I help leadership teams turn strategy into an operating model that keeps up.
I’m Karl Scotland, an independent strategy consultant based in Brighton, working with organisations across the UK and further afield. I’ve spent 25 years helping organisations connect what they say they want to achieve with how they actually work, and then keep the two connected as things change. That second part is usually the harder one.
What I help with
Most engagements start with one of three needs.
Strategy that evolves. The strategy is clear, but the organisation isn’t lined up behind it, or the two have quietly drifted apart. I help leadership teams make their strategic choices visible, then build the operating model that keeps them alive: regular reviews, catchball and backbriefing around a shared X-Matrix, with clear decision rights and governance to support them.
Change that sticks. A transformation has stalled, or people feel it’s being done to them. I help leaders and teams agree on the outcomes they want, so they own the change rather than feel it’s being pushed at them.
Value that flows. Teams are busy, but little value comes out the other end. I help them use Lean, Agile and Kanban thinking to improve how work flows and how they learn from it.
How I work
I don’t do big-bang redesigns, and I don’t copy another organisation’s model. In my experience, the best solutions come from the people closest to the problem. My job is to create enough alignment for them to act, and then help the organisation learn its way forward in short cycles of experiment and feedback.
The approach is based on Strategy Deployment, using my own TASTE X-Matrix to get a strategy onto a single page where everyone can see it. A lot of the work is facilitation, which mostly means helping a leadership team get its disagreements into the open and make choices it can actually act on.
Working independently means I have no prescriptive methodology to sell. A framework built to work anywhere rarely fits anywhere in particular, so I design the approach around your organisation’s own situation. I also have no interest in embedding myself and becoming a dependency. The point is to build your organisation’s own capability, so you can carry on without me.
Background
I went to one of the first Agile conferences, XP Universe in 2001, and was among the first Certified Scrum Masters in the UK in 2003. Around 2007, I started using Kanban systems, helped get the early Kanban community going, and was a founding member of the Lean Systems Society and the Limited WIP Society. I’m also an authorised Agendashift trainer and facilitator. In 2013, I received the Brickell Key Community Contribution Award at Lean Kanban North America.
Who I’ve worked with
Clients have included the BBC, Yahoo!, American Express, Aviva, the NHS, Merck, EDF Trading, Rally Software, GE Energy, GE Healthcare, Nokia, Philips, Cisco, Legal & General, Bank of America, HSBC, Sky, Vocalink, Irwin Mitchell and FIS Global. That’s mostly financial services and technology, along with media, healthcare and energy.
Speaking and community
I speak regularly at Lean and Agile conferences and have given keynotes in a number of countries. Closer to home, I founded the Brighton Lean Agile Group and help organise the Lean Agile Brighton conference, where I put the speaker programme together. If you’d rather listen than read, I talked about how we used Strategy Deployment at Rally on the Shaping Portfolio Agility podcast, and there are more interviews on my Podcasts and Interviews page.
Outside work, I organised the Preston Park Magic Mile running event and wrote the registration and results system it runs on.
