How We Work C&T 101
The CN approach

How
we work.

The short version for decision makers. What CN does, how we do it, what it costs to engage us, and what happens when you get in touch.

70%
of transformation programmes fail to deliver their projected benefits.
Not because the strategy was wrong. Not because the technology failed.
Because the people weren't brought with it.
CN was built specifically to be in the 30%
Where most firms operate
🏢
The boardroom
Strategy signed off. Business case approved.
👥
The town hall
All-staff briefing. Video from the CEO.
📋
The comms plan
Eight emails. A FAQ page. A change champion.
✅
Go-live
Programme closes. Team demobs.
Then the organisation drifts back. Quietly. For entirely understandable reasons.
The gap
Where change is actually decided
🗣
The corridor
"Between you and me, I don't think this will stick."
☕
The 1:1
"Will my job actually change? Be honest."
📅
Monday morning
"Are we actually doing this, or is it another initiative?"
🗣
The informal leader
The person whose verdict shapes what 40 people think.
CN designs for this room. Not instead of the boardroom — as well as it.
How engagements compare

A typical firm. Then CN.

Standard engagement model
Pitch
Senior partner presents. Impressive slide deck.
Proposal
Scoped by senior. Delivered by junior. You find out at kickoff.
Deliver
The work happens. Workshops. Documents. Slide decks.
Go-live
Programme closes. Invoice arrives. Team leaves.
Month 12
Whether the change held is now your problem.
Cairn Novaris
45-minute conversation
No pitch. We listen first. Senior practitioner throughout.
Discovery + one-page view
Our honest read. What we'd do and what it will take.
Deliver — in the corridor
Change management designed for where decisions are actually made.
Go-live earned, not assumed
Readiness assessed. Embedding continues after go-live.
Month 12 — we come back
Benefits verified against baseline. Included in every SoW. It is not standard practice in most engagements.
What makes CN different

Not a values statement.
Structural facts about how CN is built.

Common pattern
Senior partner in the pitch, junior team on the ground. You meet the person you are buying — then someone else does the work.
CN
The person in the pitch is the person on day one. Senior practitioners only. No handoff to a team you have not met.
Common pattern
Engagement closes at go-live. Whether the change held at month 12 is someone else's problem — usually yours.
CN
Month 12 benefits review included in every SoW. We establish a baseline before we start and return to verify. At no additional cost.
Common pattern
A technology platform, an audit practice, a software product. Every recommendation is shaped — consciously or not — by what the firm also sells.
CN
No technology platform. No audit practice. No second agenda. One commercial interest: that the transformation works.
How an engagement works

Four stages.
One accountable team throughout.

01
We meet
A 45-minute conversation. No pitch deck. We want to understand what you are dealing with — not sell you something before we know if we are the right firm for it.
02
We discover
Structured discovery across the organisation. The formal state and the informal one. Where the resistance will be before it appears. A one-page view of what we would do — and what we honestly think it will take.
03
We deliver
Senior practitioners on the ground. Change management in the corridors. Programme delivery that tracks benefits from day one. Go-live earned, not assumed.
12
We verify
We return at month 12. Benefits against baseline. Adoption against target. An honest close. Included in every SoW. Most engagements do not include this by default.
What it looks like in practice

Outcomes, not intentions.

Government transformation
73%
adoption at month 6. Benefits case verified at month 12. Programme had previously stalled twice under different advisers.
Financial services OM
6 layers
redesigned simultaneously. 18-month programme. Operating model verified as embedded at month 12. No reversion.
Scale-up transformation
£50m+
revenue organisation. Operating model rebuilt for scale. Leadership team retained. Change embedded in 9 months.

Outcomes anonymised. Details available under NDA.

The commercial model

Transparent. Fixed-scope. No surprises.

Fixed-scope engagements. We scope the work before we start and price it. No open-ended retainers. No monthly billing for presence.
Defined outcomes. Every engagement has a measurable definition of success agreed before we start. The month 12 review tests against it.
Right-sized for the work. CN does not carry the overhead of a large firm. You are paying for senior practitioners and outcomes — not for brand, overhead or junior resource.
Framework registered. CN can be engaged directly through government procurement frameworks. No lengthy procurement process required.
Who this is for

If you are accountable for a transformation that has to work.

Chief Operating Officer Chief Digital Officer Permanent Secretary Director General CEO / Founder Programme Director

In government, defence, financial services, technology, pharma or a scale-up. If the transformation has to work and you are the person accountable for whether it does — we should talk.

Working alongside the major firms

CN complements large programmes.
We do not compete with them.

The major prime contractors and consultancies win large contracts because they have the scale, the frameworks, the security clearances and the client relationships that large programmes require. CN works alongside them.

Large programme structures are excellent at governance architecture, technology integration and programme management at scale. The work that sits between the programme governance and the people who have to live with the outcome — the sustained human change work, the corridor engagement, the manager enablement, the month 12 verification — benefits from a different kind of resourcing.

CN fills that space. As a subcontractor to a prime. As a specialist change partner running alongside a technology implementation. As the firm that ensures the infrastructure being built actually gets adopted.

As a prime subcontractor
CN operates as the change and people workstream within a larger programme. Senior practitioners embedded in the programme team. Accountable to the prime's governance structure.
Alongside a technology programme
CN runs the change management programme in parallel with a technology implementation delivered by a separate team. The two workstreams are coordinated but independently resourced.
CN as prime, with partners
CN leads the engagement and brings in specialist partners — technology, legal, finance — where the scope requires it. Framework-registered for public sector procurement.
Why this approach. Not preference — evidence.

Every CN methodology choice is built on research.

The data from 140 programmes and 30 years of change management research points to the same conclusions. CN is built around those conclusions.

2.3x
higher adoption when change management is integrated from day one
Kotter (2012) — sequential vs integrated change management
CN embeds change practitioners in design from week one. Not after the TOM is designed — as a design input.
3–5x
more influence on adoption from informal networks than formal communications
Kotter & Cohen (2002) — informal influence research
CN maps the informal influence network in discovery. The corridor map is built before communications begin.
60pp
adoption gap between enabled managers and briefed managers
Prosci Best Practices in Change Management (2023)
CN runs manager enablement programmes. Not briefings. The session includes role play and specific committed conversations.
40%
of go-live adoption lost within 8 weeks without active embedding
Prosci (2023) — embedding and sustainability research
CN resources embedding through month 3 minimum. Month 12 is written into every SoW before delivery begins.
Full evidence base — 8 failure modes with research →
What happens when you get in touch

Three steps. No hard sell.

1
A 45-minute conversation
We listen to what you are dealing with. No pitch deck. No proposal until we understand the problem.
2
A one-page view of what we would do
Our honest read of the situation and a high-level approach. Within five working days. No cost.
3
You decide
No pressure. No follow-up call in three days. If CN is not the right firm for what you need, we will tell you.
Tell us what you are dealing with.

The first conversation is genuinely free of agenda. We are not going to pitch you. If we are not the right firm, we will tell you that too.

Start a conversation →

enquiries@cairnnovaris.com