The goal is not to diagnose everything. It is to create enough system signal for leaders to know where action is most likely to matter.
It examines three strategic tensions that shape whether effort converts into value:
- Quarter vs Horizon: are short-term pressures protecting or cannibalising long-term bets?
- Sense and Shift: can your business spot change early and adapt without chaos?
- Stretch vs Sustain: are performance demands building capacity or burning through it?
These tensions are assessed through operating system markers such as decision rights, trust, alignment, information flow, friction, accountability, and related patterns of system health.
The diagnostic then indicates where the visible problem is most likely showing up through six visible lenses: culture, teams, leadership, performance, conflict, or change. Those lenses help leaders decide where to start intervention, but they are not the thing being measured in isolation.
Operating system markers or Indicators connect the system to the strategy: and these are also tracked. These monitor where friction slows execution and weakens value creation. Tracking these over time shows how much of an impact any action taken has on execution of business strategy.