The Institutional Readiness Model
Before we recommend a transformation, we assess whether the institution can actually sustain one.
Most transformation failures are readiness failures, not technology failures.
A well-designed system introduced into an institution that isn't ready for it doesn't fail because the system was wrong — it fails because no one had the authority to enforce adoption, or the frontline staff were never given time to learn it, or leadership changed halfway through and the new leadership didn't inherit the mandate.
We use this model to tell a client honestly, before any roadmap is proposed, whether the conditions exist to sustain what we'd be building — and if they don't yet, what needs to change first.
Four dimensions of readiness, assessed before any roadmap.
Leadership Alignment
Whether decision-makers across the institution agree on what success means, not just the sponsoring office.
Governance Capacity
Whether a body exists that can own the programme, make tradeoffs, and outlast a change in leadership.
Workforce Adoption
Whether frontline staff have the incentive, training, and time to use what's built, not just access to it.
Public Communication
Whether citizens or guests will understand what's changing and why, before they encounter it unannounced.
The framework applied to a real prototype engagement.
A pattern we watch for before proposing any website rebuild
A common readiness gap we assess for is Public Communication: an institution can have strong internal sponsorship for a new website, but no plan for how staff will keep its content current after launch. A beautifully built site that goes stale within a year is a readiness failure, not a design failure.
This is illustrative of a recurring pattern across our work, not a claim about any single named engagement.
See our government website work →How the Institutional Readiness Model fits into a real engagement.
Confidential Consultation
Understanding the institution and the transformation you have in mind.
Diagnostic Engagement
A scoped assessment across all four readiness dimensions.
Roadmap Proposal
A plan sequenced by readiness — sometimes readiness-building comes before technology.
Phased Engagement
Design, delivery, and sustained capability transfer, governed at each checkpoint.