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Stop guessing where coordination is breaking.
A three-week evidence-based assessment of how work, decisions and reporting actually move through your organisation.
Three weeks · Five deliverables · One executive briefing · £12,000 +VAT
You have the people, the tools and the strategy. Coordination still keeps breaking down.
Projects drift. Decisions stall. Meetings produce motion without progress. Reporting remains green until something is suddenly red. You can feel that the operating model is creating drag, but nobody can point to the full mechanism causing it. This is coordination drag. It usually sits across teams, workflows, tools and decision routes, which is why fixing one visible symptom rarely holds.
The Diagnostic is designed for businesses where
- multiple teams and handoffs create systemic complexity
- the leadership team does not trust the full picture
- decisions and escalations move too slowly
- ownership becomes unclear between functions
- reporting describes activity rather than progress
- AI and automation are being considered without a clear operating baseline
Four operating lenses. Six measured dimensions.
The Diagnostic examines where the drag originates across People, Process, Technology and Data, then measures the practical effect across six operating dimensions.
Four lenses
- People · ownership, decision rights, capacity, leadership behaviour and adoption
- Process · workflows, governance, meetings, handoffs, escalation and operating rhythm
- Technology · tool sprawl, integration, adoption, automation and practical AI use
- Data · reporting trust, quality, operational signals and decision evidence
Six dimensions
- Decision velocity
- Ownership clarity
- Meeting effectiveness
- Workflow coherence
- Reporting value
- AI readiness
Evidence rule: scores are criteria-based rather than impressionistic. No score moves without at least two independent evidence sources.
Five deliverables your leadership team can use immediately.
Operating Health Score
A composite score with a breakdown across all six dimensions. Each score includes its criteria and evidence summary, so the baseline can be repeated and compared.
Friction Map
A visual view of where work gets stuck, duplicated or lost between teams, tools and processes. Every significant friction point is tied back to evidence.
Priority Action Plan
The five highest-impact changes ranked by effort, cost and payoff, with enough implementation detail for your team to begin in week four.
Executive Briefing
A 60-minute leadership session covering the score, the evidence, the five priority actions and a direct recommendation on what to do first.
90-Day Roadmap
A sequenced plan with owners, dependencies and checkpoints, ready to run internally or use as the basis of the 90-Day Operating Reset.
A disciplined three-week process.
Discovery
Kickoff with the sponsor, review of operating artefacts and tools, 8 to 12 structured interviews across leadership, management and frontline delivery, plus observation of live meetings where access allows.
Analysis
Score the six dimensions, build the Friction Map, test patterns against multiple evidence sources and rank the highest-value actions.
Delivery
Build the 90-Day Roadmap, privately pre-brief the sponsor, present the full findings to the leadership team and hand over all five deliverables.
The output is an operating decision, not another report.
Evidence before opinion
Every important finding is traceable. Interviews, artefacts, observed working practices and operating data are brought together before conclusions are made.
Existing systems before new tools
Covalent does not begin with a software recommendation. The first task is to understand how your current people, processes, technology and data work together.
Independence by design
The action plan and roadmap are written so an internal team or another delivery partner can execute them. You are not required to buy a retainer to make the findings usable.
Implementation route available
Where you want Covalent to lead the changes, the 90-Day Operating Reset implements the five actions and measures the before-and-after result.
Best fit
- Growing or PE-backed business with multiple teams and real operational handoffs
- Typically 50 to 500 people or equivalent organisational complexity
- Active execution problem or scaling trigger
- CEO, COO or equivalent executive sponsor
Client commitment
- Sponsor attendance at kickoff, pre-brief and executive briefing
- Access to 8 to 12 interviewees
- Access to relevant trackers, reports, packs and workflow evidence
- Willingness to hear findings that may implicate current leadership design
£12,000 +VAT. Fixed.
Fifty per cent is payable on signature and fifty per cent on delivery of the executive briefing. The scope includes the three-week process and all five deliverables.
A completed Delivery Health Check or eligible AI Reality Check may be credited where agreed under the commercial terms.
No ongoing retainer is required. A separate Reset proposal is provided only where you want Covalent to implement the findings.
A smaller first step
The Delivery Health Check is a 90-minute focused session with a written summary in 48 hours. Its £750 fee can be credited against a Diagnostic booked within 30 days.
Ask about the Delivery Health Check →Common questions.
Can this be done as a day-rate engagement?
No. The Diagnostic is a fixed-scope product with a defined evidence standard, timeline and five deliverables.
Will people be quoted by name?
Interview material is anonymised at source. Where a quote could identify the speaker inside a business of that size, it is paraphrased or removed.
Will you recommend new software?
Only where the evidence shows a genuine capability gap. The Diagnostic first assesses whether the existing tools are being used inside a coherent operating design.
What happens after the briefing?
You can run the roadmap internally, appoint another partner or ask Covalent to scope the 90-Day Operating Reset. The findings remain usable whichever route you choose.
Is there a smaller first step?
Yes. The Delivery Health Check is a 90-minute focused session with a written summary in 48 hours. Its £750 fee can be credited against a Diagnostic booked within 30 days.
Make the coordination problem specific enough to solve.
Book a 30-minute conversation about the trigger inside your organisation and whether the Diagnostic is the right starting point.