Dashboard
Client Engagement Overview
Set up a new client engagement and track discovery progress across all seven layers.
Client Details
Core engagement information
Client / Organisation Name *
Primary Contact Name
Primary Contact Title
Industry / Sector
First Meeting Date
Lead Alteria Consultant
Engagement Source / How did they find us?
Discovery Score
—
Avg maturity across all dimensions
Layers Complete
0/7
Discovery layers populated
Stakeholders Mapped
1
Identified so far
Changes Identified
1
Active transformations
📊 Readiness Maturity Overview Scores populate as you complete the assessment
Leadership Alignment
—
Change History
—
CM Capability
—
Culture & Values
—
Comms Infrastructure
—
Stakeholder Readiness
—
Layer 1
Pre-Engagement Intelligence
Complete this before your first meeting. Desk research and network intelligence so you walk in already knowing their context — and the conversation can go deeper faster.
Business Context Research
External landscape — what's publicly known
Before you meet them. This layer is completed by the Alteria lead, not with the client. Sources: company website, LinkedIn, press, annual reports, industry news, your network. Spend 60–90 mins here per engagement.
What is the organisation's current strategic priority / narrative?
Annual reports, CEO statements, investor comms, press releases
What significant changes, restructures or transformations are publicly known?
Recent news / press (last 6 months)
Competitive pressures / market headwinds
Network Intelligence
What your network knows about this organisation or contact
Mutual connections who can brief you / What have you learned from your network?
What do you know about the primary contact's background and motivations?
First Meeting Preparation
What you're going in to achieve
Hypotheses to test in Meeting 1
What do you already believe might be true based on your research? List 3–5 hypotheses to validate.
Questions you must answer in Meeting 1
Red flags to watch for
Layer 2
Stakeholder Landscape & Relationship Mapping
Map the human architecture before you scope the work. Who commissions, who influences, who will resist, who are the informal power brokers.
Stakeholder Register
Add all known stakeholders and their position relative to the change
Why this matters. Scoping problems almost always trace back to a stakeholder who wasn't mapped. The sponsor and the decision-maker are rarely the same person. Find both.
| Name | Title / Role | Type | Influence | Attitude | Notes / Intel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Political Landscape
The informal dynamics — what doesn't appear on the org chart
Who actually makes the buying decision? (Often different from the sponsor)
Who are the informal influencers / trusted voices?
Who is most likely to resist, and why?
Known internal politics or tensions relevant to this engagement
Who to meet — Meeting 2 Plan
Which stakeholders need to be in the discovery deep-dive?
Essential attendees for Discovery Deep-Dive (Meeting 2)
Aim for: Sponsor + Programme/Ops Lead + HR/People Lead. Max 5 people.
What should they bring to Meeting 2?
📅 Meeting 2
Layer 3
Organisational Discovery
The current state of the organisation: structure, size, geographies, culture signals, values (stated vs lived), and previous change history.
Organisation Structure
Total headcount (global)
Headcount in scope of this engagement
Geographies involved
How is the in-scope team organised? (squads, functions, reporting lines)
Culture & Values Assessment
Stated vs lived — what you observe in conversations, not just what they tell you
What are the organisation's stated values / culture principles?
What culture signals did you observe in conversation? (language, attitude, anecdotes)
What is the lived culture vs the stated culture? Where is the gap?
How are decisions typically made?
How is leadership referred to?
Change History Log
What has been tried before — gold for avoiding the same mistakes
What significant changes have they gone through in the last 3–5 years?
What has been tried and failed in change or transformation? Why?
What has landed well? Why did it work?
📅 Meeting 2
Layer 4
Change Landscape Assessment
Catalogue all significant transformations — not just the one they called you about. Assess volume, sequencing, interdependencies, and change fatigue.
Active Transformations
Log every significant change currently in flight or planned
The "change saturation" test. Ask: if you had to land one more significant change today, could you? What this reveals is as important as the changes themselves.
Change Capacity & Fatigue
Current change fatigue level
Evidence of fatigue / readiness (what you observed)
Are there interdependencies between changes that create risk?
What hasn't been attempted yet that they need?
📅 Meeting 2
Layer 5
Capability & Readiness Assessment
Score each dimension using the 1–5 maturity model. This becomes the diagnostic that justifies your scope and forms the backbone of the client-facing assessment output.
Overall Readiness Narrative
Your synthesis of the capability picture — in your own words
What is the single most important readiness finding?
What are the 2–3 biggest risks to a successful intervention?
📅 Meeting 2/3
Layer 6
Commercial & Governance Context
Budget, procurement, decision-making authority, and buying history. This layer is often left too late and kills otherwise strong proposals.
Budget & Investment
Is there a confirmed budget for this engagement?
Indicative budget range
Who owns the budget?
Budget period / financial year alignment
Procurement & Decision Process
How have they bought consulting services before?
What went well / badly with previous consulting engagements?
Likely timeline to decision
Key timeline driver (why now?)
Decision-making process — who needs to sign off and in what order?
Success Definition
What good looks like — per stakeholder
How does the primary contact define success?
How might other stakeholders define success differently?
How do they want to measure outcomes? What metrics matter to them?
📅 Meeting 3 Prep
Layer 7
Synthesis & Concept Development
Your point of view — a hypothesis about what they actually need, not just what they asked for. This becomes the Concept Note before it becomes a proposal.
The Insight — What They Need vs What They Asked For
This is Alteria's proprietary thinking. Meeting 3 is not a proposal presentation — it's a concept validation. You present back your synthesis, check you've understood, and build co-ownership of the solution before you price it.
What did they ask for?
What do they actually need? (Your hypothesis)
Be bold here. This is where Alteria's value lives — the reframe that clients can't see themselves.
Concept Outline
The shape of the intervention — before you scope and price it
Proposed approach / methodology (in plain language)
Indicative scope
Indicative timeline
What Alteria brings that others don't (the differentiator for this client)
Concept Validation — Meeting 3 Agenda
What you will present back in Meeting 3
Key hypotheses to validate in Meeting 3
Facilitation
Interview & Facilitation Guide
Structured question bank for each session. These are conversation starters — not scripts. Listen for what's underneath the answer, not just the answer itself.
Meeting 1 intent. Listen more than you speak. Goal: understand the landscape at a high level, establish credibility, identify who else you need to speak to. Duration: 60–90 mins.
Opening — Context
"Tell me about your organisation and where you are right now — what's the big story?"
Intent: Let them frame it. Watch what they lead with — that's what matters most to them.
Listen for: Strategy vs operations language. Confidence vs anxiety. What they describe as "the problem" in first 3 minutes.
The Change
"What's the single most important change you're trying to make happen right now?"
Intent: Identify the primary agenda before you hear the 'list'. The real priority is usually the first thing they say.
Follow-up: "What's already been tried? How did it land?"
The People Problem
"When you think about what's not working from a people and culture perspective — what does that look like on the ground?"
Intent: Move from strategic narrative to lived experience. The gap between their answer here and in the previous question is usually where the real work is.
Success Picture
"If we do this well and you look back 12 months from now — what's different? What does good look like for you personally?"
Intent: Personalise the success definition. 'For you personally' unlocks the real answer rather than the corporate one.
Political Landscape
"Who else has a strong view on this? Who do we need in the room for the next conversation?"
Intent: Identify other stakeholders without asking directly about power. Watch for hesitation or names given with a qualifier.
Closing — Alignment
"Based on what you've shared — here's what I'm hearing... [reflect back]. Does that feel right? What have I missed?"
Intent: Demonstrate you've listened. Corrections they make are as valuable as confirmations.
Meeting 2 intent. The real discovery work. 2–3 hours, workshop format. 2–3 people from client side. Bring: structured facilitation guide, sticky notes or whiteboard if possible.
Structure & Scale
"Walk me through how the in-scope team is actually organised — squads, functions, geographies, who reports to who."
Intent: Ground truth the org structure. What's on paper vs how it actually works.
Culture — Lived Reality
"If I spent a week embedded with your team — what would I see? What would surprise me?"
Intent: Bypasses the corporate answer. 'What would surprise me' surfaces what they know isn't quite right.
Follow-up: "Where does the stated culture and the lived culture diverge most? What's causing that gap?"
Change History
"Tell me about a change that landed really well here. What made it work? And one that didn't — what happened?"
Intent: Reveals both capability and appetite. The failure story is gold — what they learned (or didn't) shapes your risk assessment.
Change Landscape
"If you listed everything that's changing or about to change for your people right now — what would be on that list?"
Intent: Surfaces the full change portfolio. Usually reveals 2–3 things not on the initial brief. The volume tells you about change saturation.
The Awkward Question
"What's the thing nobody is saying out loud that we need to know to do this well?"
Intent: The most valuable question in the bank. Usually surfaces the political issue, the failed predecessor programme, or the resistant leader. Ask it late when trust is established.
Meeting 3 intent. Not a proposal — a sense-check. Present your synthesis, validate your hypotheses, build co-ownership before you price anything. Duration: 45–60 mins.
Opening — Reflection
"Before we share our thinking — is there anything that's changed since we last spoke, or anything you want to add to what you shared with us?"
Intent: Creates space for new information before you present. Things change. A recent announcement could reshape the whole concept.
Validating the Reframe
"Here's what we believe you actually need — [present reframe]. Does this resonate? Where does it feel right and where does it miss?"
Intent: The reframe is your IP. If it lands, you've differentiated. If they push back, you learn something that sharpens the proposal.
Concept Reaction
"What's your instinctive reaction to this approach? What excites you — and what concerns you?"
Follow-up on concerns: "Is that concern about the approach itself, or about how it would be received internally?"
Commitment Signal
"If we came back with a full proposal based on this — is this something that's moving forward, or are there other things that need to align first?"
Intent: The commercial question. Their answer tells you whether to invest in a full proposal or have a different conversation first.
Facilitation
Session Preparation Checklists
Use these before each client session. Check off as you go. Non-negotiables are marked — never walk into a session without these done.
📋 You (Alteria Lead)
Completed Layer 1 — Pre-Engagement Research Brief
Read recent news and press on the organisation (last 3 months)
Reviewed LinkedIn profiles of all known attendees
Briefed by mutual connections where possible
Documented 3–5 hypotheses to test in the meeting
Prepared 5–7 open questions (using the Interview Guide)
Prepared a concise Alteria credentials story (2–3 mins max, relevant to their context)
Confirmed meeting logistics (time, location, attendees)
Agreed note-taking responsibility within Alteria team
✅ After Meeting 1 — Within 24 hours
Populate Layers 2–4 with what you learned
Send a follow-up note (brief, warm, not a full debrief)
Confirm Meeting 2 date, attendees, and pre-reads
Internal debrief with Alteria team — update hypotheses
📋 You (Alteria Lead + Team)
Layers 1 & 2 complete before this session
Facilitation guide reviewed and adapted for this client
Maturity dimensions (Layer 5) understood and ready to assess in real-time
Roles agreed: facilitator, note-taker, observer
Agenda shared with client 48 hours in advance
📦 What to ask them to bring
Org chart or team structure overview (even rough is fine)
Any existing change management plans, comms strategies or transformation roadmaps
Examples of previous change initiatives — what was done, what worked
Any employee engagement / sentiment data available
📋 You (Alteria Lead)
All 7 discovery layers completed (or substantively populated)
Concept Note drafted (max 3 pages: what we heard / what we believe / proposed concept)
The reframe is clearly articulated — what they need vs what they asked for
Indicative scope, timeline and investment level agreed internally
Decision-making question prepared — ready to ask the commercial question clearly
Internal sign-off on concept before presenting to client
✅ After Meeting 3 — Decision point
If green light — begin full proposal. Set deadline (10 working days max).
If amber — identify what needs to resolve. Set a specific follow-up with a date.
If red — document learning. Update Alteria's sector / client intelligence base.
Export and file the Discovery Dossier regardless of outcome