For Alberta municipalities
Organizational Readiness Review
Three weeks. Confidential interviews, a scorecard, and a ranked plan — so you know exactly where your organization stands and what to fix first.
You already know something isn't working.
You need to know what, and in what order.
Most leadership teams can name the symptoms. Naming the cause is harder from the inside — the people best placed to see it are the least free to say it out loud.
- A strategic plan nobody references after the launch meeting
- Capable people who can't say what the organization is trying to achieve this year
- The same issues resolved, closed, and reopened six months later
- Monthly reports that measure activity but never answer whether anything improved
- Turnover in the roles you can least afford to lose
- Departments that each work well and don't work together
- A safety program that passes audit and doesn't change behavior
- Decisions that get made twice because the first one never reached anyone
None of these are technology problems. That's why technology hasn't fixed them.
Who delivers it
A guide who's held the clipboard — and received the report.
Thirty years in operations, twenty of them in emergency services — rising to Assistant Deputy Chief of Training, building the training and safety systems people depend on when the margin for error is zero. Then three years as Program Manager of a corporate municipal HR and Safety department: investigations, program design, reporting architecture, four bargaining groups.
I've also been the person receiving the consultant's report. I know what makes one useful and what makes one expensive wallpaper. That's the entire design brief for this engagement.
- Assistant Deputy Chief of Training · 23 years in municipal public service
- Bachelor of Applied Business, Emergency Services Management (with distinction)
- AI Implications on Business Strategy — MIT Sloan
- Alberta Minister's Award recipient
Three weeks, start to finish
A fixed sequence. You know on day one what happens on day twenty-one.
Week one
Scope and document review
A ninety-minute scoping call, then your existing material — strategic plan, org chart, recent reports, policy set. I read all of it before speaking to anyone.
Week two
Confidential interviews
Five to eight interviews, forty-five minutes each, conducted virtually and scheduled around your people. You choose who. Nothing said is ever attributed to an individual.
Week three
Analysis and debrief
Findings drafted, scored, and ranked. The report arrives forty-eight hours before the debrief, so your team reads it before the conversation — not during it.
Your total internal time commitment: one scoping call, one debrief, and forty-five minutes per person interviewed. Under eight hours across the whole organization.
What starts the clock. Three weeks runs from the scoping call and assumes interviews book inside the first ten days. If municipal calendars slip, the timeline moves out by the same amount and the fee doesn't change. I'd rather give you a real date than a fast one.
What you receive
Five deliverables. Every one written to be used, not filed.
Findings Report
Twelve to eighteen pages: what we found, what's causing it, and what it means — organized against the Eight Dimensions of Leadership Excellence.
Dimension Scorecard
All eight dimensions rated, with the evidence behind each rating. Shows where you're strong, not only where you're not.
Ranked Priority Actions
Every finding converted into an action, ranked by impact and effort, with the first ninety days sequenced. Nothing you can't start on Monday.
Leadership Debrief
Ninety minutes with your senior team: walk the findings, take the pushback, agree on the first three moves.
Anonymized Themes
What your people actually said — stripped of attribution, grouped by pattern. Frequently the most valuable page in the report, and the one thing you cannot generate from inside the organization.
What it costs
$6,500
Flat. No hourly billing, no change orders, no expenses added afterward. If the work takes longer than expected, that's my problem, not your budget's.
Included
- Scoping call and full document review
- Up to eight confidential interviews
- Findings report, scorecard, and ranked actions
- Ninety-minute virtual leadership debrief
- Thirty days of follow-up questions by email
Optional
- On-site debrief anywhere in Alberta — add $2,500
- Additional interviews beyond eight — $400 each
- Council or committee presentation — add $1,500
Who this is sized for
Built for organizations of roughly 100 to 2,000 staff — most Alberta towns, cities, and specialized municipalities. At that size, five to eight conversations genuinely represents your leadership.
Outside that range, the principles still hold — what changes is the number of conversations needed to see the whole picture. Tell me your staff count and I'll tell you straight what fits.
Straightforward to approve
A professional services engagement paid from operating budget. No capital request, no licensing, no IT security review, no system access. Nothing is installed and no data leaves your organization.
Measured against the Eight Dimensions of Leadership Excellence
The same framework behind CivicCoach — eight dimensions that together describe how work actually gets directed, supported, and improved.
- 1Clear Direction
- 2Leadership Commitment
- 3Awareness of Environment
- 4Planning
- 5Support and Resources
- 6Daily Work
- 7Checking Progress
- 8Improving Together
What success looks like
Three weeks from now: a scorecard your senior team agrees on, a ranked list of first moves, and the confidence of knowing which concerns were real. You own the report and everything in it. Three paths are normal from here — and the first one is genuinely fine with me.
One outcome worth naming up front: the review may tell you you're broadly on track. That's a real result — knowing which of your concerns aren't actually problems is worth as much as finding the ones that are.
Run with it yourself
Most priority actions don't need outside help. If your team executes the first ninety days and never calls again, the engagement did its job.
Re-run in twelve months
The scorecard becomes a baseline. A second review tells you whether the changes held.
Measure the whole organization
If the findings suggest you need the view from further down, the CivicCoach assessment measures every level against the same eight dimensions. Your Review fee applies against it in full.
No engagement is contingent on buying anything else, and the report is written the same way regardless.
Questions
Is this a sales process for your software?
No. The Review is a standalone engagement with its own fee and its own deliverable, written to be actionable without buying anything from me — because most of what it recommends you'll do yourself.
Do you need access to our systems or network?
No. Interviews are conducted over video. Documents are shared however you prefer. Nothing is installed and no credentials are issued.
Who should we put forward for interviews?
Your choice entirely. The most useful mix is usually two or three senior leaders, two or three middle managers, and two frontline supervisors. I'll advise during scoping, but you decide.
How do you protect what people tell you?
Individual attribution never appears in any deliverable. Themes are reported at the aggregate level, and I say so directly to every person interviewed before we begin. This is the reason the interviews produce anything worth reading.
Is our information kept in Alberta?
All working material is held in Canadian-region Microsoft 365 storage and destroyed ninety days after delivery unless you request otherwise. The engagement is structured to be compatible with your obligations under POPA and ATIA.
Do you work outside Alberta?
Yes. Delivery is remote, so location isn't a constraint. The framework is built around Alberta municipal structures, which is where it's sharpest.
What if we're larger than 2,000 staff?
The principles don't change with headcount — the number of conversations does. Scope and timeline adjust, and I'll be straight on the call about what fits.
What if we can't get interviews booked quickly?
It happens — directors travel, council weeks eat calendars. If scheduling runs past the first ten days, the delivery date moves out by the same amount at no extra cost. What I won't do is compress the analysis to hit a date.
How soon can you start?
Currently booking new engagements. Ask on the call and I'll give you a real date, not a maybe.
Twenty minutes will tell you whether this is worth doing
No presentation, no deck. You describe what's going on, and I'll tell you honestly whether a Readiness Review would help or whether you need something else. If it's something else, I'll say so.
Or email directly — troy.palmer@civicshiftai.com
