Find Orientation
Situation Finder
Every transformation has a dominant tension. Three short questions show which of the eight situations comes closest to yours. Or compare them directly.
Quick assessment
Three questions to the matching situation
Choose the answer that fits best each time. The result shows what it is based on.
Your situation
You said:
Also at play:
The patterns behind it
A mixed situation
Many situations are mixed. The Self-Check shows in ten minutes where in the Compass things are stuck. In a sparring session we sort it out together.
The eight situations
Compare, then go deeper
New Business Model, Old Organization
The business model needs to renew itself. Workshops and pilots exist — but the core business absorbs every innovation.
The pattern
The market has shifted. Margins in the core business are shrinking, a competitor sells as a service what you deliver as a product, or a customer asks for a model you do not offer. Leadership has known for a while that the business model needs to renew itself.
Why it happens
- Innovation as an event instead of a decision
- The metrics of the existing evaluate the new
- No operating system for execution
- Absorption by the core business
A new business model does not need a better idea.
It needs a place in the organization where it is allowed to survive.
Compass focus: Adaptive Innovation · Responsive Strategy · Dynamic-Resilient Organization
The Agile Transformation Has Stalled
Teams work in an agile way, the organization does not. Sprints, boards and roles are in place, yet decisions take as long as before.
The pattern
The agile transformation has been running for some time. Teams work in sprints, there are product owners, retrospectives and boards. The first months brought noticeable progress. Since then something has set in: the teams have become faster, the organization has not.
Why it happens
- Decision rights did not move with the responsibility
- The organization around the teams follows the old logic
- Agility was added on top
- Leadership works as before
Agility rarely fails because of the method.
It stalls at decisions that stayed the same at the top.
Compass focus: Dynamic-Resilient Organization · Systemic Leadership
Decision Gridlock
Critical decisions are postponed, deferred, or ground down in endless loops. The organization loses its capacity to act.
The pattern
Three items have been on the executive team's agenda for months: a business unit that has been losing money for two years, an investment in the platform that everyone considers necessary, and the question of who will lead sales going forward. Every meeting ends with an assignment. Another analysis, an additional scenario, a consultation with the supervisory board. The papers get better; the decision never comes.
Why it happens
- Unclear decision rights
- Deferral is individually rational
- Analysis as a substitute for action
- No yardstick for priority
Decision gridlock does not resolve through better analysis.
It resolves through clarity about the actual question.
Compass focus: Systemic Leadership · Responsive Strategy
Too Many Initiatives
The organization constantly launches new projects but brings few to completion. Resources and attention are fragmented.
The pattern
The executive team's project list runs to forty initiatives. Sales digitalization, a new ERP system, a culture program, a pricing project, three innovation initiatives, sustainability reporting. Each has a sponsor in the leadership circle, each a sound rationale. Not one was stopped last year.
Why it happens
- Initiatives replace strategic clarity
- The reward system honors the launch
- Individual approvals, no portfolio decision
- Capacity is invisible
Priority conflicts do not resolve through discussion.
They resolve through decision.
Compass focus: Adaptive Innovation · Responsive Strategy
The Organization Is Overheating
The outside world moves faster than internal structures can respond. Silos and coordination overhead absorb the energy needed for real problems.
The pattern
The calendar of a division head: Monday, alignment with three neighboring units; Tuesday, an escalation meeting; Wednesday, the steering committee; Thursday, preparation for next week's steering committee. Customer meetings fit into the gaps. Her utilization is well above one hundred percent, and still the sense remains that the important things are left undone.
Why it happens
- Control as the response to dynamics
- Silos push the work to the interfaces
- Decisions migrate upward
- The urgent displaces the relevant
An overheating organization does not need new initiatives.
It needs clarity about which problems actually matter.
Compass focus: Dynamic-Resilient Organization · Systemic Leadership
Strategy-Execution Gap
Strategy and business model are under pressure — but execution fails to land within the organization.
The pattern
The strategy has been approved. Three months of work with external support, a clear target picture, five strategic thrusts, a town hall that was well received. Six months later, a look across the business units tells a different story: budgets have been rolled forward, priorities are the same as before, projects continue under new headings.
Why it happens
- Strategy as a document rather than a decision framework
- Middle management translates without a mandate
- The management system stays the same
- Progress is measured by activity
The gap between strategy and execution does not close through communication.
It closes through decision clarity at every level.
Compass focus: Responsive Strategy · Dynamic-Resilient Organization
Tensions in the Top Team
The leadership team is misaligned, teams work past each other. Conflicts block any forward movement.
The pattern
In one-on-one conversations with the CEO, every member of the executive team is clear, engaged and focused on solutions. In the joint meeting, that changes. Topics are circled, positions are staked out rather than negotiated. The meeting ends with a formulation everyone can support and no one regards as progress. The real alignment happens afterwards, bilaterally and in the corridor.
Why it happens
- Unresolved questions of power
- Everyone is solving a different problem
- Facilitation instead of leadership
- Blind spots at the top
Tensions in the top team do not resolve through facilitation.
They resolve through clarity about the actual decision at stake.
Compass focus: High-Impact Teams · Systemic Leadership
Transformation Lacks Organizational Buy-In
The transformation has been launched, but orientation is missing. The organization does not embrace it — resistance or indifference prevails.
The pattern
The transformation is under way, on paper. There is a program office, a steering structure, a communication plan. Pilot units show early results and are presented at every leadership conference. The rest of the organization does not move, or moves in a different direction.
Why it happens
- The why is not credible
- The pace exceeds the capacity to absorb
- Participation was never real
- New behavior meets old structures
Organizational buy-in does not emerge through communication.
It emerges through a decision logic that people can follow.
Compass focus: WHY · Systemic Leadership
Your situation is not listed?
Many situations are mixed. In a sparring session we sort it out together.
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