How You Operate
The highest-value work a leader does is designing how the company works. This is ninety minutes on exactly that, and a written view of what to change first.
You could pick this apart with your own team, but they carry the same biases you do. Doing it with a neutral outsider is a different conversation.
Answer, discuss, then read what we saw.
Three steps over about a fortnight, and only the middle one takes real time.
The pre-meet questions
A few easy-to-answer questions, like how many priorities are live and which frameworks you use. It means the session starts at the interesting part rather than the setup.
The discussion questions
A working one-on-one or one-to-few. We push where the answers are interesting and skip where they are not. We record it and run an AI transcript, so nobody takes notes, and you get both afterwards.
The report
A written read on the opportunity: where the way you operate is costing you speed or focus, what we would change first, and what we would leave well alone. Yours to use, with us or without us.
Seven questions for us to discuss. They look simple on paper, but they lead to other questions, deeper insights, and eureka moments that will inspire you. That is a promise. Everything that comes out of them is captured as you go, on video, in the transcript and on a shared virtual whiteboard, so nothing said in the ninety minutes is lost. The list grows when someone in the chair suggests something better.
What are the core principles that govern how your company runs?Don't worry, we will show you frequently cited principles to start the conversation, and you can add others. Always insightful.
What do you wish your teams did more of, or did more effectively?What's holding you back? Product? GTM? Sales?
Choosing the right direction and moving faster are different disciplines. How are you optimising for both?AI, automations, org design, culture-building initiatives? What is in the works, and how is it going?
How much does your future advantage depend on new ideas being shared and the right bets being chosen?Designing for this intentionally is exciting and nuanced. If you're more 'me-too' than you'd like, you'll like this part.
How do you set goals? By org chart team, cross-functional teams that collaborate, or other?How you organise yourself impacts progress velocity. If progress is sometimes slow, we can share lots of great learnings here.
A high-performing team usually feels like it is already killing it, so do they need quarterly goals too?Another nuanced area, and a common opportunity to get even more out of a great team.
If you stopped setting goals tomorrow, would teams care and performance notice?The answer is not always what you expect or want to hear. You might want to anonymously poll before we meet to get an honest answer.
Ninety minutes and an open growth mindset
Thinking partner only
Matt Roberts runs every session.
Not a researcher, not a junior, and not a rotating cast. Matt founded ZOKRI and has spent ten years installing this way of working inside leadership teams, which is why the questions are short and the follow-ups are not.
He also writes the report, so the person who heard the answers is the person telling you what they mean.
Things we hear, and help solve, most weeks.
“Our best teams do not think they need goals. To them it is admin.”
“We did OKRs and never got the lift we expected.”
“We have too many priorities and I cannot bring myself to cut any.”
“We have had several bad quarters, so something has to change. Let us take an honest, objective look at how we operate.”
“The strategy is clear in my head. I am less sure it is clear three levels down.”
“Planning takes six weeks and by the time we finish, it is already stale.”
“Everything waits for me. I cannot take two weeks off without it stalling.”
“My leadership team agrees in the room and diverges the moment they leave it.”
None of these are unusual, and none of them are solved by trying harder. They are the sort of thing the seven questions tend to pull into the open.
Seven common questions.
What is this, exactly? +
Ninety minutes with ZOKRI, working through seven questions about how your company actually runs. You answer a short questionnaire beforehand, we talk it through live, and five working days later you get a written set of recommendations for operating more effectively. It costs nothing and there is nothing to buy at the end of it.
Why the same seven questions every time? +
Because comparison is the point, first against yourself and then against everyone else who has sat in the chair. The questions are the ones we ask in the first week of a paid engagement, and they are published above so you can use them without us if you would rather.
What is in the report? +
The opportunity, in plain terms: where the way you operate is costing you speed or focus, what we would change first, and what we would leave alone. Specific to your answers, not a template with your logo on it. Usually two to three pages, with you in five working days.
Is this a sales call in disguise? +
It is a real working session, and it is also how we meet people. We will not pitch you in it, send a proposal after it, or put you in a follow-up sequence. Some leaders read the report, see the value and come back to us. That is entirely their move, and most do not make it. The report, the recording and the transcript arrive either way.
Should I do this on my own or with my team? +
Either works. On your own, the answers are what you actually think rather than what the room agrees on. With your senior leadership team, the same questions surface where you quietly disagree, which is usually where the opportunity is. If the team comes, everyone answers the pre-meet questions separately and nobody sees anyone else’s until we are in the room.
What do I need to prepare? +
Nothing beyond the questionnaire, which is short and asks only for things you already know. No deck, no data pull, no pre-read. If a question needs you to open a file, that is a finding in itself.
Is it recorded? +
Yes, and the recording is yours. You get the video and an AI transcript with the report, so your leadership team can watch it back or the people who were not there can hear it first-hand. It is never published or shared with anyone else, and if you would rather work without one we turn it off.
Come and tell us how you operate.
It takes a bit of nerve to have your operating model questioned. It takes a bit of nerve to do this live, for free, with no idea what we will find. That is the deal, and it is why the conversation is worth having.
It is free, and we keep one slot a day for it, so the diary fills a few weeks out. Twenty minutes on a call first, so you know exactly what is coming and can decide afterwards. Matt books the session while you are on the call.