The engagement
How we work
What happens in the first thirty days, and what every week looks like after that. No mystery, because a surprise in month two is how engagements die.
- What the first thirty days look like
- The weekly rhythm, every week after that
- What finished looks like, and what it takes to get there
The first thirty days
What the first thirty days look like
Four steps, in this order.
01
We listen before we look.
We sit down with you and hear it in your words: the business, the team, the money, and the thing that's been keeping you up. Not to pitch. The problem you call us about is rarely the problem.
02
We look at the whole company, not the complaint.
Money, sales, operations, the people system, capacity, and where your own time actually goes. We separate the loud symptom from the limiting problem.
03
We agree the target, and what it's worth.
You name the thing that's holding the company back. You pick the number that would tell you it moved. We put a dollar figure on it, and on the two or three problems behind it, so the order stops being an argument.
04
We start on the first one.
Not a plan for the plan. The first constraint, with an owner, a date, and a way to tell whether it moved.
The rhythm
The weekly rhythm
The rhythm is the product. On LINX Connect that is an hour a week, one to one, with the same advisor rather than a rotating team.
Same day, same time, and it happens on the weeks when nothing is on fire, which is most of the point. You bring what moved and what didn't. We bring the list, ranked by what each item is costing the company rather than by who raised it loudest.
One person owns each item, and the number gets counted by somebody other than you. The meeting exists to decide things, so it ends.
Your part
What you'll be asked to do
It is a short list, and most owners want it before they commit to anything.
01 Your time
An hour a week from you. More from the team as the engagement gets bigger.
- An hour a week of your own time on LINX Connect
- Three to five hours a week from the leadership team on Leadership
- Five or more a week on Performance
02 Open books
The numbers, in whatever state they are in.
- The books open to us from the first week
- Bad numbers we can work around
- Numbers we cannot see, we cannot
03 An owner for each fix
One name against each thing being fixed, and it is not ours.
- One person for each thing being fixed
- Somebody inside the company, not us
- They are the one who decides it
04 Saying it early
The two things that cost money when they arrive late.
- Be willing to be wrong in front of your team, once, early
- Tell us fast when something is not happening
- Late is the only version of that news that costs money
Done
What finished looks like
Finished has a date on it, and it is three months after the last invoice, when the weekly meeting still happens with nobody watching it happen.
A rebuild that only holds while the original crew stays isn't a rebuild. So the work is built to survive people leaving: written down, owned by a role rather than a name, and visible enough that a gap shows up in a week instead of a quarter.
Start the conversation
What would you want moving ninety days from now?
Bring that to the first conversation. Thirty minutes, no deck, no obligation.
