Phases, owners, and acceptance gates
| Phase | Owner | Work | Acceptance evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protect continuity | Incoming operator | Confirm customer deadlines, essential contacts, authorized access, and critical task coverage. | People know who owns the next decision and where to raise an urgent issue. |
| Understand the current operation | Operator and team leads | Trace recent work, listen to staff, and compare reports with source records. | Key constraints are supported by evidence rather than first impressions. |
| Pilot one integration change | Responsible manager | Choose a reversible workflow improvement with a baseline and fallback. | The team can show what changed and whether it helped the agreed outcome. |
| Standardize selectively | Leadership team | Adopt useful common definitions and document necessary local variation. | An internal owner can sustain the practice after transition support ends. |
Before the first working session
Name a sponsor who can resolve competing priorities and a manager who will maintain the result. Gather a recent normal case, an exception, and the current instructions. Reserve time for the people doing the work; a plan cannot be validated entirely through leadership discussion.
Worked example
Illustrative example: the buyer wants to replace scheduling software immediately. Interviews reveal that one coordinator holds essential customer-access knowledge outside the system. The operator captures and validates that knowledge before testing a new scheduling workflow.
When to pause or revise the plan
Pause changes that could disrupt essential delivery or conflict with transaction, employment, access, or contractual requirements. Coordinate those matters with the responsible advisers; this is an operating sequence rather than transaction advice.
A practical review rhythm
At each phase boundary, review completed evidence, unresolved decisions, and the next owner. If a prerequisite is missing, record who will resolve it and when the team will review it again. Keep acceptance separate from effort spent: a completed meeting is not proof that the new workflow can operate.
Handover and continuing ownership
Maintain a decision log with the reason, owner, affected workflow, and review date. Track unresolved employee questions and delivery exceptions so integration work does not obscure the health of the underlying business.
Related implementation resources
Discuss the operating problem
Elixir consulting starts at $5,000 per month, with final pricing based on scope. Bring a recent example, the current workflow, and the person who owns the result to define the appropriate implementation scope.