What can be sustained.

Why This Matters

A strong direction is not enough. It must also be sustainable, supported, and trusted.

This step checks whether the posture you have chosen is actually doable, whether the workforce can carry it, and whether the right people will travel with it.

Part 1: Capability audit and gaps

Sustainability check: if this posture isn't currently sustainable, return to Step 3 and make further trade-offs about what stops, reduces, or waits. Sustainability is often created through subtraction, not effort alone.

Going deeper: this audit surfaces where the gaps are, not how to close them. For workforce gaps specifically — leadership pipeline, structure, skills depth — the 👥 Workforce & People Sprint and ⚙️ Business Capability Sprint are built to take you further into diagnosis and planning than this step is designed to.

Part 2: Structural Design

Capability tells you whether you can deliver. This asks whether how you're organised actually lets you.

Part 3: Stakeholder Approach

Capability and structure alone don't sustain direction. Strategic posture must also retain the confidence of the people who enable, fund, govern, or are affected by it.

Ask:

• Whose support is required for this posture to hold?
• Who carries risk if this fails?
• Who must be engaged early?

Return to Step 1 when considering stakeholder relationships and Te Tiriti responsibilities.

Part 4: Sequencing

This is where the step ends with action. Given everything above, what has to happen, and in what order?

If everything lands at "1," sequencing hasn't actually happened — go back and test what's genuinely first.

You leave Step 4 with a capability profile, a structure that's been tested against the posture, and a sequenced plan. Step 5 builds the system that keeps it in motion.