Section 02 · Diagnose · What is really going wrong?
Diagnosis
6 modules · Finding the real problem behind the symptoms.
Part of the DIAGNOSE curriculum. Access all DIAGNOSE modules: USD 35.64. See DIAGNOSE access →
Late deliveries, angry customers and missing cash are symptoms. Fixing them one by one rarely fixes the business.
Why it mattersMoney and management attention are the two scarcest resources in a growing business. Treating symptoms spends both without improving the business, and it has a further cost: it teaches the organisation that problems are solved by activity rather than by understanding.
You leave withA symptom-to-cause map for your most persistent issue.
Related: M07 Finding the Root Cause · M11 Diagnosing a Process · M10 Reading Business Health · M26 ERP: What It Can and Cannot Fix
Illustrative teaching case: The ERP That Didn't Fix Anything
Open M06 →The first explanation is usually a person. The real cause is usually a system that lets the failure repeat.
Why it mattersRoot-cause analysis turns failures into permanent improvements. Each properly analysed failure removes a condition from the business, and over time the business becomes structurally harder to break.
You leave withA root-cause analysis for one recurring failure.
Related: M06 Symptoms vs Problems · M11 Diagnosing a Process · M17 Quality Control · M13 Standard Operating Procedures
Open M07 →Approvals, pricing, key customers and problem-solving all route through one person. The business waits.
Why it mattersFounder dependency caps the growth of the business at the capacity of one person. It makes the business fragile, since illness or absence can halt it. And it reduces the value of the business to lenders, buyers and investors, who reasonably ask what they are financing or acquiring if the business cannot function without its owner.
You leave withA founder-dependency score with the first three handovers identified.
Related: M20 Decision Rights · M21 Delegation · M57 Founder Transition · M59 Second-Line Leadership
Illustrative teaching case: The Founder Bottleneck
Open M08 →Problems rarely sit in one department. They sit where functions, owners, rules, processes and tools fail to connect.
Why it mattersA structured view of the whole operating model shows where control is lost and which few gaps cause most of the trouble. It prevents the business from spending heavily on fixes in the wrong place, which is among the most common and costly errors a growing business makes.
You leave withYour business mapped on the KSL Operating Model.
Related: M10 Reading Business Health · M06 Symptoms vs Problems · M18 Organisation Design · M42 Management Rhythm
Open M09 →Profit is a lagging signal. By the time it falls, the causes have been visible for months.
Why it mattersA small set of health indicators, reviewed regularly, gives warning while there is still time to act. The difference between learning of a problem three months early and learning of it from the annual accounts is often the difference between a correction and a crisis.
You leave withA short set of leading indicators for business health.
Related: M39 KPIs That Drive Decisions · M42 Management Rhythm · M09 Diagnosing the Operating Model · M40 Dashboards
Open M10 →Work slows, errors repeat and nobody can say where. The process has never been looked at end to end.
Why it mattersMost operating cost and customer frustration sits in a handful of core processes: order to cash, procure to pay, hire to productive. Diagnosing one of these properly usually releases capacity and cash without new investment.
You leave withA diagnosed process with its three biggest failure points.
Related: M12 Process Mapping · M14 Workflow Design · M07 Finding the Root Cause · M13 Standard Operating Procedures
Open M11 →