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A Five engagement
We don’t deliver programmes. We build performance systems that last.
Everything we design is built from scratch for one organisation, your framework, your assessment approach, your development methodology. And it’s built to be handed over. By the time we step back, your team should be running and evolving the work without us.
Typically six to twelve months, depending on scope. Modular, so you can pilot it with one cohort or scale it across tiers.
Five phases, with ownership moving from us to you.
Why it matters
Which means it’s optimised for nobody at all. It measures generic competencies rather than the capabilities your strategy needs. People attend, the facilitator leaves, and nothing is left behind, no tools, no framework, no ability for your team to carry it on.
We start from your strategy, not from a template. Then we build the framework, the assessment and the development around what that strategy actually asks of your leaders, and we build all of it so you can keep it.
Capability is built through practice, not through instruction. Your people learn by doing.
What we build
Each part is useful on its own. Together they give you visibility of leadership capability, a fair and strategic way to plan succession, and the rhythm to keep it going.
Adapted to your strategy, values and operating environment rather than imported whole. It gives people a shared, observable answer to what good looks like here.
Structured, inclusive, and built around the real trade-offs your leaders face. They surface potential and create momentum at the same time.
Clear visibility across your leadership population. Where capability is strong, where it’s growing, and where to put the next dollar.
Every participant leaves with a plan tied to real work, and their leader gets what they need to have a useful conversation about it.
Assessor training, editable tools, co-delivery and documentation, so the system can evolve in-house without being rebuilt.
How it runs
We start every engagement with Assemble, a structured scoping session that aligns everyone on roles, deliverables and what success will look like. From there the phases run with a co-design group at the front of each one.
Your strategy, your people, your culture. Interviews, data and stakeholder workshops that build an honest picture of where leadership capability actually sits.
The framework, the assessment approach and the development methodology, built for you. Tools, rubrics and the shape of the whole programme.
A test cohort with structured feedback. We run it, watch it, and change what needs changing before it goes wide.
Multi-cohort delivery, paced to what your organisation can actually absorb. Assessment, facilitation, coaching, planning.
Co-delivery, assessor training and a documented handover. You end up owning the system, not renting it.
Your people team, people partners and nominated leaders are in the co-design, the co-facilitation and the observation from the start. They shadow early cohorts, then co-deliver, then lead. You get the same core team from scoping through to handover, not a pitch team followed by juniors. Where we need regional reach or a specialist lens we draw on Friends of Five, our network of practitioners, and you’ll always know exactly who is contributing and what for.
The framework
Building a leadership framework from nothing wastes months. Buying an overseas proprietary model buys you cost, rigidity and someone else’s idea of leadership. We often start from the New Zealand Government’s Leadership Success Profile, which is credible, open, modifiable and unlicensed, then map it to your strategy, add role-relevant behavioural indicators, and embed it in the development, feedback and calibration work.
And it stays alive. As your strategy moves, the framework moves with it, and your team has the tools to make those changes without calling us.
Design principles
Assessment and development aren’t separate activities here. The same day that produces evidence for your talent decisions is the day a leader gets something useful out of it.
Every activity surfaces capability your strategy actually needs. We simulate real trade-offs and decisions, not generic exercises.
People leave with insight, direction and a practical path, not just a rating.
Strength-based, culturally responsive, and built for different ways of thinking and communicating.
Outputs feed straight into readiness tracking, succession planning and personal development. Insight that goes nowhere is wasted.
Structured rubrics tied to observable behaviour, assessor training that covers bias, and guided moderation so decisions get tested rather than assumed.
Who it’s for
The system is modular. It scales across levels, functions and cohort sizes without a redesign, using lighter formats where that’s the right intensity.
People stepping into their first formal leadership role. Foundations built properly, and a connection to strategy early.
Five years or more in the job. Strategy execution, organisational influence, and the work of shaping a culture.
Chief executives and their teams who need to work together better. Real conversations about real challenges.
Governance capability and strategic leadership alignment at board level.
Everything we hand over is editable and system-agnostic, the kind of files your team already works in. In our experience, full integration is usually a red herring. Expensive connectors rarely earn their keep, and what actually matters is that the data is accessible and useful without technical overhead. So we design the process first and let the tooling follow, which also means nothing we build goes obsolete when a vendor changes their roadmap. If you do buy a talent platform later, we’ll help you choose it and make it fit.
Who you’d work with
Sally Schmall leads Five’s executive leadership development, with more than 25 years in HR leadership and executive development. Nick Mackeson-Smith brings the leadership mindset and behavioural side. Where a programme needs it we bring in specialists in inclusive design, te ao Māori and behavioural science, but the core team stays the same from start to finish.
Client lead
Sally SchmallStrategy
Performance
People
Client lead
Nick Mackeson-SmithStrategy
Performance
Culture
People
Technology
Related reading
Related work
An initial conversation costs nothing. Once we understand the cohort and the outcome you’re after, we’ll come back with a shape and a transparent proposal. No hidden costs, no licence fees later.
Bespoke every time. Nothing here comes off a shelf.
Make delivery inevitable.
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