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A magnifying glass resting on an open book. Inside the O, the rim of the glass in black and white.

The departure test

If everyone who built this left tomorrow, would it still work?

Pick one change your company has made in the last few years: a new team, a new way of working, a new capability. Answer six questions about it. Your answers stay on this page. Nothing is stored or sent.

Start the questions

Six questions. Yes, partly or no.

Does it still run the way it was meant to, without the people who built it in the room?
Could someone new learn how it works from what is written down and from the people doing it, not from its builder?
When it meets a hard call, does someone other than its sponsor make the decision?
Is there a number the business still watches that shows whether it is working?
Has it lived through a change of leader, a budget round or a restructure?
Has it got better since its builders moved on, or only held still?

Scoring it on paper

  • Count 2 for each yes (or better), 1 for each partly (or held still), 0 for each no.
  • 10 to 12: it would hold. What was built carries its own weight. The question now is whether the next change is being built the same way.
  • 5 to 9: parts of it would hold. Some of the load still rests on people rather than on the system. Those are the parts that walk out of the door with them.
  • 0 to 4: it would not hold yet. It works because particular people keep it working. That is rented capability, even when the people are your own.

What next

This is a quick self-check on one half of the question. The diagnosis reads both halves: what you own in the market and what your company can carry without you. If the answer worries you, tell me about the change you scored.

Start the brief