The Kickstart.
A Fixed-Scope Reset.
Sometimes a decision keeps coming back because the team never fully agreed on it. People leave the meeting with different expectations, and the work carries on in different directions.
The Kickstart gives us five to ten days to find out what's holding things up, resolve the outstanding decisions and agree a plan the team can use.
When it
can help.
The stuck decision
The same decision has been on the agenda for months.
Busy, but not moving
The team is busy, but the work isn't producing measurable progress.
The strategy that didn't land
The strategy has changed and people are still following the old plan.
The 'done' gap
Leadership and delivery disagree about what counts as finished.
The inherited programme
You've inherited a programme and the team doesn't know whether the existing plan still stands.
The transformation nobody owns
A transformation has started without clear ownership, scope or a definition of success.
Board flag
The board has raised concerns and you need to show how the programme will recover.
The cost-of-delay clock
Delays are increasing licence and contractor costs and pushing the benefits further away.
What I do
I start with the people doing the work as well as those leading it. We look at what's causing the drift: the data, requirements, unresolved decisions or disagreements people haven't felt able to raise.
What it produces
One written plan, agreed by the people responsible for delivering it, with owners, dates and a first milestone.
What it isn't
Not a report or a slide deck. I bring the right people together to work through the issues, not drop in recommendations and leave.
Five to ten days · Fixed scope · Price agreed before we start
Why I do
this work.
I've spent over a decade running data, systems and operations programmes. In my experience, stalled delivery often comes back to a decision that hasn't been settled.
As Lead Data Consultant at Stratford Ellis, I look for where the work is breaking down, who needs to decide and what continued delay is costing. That's where we start.
Tell me
what's stuck.
I'll help you work out whether the Kickstart is the right way to fix it.
What people
ask first.
- What is a delivery alignment sprint?
- A short engagement to agree what you're building, who it's for and what needs to be true in 90 days for it to count as working. The Kickstart turns that agreement into a delivery plan.
- How do you approach a stalled programme?
- I test the current plan with the people who lead and deliver it. We identify unresolved decisions about scope, data or priorities and work through them together.
- When is a reset useful?
- When meetings go round in circles, the plan keeps changing or work is under way without meaningful progress. A board review may also show that people have different understandings of the programme.
- What happens during the engagement?
- Structured conversations, a review of the plan and working sessions to resolve what's holding it up. The output is an agreed direction and a written plan the team can deliver.
- How does it relate to a strategy offsite?
- The Kickstart focuses on an existing delivery problem. We work through the decisions preventing progress and agree how the team will act on them after the sessions.
- How long does it take?
- Five to ten days, depending on the team and the issues involved. We agree the scope on the first call.