Sometimes the trigger is positive: a new market, an acquisition opportunity, a significant customer, an investment decision or a period of stronger-than-expected growth. Sometimes it is less comfortable: margins are declining, delivery is becoming inconsistent, the leadership team is stretched, an important initiative has stalled or the owner is becoming involved in too many decisions.
And sometimes nothing is obviously wrong. There is simply a growing sense that the business is working hard without necessarily moving forward as effectively as it should. Whatever the trigger, the temptation is usually to move quickly towards a solution. Hire someone. Change the structure. Replace the system. Increase marketing. Introduce a new process. Hold a strategy day.
Sometimes those actions are right. But the more useful first question is often simpler:
What is actually happening?
Start with the situation, not the solution
At The Priory, the starting point is deliberately practical. A useful conversation often begins with three questions:
- What is happening?
- Why does it matter now?
- What would a useful outcome look like?
Those questions create a pause between recognising a problem and deciding what to do about it. That pause matters. A business may describe its problem as poor sales performance when the underlying issue is commercial focus. A capacity issue may actually be a leadership issue.
A strategy problem may really be an execution problem. An operations problem may begin with the way sales commitments are being made. If the diagnosis is wrong, even a well-executed response can solve the wrong problem.
Look beyond the symptom
Senior teams are usually very familiar with the visible symptoms of a business issue:
- revenue is below plan
- margin is under pressure
- projects are slipping
- customers are escalating problems
- staff are overloaded
- meetings are becoming longer
- decisions keep coming back to the owner
- initiatives are repeatedly delayed
The harder question is what sits underneath them. That may require looking at the information available to management, speaking to people outside the leadership team, testing customer feedback, examining the operating model or challenging some long-held assumptions. The purpose is not to create analysis for its own sake.
It is to understand enough about the situation to identify where management attention will have the greatest effect.
Avoid turning every issue into a major project
There is another common risk: once a problem is recognised, it becomes a “transformation”. That can create more activity than the original issue warranted. Not every business problem needs a six-month program. The answer may be:
- a focused review
- a reset of priorities
- clearer accountability
- better management information
- a defined commercial initiative
- additional senior capacity for a period
- a specific operating change
The right response should be proportionate to the problem. The Priory case study Creating alignment before detailed planning is a useful example. A professional services firm wanted to examine its strategic options before embarking on a larger planning exercise. The useful first step was not to produce the plan. It was to establish where the leadership team was already aligned and what required deeper analysis.
That created a better basis for the work that followed.
Make the first decision easier
A business does not always need to know the final answer at the outset. It needs enough clarity to make the next good decision. That is particularly useful when the issue crosses functions or when directors are too close to the day-to-day activity to see where the real constraint sits.
An independent view can help separate:
- what is urgent from what is important
- symptoms from causes
- useful action from additional noise
- structural problems from temporary ones
- issues that require leadership attention from those that can be dealt with elsewhere
That creates a more disciplined starting point.
A practical next step
If something is prompting the business to act, start by defining the situation before defining the project. What is happening? Why does it matter now? What would a useful outcome actually look like? Often, those three questions are enough to reveal where the conversation should go next.