For CHROs, CPOs and Heads of L&D
Growth has a ceiling. It’s usually your leadership bench.
A five-stage system that gets your high-potential leaders ready to step up – and proves it with independent measurement.
“Measurably better outcomes than previous business-school solutions – delivered at less cost and in less time.”
Yuleesha Naidoo
CHRO · Discovery
Succession planning names the successors. It rarely makes them ready.
Most organisations can name their leadership pipeline. Few can say what each person on it needs to be ready for promotion, how they’ll close the gap, or how they’d evidence it to ExCo.
That gap has a price. When the bench isn’t ready, the seat is filled from outside – and external hires are paid around 18% more than people promoted into similar jobs, get lower performance ratings for their first two years, and are more likely to leave (Bidwell, Wharton, 2011). The hidden cost sits inside: the people passed over lose motivation, and the best of them leave with their knowledge of how your business really works.
What’s missing is a process that defines the capabilities your strategy demands, builds them in your talent in the flow of work, and verifies the impact and return through independent measurement.
Which of these is on your desk?
The five-stage Succession Readiness System
Five stages, each designed to give ExCo something to act on.
How we measure
Measured twice. Judged by someone else.
Every accelerator is measured before the work starts and again at the end, against the standard your ExCo set – across capability uplift, behaviour shift, business impact and return in hard currency. The measuring is done by Game2Change, contracted separately from our design and delivery team.
- Capability uplift
- Behaviour shift
- Business impact
- ROI in currency
How it starts
Each step earns the next.
It starts with a twenty-minute conversation with David. If there’s a fit, three steps follow.
- The number – sixty minutes, no fee.What an unready bench is costing you, in figures your CFO can test.
- The diagnostic – ninety minutes with your ExCo, run by David.ExCo agree the capabilities that matter and where the bench is weakest.
- The accelerator – six months.Your high-potentials solve real business problems, pitch the results to ExCo, and the change is independently measured.
“Nothing short of transformational. David’s style is brilliantly engaging, practical, and deeply impactful, combining theory with hands-on practice.”
Portia Thokoane
HR Director · Nestlé
9.7 out of 10
average delegate rating, David’s flagship course, Henley Business School
“David fundamentally changed the way I think about leadership, influence and communication. I would highly recommend David to organisations looking to develop stronger leaders.”
Bree Hadley
Head of Learning & Development · SBV Services
“Highly recommend David as a modern, forward-thinking, inspirational leadership expert and coach.”
Natalie Clare
Chief People Officer · The Co-op
Why a principal-led firm
One advisor accountable from diagnosis to measurement. Named specialists behind every stage.
David runs every ExCo diagnostic himself, and is in the room when your executives hear the results. Behind him, Estelle Baffoe (Basiq Blaque) runs accelerator delivery, Adam Gottlich (Nudge Labs) designs the immersions, and Game2Change measures the outcome independently – so the verdict on the work isn’t ours to give.
Start with a conversation.
Twenty minutes on what your leadership bench looks like, what your strategy is about to ask of it, and how you want to prepare your talent to close the gap.
No deck and no pitch. Just a clear view of where your bench is today, and what succession readiness looks like from here.
