Disrupt Schedule

The following schedule is not prescriptive but descriptive, showing how the toolkit could be organised and matched to the four-week structure of the archetypal ‘Disrupt’ activity. Whilst there is some logic built into the plan – for example, to create a Roadmap Radar, you need to run an OKR session – the spirit here is to encourage a bespoke approach to answering the client’s question(s), using novel combinations of these tools rather than following this schedule to the letter.

Week One: Shape the Vision

We work with senior leaders to understand the history and the current state of the business and confirm the vision for future success. We facilitate workshops during which long-term goals, short-term objectives, and measurable key results are collaboratively defined. Drawing on market insights and our proprietary strategic map of the business landscape, we can identify immediate threats to the business and advise on the viability of potential divestments and diversifications. We then work with a broader range of participants to share the resulting strategy, refine it further, and turn it into concrete actions and initiatives. We always draw on the existing portfolio of activities, tuned or augmented as necessary to meet the defined objectives, and we help build in continuous delivery of value, supported by rapid test-and-learn experiments to validate the hypotheses.

Out of these activities, we produce the first draft of the Roadmap Radar – a tool unique to Equal Experts that lays out the client’s portfolio on a single, big picture in a way that aligns activities to objectives, informs organisation change, reduces critical path dependencies, and allows multidisciplinary teams to own and adapt as necessary.

Day	Activity	Description	Who should be involved
Day 1	AM: “All Hands Welcome”, with feedback wall PM: 1-2-1s	In-depth interviews with a range of stakeholders, to better understand the past, present and future	AM: All PM: Senior stakeholders
Day 2	OKRs (all day)	A flexible, collaborative method that ensures activities are aligned to the strategy, across the organisation	6-8 senior leaders from across functions
Day 3	AM: 1-2-1s (ctd) PM: Value Stream Mapping	Mapping where value is in the organisation, to inform build, buy and borrow decisions	AM: Senior stakeholders PM: Cross- functional delivery teams
Day 4	AM: Roadmap Radar (iteration 1) PM: Business Evolution Map	Visualise the goals and objectives of the organisation, with initiatives plotted on the radar to indicate clusters and gaps in effort	AM: Delivery teams PM: Senior stakeholders
Day 5	Office day, including weekly update to project sponsors	Opportunity for the team to reflect, write-up insights from the week, and plan the forthcoming week	Equal Experts team

Week Two: Plan the Approach

We dig deeper into each of the objectives to identify gaps and strengthen the areas where those objectives are poorly served by current activities. We identify initiatives that do not align with the objectives and help remove duplication and prune the portfolio as necessary. We will also take the opportunity to further any research assumptions made during the first week, and factor the resulting insights into the strategy. The Roadmap Radar is refined to a level that can be used to define the shape of multi-disciplinary teams required to fulfil each of the objectives, and based on those definitions, we can identify candidate participants for each of those teams.

Day	Activity	Description	Who should be involved
Day 1	AM: Customer Journey Mapping PM: Finalise and send out online survey	Map the customer journey process from end-to-end, starting with requirements through to an agreed definition of ‘done’, looking for pain points, duplication and redundancy	AM: Delivery teams PM: All stakeholders
Day 2	AM: 1-2-1s (ctd) PM: Roadmap Radar (iteration 2)	Visualise the goals and objectives of the organisation, with initiatives plotted on the radar to indicate clusters and gaps in effort	AM: Senior stakeholders PM: Delivery teams
Day 3	Lean Value Tree (all day)	Organise your bets to make effective interventions, and measure the results	Delivery teams
Day 4	Bet canvas (iteration 1)	Highly structured bets, outlining how the experiment will be designed, measures of success, and any challenges and risks	Delivery teams
Day 5	Office day, including weekly update to project sponsors	Opportunity for the team to reflect, write-up insights from the week, and plan the forthcoming week	Equal Experts team

Week three: Make the First Move

Once the client is ready to make the first strategic move, we will help form the first exploratory teams and establish ways of working aligned to the bets derived from the Roadmap Radar. We will work with those teams to ensure activities are appropriately prioritised and improve them further as necessary to ensure that the first tasks are “good to go.” We can also work to shape the communication approach and ensure there is a proper understanding of and buy-in to the strategic plan.

Day	Activity	Description	Who should be involved
Day 1	AM: Team Health Check PM: Bet Canvas (iteration 2)	Assess all aspects of team health, confirm strengths and explore issues	AM: Delivery teams PM: Delivery teams
Day 2	AM: Team Health Check PM: Bet Canvas (iteration 2)	Assess all aspects of team health, confirm strengths and explore issues	AM: Delivery teams PM: Delivery teams
Day 3	AM: Team Health Check PM: Bet Canvas (iteration 2)	Assess all aspects of team health, confirm strengths and explore issues	AM: Delivery teams PM: Delivery teams
Day 4	AM: Chase and close online survey PM: Analyse results of online survey	An online survey allows everyone to contribute to the process	All stakeholders
Day 5	Office day, including weekly update to project sponsors	Opportunity for the team to reflect, write-up insights, and plan the forthcoming week	Equal Experts team

Week Four: Deliver the Insights

The team reflects on the gathered evidence, workshops the best interventions, and prepares for the final presentation to the Board. Typically, during the final playback session, we start with our headline observations and recommendations, before inviting questions and having a non-linear discussion about those topics that the Execs identify as the most important.

Day	Activity	Description	Who should be involved
Day 1	AM: Current Reality Tree PM: Future Reality Tree	See beyond intermediate effects to understand the root causes of observed undesirable effects, and devise injections that will make a lasting difference	AM: Delivery teams PM: Delivery teams
Day 2	AM: Roadmap Radar (final iteration) PM: Bet Canvas (final iteration)	Visualise the goals and objectives of the organisation, with initiatives plotted on the radar to indicate clusters and gaps in effort	AM: Delivery teams PM: Delivery teams
Day 3	Final report write-up	Team reflects on evidence gathered, workshops the best interventions, and prepares the final presentation to the Board	Equal Experts team
Day 4	Final report write-up	Team reflects on evidence gathered, workshops the best interventions, and prepares the final presentation to the Board.	Equal Experts team
Day 5	Final report write-up	Team reflects on evidence gathered, workshops the best interventions, and prepares the final presentation to the Board.	Equal Experts team