Our practice brings together service design, organisation design, and behavioural science, all stemming from a clear understanding of how the organisation creates value, how the people inside it actually work and what is constraining progress from the current ways of working.
Done badly, it reaches into every team, every role, every working relationship, and damages the very thing it was meant to improve. Done well, it changes what the organisation is capable of.
We approach operating model work as a question about people, not boxes. We spend time with the people doing the work, the people leading it, and the people affected by it. We map how the organisation creates value, where the friction sits, and what would make the work measurably better. From that understanding, the structural choices follow. Roles, accountabilities, governance, and ways of working are designed to fit the people who'll live with them - not imposed in spite of them.
The result is operating models that are adopted, not endured. Change that holds because the people involved in shaping it understand why it's better, and have the agency to make it work.
1. Connect strategic intent to front-line outcomes
Most operating models fail at the same point. The connection between strategic intent and front-line outcomes is never properly designed. Activity happens, investment goes in, and the link to outcomes stays invisible. Our work is to design that connection deliberately, and make it measurable.
2. Co-design as the durability mechanism
An operating model lives or dies on whether the people inside it had a hand in shaping it. Designed with them, it gets adopted. Imposed on them, it gets tolerated until it gets worked around.
The most effective models are designed with the people who will use them, not for them. Co-design uncovers hidden dependencies, informal practices, and practical constraints that rarely show up in documentation. When teams see their input reflected in the model, adoption becomes far more likely.
3. Adoption is the first problem, not the last
People stay with the way they work today because it's known and costs nothing to continue with. They change to a new way of working when the push of the old way, the pull of the new, and the trust in the change outweigh the friction of switching.
Every service model introduces both enablers and blockers. Enablers create momentum by making work easier, clearer, or more rewarding. Blockers create friction, often unintentionally. Recognising these forces early allows organisations to address them directly, rather than being surprised later.
Successful models intentionally design for these realities. They include clear transition paths, support mechanisms, and opportunities for feedback and iteration.
One of the most common challenges organisations face is a gap between customer experience design and operational reality. Significant investment goes into understanding customer needs and designing better experiences, but those insights are not always reflected in how services are actually delivered.
Service model design bridges that gap. It translates customer experience intent into operational decisions: how customer value delivery and journeys map to roles, systems, handoffs, and measures of success. A service delivery model that isn't grounded in the customer experience it's meant to deliver is just an org chart with a different name.
Whether you're redesigning how your organisation operates or trying to understand why a previous model didn't hold, we'd welcome a conversation.
Get in touch