Another generic MSP
An MSP is paid to keep answering tickets. I am trying to work out why the tickets keep happening.
The practice
Most organizations are optimized by department. Their hardest problems are not.
WOPR Systems examines the complete system surrounding a problem — people, technology, workflow, decisions, information, incentives, security and the outcome the organization actually intends to produce.
Why cross-functional work is different
You can have good people in every seat and still get bad results, because the thing connecting them is generating friction, duplication and delay. That is the frustrating part: no one is failing, and it still is not working.
Every team is measured on its own work, so every team protects its own work. That is rational, and mostly correct. But it means the expensive problems — the ones that survive three reorganizations — sit in the gaps between those measurements, where no one has the authority or the visibility to fix them.
The problem should determine the methodology. The methodology should never determine the problem.
Problem translation
What a problem is called is rarely what a problem is
A technology problem
may actually be a workflow problem.
A security problem
may actually be an ownership problem.
A recurring project delay
may actually be a decision-quality problem.
A customer-service issue
may originate several departments away from customer service.
A compliance problem
may actually come from confusing process design.
A recurring meeting
may only exist because there is no better mechanism for distributing information.
Positioning
What this practice is not
Saying this up front saves us both a meeting. If what you need is one of these, there are firms that do it well and I will point you at them.
A pure cybersecurity shop
Security is one way in, and I have done the work. But plenty of things labeled a security problem turn out to be an ownership problem in a security costume.
A GRC consulting shop
I have done years of compliance and vendor risk. But passing an audit and actually working well are two different achievements.
A methodology reseller
I am not going to certify your company in a methodology. The problem should decide the approach, not the other way round.
A software vendor in disguise
Sometimes the right answer is to buy nothing, use what you already pay for, or switch something off.
A firm that sells giant reports
A 200-page report nobody opens is just an expensive way to feel busy. I would rather leave you with one change we actually tested.
The differentiator is cross-domain systems analysis with practical interventions.
A recommendation nobody tests is just an opinion in a nicer font. Every engagement is set up so we can tell whether the change actually helped.