Work with us

A scoped engagement that helps you see the whole system you are trying to change, generate ideas for the moves you have missed, and make your change cohere.

We work alongside you. We do not do it for you.

What does working with us look like

You come to us with something major you are trying to change and a sense that you are stuck.

We help you zoom out, map the reality your problem sits in, and find where your effort is hitting a roadblock or being undone.

This is not a single workshop. It is an iterative process, run as a series of sessions with the right people, that continues until the picture holds together. All of it is built with you, not delivered to you.

The Three Phases

  • Map the current reality

    We map your problem, the system it sits in and the context around it as essences and manifestations, in the detail the problem demands. We do this through conversations with the right people inside and outside your organisation.

  • Locate your inversions

    We place the changes you have already made onto the reality map as inversions and look at where they sit, where they pull against each other, and where you might have missed inversions, slowing you down or creating resistance.

  • Invert and cohere

    We help you come up with new inversions, essences you might have missed and together, with you, we identify what else must be inverted to cohere? We treat resistance as information, feed it back, and iterate until the new reality holds, coherently.

Who takes part

Us, and the people who hold pieces of your reality: a mix from inside your organisation and outside it. The people who run the system day to day, the people affected by it, and the people who see it from the edges.

We guide you on the perspectives that are important to consider. We have these conversations along with you and, together, we build you the reality map.

What you walk away with

  • A clear map of the essences of your problem, and of the context it is nested in. This visualises the complexity you’re dealing with and helps to communicate it.

  • A view of where your current initiatives sit, and where the gaps are.

  • The missing inversions: relevant options you had not considered, with the logic that makes them hold.

  • An understanding of where your resistance comes from, and how to read it and use it.

  • Your initiatives aligned to pull in one direction, so your change gains momentum.

What this is not…

  • This is not consultancy

    We do not take the problem away and hand you a strategy to implement. You still own the problem but you understand the problem better, walk away with new ideas and gain the capacity to take them further yourself.

  • This is not workshopping

    This won’t be done through a two-day offsite or a three hour workshop. The process is iterative by nature, unfolding over a series of sessions. We end with coherent new realities not a deliverable deck or report.

  • This is not optimisation

    We do not help you run the current system better. You must be changing something fundamental. We help you see the whole system you're changing and design a new, radically different and coherent reality.

How engagements are scoped

Most engagements are fee-based and scoped to the problem, because the depth of mapping varies widely. We scope and quote each one against what you are trying to change.

Having said that, a few hours of interviews, your existing documentation and a week of work will already show you results and the potential you can unlock with our approach.

For problems large and consequential enough, we are open to use it as a case for our research and collaborate with you.

Common questions

  • Yes, the framework is agnostic to topic and scale. As long as the change you’re pursuing is major, non-incremental, our approach is applicable.

  • We apply the process in lock-step with you. But we don’t own your problem, we don’t make your choices, nor do we recommend what choices you should make. We bring clarity, but the choices and trade-offs stay yours.

  • It depends on the problem and the depth of the map. We scope this with you. But the process is iterative and your adaptability and decision making speed will strongly influence the process.

Start with a conversation

Tell us what you are trying to change and where you feel stuck.
The first conversation is about whether this is the right approach for your problem.

Book a conversation