Designing with the Cube

Organisational change often fails not because of bad intentions, but because of poor integration. Many improvement initiatives fall into common traps:

• Single-dimension solutions: A tool is deployed (Measurement) without changes in capability or governance (Themes/Levers).

• Misaligned incentives: New KPIs are introduced without empowering teams to influence them.

• Disconnected outcomes: Activities are delivered but not linked to the results they were meant to drive.

The SPARA Performance Cube solves this by embedding alignment logic into the heart of intervention design. It forces a three-dimensional view:

• What are we trying to improve? (Theme)

• How will we drive that improvement? (Lever)

• How will we measure progress and prove success? (Measurement Chain)

This ensures that every initiative is both actionable and accountable.

SPARA adopts a five-step model to ensure all three dimensions of the Cube are addressed:

1. Select the Core Theme(s): Identify the domain of performance requiring intervention. This anchors the purpose of the initiative.

2. Identify Enabling Levers: Choose the orchestration mechanisms that will create the necessary momentum and change.

3. Define Measurement Chain: Establish how success will be observed, measured, and reported at each level (Objective, CSF, KPI, Metric/XLA).

4. Sequence Activities: Plan delivery logically, aligning people, timing, and dependencies.

5. Build Feedback Loops: Define how you will monitor effectiveness, adjust approaches, and close the loop from action to result.

This is not a checklist — it is a design mindset grounded in systems thinking.

Context: Persistent ambiguity around role ownership leads to service delays, finger-pointing, and inconsistent customer experience.

Theme Focus: Ownership and Accountability

Levers Engaged:

• Governance and Alignment (clarify decision rights and roles)

• People and Empowerment (enable staff to act without fear of escalation)

• Collaboration and Culture (build a shared sense of responsibility)

Measurement Chain:

• Objective: Increase end-to-end ownership across service teams

• CSF: Roles are understood and actively fulfilled

• KPI: % of incidents resolved by first-responder group

• XLA: “I know what I’m responsible for, and I’m empowered to act”

Design Sequence:

1. Conduct role clarity workshops using the SPARA RACI Toolkit

2. Redesign service workflows to reflect true ownership boundaries

3. Introduce peer-nominated accountability champions

4. Measure incident ownership rates, empowerment sentiment, and feedback loops

Theory in Action: Without alignment between decision rights (Governance), personal confidence (Empowerment), and visible outcomes (Measurement), accountability remains aspirational. The Cube creates the conditions for it to be lived.

Context: Risk is treated reactively. Issues surface too late. There is no forward-looking risk visibility.

Theme Focus: Risk and Assurance

Levers Engaged:

• Performance Intelligence (develop leading indicators and trend monitoring)

• Governance and Alignment (establish tolerance thresholds and risk roles)

• Customer Experience and Outcomes (understand the user impact of emerging risks)

Measurement Chain:

• Objective: Shift from reactive to predictive risk posture

• CSF: Critical risks surfaced and mitigated early

• KPI: % of risks addressed before triggering impact event

• Metric: Frequency of risk early-warning signal activation

Design Sequence:

1. Engage senior leadership in defining strategic risks and appetite

2. Build heatmaps and indicator sets aligned to service thresholds

3. Establish proactive risk review forums with diverse representation

4. Link risk signals to assurance outcomes in board reporting

Theory in Action: A risk framework cannot function solely through controls and registers. It requires dynamic sensing (PI), shared thresholds (Governance), and user impact tracking (Measurement) to become proactive. The Cube enables this shift.

The following principles are essential to all SPARA-aligned interventions:

• Three-Dimensional Intent: Every design must intentionally activate one or more Themes, supported by the appropriate Levers, and tracked through a clear Measurement Chain.

• Coherence Over Complexity: Design should strive for integrated simplicity — complex enough to be effective, but simple enough to be adopted.

• Design for Sustainment: Every intervention must consider not just implementation, but ongoing reinforcement and self-correction.

• Visible to Value: Results must not only be delivered, but made visible — to stakeholders, to customers, and to the organisation.

These principles distinguish SPARA interventions from fragmented improvement efforts.

SPARA provides a structured toolset to make aligned design not only possible, but repeatable:

• Intervention Design Canvas: Guides thinking across the Cube dimensions.

• Lever Playbooks: Practical activities mapped to each Lever.

• Measurement Chain Canvas: Enables traceable KPI and XLA construction.

• Theme Roadmaps: Curated improvement pathways for each Theme.

• KPI & XLA Library: Suggested measures grounded in outcome logic.

These tools are not templates to fill in — they are instruments to orchestrate improvement.