ETEGY  /  Methodology
Methodology · Zero-Based Transformation

A structured, repeatable way to transform — from zero.

Zero-Based Budgeting rebuilt the budget from a blank sheet instead of last year's numbers. Zero-Based Transformation does the same for the operating model — it starts from the actual state of how work runs, not the assumptions on the org chart. GSDPI is the lifecycle that makes it repeatable.

The model · GSDPI

Get · Sort · Do · Prove · Improve

Every unit of work — a request, a deal, a deliverable, a decision — travels the same five stages. Read the model across all five, and you see exactly where strategy stops converting.

G
Get
How demand enters — the front door, and every side door.
S
Sort
How work is classified, priced, routed, and committed.
D
Do
How it's executed across people, systems, and handoffs.
P
Prove
Whether evidence shows the intended outcome actually held.
I
Improve
Whether the system learns, corrects, and raises the floor.
GSDPI is continuous, not linear. Improve feeds the next Get — the model is a loop that either compounds capability or repeats its leaks. Where a stage breaks, the whole lifecycle stops converting, and the failure surfaces downstream wearing another name.
Exhibit · Workflow visibility through GSDPI

An operating model, read across the Core.

An anonymized contract-management value chain — 106 pain points across 32 work nodes, weighted by severity and frequency.

What it shows

Actors, systems, pain, seams, and requirement signals across the Core.

How to use it

Read horizontally for handoffs, vertically for lifecycle-stage failure patterns.

What it guards against

Mistaking a process map or status report for what the model can actually do.

GET
Drop-offs
SORT
Heroics
DO
Rework
PROVE
Blind-spots
IMPROVE
Drift
LANE
Legal
4
3
7
6
5
25
Business
5
4
5
3
2
19
Finance
2
3
4
5
4
18
Procurement
4
3
5
4
3
19
Operations
3
4
6
6
6
25
STAGE
18
17
27
24
20
106
Intake & handoff failureSilos & heroicsProcess defectWeak proofGovernance & cost gapTint depth = concentration

No vertical is clean. The pain is systemic, not local — heaviest at Do and Prove, where work is executed and where it must be proven.

Outcome

Surfacing this stopped the CLO from digitizing a broken model. Correcting the gaps — not the tool — let the rebuild target 60% faster contract review, 95% risk-flag accuracy, and 30% less manual effort, protecting the platform spend before a dollar was committed.

Standard

Begin with actual-state. It exposes the enablement requirements hidden by current-state, ideal-state, and launch-first planning.

The instruments

We read the model as it actually runs — then prove it moved.

Every operating model has two versions: the one on the slide, and the one that runs on Monday. Voice of the System surfaces the second — the real pains, gains, and requirements at each stage. The Traceability Ratio then measures how much of the result reconciles to a governed origin — the difference between a number you report and one you can defend. A number you can trace beats a change multiple you can't.

Pains

Where work stalls, reverts, or routes around the governed path.

Gains

What already works and must be protected as the model changes.

Requirements

What the model must do to carry strategy to a provable outcome.

The base deliverable

The Diagnostic

A structured readout and a board-ready deck: every pain point across the model, weighted and prioritized — yours to act on however you choose. Where you want to go further, the optional Enablement Roadmap partners a joint team to match and outline solutions to each prioritized pain. Yours to act on

The terms we hold

Two words the field uses loosely. We hold them precisely.

Method lives in language. Where the vocabulary is fuzzy, the work drifts — so two terms carry a sharper definition inside GSDPI than the market gives them.

ACTUAL STATE  — not current state

Mining and analytics render the current state from system logs — the paths the software can see. We read the actual state: how the work truly runs, including the pains, gains, and workarounds no log records. The current state is the map; the actual state is the territory.

ENABLEMENT  — the executive moves the flow requires

In the field, enablement is often reduced to tools and training for the front line. We hold it higher and earlier: enablement is the set of executive decisions, integrations, prioritization, and funding the redesigned flow depends on. Change the model, and these are the moves leadership must own for it to run — not a training rollout after the fact.

Applying the methodology

How an engagement runs.

Three phases carry the engagement to the Diagnostic — the weighted, prioritized read of the operating model, the core deliverable. From there, optional continuations go as far as it's yours to own: the Enablement Roadmap, and guided delivery.

Phase 1

Prepare the approach

Frame the value stream, align sponsors, and ready the read — so the Discovery starts on the right work, with the right people in the room.

Phase 2

Conduct the Discovery

Structured working sessions read the actual state across GSDPI and rank the pains and gains — the evidence base, on a page.

Phase 3

Present the Diagnostic

The read becomes the deliverable: every pain point across the model, weighted and prioritized, in a structured readout and a board-ready deck — yours to act on as you choose. The core output of the engagement.

Optional

Build the Enablement Roadmap

Where you want to go further: over 2–4 weeks a joint team matches and outlines the solutions that resolve each prioritized pain — validating in-flight work and aligning with your SMEs.

Optional

Guide & resource the build-out

Where the change is yours to own, we stay to guide and resource delivery alongside your teams — and prove the outcome held.

The body of knowledge

GSDPI has a discipline, a language, and a growing body of work.

The full model — its stages, gates, and practice — is detailed across the ETEGY methodology.

See where your model stops converting.

GSDPI is how we read it. The ZBT Discovery is how you put it to work.