ready, set, go
Every business runs on a continuous stream of decisions, plans, and initiatives, some large, most ordinary. Nothing in that stream moves without communication carrying it. Most problems trace back to one of two things, or both: the vision itself was never made clear, or the path to get there was never actually designed.
What I do is organized around three stages: Ready, Set, and Go. Each stage carries two things at once, not one after the other: what’s being built, and what has to be understood by the people carrying it out. Left undesigned, work still moves and understanding still travels, just not accurately, and not on purpose. Designing both, every stage, on purpose, is the actual work.
PHASE 1: READY – where the work begins
What’s being built: before any workflow is designed or expectations are set, the plan needs a clear answer to a simple question. What are we actually trying to accomplish, and what does success look like when we get there? Not a plan built around the idea, but one built around the people and the work that will actually live it.
What has to be understood: a shared answer only counts if everyone in the room actually shares it, not just agrees it sounds good. Ready is where questions are encouraged, because questions are how a room finds out whether it’s really seeing the same picture or just assumed it was.
This is not about moving slowly. It’s about preventing false speed. And when the work has already launched, or already drifted, this is still where the diagnosis begins: the same shared understanding, worked backward.
PHASE 2: SET – Building the structure
What’s being built: once direction is clear, the work has to be designed, not assumed. Who owns what. What has to happen before the next step can move. Where the system will strain when real volume arrives. What a decision looks like at the front line, when the person making it doesn’t have time to ask
What has to be understood: a plan can be fully designed and still fail if it only lives in one person’s head. Set is where the people doing the work move from included to informed to prepared: they had a real say while it was being shaped, they know what was decided, and they know what it means for their own day. Most plans quietly stall at informed.
PHASE 3: GO – bring the work to life then protect it
Go-Live is not a finish line. And it’s not just a date on the calendar. What’s being built here is presence: leadership is visible and prepared before the first day begins, not reactive after it ends. What has to be understood is just as concrete: people need to know what’s changing, what’s staying the same, and exactly who to go to when something isn’t clear.
When that preparation is in place, the structure has a real chance of surviving first contact with the real work. When it isn’t, small workarounds begin immediately, and the design starts eroding before anyone notices.
The first 90 days after launch determine where the work survives or drifts.
In closing
The expectations around a new vision or a change are rarely complicated. Bring the ship in. What makes that possible isn’t calm seas. It’s work built well enough to handle the rough ones. It’s work built together: what gets executed and what gets understood, every stage, on purpose. Ready builds the foundation. Set designs the structure. Go protects it once the real work begins.
If any of this sounds familiar, whether you’re about to launch something new, in the middle of something that’s already straining, or simply know that things could be running better than they are, I’d welcome a conversation.
“Don’t tell me how rocky the sea is, just bring the ship in.”
Lou Holtz
