Worksheet: Stand up a small central team with one tracker

When every workstream reports its own way, nobody can see the whole programme. This sheet sets up the central team, its mandate and the one tracker every initiative reports into. It builds the Competent step of the check:

A small central team, led by someone who does nothing else, keeps the one tracker that every initiative's status and benefits sit in.

Step 1. The team

Role	Name	Share of week	From which part of the business
Lead		100%
Problem-solver
Problem-solver
Tracking analyst

Aim for about four fifths of the team's time on solving initiatives' problems. Keep administration to the rest.

Step 2. The mandate

Write it down and have the CEO sign it.

The team may	Agreed?
Challenge any initiative's value or dates
Settle clashes between workstreams, or take them to the CEO within a week
Hold an initiative at its gate
Set the standard brief and the status format

Step 3. The tracker

One row per initiative. The steering pack is built from it with no re-keying.

Initiative	Owner	Stage (idea, planned, running, delivered)	Status (on track, concern, late)	Benefit plan ($m)	Forecast	Actual	Next check point
e.g. Warehouse consolidation	Operations director	running	concern	2.4	2.0	0.6	Lease exit signed, 30 June

Under 50 people: give one of your own people the tracker and a set part of their week for it. Let them challenge any initiative that slips.

Done when: a named lead runs the central team full time, and every initiative's status and benefits sit in one tracker.

Adapted from our own transformation-office requirements (Forty 2, 2024).