Designed to move from intent to action.
The Alacrity method is a five phase model that progresses from Intent to Action.
Diagnose
scope + prepare
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This is a high-level understanding of the presenting challenge or opportunity, and the context it sits within.
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This is where we determine and cost the appropriate Lab programme to meet the requirements, and gather information to prepare for the subsequent phases.
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Discover
challenge + explore
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Your Challenge Statement is the central and vital component of the programme. It articulates the root of your problem or opportunity and the factors that contribute to this. It includes stakeholder (and/or iwi) perspectives and analysis.
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This is a high-energy, outcomes-focused lab experience where your challenge is refined, making sure we are aiming at the right target. The pressure points affecting your challenge are identified, and the key shifts to address them are explored. We will define what success looks like.
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Define
validate + confirm
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This document clearly captures our plan of attack. It takes the learnings, analysis and evidence from the discovery phase and distils this information to set the course for success.
It includes ‘Our Take’ - our strategic assessment of your situation and the way forward.
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Decide
plan + commit
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This is where we turn our minds to how to achieve your aspirations.
While the Intent phase is about ‘inspiration’, the Action phase is about ‘perspiration’ – working with your ‘doers’ to specifically plan what is to be achieved and how.
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Your Road Map is the step-by-step journey to reach the destination. It takes into account risks or future impacts. It sets realistic performance considerations. It is practical in application so you can commit to your future path.
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Do
engage + implement
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We help you to spring out of the Lab programme and into the doing. We will discuss how you will implement your Road Map and bring others with you on your journey. We will link you to supporting providers, if required.
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While the Labs are finished, the hard work is only just beginning. After an agreed period, your navigator will coordinate an assessment exercise to assess your progress and help you stay on track.
Helping organisations, businesses and project teams respond to challenges and opportunities.
Focused: concentrated lab-style workshops.
Evidence-based: underpinned by insights, data and knowledge.
Collaborative: centered on achieving together.
Dynamic: working with swiftness and clear purpose.
Practical: actionable plans that won’t gather dust.
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Think back to the early days of EFTPOS which was universally regarded as a solution searching for a problem, but it eventually did find a problem – merchants (and consumers) having to manage too much cash. Each day there was inflation, the relevance of EFTPOS grew.
The smart phone was not a response to a felt need, but at a certain point its use simply took off world-wide. It had a relevance we didn’t initially fully understand.
Why do we need irrigation in a country with lots of rain? In other parts of the world where irrigation involves turning desert into productive land, there is high relevance and little or no opposition. Here, where irrigation is designed to take already productive land and make it more productive, it has hit constant roadblocks.
Typewriters are now relevant only to museums, but vinyl records have a fresh meaning in a contemporary world.
Relevance is like sailing a yacht. The better it can point onto the wind, the faster it goes. The skill of the sailor is in reading wind shifts and adjusting to them.
The search for relevance is the challenge of organisations and enterprises. The more tightly they point, the more successful they are. The common excuse of the business manager, like the errant sailor, is that the market is fluky. Actually, the market is the market. The ‘seamanship’ of the manager is the variable.
Many companies start out being exceptional, energetic and relevant. As they grow there is a dark and powerful force that pulls them away from the exceptional to the average, and with it comes the problems of average – variable profitability, staff turnover, internal politics, competitive pressures and so on. Relevance is not an ad slogan, it’s a total state of being.
The thrill of relevance is intoxicating and to recapture it, a change journey is often required. Ironically, it may be about relearning old skills, recapturing lost energy, recalibrating the course and re-engaging lost mindsets. How can your relevance be… more relevant?
Relevance: a total state of being.
