How an Optivo engagement actually runs.
There are three ways to work with Optivo and they follow three different arcs: six months of building on the Monthly COO retainer, a fixed term with a handover designed in on interim cover, or a weekly and quarterly cadence in the Integrator seat. Underneath all three sits the same set of rules, and they are the part that does the work.
Four rules, whichever shape you pick.
A retainer, a fixed term and a seat on a leadership team are three different commitments. These four things are true of all of them, and they are what separate an operating role from a consultancy project.
A diagnostic before a plan
Every engagement opens the same way: a fact find across the leadership, and an anonymous staff diagnostic the owner does not see the names on. The plan is then built on how the firm actually operates rather than how the org chart says it should, which is why no two firms get the same one.
Decisions taken, not recommended
What Andy decides, what the owner decides and what the partners decide together is agreed in writing before the work starts. Consultancy produces a recommendation and leaves; an operating role takes the decision, chairs the meeting where it lands, and lives with the consequence.
Written into the firm as it changes
Processes go into the firm’s own SOP library the week they change, not into a pack on the last day, and every workstream carries the name of someone inside the firm from the moment it opens. The test of a good engagement is what still works six months after it ends.
Judged commercially
Tidier processes are not the point. The measures are capacity freed, margin improved, deadlines met without heroics and decisions that no longer route through the owner — reviewed every month against where the firm started, not against how busy the month felt.
What differs is the shape of the work.
Which arc fits depends on the problem, not the size of the firm. A chronic problem wants the retainer, an acute one with a date on it wants interim cover, and a firm with a plan nobody is holding together wants the Integrator seat.
The Blueprint
Six stages that take a firm from immersion to embedded systems, then an operating rhythm that keeps the discipline in place as it grows.
Qualify, scope & agree the goals
A discovery call, a fact-find across the leadership, and an anonymous staff diagnostic. We agree the first three priorities and where the firm wants to be before any paid work begins.
Immersion & diagnostic
Understand the firm as it actually operates — workflow, capacity, technology, client experience and commercial health.
The operating model & blueprint
Design the operating model, SOP library and system configuration. A client-specific blueprint that says exactly what we build, and in what sequence.
Configure & implement
Practice management live, core SOPs written and owned, workflows and onboarding journeys built across every priority workstream.
Train, go live & embed
The team is trained, new systems go live, and adoption is measured until the new way of working becomes the normal way of working.
Commercialise & hand over
Use the data to improve margins, pricing and performance — then a before-vs-after review, a 12-month roadmap, and systems left embedded and owned.
The monthly COO rhythm
Weekly sessions, a monthly operating review and continuous improvement — keeping the discipline in place as the firm grows, scales or prepares to sell.
The fixed term
An arc with an end date agreed before the start date. Everything between the two is arranged so the firm keeps what gets built.
The brief and the decision rights
The owner writes a handover brief: what the seat covers, who reports where, and which decisions the interim can take alone. Signed terms and an agreed end date before the first day in the firm.
In the seat
Systems access, the team met, the live issues listed and owned. The leadership fact find and the anonymous staff diagnostic run in the first fortnight, so the plan is not a guess made in week one.
The plan is fixed
A 30, 60 and 90 day plan agreed with the owner: the workstreams, the owner inside the firm for each one, and the definition of done. The weekly operating log starts and is shared.
The work lands
The operations meeting chaired, work that is stuck between people unblocked, the agreed decisions taken. Processes written into the SOP library as they change. A monthly progress report to the partners.
Handover, not a finish line
Every workstream has a named owner inside the firm, the operating plan is theirs, and a handover pack records what was done, what is still open and what to watch.
The seat handed back
Either a permanent appointment starts with a function rather than a gap, or the Monthly COO takes over at a fraction of the intensity. Same person either way, so nothing is re-learned.
The cadence
A first quarter that fills the seat, then a rhythm held week by week and quarter by quarter for as long as the firm wants it held.
Same page
A same-page session with the Visionary: what the firm is for, what is in the way, and what the Integrator decides alone. A leadership fact find, and an organisational checkup scored by every leader.
Vision and plan on a page
Core values, core focus, the ten-year target, the three-year picture, the one-year plan, this quarter’s rocks and the issues list — drafted with the Visionary, then agreed by the leadership team.
Seats and numbers
The accountability chart drawn with a seat for every function and a name in every seat, and the first weekly scorecard built with an owner and a target against each measurable.
The weekly meeting, every week
Same day, same time, run to the Level 10 format: scorecard, rocks, headlines, to-dos, then the bulk of the time on solving the issues that matter. Chaired by Andy, rated by the team, written up.
Rocks reset
Last quarter’s rocks reviewed honestly, the plan refreshed, three to seven rocks set for the firm and one to three for each leader, and the issues list cleared. Prepared, run and written up.
Annual planning
The three-year picture and the one-year plan rebuilt, the accountability chart checked against the people actually in the seats, and the year’s measurables agreed.
Everything the work produces sits in the firm’s own portal.
Not in Andy’s files, and not in an email thread. Every engagement runs on a branded Optivo portal the firm logs into, and when the engagement ends the firm keeps all of it — which is the practical version of “built to be handed over”.
- The fact find and staff diagnostic — what the leadership said, and what the team said anonymously.
- The operating plan and tracker — workstreams, actions, owners, dates and status, in one place the whole team can see.
- The written reports — the diagnostic, the blueprint or 30-60-90 plan, and the monthly progress report to the partners.
- The Integrator artefacts — the one-page vision and plan, accountability chart, scorecard, issues list and every meeting’s notes and rating.
- The SOP library — written as processes change, owned by the person whose job it is, not by Optivo.
Three ways in, same operator.
If you are not sure which arc fits, say what is going wrong and when it needs to be different by. If Optivo is the wrong answer entirely, I’ll say so.
Monthly COO
A weekly COO session, a monthly operating review and a live operating plan. The firm gains an operations function it has never had, without a hire.
Interim COO
Two or three days a week in the firm for three to six months: a seat covered, a migration finished, an acquisition integrated, then a designed handover.
Integrator
Someone in the Integrator seat: the weekly leadership meeting run properly, quarterly rocks owned, the scorecard kept honest and the issues list worked.
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