Greater Leicester Area
I've watched £100M transformations fail because leaders applied the wrong intervention to the right symptom. Same symptoms. Different root causes. Opposite required responses. "𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗽𝘀𝘆. 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲." After 30 years recovering stalled programmes, portfolios and functions, one pattern repeats: the constraint was never identified before the intervention was chosen. Find the right constraint first. Everything else flows. There's a second problem. Organisations that intellectually accept the need to change but can't close the gap — because their adaptive capacity is lower than their environment's rate of change. Teams are drowning in conflicting priorities. Decisions that don't stick. Interventions that land but don't hold. This is Adaptation Debt — and the gap doesn't stay stable. It compounds. You can't close it by trying harder later. Thriving in Turbulence (2025) introduced CIRCA-CLEAR — a diagnostic meta-framework matching five turbulence conditions to five response levers. The prequel, Adaptation Debt, explains why those conditions arise in the first place, and why recovery becomes increasingly expensive the longer the gap compounds. Quantified outcomes: — 60% cost reduction (financial services) — 50% faster delivery (retail) — 3-month delivery of 12-month services (UK Government) — 500% throughput improvement without burning the team (third sector) What I bring: Diagnostic work with CxOs and transformation sponsors — identifying which conditions are active before choosing interventions. Four rates determine your ceiling: how fast you learn, decide, deliver, and recover. The slowest one is the constraint. Most programmes never identify which one it is. Until it hits. CIRCA-CLEAR augments your existing frameworks — OKRs, SAFe, Team Topologies — with the diagnostic layer they assume is already in place. The result: interventions that match the condition, not just the symptom. Sectors: Finance · Government · Retail · Technology · Telco If your transformation is stalled, your interventions aren't landing, or you sense that trying harder later won't close the gap — you're right. It won't. I only accept connection requests with a personalised note.
Working with CxOs and transformation sponsors on diagnostic-first recovery of stuck transformations — particularly where previous interventions haven't landed or the same issues keep resurfacing despite restructures. Building diagnostic capability through speaking, consulting, and coaching. Focus: pattern recognition, rate limiters, and early-warning measurement systems. Book "Thriving in Turbulence" (November 2025) - introducing CIRCA-CLEAR, a diagnostic framework for organizational turbulence. Helps leadership teams identify which of five conditions (Complex, Insecure, Rapid, Contradictory, Anxious) are active before choosing the most appropriate intervention (five response levers (Clarity, Learning, Empathy, Agility, Resilience)). Now writing the prequel, exploring why organisations can't catch up by trying harder later. The gap between your adaptive capacity and your environment's rate of change doesn't stay stable. It compounds. What adaptive leaders often miss.
Co-founded UK chapter of the Business Agility Institute to advance diagnostic-first approaches to organizational agility—moving beyond framework adoption to pattern recognition and turbulence navigation. Key contributions: Championed thought leadership through conference talks and events, introducing concepts that became CIRCA-CLEAR: distinguishing Complex from Rapid conditions, Contradictory from Insecure patterns, and matching interventions to diagnosed conditions rather than applying generic agility practices. Delivered workshops and facilitated events focused on pattern recognition over methodology dogma—teaching practitioners to diagnose which of five turbulence conditions they're facing before selecting response levers. Developed community content on leading indicators (ThroughFlow, Human Pulse) that provide 2-4 week advance warning before traditional metrics show problems—making turbulence detection operational rather than retrospective. Collaborated with global chapter leaders to establish diagnostic capability as core competency for business agility practitioners, emphasizing evidence-based positioning and honest boundaries about when agility approaches work versus when they don't.
Leveraged three decades of turbulence diagnosis to drive large-scale transformations, applying what became the CIRCA-CLEAR framework to distinguish Complex from Rapid conditions, Contradictory from Insecure patterns. Key contributions: Led British Airways' digital transformation using diagnostic-first approaches - identifying Contradictory turbulence (conflicting stakeholder mandates) before applying Clarity levers through forced priority ranking. Delivered new ba.com beta and mobile app on schedule by resolving structural conflicts first. Developed product operating models that paired ThroughFlow measurement with Human Pulse tracking, establishing early-warning systems that revealed turbulence 2-4 weeks before traditional metrics showed degradation. Built Agile and Product Management Communities of Practice focused on pattern recognition over framework dogma, teaching teams to diagnose conditions before selecting interventions. Extended BJSS's product management capabilities through diagnostic workshops that distinguished when teams needed Learning (Complex), Empathy (Insecure), Resilience (Rapid), Agility (Anxious), or Clarity (Contradictory) levers.
Applied diagnostic-first approaches across Technology, Commercial Operations, and Finance that distinguished surface symptoms from underlying turbulence conditions—work that directly informed CIRCA-CLEAR development. Coached leaders and teams to recognize when "delivery problems" actually indicated Insecure conditions (teams won't surface bad news), Complex conditions (expert contradictions persist), or Rapid conditions (velocity overwhelming capacity)—matching interventions to actual patterns rather than perceived symptoms. Delivered workshops on Agile Mindset, Business Agility, and Product Thinking using Lean Startup, Lean Value Trees, Impact Mapping, and Story Mapping, but focused on when each tool works versus when it fails based on turbulence diagnosis. Embedded pattern recognition capability that persisted after engagement ended—teams diagnosing their own conditions and selecting appropriate levers rather than escalating to executives.
Accelerated RNLI's organizational agility during COVID-19 by applying diagnostic precision that distinguished Rapid turbulence (urgency overwhelming capacity) from Complex turbulence (changing requirements with unclear interdependencies). Applied what became the Resilience and Learning levers from CIRCA-CLEAR: WIP limits and protected buffer time for Rapid conditions, 80/20 delivery-exploration splits for Complex conditions. Quantified outcomes: 50% reduction in delivery lead time (Rapid turbulence addressed through Resilience lever) 500% increase in team velocity whilst maintaining sustainable pace (Human Pulse tracked weekly) Early-warning measurement systems providing 2-4 week advance notice before problems cascaded Trained IT and business change leaders in pattern recognition, teaching them to diagnose conditions themselves rather than escalating every turbulence signal to executives. This fractional volunteer role complemented full-time Catalyst work, demonstrating ability to deliver high-impact diagnostic capability building alongside professional commitments.