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Idea In Brief
Challenge is essential for growth
It tests assumptions, reveals blind spots, and brings clarity, helping leaders navigate uncertainty more effectively.
Structured exercises are invaluable
They simulate high-stakes scenarios to test systems in practice, revealing gaps in coordination and creating a shared space for reflection.
External scrutiny strengthens strategies
It brings diverse perspectives to critically examine programs, identifying weaknesses and offering actionable recommendations.
In today’s organisations, complexity is a given, and priorities grow faster than resources. Yet it’s in the context of this pressure that bold, ambitious ideas take shape and, with the right challenge, become transformative. We see this across our clients, whether they are in Government, Defence, higher education, or any other sector.
Challenge, when well-placed, is not necessarily confrontation. It can also serve as a catalyst. It’s the moment when assumptions are tested, blind spots are revealed, and clarity emerges. For leaders navigating uncertainty, the question is not whether they have a plan, but whether that plan has been meaningfully tested.
Two approaches – Virtual Table Top Exercises (TTXs) and Red Team Challenges – offer structured ways to invite that challenge in.
Table Top Exercises: Rehearsing the unexpected
When multiple organisations must coordinate under pressure, establishing clarity in roles, responsibilities, and communication lines becomes critical. TTXs simulate high-stakes scenarios to test how well systems perform, not in theory, but in practice.
In one recent example, a UK government department brought together 14 agencies to test their collective response to a complex, multi-agency scenario. The exercise revealed critical gaps in coordination, including unclear escalation pathways and inconsistent messaging across agencies. More importantly, it created a shared space for reflection and improvement, one that would have been difficult to achieve through internal review alone.
The greatest value here came from repetition. Once the organisations got used to exploring the uncertainty in individual scenarios, exploring different scenarios helped unlock greater conversations and common themes. Individuals became more confident in identifying gaps, because they were able to access a community that could help address the issues. In a world of constrained resources, identifying who is best placed to solve a problem and removing duplication of effort brings benefits to all.
“The exercise helped us identify the gaps in our response and gave us a clear path to improve coordination across agencies.”
TTX Participant
These exercises are most valuable when they:
- Surface ambiguity in handovers and decision-making
- Reveal gaps in coordination across agencies or departments
- Create a safe space to ask: “What would we do if…?”
The real power of a TTX lies in its ability to expose the difference between what’s written in a plan and what actually happens in a crisis. For many organisations, this helps them look beyond their organisational boundaries to see the whole system under stress before the real stress arrives.
Red Team Challenges: Interrogating strategic foundations
While TTXs test systems, Red Team Challenges test thinking.
These structured reviews bring together diverse perspectives to critically examine whether a program or strategy is truly fit for purpose. They ask:
- Are we solving the right problem?
- Are our assumptions still valid?
- What risks are we not seeing?
A recent example involved a Red Team review within a large defence procurement program. The client sought external scrutiny at a key stage prior to submitting a business case. The review team consisted of senior experts – including a retired Rear Admiral and a former CEO of a public body – who worked collaboratively to identify technical and strategic weaknesses. We engaged directly with the team leading on the work.
Over the course of a few weeks, we got under the skin of the proposed solutions, identified the biggest gaps to goal, and honed in on the most material issues, including by examining examples and case studies from comparable organisations to show how similar challenges have been addressed elsewhere, aiming to inspire new ideas.
The review was structured using the Nous Organisational Architecture Framework (NOAF), ensuring a comprehensive and rigorous assessment. The result was a clear, actionable set of recommendations that will significantly improve the business case, and the outcomes achieved.
“The clarity you bring pushes us beyond our default assumptions.”
Senior officer responsible for the program
The most effective Red Team reviews are not adversarial but constructive. They offer a disciplined way to “kick the tyres” of a strategy, plan, or proposed solution, drawing on external expertise to uncover what internal teams may miss.
The bigger question
Every organisation faces complexity. The difference is how they respond to it.
Some rely on internal consensus. Others seek external validation. But the most resilient organisations are those that actively invite challenge early, often, and with purpose. They encourage challenge within teams, as well as between teams. They have leadership teams that understand that exploring the liminal space – no matter how uncomfortable that feels – enables them to surface and manage risk. At times, the necessary disruption needs to be external, a role Nous plays regularly.
The question is not whether your strategy is good. It’s where you find time and space for challenge, and whether that time and space is enough.
Get in touch to discuss how you can introduce challenge to your organisation.
Connect with Peter Horne on LinkedIn.
