where does the work get stuck?
Who waits, who redoes work, which decision never arrives, and what people do to get through the day despite the process.
What is behind the complaint?
Responsibility without an owner, information that doesn’t flow, contradictory rules, dependence on one person, avoided conflict or a tool that doesn’t match the work.
What does the change need to respect?
The people who will use it, maintain it and decide on it. A solution that doesn’t fit their routine doesn’t last.
Three kinds of problem, three kinds of answer
Many situations need more than one. In that case I work on all three at once.
When the problem is between people
Example: two departments that don’t talk and blame each other for delays. The answer is a conversation: mediation, facilitation or training, so the disagreement turns into a decision.
When the problem is the process
Example: requests that come back three times because nobody knows who approves them. The answer is to organize: map the flow and define owners, rules and indicators.
When a tool is missing
Example: the team spends hours copying data between spreadsheets. The answer is to build or integrate a system, once the process is clear.
What stays with the team
The work doesn’t end with a recommendation. It ends when something has changed in the routine.
- A recorded decision, with an owner and a next step.
- A workflow, rule or routine the team uses and can review.
- A tool in use, with maintenance agreed.
- People who understand why something changed and know what to do when an exception comes up.
What I don’t do
- Automate a process nobody has understood yet.
- Treat a conflict with generic communication training.
- Deliver documentation nobody reads or a system nobody uses.
- Promise transformation before understanding the situation.
When the situation calls for legal knowledge, specialized research, design or more engineering, I say so at the start and bring those people into the plan.
Next step
If a situation crosses people, process, and technology, we can start by understanding what is happening