What’s your story?

Funding. Regulation. Government policy. Nothing stands still for long, but the impact of change can be unending.

You need to deliver the right improvements for your organisation; whether that’s fixing things in the immediate future or creating a longer lasting programme of positive transformation that will live on well beyond your tenure. But that can be a daunting prospect. Whatever your motivation for progress, it needs to not only be on your terms but also reflect the greater mission of the work your organisation is doing.

Managing continuous improvement is not just about process; it’s about all the people it touches along the way and it’s the opportunity it creates to do something truly amazing. Get started by developing people & culture, improving services, and optimising organisation design.

  • "Once again, working with Ad Esse has been invaluable. Their expertise and direction delivered significant benefits from the very first rapid improvement workshop, set up to consider our contracts management processes. The Ad Esse team continued to support throughout implementation, ensuring momentum whilst also motivating the team."

    Kidney Research UK

  • "The session run by Rhiannon at Ad Esse was eye-opening. As an Exec Team, it helped us to really understand the concepts of Lean and what a CI culture is in reality, visualising how it can be brought to life – we now feel confident that we need to champion and start embedding a CI mindset across our business."

    L&Q Group

  • "Ad Esse have been great to work with – really flexible and adapt to what the organisation, and individuals have needed. The team here have learnt so much and have been enthused to put their learning into action, which will make a real difference to the way we work to support patients and families. Their communication has been excellent throughout the project, but also before “go-live”, taking the time to ensure they understood the brief and the people involved. I would highly recommend Ad Esse to any organisation."

    Princess Alice Hospice

  • "I now sleep easy in my bed at night. Service charges was the one thing that kept me awake, but not any more."

    Grand Union Housing

  • "Ad Esse was brilliant at helping my team develop the model. Working with the team, they captured the outcomes we wanted to achieve. Then, through creativity, collaboration and clear thinking, co-created a model fit for our future. I am delighted with the support we received and the progress so far. The work can be tricky and detailed but I believe the outcomes we are aiming for are worth it."

    Moat Housing

  • "Ad Esse worked with us to break down and rebuild what we had or knew, placing the outcomes we sought for pets and pet owners at the heart of the design process, and designing, developing and iterating the many options available to produce a new, integrated, service delivery model. They challenged our thinking, harnessed the team’s knowledge and creativity and helped us produce something we’re all proud to stand behind. We’re so grateful for the help they’ve given and the way they have supported us, making something initially so complex and daunting feel so achievable."

    WoodGreen The Animal Charity

  • "We are about to receive some more pro bono support from the amazing performance improvement consultancy Ad Esse Consulting. We are very much looking forward to having their support to help us review and improve our sales ordering, invoicing and despatching processes in order to improve the service we currently provide. For anyone looking to undertake a 'lean exercise' and improve their performance in some way, we highly recommend Ad Esse Consulting."

    Greenpower Education Trust

  • "Working with Ad Esse has been instrumental and critical in our improvement programme. One clear process for Care Contracting, now used by all departments of the organisation, has seen a major improvement to revenue collection. It has shortened revenue collection times and increased our care hours this year by over 23,000. This has all been alongside the expert support of Ad Esse."

    The Wilberforce Trust

  • "Working with Ad Esse was really working with partners and not consultants. They spent the time with the team getting to the heart of the issue and also providing us with key objectives by challenging our thinking and really focusing on the outcomes, but always in a supportive way. The team really felt that Ad Esse were part of the team and achieving the right outcome was as important for them as us. When we had to re-address some of the deliverables and timescales, we were supported and found a solution. Ad Esse are extremely professional and personable at the same time. They are knowledgeable and are willing to share their knowledge and embed new practices in the overall organisation, so not just delivery the project well, but improve the organisation at the same time."

    Grand Union Housing Group

  • “Ad Esse added expertise, but also focus and rigour to the task of improving our voids and lettings process. Staff felt engaged in the project from the start, and rather than a ‘quick fix’ solution the improvement in void times and working practices give all the signs of being sustainable.”

    Lancaster City Council

  • “Working with Ad Esse on the events Lean management review has been one of our biggest reviews within the business and has enabled us to take a much greater holistic approach on how to design and develop a process which worked across a number of teams and Directorates. Ad Esse challenged us as an organisation to think differently about our ways of working but always staying true to having the best outcomes for those affected by blood cancer at the heart of all business decisions we make.”

    Blood Cancer UK

  • “I really enjoyed taking part in the workshops. I learnt so much. The collaborative approach kept everyone engaged. Everyone had a role so it felt like we had worked as a team to get to the end result. The lean tools were fully explained to us and then immediately put into practice which supported us to absorb and understand the concepts. Yeukai's delivery was excellent. The sessions were engaging and informative. The concepts were fully explained and delivered keeping everyone involved and considering all ideas and explanations. She gave an appropriate amount of challenge to push us to think about how we work and support us to approach things differently. I couldn't believe the amount of work we got through in the sessions. Yeukai maintained everyone's interest throughout and I felt well informed of the concepts and aims.”

    Family Fund

  • “It's been a great experience working with the Ad Esse team and a valuable development opportunity for all of us who participated in the project. The skills transfer was done in the most respectful and empowering way; we felt mentored and guided in a way that allowed us to own the service design process and feel confident to use those skills to continuously improve our services.”

    Princess Alice Hospice

  • “Following the success of the works done by Ad Esse reviewing our Planned Delivery service, there was another need for an external pair of eyes to review our Disrepair function. Ad Esse again answered the call with their detailed methodical and professional approach to really get under the issue and provide recommendations to make necessary improvements. The team and function is now on an upward trajectory tackling Disrepair, so huge thanks to Ad Esse, Stoffer and co. again.”

    Notting Hill Genesis

  • “It's been really well received by the team, and already seeing a shift in thinking! Highly recommend Ad Esse Consulting as always!”

    Fairhive Homes

  • “I just wanted to pass on a massive thank you to Ad Esse and particularly Adam for supporting us through the implementation of ROCC. I know this is not something that you usually cover within your business and appreciate the time you allocated members of your team to us. Appointing Adam to come and work with us at Golding Homes during the implementation of ROCC had been really important. Adam had been going out on site with the operatives and showing them how to use the devices when out in the field on a case by case basis (there had been a few teething issues at the beginning). Adam drafted up some crib sheets and distributed them to the planners and operatives to help them along the way. He supported the operatives and corrected any incorrect action that operatives had made. For example, he identified an issue with back office receiving blank LGSRs following incorrect steps being made by the individual. As soon as these cases came in, Adam sprung into action and met the operative to work through the next lot that he had on his device for the day. This helped us remain compliant. This is just one example of the work that Adam supported us with in the days and weeks after go-live.”

    Golding Homes

  • “I had not worked the lean approach before so it was new to me. I really enjoyed the process. I have really enjoyed the workshops. Yeukai is fab. Full day workshops can be heavy going but the way in which it was delivered worked brilliantly. Everything was well explained and the engagement was encouraged from the get go but in a way that all ideas were welcome and nothing a silly question.”

    Family Fund

  • “We asked Ad Esse to carry out a comprehensive review of our services charges, including reviewing our policy and processes. We were certainly not disappointed! Kate carried out a really thorough review of all our service charges and related tenancy agreements to ensure that we were operating within the law and good practice and then offered a range of tools to help us improve our internal processes, including a new policy and related procedure map. This is such a complex and high risk area of the business and Kate managed to bring clarity to this often muddy area. Kate was thorough, professional, sensible and great to work with. More importantly she has given me some peace of mind about what can often be a reputational minefield.”

    Penge Churches Housing Association (PCHA)

  • “The history between us has been long and varied, but fantastic. Without it, I think we would have struggled - an external perspective is amazing. Hopefully when I leave The Wilberforce Trust, the person that takes over after me with continue to work with Ad Esse Consulting.”

    The Wilberforce Trust

  • “I would 100% recommend Ad Esse Consulting. If you think your performance is good, think again - it could be better. With continuous improvement, people always think it's the cherry on the cake. They've got it wrong. Continuous improvement is the cake and you've got the cherry. It's important to prioritise continuous improvement.”

    L&Q Housing Group

  • “Ad Esse were a pleasure to work with. After the initial briefing discussions, they got on with the task at hand and engaged really well with staff and residents at Homes for Haringey. We were really pleased with the work they produced for us, all conducted professionally and delivered on time and within budget. I'll definitely consider them for any similar work in the future."

    Haringey Council

  • “The experience of the whole process was a very positive one. Made particularly enjoyable by our Ad Esse Consultant who has a flare for communication, an ability to bring different people together and created an inclusive environment (virtual or not). No easy task with a mix of personalities and characters.”

    Grand Union Housing Group

  • “There's a lot of energy, enthusiasm, and excitement around this project which is great to see. Our void days are continuously reducing, and we're still only at the early stages of implementation. I think the Voids tracker will have a huge impact when it is up and running.”

    Fairhive Homes

  • “You have to invest your time and resources in the short term to ensure that time and resources are utilised wisely in the future. We wanted to do the Lean review to ensure that when bringing in a new system to utilise for compliance, we would be getting the most out of the system and using it efficiently - in effect not taking 'bad habits' with us. Ad Esse enabled the team to strip back processes and gave reassurance and support for where we were doing things right. This is a great approach for showing your Executive Teams that there are some processes that need to be more time consuming than others for very good reasons, but critically that harnessing the power of your own staff expertise is the best way to enable successful change.”

    Lewisham Homes

  • “We really wanted to find a way for our staff to live and breathe our corporate behaviours. We also wanted to better incorporate assessments of behavioural fit into our recruitment and probationary review processes. We felt that a behavioural mapping exercise, which involved a broad spectrum of staff from across the business in defining what our corporate behaviours meant to them, was the best way of achieving this. Of making the process meaningful. We have worked on several Lean and other process improvement projects with Ad Esse over the past few years. Ad Esse are very relatable. They are so passionate about what they do and always find innovative and engaging ways of involving our staff in these projects. This exercise went so well. The idea that I had in my head as an end goal was fully realised and, as always, the feedback we received from colleagues was very positive. Even though the project was facilitated entirely remotely (over Zoom) Ad Esse found a way to keep everyone engaged - with software which was simple to use but which really captured people's thoughts and ideas. We now have a working document which we can use to adapt person specifications and to formulate behavioural recruitment training for managers. I would highly recommend that you work with Ad Esse on such projects.”

    Poplar HARCA

  • “Customer experience is at the heart of our Customer 2020 transformation programme. With the support of Ad Esse, the project team looked at the process through a customer lens, the focus became about making the output fair, transparent, accurate and easy to understand for the customer. Then the project team designed processes that would deliver these outputs as efficiently as possible, with buy-in and ownership from all teams across the organisation.”

    Grand Union Housing Group

  • “The voids review was our very first Lean review and WOW what an impact it has made! This review really showcased the power of collaborative working to the organisation. Those involved have felt engaged and empowered by the approach taken and continue to use the tools and techniques they have learned to drive continuous improvement.”

    Saffron Housing Trust

  • “Changing the culture and focus of teams can be challenging, but by focusing on the customer experience and how the process impacts our customers while using Lean tools and techniques, we could ensure we found the right solutions. The significant improvements in first time fix rates is not just better for customer satisfaction; its helping bring the volume of work down to record lows, enabling the maintenance team to respond more quickly to repair requests.”

    One Housing Group

  • “Ad Esse's Rapid Improvement Workshops meant we were able to diagnose the problems of our procurement procedure, redesign the new process and implement improvements in a very short time. Adam supported the project group to simplify our purchasing process, develop user-friendly guides and templates and prepare a marketing plan for launch. The new process is now in place.”

    Poplar HARCA

  • “We have been able to respond to donor requests and pull together proposals quicker. The one-off investment of time will save FR and Research lots of time going forwards.”

    Blood Cancer UK

  • “This has been a fascinating process which has created the opportunity to review thoroughly what we do within our Clinical Admin team and consider our approach in a totally different way. We saw clear time saving opportunities very early on and all of our nursing staff were encouraged to contribute which enabled them to see where they could save time also. Thank you Ad Esse!”

    Rennie Grove Hospice Care

  • “As project sponsor, I have to say the collaborative working with Ad Esse to understand our requirements and turn these into deliverables that provided a tangible ROI were second to none. The reviews and workshops were a great step forward for the team. Efficiencies and better ways of working across the whole service charge process were found. Establishing a RACI model to ensure the hard work done by all involved was clear and understood by all colleagues. This has raised awareness across all directives of the steps required but also the accountability and responsibility of those who touch the process. The enthusiasm of the team at the information gathering workshops and the way our whole team have stepped up and taken part in the improvements is testament to the excellent way in which Ad Esse are able to capture a room and drive discussions amongst different user groups each with different expectations.”

    Sovereign Housing Group

  • “The work with Ad Esse has been critical to improving how support to those who generously fundraise for Blood Cancer UK and to ensure as much of their donation as possible goes to funding life-saving research into blood cancer. Lean improvement work has delivered a single, standardised process with less waste and the supporter at the heart of the process. All our internal teams are happier, significantly better able to manage their work and spend less time fixing problems.”

    Blood Cancer UK

  • “I use my Information Centre twice a week to communicate with my direct leadership team. We cover any exceptions and metrics on a Monday to aid managing the performance of our directorate, and we review the Master Schedule on a Friday to keep on top of key strategic change activities and to ensure oversight of projects. The Information Centre provides a space for us to touch base, aids communication and resource planning and enables us to solve problems, and remove corporate blockages as a group.”

    The Children's Society

  • “I thought this was a very interesting piece of work, it made us step back and review what we were doing, even if we thought what we were already doing was good, this challenged us and made us think.”

    Johnnie Johnson Housing

  • “Visiting the Information Centre this morning gave me an insight into how work will be managed in the future for the Group... looking forward to seeing Information Centres right across the Group.”

    Southern Housing Group

  • “The way voids are managed within One Housing has been transformed through this review. By considering the end to end process and bringing forward a number of tasks to the front of the process, we've seen significant improvements for our customers and in our financial performance. We're delighted with the results so far, and the teams are energised to drive even more improvements.”

    One Housing Group

  • “Residents are much more satisfied because our service is more consistent and there are clear actions. The greatest impact has been on staff who - now that they have a clear process - are able to close cases, take greater ownership of issues and have more positive relationships with both residents and other teams. Time is now used much more effectively. The Rapid Improvement Workshop was brilliant for bringing the team together to solve our problem logically. The process helped us to think in different ways and we had a lot of fun doing it. I would recommend it to anybody.”

    Poplar HARCA

  • “I honestly couldn't imagine working without an Information Centre now. As a manager, it is so helpful to have a visual snapshot throughout the day of what the workloads are and where we are in each process. I no longer need to get involved in the day-to-day as the team use the Information Centre to identify how they can help each other and I can instead focus on being a manager and developing my staff and SRT strategy.”

    Blood Cancer UK

  • “We have achieved success by working together across all directorates. It’s been a real one organisation, one team effort. I am very excited about the future and us delivering on our strategy.”

    The Children's Society

  • “Because staff were frustrated with the current process, it didn't take a lot of persuading for them to be 100% behind the project. The results however have been way beyond our expectations. One of the best ideas that has come out of the project has been daily briefings around the Information Centre and, because we are very strict on the timing for this (10 minutes max), it's not been too onerous on workload.”

    Yorkshire Housing

  • “We chose Lean to support substantial structural change and to create a culture of continuous improvement. Having worked with Ad Esse previously, The Children's Society engaged them to help design and lead this programme.”

    The Children's Society

  • “A 38% increase in nurse call-backs is remarkable in itself. However, from my perspective, what is more important has been the change in the attitude and outlook of the team. They are far more solution focussed, using the Information Centre to track problems and monitor effectively the implementation of solutions. They are no longer passive observers in the workspace they are now active participants in change management.”

    British Lung Foundation

  • “The work undertaken by Ad Esse and our Change Champions has produced invaluable data that is allowing us to focus our investment and energies on what the customer really wants from our next generation self service-portal. This will also guide us to effectively integrate with our back-end databases thereby providing a compelling initial digital offer - that we can continuously enhance.”

    One Housing Group

  • “Ad Esse's approach has enabled us to step back and look at our processes providing just the right balance between support and challenge. The Information Centres have had an immediate effect on focusing teams on performance.”

    Raven Housing Trust

  • “The Information Centre and problem-solving discussions started a conversation that needed to be had and the Information Centre has opened our eyes to new ways of working.”

    East Hampshire District Council

  • “The Lean review has been a great step forward for the team. We've found efficiencies and better ways of doing things across our whole service, and it's also helped us to work much more closely with our colleagues in other sections to provide a joined up service. It's also been great to see the enthusiasm of the team at the information centre meetings, and the way our whole team have stepped up and taken part in the improvements.”

    Poplar HARCA

  • “I found the 5S exercise to be an excellent team activity. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed being involved in the 'ceremonial' de-cluttering of the Social Care Direct office and in deciding where to relocate what was left. This resulted in two 'mountains' of out-of-date paperwork and unused equipment and provided a surprising amount of space to place close at hand and clearly labelled all the things needed for the team to work even more efficiently.”

    East Sussex County Council

  • “We now have a safety net through which no client will fall.”

    Barnet London Borough

  • “The skills matrix is a simple tool that makes measuring skills gaps and progression so simple.”

    East Hampshire District Council

  • “Understanding a physical 5S of our head office has transformed our working space to the delight of our many colleagues. Not only do they have a more conducive, effective, working environment but there is now sufficient space to welcome other organisations into our workspace.”

    Poplar HARCA

  • “Implementing a Lean programme enabled the departmental management team and staff to see that we could get the attention and resources to resolve a number of long standing challenges. By doing this, the staff group was able to see immediate and medium term benefits and this was a huge factor in gaining and keeping their support for the process.”

    A2Dominion

  • “It was a pleasure working with Ad Esse, their expertise, knowledge and friendly manner made the review process not only beneficial in terms of the outcomes but the experience was good too.”

    Vale of Aylesbury Housing

  • “The Rapid Improvement Workshop enabled us to fully engage our customers and to involve them in redesigning the budget monitoring process. It also helped us change from a complex and time-consuming process to a simplified one which reduced the amount of time spent by all on budget monitoring. The focus on an action plan and continuous improvement meant we have a clear idea of what we needed to do, and the improvements these would bring, to get closer to the ideal process.”

    Folkestone & Hythe District Council

  • “I can't believe how much rubbish we've been keeping hold of and moving around offices. I didn't think it could possibly take a whole day - I thought you'd be gone by lunchtime!”

    North Hertfordshire Homes

  • “We were impressed by Ad Esse's approach, and in particular the consultant's ability to engage with all parties and get them to focus on the outcome, and their part in the overall process. The holistic approach has paid dividends, and all parties are seeing operational and financial benefits from the project. It has been refreshing to be given the opportunity to see the process in this way, but more importantly to have input on improvement.”

    A2 Dominion

  • “I have been amazed by the commitment of our teams and that is as a direct result of the way in which Ad Esse supported us in taking this forward.”

    Royal Voluntary Service

  • “The work with Ad Esse to promote culture change within the Contact Centre has been a great success. Their approach has been practical and based on simple principles, which really got the team thinking about what really matters. It also challenged the team to think about doing things differently and not just following complex and sometimes cumbersome process just because that's the way we have always done it.”

    London Borough of Newham

  • “Following the success of the voids review we applied similar Lean principles to review our repairs process. The people carrying out the review included front-line staff from across the Trust who identified areas where we could streamline our end-to-end process. We are already seeing improvements in the way we work and a reduction in duplication of tasks.”

    Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust

  • “The four-day workshops facilitated teams of district nurses coming together and brainstorming current working systems. We were able to standardise ways of working across the city and the process assisted us in reaching consensus.”

    City Health Care Partnership

  • “When your Dad teaches you to drive, you don't always listen. Then you get a driving instructor who is the expert, and you listen.”

    Havebury Housing Partnership

  • “Staff engagement with Information Centre briefings is a real success. It has been great to see every member of the team take a turn in speaking so knowledgeably about the service and taking joint responsibility for successes as well as areas identified for improvement.”

    Tower Hamlet Homes

  • “The Ad Esse team have helped us to think differently about how we do things at Kidney Research UK. Now we are starting to act differently and to deliver differently. The ripples of positive impact are felt every day across all areas of our work. Sometimes in small and almost unnoticeable ways, and sometimes in very obvious and significant ways.”

    Kidney Research UK

  • “Working with Ad Esse to establish visual management for the Revenues and Benefits teams has exceeded our expectations. The Information Centres has empowered the teams to take ownership of their own performance in the pursuit of perfection. Creating time for busy managers to stand back and think.”

    East Hampshire District Council

  • "It's been a great experience working with the Ad Esse Consulting team over these past couple of years. We've learnt a lot."

    Nigel Seymour, Chief Executive at Princess Alice Hospice

  • "I really admired the way they approached sharing their knowledge and expertise within the organisation. This meant, that not only could we develop skills in our wider organisation, but we were also able to support the professional development of others. It also led to sustainable changes as knowledge and skills increased within the in-house team."

    Lesley Munro, Deputy CEO and Director of Patient Care and Communities at Princess Alice Hospice

  • "I will go back to the team at Ad Esse if I have a specific question, or a new piece of work, or I want to do something we haven't done before. Our partnership is more about mentorship and ad hoc consultancy now. It's an empowering way of working without creating dependencies; we have a very sustainable relationship now and I hope we continue this journey together."

    Konstantina Chatziargyriou, Head of Service Design & Continuous Improvement at Princess Alice Hospice)

  • “It was great to find a partner in Ad Esse Consulting who worked to understand us, provided that all important continuity of input, and provided us with both support and challenge so that we could continue to improve across all areas; with our own colleagues taking the initiative to identify opportunities, learning and delivering improvements which ultimately benefit patients and those who are important to them. Sometimes, it can be hard to embark on this kind of journey as it's definitely not a quick win (although Rebecca was excellent at encouraging quick wins too!) but results in a completely new commitment to continuous improvement.”

    Nicki Shaw, CEO at Princess Alice Hospice

Client Stories

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