See what is actually creating the friction before you fund another fix.
When the same problem keeps returning, the symptom moves somewhere else, or a major change is not producing the expected result, the organization may not need another solution yet. It may need a clearer diagnosis.
Evolve helps executive teams understand what is happening beneath the visible symptoms, why the pattern persists, and what leadership now needs to decide.
The work is qualitative, confidential, senior-led, and built to produce decisions rather than a report that sits on a shelf.
When an organizational diagnostic is useful
An Evolve diagnostic may be useful when:
- A new executive needs to understand the organization they are inheriting.
- Growth has made old ways of working unreliable.
- A merger, restructuring, or leadership transition has created new friction.
- Decision rights, accountability, or handoffs are unclear.
- Teams are working hard, but execution still feels slow or chaotic.
- A change effort has stalled, faded, or produced unintended consequences.
- Leaders have different explanations for the same recurring problem.
- You know the outcome you want, but not what is preventing it.
The diagnostic is not designed to confirm a preferred story. It is designed to follow the evidence across interviews, documents, measures, workflows, decisions, and operating conditions until the pattern becomes clear enough to act on.
What Evolve charges
Evolve publishes its range so you can tell early whether this is a serious conversation and whether the economics fit the problem you are trying to solve.
| Engagement | Timeline | Interviews | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-Day Executive Alignment Sprint | 4 weeks | Up to 20 | $40,000 |
| Extended diagnostic | 6 weeks | Up to 35 | $55,000–$65,000 |
| Diagnostic plus operating model design | 8–10 weeks | Up to 40, plus design | $80,000 |
| Enterprise diagnostic | Bespoke | Above 40 | From $100,000 |
Most engagements fall between $40,000 and $80,000. Two things move an engagement up the range: the number of interviews and whether the work extends past diagnosis into designing the operating model, meaning decision rights, structure, and the accountability system that has to hold afterward.
Interview counts are stated rather than open-ended on purpose. It keeps the scope honest in both directions and means you know what you are buying before the work starts.
What you receive
A long report can preserve rigor, but it cannot serve every leader in every moment. Evolve uses a layered set of deliverables so the full evidence remains available without requiring every executive to absorb the entire evidence base before acting.
-
Findings Placemat
A one-page visual that turns the spaghetti bowl of findings into a pattern leaders can see, discuss, and use together.
-
Decision Brief
The choices leadership now needs to make, with the implications, ownership, tradeoffs, and timing made explicit.
-
Private · for the CEO only
CEO Advisory Note
A private, forward-looking note for the chief executive. It addresses sensitive findings and leadership moves that do not belong in the wider executive conversation.
-
Section Cover Memos
One page for each major finding area. These memos help functional leaders enter the relevant evidence quickly and act on friction within their own domains.
-
Performance Friction Report
The full evidence base. Each finding explains what Evolve observed, why it matters, the tensions and tradeoffs it creates, and what leadership should consider next.
-
Enterprise Maturity Model
A view of where the organization is, where it intends to be, and which gaps sit in which part of the system. The model is selected for the organization's context and used to support prioritization.
-
Executive Themes Brief + Visual Appendix
A shareable summary for the wider executive group, accompanied by full-size versions of the visuals used throughout the findings. This executive artifact is separate from the de-identified interview themes Mary shares back with interview participants.
Rigor should be available without requiring every leader to absorb the entire evidence base before acting.
How the 30-Day Executive Alignment Sprint works
The four-week Sprint is the core engagement. Longer diagnostics follow the same logic with more time for a broader interview sample, additional evidence, or operating model design.
-
Week 1
Frame the work, gather the evidence, begin listening
A framing conversation with the head of the organization, discovery and evidence intake, and the interview calendar built and confirmed.
-
Week 2
Listen across the system
Interviews continue across levels, functions, and perspectives. Mary maps themes as they emerge and tests connections against documents and workflows.
-
Week 3
Test the patterns
The interview set completes, evidence is coded, and de-identified interview themes are shared back with everyone who participated.
-
Week 4
Turn evidence into decisions
Evolve completes the layered deliverables, prepares private CEO guidance, and leads the executive findings and decision conversation.
The engagement ends with a clear evidence base, a visible pattern, and the decisions leadership must now make. Detailed implementation may follow, but it is not assumed or prescribed before the diagnosis is complete.
What is included in the diagnostic work
Evolve is a senior-only practice. Dr. Mary Barnes conducts the interviews, does the synthesis, and is in the room when findings are presented. Interviewing, real-time pattern mapping, formal coding, and report writing stay in the same senior hands. The engagement is not handed to a junior consultant.
The diagnostic includes:
- An opening framing conversation with the head of the organization, held one-on-one or with a core advisory group.
- A discovery and evidence-intake process covering the relevant documents, workflows, process documentation, measures, prior assessments, and other available organizational material.
- Confirmation of the organization's agreed interview list and coordination of the full interview calendar within the project window.
- The stated number of interviews for the selected engagement.
- Senior-led interviewing, real-time pattern mapping, formal coding, synthesis, and report writing.
- A de-identified interview themes summary shared with everyone who participated, closing the loop without attributing stories, direct quotes, or themes to an individual.
- The seven-part deliverable package described above.
- Direct senior involvement when the findings are presented.
When an engagement needs more than one person, Evolve assembles a team from a network of vetted boutique firms and senior independents selected for that specific work. You receive additional capacity when the work requires it without a leverage model and without being handed to whoever happened to be on the bench.
This model fits organizations of roughly 100 to 1,000 people with real operational complexity, where the executive team is part of the question and where the value is senior judgment, candor, qualitative rigor, and the ability to connect patterns while the evidence is still being gathered.
What is outside the diagnostic scope
The interview counts are boundaries, not estimates of open-ended availability. Work above a tier's stated count belongs in the next appropriate engagement or in a bespoke enterprise scope.
The diagnostic ends with evidence, findings, and a small number of decisions in front of the people who can make them. It does not include implementation unless that work is scoped separately after the diagnostic. Operating model design is included only in the engagement that names it or in a bespoke scope that expressly includes it.
A diagnostic can reveal the truth. It cannot compel leaders to act on it. Evolve does not promise a permanent friction-free end state. Friction is generated continuously by growth, turnover, changing priorities, new systems, and the ordinary movement of an organization through time.
Evolve is not the right fit if you need:
- Simultaneous work across many business units globally.
- Benchmark data drawn from a large normed database.
- A recognizable brand name on the cover for board purposes.
Those are legitimate reasons to hire elsewhere. Evolve will say so in the first conversation rather than the fourth.
Terms and readiness
Terms are 50 percent to begin and 50 percent on delivery.
The organizations that get value treat the findings as the start of a decision process rather than the end of a project. They also recognize the obligation created when employees have invested time and candor in telling the truth.
Before commissioning the work, ask one question:
If this diagnostic tells you something you do not want to hear about your own role in the pattern, what will you do?
If the honest answer is nothing, spend the money elsewhere.
Not every need is a full diagnostic
Executive 360s, strategic advisory and implementation support, the Strategic Storytelling Studio, and speaking or executive education are other ways to work with Mary. They live on their own page so this one can stay focused on the diagnostic offer.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an Evolve organizational diagnostic cost?
Most Evolve diagnostic engagements fall between $40,000 and $80,000. The 30-Day Executive Alignment Sprint is $40,000, the Extended diagnostic is $55,000 to $65,000, and the Diagnostic plus operating model design is $80,000. Bespoke Enterprise diagnostics begin at $100,000.
How many interviews are included?
The 30-Day Executive Alignment Sprint includes up to 20 interviews. The Extended diagnostic includes up to 35. The Diagnostic plus operating model design includes up to 40, plus design work. Work above 40 interviews is scoped as an Enterprise diagnostic.
Does Mary personally conduct the diagnostic work?
Yes. Dr. Mary Barnes conducts the interviews, leads the synthesis, develops the findings, and is in the room when findings are presented. When additional capacity or expertise is required, Evolve assembles vetted senior specialists for that engagement.
What happens after the diagnostic?
The diagnostic ends with evidence, findings, and decisions for leadership. Implementation, strategic advisory, or ongoing support can be scoped separately as a defined project or a bounded advisory retainer.
Start with the problem, not a predetermined solution
You do not need to know which tier you need before reaching out.
Bring the recurring problem, the transition you are navigating, the decision that feels stuck, or the result the organization is not producing. The first conversation is a chance to determine whether an outside diagnostic would help, what scope could represent the system responsibly, and whether Evolve is the right fit.
Sometimes the answer is no. Mary will say that, too.