A Change Management Service for Frontier
How the service would work, how it integrates with what we're already building, and where I'd like your input.
Not here to sell you on the service. Here to walk you through the structure.
What follows is how the service would run, how it integrates with Frontier, and the open questions I want your input on.
The service has two halves. The first is change with a specific destination: helping each client adopt the Frontier tools we're building for them. The second is change resilience: building their ability to keep absorbing change as the technology and the work shift.
Phases 1 and 2 are oriented to the specific destination. Phase 3 is oriented to the long horizon.
Every Frontier audit should include a change-readiness interview block, led by me.
Before the engagement is signed, we already have signal about whether the change will land.
The audit team is already inside the firm. I'd add a dedicated interview block on leadership readiness and team adoption posture, alongside the operational diagnosis. The output: a Change Risk Score and narrative, delivered as part of the audit.
This could be a separate Stage 1 deliverable, or bundled into Frontier. We'll come back to that in the open questions.
Three phases, running in parallel with Frontier.
Each phase syncs with what the Frontier team is doing at that point in the client's journey.
Phase 1 happens while Frontier builds.
Private, high-trust work. Structured leader sessions, then leader-endorsed team interviews.
The audit gave us operational insight. Phase 1 produces the human insight that determines whether adoption actually happens — what people fear, what they need from leadership, how they see their own roles evolving.
Three deliverables come out of Phase 1. I'll walk through the framework that produces them first.
Private
Sentiment Inventory
Private
Team AI Readiness Map
Team-facing
Operating Way document
A working tool for mapping each team member.
I apply it. The leader reviews it. The team never sees it. It drives Phase 2 decisions.
Dimension 1
Posture
Orientation toward AI. Refuser, skeptic, compliant, curious, integrator, builder.
Dimension 2
Craft anchor
Where they derive professional pride. Craft-anchored people are more likely to feel threatened; outcome-anchored people adopt faster.
Dimension 3
Agency
Level of self-direction. Self-directing, responsive, or hesitant.
Dimension 4
Role fit
How the role survives the new operating model — amplified, transformed, at-risk, or sunset. Tied directly to the Frontier tools being built.
How data comes in
Interviews + leadership read
First three dimensions from interview content. Role fit from leadership, in conversation with me. Most sensitive — it has career implications.
Three artifacts the client receives.
Two are private to leadership. The third is the team-facing document that anchors Phase 2.
Private to leadership
Sentiment Inventory
A written synthesis of what surfaced in team interviews: fears, hopes, questions, the dynamics people won't surface in groups. Plus the named individuals whose orientation will shape the engagement.
Private to leadership
Team AI Readiness Map
The team mapped against the four-dimension framework. Drives Phase 2 decisions: influencer activation, targeted development, hard conversations, role redesign.
Team-facing
Operating Way document
Co-authored with the leader. The firm's institutional position on how it operates in an AI-augmented world. Customized to their Frontier build. Updated as tools evolve.
Phase 2 runs alongside tool rollout.
The change management work is what makes the rollout land, and what makes it specific to each client's build.
Activity
Department facilitated conversations
Structured working sessions inside each department. Surface what's been unspoken, walk through role evolution, set departmental working agreements.
Activity
Role evolution plans
Per-role, written. What stops, what stays, what's new, what capability is required. Drafted by me, reviewed by department head, signed off by the leader.
Activity
Internal influencer activation
Identifying culturally influential team members whose adoption pulls others, then formally empowering them with assignments, public cover, and ways to share what they learn.
Activity
Conversation enablement & objection planning
Structured prep for the specific conversations the leader needs to have. Talking points, anticipated objections, framing language, follow-up guidance.
What unifies Phase 2
Custom to their Frontier build
Every activity references the specific tools being rolled out — anchored to the work the Frontier team is delivering at the same moment.
Phase 3 shifts from change with a destination to change resilience.
Once the tools are rolled out, Phase 3 keeps the change capability alive. Paired with the Frontier Retainer.
Lighter and more rhythmic than Phase 2. Monthly leadership check-ins. Quarterly re-assessments using the four-dimension framework. Ongoing maintenance of the Operating Way document.
Not every client will need Phase 3. For some, Phases 1 and 2 deliver the value. Others will see Phase 3 as the most valuable part — durable change capability rather than a one-time project. This is also where MRR can live.
Change management ROI is hard to measure cleanly. We'd be honest about that.
Three layers of measurement, each with explicit limits. Some still being designed — I'd value your input.
Layer 1
Frontier ROI capture rate
For each client with a CM engagement, the percentage of projected operational ROI that materializes within 12 months. Compared against firms without. The headline metric, strengthening with sample size.
Layer 2
Engagement-level outcomes
Things we can attribute: prepared conversations held and rated, influencers activated and propagating, Operating Way usage, role evolution tracked against the Phase 1 baseline.
Layer 3 · Open
Change resilience
The hardest layer. Team pulse data over time. Frequency of hard conversations leadership handles independently. The 18-month test. Framework still being designed.
A few real questions I need this group to weigh in on.
Pricing model
- Standalone line itemSold separately. Change Risk Score makes the case for the engagement.
- Bundled into FrontierAt least for the first 90 days, baked in and not optional. Lauren raised this.
- Pricing varianceEngagement depth flexes with firm size. A single fixed price likely won't fit.
Delivery model
- Phase 3 retainerOpt-in or default? How is this currently working for Frontier?
- Pipeline timingShould current Frontier prospects be offered this proactively now, before the service is fully formalized?
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