---
title: "ADAPT"
description: ADAPT: the implementation motion of Remake — the five stages that take a remaking from ambiguity to durable change, and the two disciplines that hold them together.
canonical: https://mariothomas.com/remake/adapt/
---

Once a remaking has passed the accountability gate, the question that follows is a practical one: so how is this work actually done? ADAPT is the answer. It is the implementation layer of [Remake](/remake/) — a stage-based motion that moves a remaking from ambiguity to durable change.

It is not a checklist, and it is not a content library. It is a disciplined way of working that steadily reduces uncertainty, where each stage produces something of standalone value and hands the next stage its input. Nothing about it is aspirational: the stages and their sequence predate the framework's current name, and they are inherited here unchanged because they have been proven in delivery.

## What the motion protects against {#protects data-toc="What it protects against"}

Most transformation programmes fail in the same order. They begin with a solution rather than a problem. They mistake the reported problem for the real one. They produce a strategy that cannot be executed, or a plan with no strategy underneath it. And they finish by handing back an organisation that can only sustain the change while the programme — or the consultancy — is still in the room.

ADAPT is built so that each of those failures has a stage standing in front of it. The stage sequence is not a project plan; it is the order in which uncertainty has to be removed if the change is going to hold.

## Earned progression {#earned-progression data-toc="Earned progression"}

Movement between stages is **earned by completing the current stage properly** — never scheduled by budget, calendar, or client pressure. A stage is complete when its work is done and its output stands up, not when the week it was allocated has elapsed.

This is the discipline organisations find hardest, because it removes the comfort of a Gantt chart. It also removes the failure it causes. A diagnosis rushed to hit a steering-committee date produces a strategy answering the wrong problem, and every stage after it inherits the error at increasing cost.

## One unit of work {#one-unit data-toc="One unit of work"}

Every run of the motion carries **one strategic problem, one sponsor, and one decision space**. That constraint is where the accountability gate lives inside the motion: a named person answerable for this remaking, with the authority to decide within the space it covers.

It is also what keeps a remaking legible. A director should always be able to say what an ADAPT engagement is currently authorising — which problem, on whose authority, and what a yes or no at the end of the stage would actually mean. Programmes that carry three problems and no sponsor cannot answer that question, which is usually the first evidence that the remaking is in trouble.

## The five stages {#stages data-toc="The five stages"}

Each stage answers a different question, and each hands on a different thing. Every one has its own page, setting out what it protects against, how it runs, and what it produces.

1. **[Remake: Align](/remake/adapt/align/)** — are we working on the right problem, and what is the investment case for addressing it? Hands on the Investment Case.
2. **[Remake: Diagnose](/remake/adapt/diagnose/)** — what is actually preventing the outcome? Hands on the evidence-based definition of the real problem.
3. **[Remake: Advise](/remake/adapt/advise/)** — what is the strategic response, and what are the verdicts? Hands on the guiding policy.
4. **[Remake: Plan](/remake/adapt/plan/)** — how does the response become executable? Hands on the Transformation Plan.
5. **[Remake: Transform](/remake/adapt/transform/)** — deliver it, and embed the capability so the change endures. Hands back an organisation that sustains its own progress.

## What the motion produces {#outputs data-toc="What it produces"}

The outputs are the through-line: at any point in a remaking, the organisation can see what it has and what it is working toward.

- **From Remake: Align** — an **Investment Case**: a defensible answer to whether this remaking is worth pursuing, and on what basis, before serious money is committed.
- **From Remake: Diagnose, Advise and Plan together** — a **Transformation Plan**: one integrated deliverable holding the real problem, the guiding policy and its verdicts, the sequenced moves, and the validated Investment Case embedded within it.
- **From Remake: Transform** — a **transformed organisation**: one able to sustain progress on its own rather than renting it.

## Where the assets are read {#assets data-toc="The assets"}

The motion supplies the sequence; the [Remake Library](/remake/library/) supplies the lenses. Each asset declares the stages at which it is read — the AI Stages of Adoption at Align and again at Diagnose, the Five Pillars where readiness to move between stages is in question, and so on.

That separation is deliberate. The stages stay stable while the Library grows: a new Model or Diagnostic joins the work without changing the motion that carries it.


## Pages in this section


- [Remake: Align](https://mariothomas.com/remake/adapt/align/)

- [Remake: Diagnose](https://mariothomas.com/remake/adapt/diagnose/)

- [Remake: Advise](https://mariothomas.com/remake/adapt/advise/)

- [Remake: Plan](https://mariothomas.com/remake/adapt/plan/)

- [Remake: Transform](https://mariothomas.com/remake/adapt/transform/)