Strategy advisory
The Pressure Audit. One day to name it. A plan nobody has to chase.
For the leadership team carrying a programme that can't slip. The pressure is obvious. Where it sits is not. You leave with a pressure map and an agreed plan, both built in the room, with your team.
The plan is sound. The load isn't landing where it should.
Strategy is usually fine. The people are usually strong. Delivery slips when the structure can't carry the load, so a few leaders carry it by effort instead.
Everything depends on one person. Usually the most capable one. They rarely say so.
Decisions don't stay made. Agreed in one meeting, quietly reopened in the next.
The gaps belong to nobody. Each function owns its piece. The handoffs are where it slips.
Same team, more effort. Pace has dropped. Working harder hasn't fixed it.
Pressure isn't the problem. Unsupported pressure is.
Who it's for
Any sector. What matters is the situation: a programme with a date on it, and leaders absorbing the load.
The programme. A rollout, deadline, restructure or integration. Funded, and not optional.
The sponsor. The executive who owns the programme and its budget. In the room, or receiving the output.
The room. Two to ten leaders the pressure runs through.
The trigger. A merger, a bigger scope, a new leader, a date getting closer.
Probably not the right fit if there's no live programme, the only money is a training budget, you want someone to run the programme for you, or it's already a crisis that needs hands on.
How the day runs
Six movements, 09:00 to 16:30. The morning builds the honest picture. The afternoon turns it into decisions.
Before the day. Ten minutes from each person. Everyone completes the Executive Pressure Index five to seven days ahead. It reads pressure in the organisation, not in the person. Individual scores are never shared.
1. Surfacing. The EPI results in aggregate. Where the team agrees, and where it splits.
2. Mapping. The team builds the map: what's structural, what's this moment.
3. Root cause. The gaps nobody owns, and what keeps creating them. I name what I see.
4. Decision rights. Where decisions should sit. Escalations arrive with a solution.
5. Plan. Protect, move, address. Every action gets an owner and a date.
6. Commitments. Who does what differently, by when.
If the pressure sits inside one team, a half day run virtually covers surfacing, mapping, root cause and plan.
What you leave with
The Pressure Map. One page: where pressure concentrates, what's structural and what's situational, and where experience splits by function, without naming anyone.
The Action Plan. What to protect, what to move and to whom, what to address now. Every action has an owner and a date.
The four-week call. Written up within a week. Thirty minutes at four weeks to check what moved. If nothing moved, you'll hear it from me first.
How it's scoped. One method, sized to the problem. On our first call we answer two questions together: does the pressure run across more than one function, and does someone outside the room need the output? A yes to either means the full day. Scope and price are confirmed in writing before anything is booked.
It stands on its own. If the Audit shows your leaders need support, that's a separate conversation. The results will make the case, or they won't.
How I work, in every room
01
Name it.
Say the thing everyone's been working around.
02
Make it safe.
So nobody has to defend how it got this way.
03
Make it simple.
Cut it down to what actually needs deciding.
04
Move it.
A plan nobody has to chase.
In their words
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There were many times when I found myself making an internal ‘ooooh’ sound because you were asking the question that everyone else had danced around.
Aled James, Head of People, WICC
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I've gone from a 2 out of 10 to a 7 in confidence, and for the first time I know exactly where the work still is.
Wyn Stevens, Moto Charge Programme Manager, Moto Hospitality
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I didn't want Nic to take over; I wanted Nic to help us and hold us to account.
Nick Tatum, Chief EV and Energy Officer, Moto Hospitality