Most change programs run on vibes.
Yours is about to run on data.
Rhythm Engine™ is a change readiness diagnostic tool that tells you exactly whether your organisation can absorb what you’re about to ask of it.
Outlier runs it end-to-end, then turns the scores into what no dashboard can: a bespoke change campaign, engineered from your data, built for maximum adoption.
Measure the pulse. Find the friction. Make it stick.
Of projects don’t meet their intended outcomes
~ McKinsey
Of leaders say they have involved employees in change initiatives, yet only 42% employees report feeling included
~ Prosci
See how it works
Most organisations already run engagement surveys. Some run project pulse checks. Rhythm Engine™ is neither; it was designed from the ground up to answer a question those tools were never built to ask: are the specific conditions for this change to succeed actually present right now?
Built Differently. On Purpose.
Most organisations already run engagement surveys. Some run project pulse checks. Rhythm Engine™ is neither, it was designed from the ground up to answer a question those tools were never built to ask: are the specific conditions for this change to succeed actually present right now?
Organisations launch change programs
without knowing if they can absorb them.
The investment is committed. The timeline is set. The communication plan is approved. And nobody has asked the most important question: are we actually ready for this?
NO BASELINE
You don't know if your organisation can absorb this
Nobody has actually measured whether your people have the capacity and belief to take this on. You’re finding out in real time, with a live budget and a live timeline attached.
STRETCHED THIN
Your managers are already carrying too much
They’re the ones expected to lead the change on the ground, but nobody has checked whether they have the capacity to do it. When they can’t, adoption stalls and nobody sees it coming.
NO VERDICT
Nobody's told you whether you're cleared to launch
You’ve got a timeline, a budget and a communication plan. What you don’t have is a clear answer on whether the organisation is actually ready to go.
Organisations launch change programs
without knowing if they can absorb them.
The investment is committed. The timeline is set. The communication plan is approved. And nobody has asked the most important question: are we actually ready for this?
No readiness baseline
Most programs launch on assumption. Nobody has actually measured whether the organisation can absorb what’s coming.
Invisible sponsorship failure
Leaders announce it. Managers are expected to carry it. The chain between them goes unmeasured… until it breaks.
Manager overload goes undetected
The people leading your transformation are already stretched. No dashboard tells you that, until it shows up as attrition, disengagement, or dysfunction.
Data arrives too late
By the time resistance is visible and adoption is stalling, the window for intervention has passed. The damage is done. The budget is spent.
Lost globally each year to failed transformation efforts
~ PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
$2 Trillion
Of invested capital is lost in failing transformation initiatives
~ MCKINSEY
→
An effective executive sponsor increases project success rates from 25% to 85%
~ PROSCI
Two scored outputs.
One complete picture.
Built on decades of behavioural science and organisational research, Rhythm Engine™ produces two distinct scored outputs; not sentiment surveys, not pulse checks. Rigorous, validated diagnostic intelligence.
Together, they tell you whether your change is Cleared or Not Cleared to launch.
And here’s the kicker: we don’t just hand you the answers. We act on them.
Are your people ready for this change?
This is the readiness score. It tells you whether your workforce can genuinely take this on, before you’ve spent a cent finding out the hard way.
Competence
Change Belief
Motivation
Can your managers carry the change?
This is the sponsorship score. It tells you whether the people expected to lead this on the ground are set up to do it, or are already stretched past capacity.
Sponsorship
Track Record
Manager Load
Is your change ready to launch?
This is where the two scores meet.
One quadrant verdict: Optimal, High Risk, Motivated but Lost, or Capable but Wary, so you know what to fix before launch, not after.
Readiness Signal
Clear Verdict
Precise diagnostic intelligence.
Before, during, and after change.
Rhythm Engine™ deploys a validated, dual-survey instrument across your organisation, employees, and managers, and returns a layered intelligence picture that tells you exactly where you stand.
01
Pre-Change Baseline
Before the programme launches, Rhythm Engine™ establishes a precise readiness baseline across every team, every hierarchy level, and the full sponsorship chain. You know what you’re launching into, not what you hope you’re launching into.
02
Mid-Change Intelligence
While the programme is live, Rhythm Engine™ surfaces where adoption is building and where it’s stalling in real time. Manager load is tracked. Sponsorship credibility is scored. You can intervene before a problem becomes a crisis.
03
Post-Change Verification
After close, Rhythm Engine™ confirms whether the change embedded or whether the organisation has quietly reverted. It captures the net effect on readiness and builds the evidence base for the next programme.
→
~ PROSCI
$2 Trillion
~ Project Management Institute
Not a survey result.
A strategic intelligence picture.
Rhythm Engine™ maps every person and every team against two things: whether your people are ready for the change, and whether your leaders can actually carry it.
The result isn’t a general sentiment score. It’s a verdict, and every verdict comes with a clear next step.
- Ready on both counts means you’re cleared to launch, and we help you hold that momentum.
- Not ready on either count means you stop and intervene before any budget is spent.
- Everywhere in between is where most organisations sit, and it’s where a targeted plan beats a one-size-fits-all rollout.
Motivated but Lost
Optimal
High Risk
Capable but Wary
Not a survey result.
A strategic intelligence picture.
The result isn’t a general sentiment score. It’s a verdict, and every verdict comes with a clear next step.
- Ready on both counts means you’re cleared to launch, and we help you hold that momentum.
- Not ready on either count means you stop and intervene before any budget is spent.
- Everywhere in between is where most organisations sit, and it’s where a targeted plan beats a one-size-fits-all rollout.
Optimal
Proceed. Conditions are strong. Both organisational readiness and leadership credibility are above threshold. This is the only state where a clean launch is recommended.
Capable but Wary
Leadership is credible and visible. But the organisation is not ready, capacity is stretched, track record is weak, or manager support is insufficient. Build adoption conditions before expecting results.
Motivated but Lost
The organisation is ready to absorb the change, but people don’t believe leadership will carry it. The problem sits at the top. Fix sponsorship credibility before launch or mid-change trust will collapse.
High Risk
Significant redesign required before launch. Both dimensions are below threshold, launching now risks failure on both fronts simultaneously. Do not proceed without a formal intervention strategy.
The data tells us where to start.
Then we build the change ourselves.
Anyone can sell you a dashboard. Rhythm Engine™ is different because of what happens next. The scores tell us exactly where to aim our qualitative analysis: the interviews, the floor walks, the honest conversations.
That intelligence becomes the blueprint for a bespoke change campaign engineered for your people.
1. Measure
We start with the real numbers.
We deploy the diagnostic across every employee and manager in your organisation. That’s the raw material everything else in this process is built on.
2. Focus
We know exactly where to look.
The scores show us exactly where to focus. We sit with the right teams, interview the right managers, and walk the floor on real friction points.
3. Design
We build a bespoke campaign for you.
Everything we design starts with how your people actually think and behave, not a generic template. The campaign is shaped around your organisation, not borrowed from someone else’s.
4. Land
Proof of adoption, not just hope.
We re-run the diagnostic during and after the change to prove it worked. Real adoption, genuine satisfaction, and evidence your board can’t argue with.
Precise diagnostic intelligence.
Before, during, and after change.
Rhythm Engine™ deploys a validated, dual-survey instrument across your organisation, employees, and managers, and returns a layered intelligence picture that tells you exactly where you stand.
01
Pre-Change Baseline
Before the programme launches, Rhythm Engine™ establishes a precise readiness baseline across every team, every hierarchy level, and the full sponsorship chain. You know what you’re launching into, not what you hope you’re launching into.
02
Mid-Change Intelligence
While the programme is live, Rhythm Engine™ surfaces where adoption is building and where it’s stalling in real time. Manager load is tracked. Sponsorship credibility is scored. You can intervene before a problem becomes a crisis.
03
Post-Change Verification
After close, Rhythm Engine™ confirms whether the change embedded or whether the organisation has quietly reverted. It captures the net effect on readiness and builds the evidence base for the next programme.
We're Confident Enough to Prove It First
We could tell you Outlier knows how to land change. Instead, we’ll show you.
We’ll run the full Rhythm Engine™ diagnostic across your team, on us, then walk you through the results in a 30-minute session: where the risk sits, what we’d focus on, and how we’d build your campaign. No pitch deck. No theory. Your data, our read on it.
You’ll walk away with:
- Your team’s full scores, broken down by team and by driver
- Our read on where the risk sits, and what we’d do about it
- The complete report, and a clear view of how we work
One team, one session, our shout. No upfront cost, no obligation, nothing required from your team beyond two minutes each. The rest of your organisation, and the campaign that follows, is where we get to work together properly. This isn’t a taste of the platform, it’s a taste of working with us.
We run a limited number of these each month, prioritised by program go-live date. Grab a time while your window’s open.
Questions, Answered
What exactly is Rhythm Engine™?
It's a change-readiness diagnostic, not an engagement survey. It deploys two linked surveys (one for employees, one for managers) and returns two scored outputs: Adoption Readiness and Sponsorship Credibility. Together these give you a clear go/no-go verdict on whether a specific change is ready to launch.
Is Rhythm Engine™ right for me?
Rhythm Engine™ is built for senior executives (think COOs, CHROs, Heads of Change and Program Directors) preparing to commit significant budget and timeline to a transformation, restructure, system implementation or major operating-model change. And really, anyone responsible for making change land well.
How do we get started?
Book a demo using the button below and we’ll walk you through the platform and how it would apply to your specific change.
How is this different from our existing engagement survey?
An engagement survey measures how people feel about working here in general. Rhythm Engine measures whether the specific conditions for one named change to succeed are present right now, and tells you exactly where the risk sits and what to fix, rather than handing you a score to interpret yourself.
What is it actually measuring?
Two things. Whether your people have the capability and capacity to absorb the change (Adoption Readiness), and whether the sponsorship chain (including manager capacity) is functioning from senior leadership down (Sponsorship Credibility).
Is it scientifically grounded, or just another vendor framework?
Every question is designed around a specific construct drawn from two established, peer-reviewed psychological frameworks.
It was built from the ground up around these, rather than retrofitting theory onto a generic survey.
How long does the survey take, and what do staff have to do?
Each survey is short (16 questions) and is accessed through a simple web link.
There’s no login, no app and nothing to install. Respondents see their individual scored result the moment they finish.
Is employee data anonymous and secure?
Yes. No personally identifiable information is collected from respondents, the survey path places no cookies, and all data is transmitted over encrypted connections.
Your organisation controls how long data is retained and can request its deletion.
When do we run it – once, or repeatedly?
Ideally at three points: a pre-change baseline, mid-change to catch problems while you can still intervene, and post-change to confirm whether the change actually embedded. The same questions run at every stage, so results are directly comparable across the whole life of the programme.
What do we get at the end?
Not a spreadsheet to decode. You get a layered intelligence dashboard with a clear verdict – Cleared or Not Cleared – that maps your organisation into one of four readiness states and surfaces the specific risks, gaps and pressure points, prioritised for action.
How much does it cost?
Rhythm Engine is priced per change program. Workforce size, how many programs you're running, and how you'd like to use the platform all factor into the final number.
Get in touch and we'll give you a clear picture.
Proof beats promises. Take a look.
Get a sample Change Readiness report
See exactly what your board would see: readiness scores, the sponsorship chain, team-level hotspots, and how Outlier turns them into a campaign brief. This is the report that ends the “are we ready?” debate.
- Full 12-page diagnostic report format
- Adoption + Sponsorship scoring explained
- Campaign recommendations, exactly as clients receive them
See the full demo
Sixty seconds not enough? Get the full walkthrough: the live dashboard, a complete diagnostic from deployment to verdict, and how Outlier turns two scores into a change campaign your people actually get behind.
- Full product walkthrough, uncut
- Real dashboard, real quadrants, real reports
- How data becomes a bespoke campaign