Operating Model Assessment

Decisions

Decision Rights & Escalation

Who decides what, and how much still reaches the leadership team.

When a decision crosses two teams, how does it get made? It waits until whoever is most senior is free Someone escalates it and hopes It reaches a regular meeting, eventually There is a rule about who decides what Decision rights are written down and used without asking Not applicable to us

How often does a decision reach the leadership team that should not have? Constantly, most things do Most weeks It happens, and we notice when it does Rarely, and we treat it as a signal Rarely, and when it does we fix the rule rather than the instance Not applicable to us

What can a manager commit the business to without approval? Nobody could tell you It depends who you ask There is a figure, somewhat out of date Defined and current Defined, current, and enforced by the systems that spend money Not applicable to us

When two teams disagree, what resolves it? Whoever pushes hardest It gets escalated to a founder or managing director A meeting is arranged There is a named arbiter for that kind of decision An agreed forum with the authority to settle it, on a known cadence Not applicable to us

Ownership

Process Ownership & Handoffs

Whether anything owns the whole flow, or only the pieces of it.

Who owns the end-to-end process that delivers to your customer? Nobody, each team owns its own piece It is implied by whoever complains loudest One function owns most of it A named owner for the end-to-end flow Named owner, with authority over the handoffs as well as the steps Not applicable to us

Where does work most often stall? We could not tell you without asking around We know anecdotally We know, and it has been the same place a while We measure it, and it moves Measured and owned, and we expect the bottleneck to move Not applicable to us

What happens at the handoff between two teams? Things get dropped and someone notices later It works when the people involved know each other There is a process, unevenly followed Defined, including what "done" means on each side Defined, measured, and revisited when it fails Not applicable to us

How much of how the work gets done exists only in people's heads? Almost all of it The important parts Some is documented, mostly out of date Documented where it matters, and kept current Documented, current, and someone new can actually follow it Not applicable to us

Cadence

Planning & Cadence

How far ahead the business plans, and what survives contact with a busy week.

How far ahead does the business genuinely plan? We react to whatever arrives A quarter, loosely A year, revisited annually A year, revisited quarterly A rolling horizon, on a cadence that actually changes decisions Not applicable to us

What happens to the plan when something urgent arrives? The plan is abandoned The plan quietly stops being referred to We re-prioritise informally We re-prioritise, and say what is being dropped Trade-offs are explicit, recorded, and somebody approves them Not applicable to us

How do teams know what the priority is this month? They ask, or they guess It is communicated when it changes There is a plan they can find There is a plan they were involved in setting Priorities are visible and current, and teams can state them Not applicable to us

How many significant initiatives are in flight right now? More than anyone could list We could count them if we tried We know the number, and it is too high We know the number, and it is deliberate Capped deliberately, starting one means stopping one Not applicable to us

Roles

Role Clarity & Structure

Whether the shape of the organisation was designed or arrived at.

When you last added headcount, what problem was it solving? We were busy A team asked, and it was affordable A specific gap we had identified A gap we had first tried to solve without hiring A structural gap, with what the role owns written down first Not applicable to us

Could two people in the same team describe the boundary between them the same way? No Probably not Broadly, yes Yes, and it is written down Yes, and the overlaps were designed rather than discovered Not applicable to us

What happens to a responsibility when someone leaves? It disappears until it causes a problem Somebody picks it up informally It is reassigned as part of the handover Reassigned deliberately, with the load considered The role is re-examined rather than the person simply replaced Not applicable to us

How many people report directly to your most stretched manager? We would have to count, and it would be alarming More than is reasonable, and we know it High, but manageable Within a range we consider sensible Actively managed as a structural number Not applicable to us

Benefits

Benefits Realisation

Whether anyone can say if last year's changes worked.

When an initiative is approved, what is it expected to deliver? It is not really expressed that way A general improvement A stated benefit, not quantified A quantified benefit with an owner Quantified, owned, and with a baseline recorded beforehand Not applicable to us

Who is accountable for a benefit after the project closes? Nobody The project sponsor, notionally The sponsor, until they move on A named operational owner A named owner, and it appears in how they are measured Not applicable to us

How do you know whether last year's big change worked? We do not It feels better Somebody could build a case either way We measured the things we said we would Measured against the baseline, and reported whether or not it flattered us Not applicable to us

What happens to a business case after approval? It is never opened again It surfaces if the project goes wrong It is reviewed at the end It is reviewed at agreed points during delivery Reviewed, and initiatives get stopped when the case no longer holds Not applicable to us

Change

Change Capability

Whether the business can absorb change while still running.

How does the business absorb change alongside running day to day? Change stops the day job The same people do both, and both suffer We protect some capacity for it Change capacity is planned and protected Planned, protected, and the trade-off is a board-level decision Not applicable to us

When a new way of working is introduced, what is true six months later? Everyone is back to the old way Partial adoption, varying by team It holds where someone champions it It holds, because the old route was actually closed off It holds, and we measured adoption rather than assuming it Not applicable to us

Who does the work of making change stick? Nobody, we announce it and hope Line managers, on top of everything else A project team, until they move on Named owners with time allocated to it Owners with time, and capability deliberately transferred to the business Not applicable to us

How much of your delivery capability sits outside the business? We could not say A lot, and it would hurt to lose it Significant, and we know which parts Deliberate, with knowledge transfer expected Deliberate, with transfer actually happening and measured Not applicable to us

Information

What Reaches the Board

Whether the board gets a position to decide on or a description of last month.

What does the board actually see each month? Financials only Financials, plus whatever is worrying someone A standard pack, largely backward-looking Position, risks and the decisions needed A pack built around the decisions the board exists to make Not applicable to us

How long does producing the board pack take? Most of a week, across several people Several days A day or two It is largely assembled from things that already exist It assembles itself from operational reporting Not applicable to us

When the board asks a question, how long until it is properly answered? It usually is not By the next meeting, sometimes Within a few weeks Within days, by a named owner Often in the room, because the underlying data is to hand Not applicable to us

What does the board not currently see that it probably should? We genuinely do not know Quite a lot, and it is uncomfortable A few things we are working on Little of substance Nothing, the gaps were identified and closed deliberately Not applicable to us

About you

A few things that are not scored

None of this affects your result. It tells us how to read it, and it is the part that makes any follow-up conversation useful rather than generic. Skip anything you would rather not answer.

What prompted you to look at this now? Growth has outpaced how we are organised Something specific went wrong New leadership, or a change at the top A transaction: acquisition, carve-out or funding Cost or margin pressure General review or benchmarking

Which best describes the business right now? Scaling quickly Growing steadily Flat, and looking for efficiency Integrating after an acquisition Preparing for a transaction

Have you used external help for any of these in the last three years? Operating model or organisation design Programme or transformation delivery Process improvement Interim or fractional leadership Post-acquisition integration None of these

Is the business coordinating itself, or is it coordinating through you?

Which areas do you want to assess?