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Operations · six weeks on site · fixed fee
Most of this page is for the people I'd be working next to, not the person paying for it.
An operations change fails on the floor or it doesn't fail at all. So the questions a team asks in week one — is this about redundancies, am I being timed, do I have to talk to you — get answered here in the open, before anybody signs anything.
6 weeksStart to finish, and it does not get extended
5 shiftsWorked alongside the team before a word is written
0Recommendations made in the first fortnight
1 reportSent to everyone named in it, on the same day
Those are numbers about the method, not about results. What changes afterwards depends on the place, the people and a dozen things outside anybody's control, and I have no honest way to put a figure on it in advance.
If you work there
You didn't ask for this and you may well have seen a version of it before. The short answer: I work your shifts before I write anything, I don't report on individuals, and you get the same document your manager gets on the same day.
If you're paying
You get a document you can act on without me, a price fixed before it starts, and somebody who will tell you when the answer is to change nothing. What you don't get is a retainer, a licence fee, or a recommendation that quietly earns me a commission.
The six questions, answered straight
Replace these with your own answers, and keep them this blunt. A hedged answer to any of these six reads as a yes.
Is this about redundancies? — No, and it's in the contract rather than just on this page: I don't recommend headcount changes and won't be asked to. Where that is what a job actually is, I'm the wrong person and say so on the first call
Am I going to be timed? — No stopwatch, no time-and-motion study, no clipboard behind you. I work the shifts instead, which is far slower and tells you considerably more
Do I have to talk to you? — No. Nobody is scheduled, nobody is called in, and "not today" is a complete answer that costs you nothing. Most of what I learn comes from doing the job badly next to someone who does it well
Will my name be in the report? — Only if you asked for it to be. Problems go in as problems — a step, a form, a handover that drops things — never as a person who is slow
What if the real problem is a manager? — It goes in as a process finding, because that is usually what it honestly is. If something is genuinely a conduct matter then it is not mine to handle, and I'll say that rather than route it through an operations report
When do I see it? — The same day the person paying does. That's a condition of the work rather than a courtesy, and it is the main reason some jobs never start
Am I going to be timed? — No stopwatch, no time-and-motion study, no clipboard behind you. I work the shifts instead, which is far slower and tells you considerably more
Do I have to talk to you? — No. Nobody is scheduled, nobody is called in, and "not today" is a complete answer that costs you nothing. Most of what I learn comes from doing the job badly next to someone who does it well
Will my name be in the report? — Only if you asked for it to be. Problems go in as problems — a step, a form, a handover that drops things — never as a person who is slow
What if the real problem is a manager? — It goes in as a process finding, because that is usually what it honestly is. If something is genuinely a conduct matter then it is not mine to handle, and I'll say that rather than route it through an operations report
When do I see it? — The same day the person paying does. That's a condition of the work rather than a courtesy, and it is the main reason some jobs never start
How the six weeks run
Shifts
Five of them, across the places the work actually happens — including one nobody enjoys and one at the end of a long week. No notes taken in front of anyone.
The paperwork
Every form, screen and handover a job passes through, followed end to end on one real job rather than a described one. Most of it is found here.
The questions
Conversations with whoever wants one, on their terms and in their own time. Not in a meeting room with the door shut.
Drafting
A first draft goes to the floor before it goes anywhere else, specifically so it can be told where it is wrong while that is still cheap.
Arguing
Two sessions — one with the team, one with whoever signs. Findings have been withdrawn at this stage, and having somewhere for that to happen is the point.
Handover
The final report, the evidence behind it, and a list of the things I could not work out. Then I leave.
What I won't do, and why
I won't recommend headcount cuts — Less a moral position than a practical one. A consultant who might propose redundancies gets shown the tidy version of the work, and the tidy version is worth nothing to either of us
I won't put software in — No reseller arrangements, no partner commissions, no referral fees from anybody. Where a tool would genuinely help you get the name and no money moves
I won't stay on — If a change still needs me in month three then it isn't a change, it's a dependency with an invoice attached. The handover in week six is the deliverable
I won't feed anybody's appraisal — Nothing from these six weeks belongs in a performance file. Where a report has been wanted on that basis the answer was no and the job did not happen
I won't take a share of savings — It decides in advance what I go looking for, and leaves you no way to tell whether it did
I won't work where the report is private — Everyone named sees it the same day. That is the one condition and it does not bend for anyone
I won't put software in — No reseller arrangements, no partner commissions, no referral fees from anybody. Where a tool would genuinely help you get the name and no money moves
I won't stay on — If a change still needs me in month three then it isn't a change, it's a dependency with an invoice attached. The handover in week six is the deliverable
I won't feed anybody's appraisal — Nothing from these six weeks belongs in a performance file. Where a report has been wanted on that basis the answer was no and the job did not happen
I won't take a share of savings — It decides in advance what I go looking for, and leaves you no way to tell whether it did
I won't work where the report is private — Everyone named sees it the same day. That is the one condition and it does not bend for anyone
What it costs
The six weeks
$16,800 · fixed
- Five shifts worked, not observed
- One job followed end to end
- Draft to the floor first
- Report to everyone named, same day
One area
$6,200 · two weeks
- A single line, shift or handover
- For places under about thirty
- Same conditions, same refusals
- Same fixed fee
Six months later
$2,400 · optional
- What actually got done
- What was quietly dropped
- Honest about my own wrong calls
- Book it later, or never
Fixed before it starts — The number doesn't move, including when the place turns out to be messier than described. That risk is mine, and pricing it is part of the job
Travel is in it — Including the shifts that start at five in the morning, which are the ones worth being there for and the ones a day-rate quietly discourages
Nothing free up front — A free operations review is a sales visit with a notebook. This one costs money because it is six weeks of real work in a real building
Small places — Under about thirty people, take the single area. The full six weeks would find the same three things at nearly three times the price
Travel is in it — Including the shifts that start at five in the morning, which are the ones worth being there for and the ones a day-rate quietly discourages
Nothing free up front — A free operations review is a sales visit with a notebook. This one costs money because it is six weeks of real work in a real building
Small places — Under about thirty people, take the single area. The full six weeks would find the same three things at nearly three times the price
Book a call
Thirty minutes, free, and a fair few end with a suggestion to try something yourself first. Say roughly what's going wrong and you'll get a straight read on whether six weeks is the right answer.
Book a call
If the honest answer to the third question is "no", say so — it is not a disqualifier on its own, but it is the thing worth spending the call on rather than the price.
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