The 16-capability, eight-dimension standardized organizational effectiveness scale.
A benchmark for better public, private and nonprofit decision making. Developed by Dianne Clark, PMP CapClarity™ · dclark@trendspire.com
16 Capabilities × 8 DimensionsWhen strategy becomes reliable day-to-day execution across the whole organization.
Know whether your organization is ready to perform, invest, partner, grow, and transform—before committing more money, technology, vendors, or organizational effort. Reveal real evidence the organization is capable, effective and ready.
16 Organizational Capabilities
Which capabilities must work reliably for a decision to succeed?
Legal
Leadership
Operations Management
Finance
HR / People & Culture
Digital Backbone
Transformation
Product/Service Design
Data Management
Collaboration/Communications
Partnerships
Advocacy
Outreach
Value Exchange
Delivery
Customer/Client Services
8 Clarity Dimensions
Policy / Status
Ownership
Workflow
Data
Systems
Skills
Risk Management
Performance Signals
One Defensible Score
CapClarity™ turns your organization’s capabilities into a transparent score out of 100, supported by evidence rather than opinion. A clear percentage supported by transparent raw scores, assessment scope, and degree of confidence.
The score creates a shared baseline across executives, boards, employees, funders, lenders, investors, vendors, advisors, and partners. It makes invisible operating conditions visible before they become expensive surprises.
Ready to see what your organization can execute reliably?
What The Score Measures
Each capability is examined within the same eight evidence-based dimensions rated from 0–5, producing a raw score out of 40 for each capability. Applicable capability scores roll into an organization-wide percentage out of 100.
- Policy / Status: Are expectations, controls, and operating standards clear and current?
- Ownership: Is accountability clear, including decision rights and escalation paths?
- Workflow: Does work move reliably from beginning to completion?
- Data: Are definitions, sources of truth, quality, access, and stewardship trusted?
- Systems: Do appropriate, secure, integrated tools support the approved workflow?
- Skills: Do employees and managers have the roles, capacity, behaviours, and support required?
- Risk Management: Are material risks understood, controlled, monitored, and escalated?
- Performance Signals: Can leaders see status, outcomes, risk, value, and improvement?
An OES (percentage) score never stands alone. Each result also shows the total capabilities assessed, raw points earned/possible, evidence-confidence level, and assessment date.
Where a CapClarity™ Score Creates Value
Benchmark Transformation Readiness Before You Invest
Transformation plans often move forward without a consistent measure of the organization’s ability to execute them. CapClarity™ provides a benchmark before major resources are committed.
Use the score to:
- Establish the current-state baseline.
- Expose capability gaps behind recurring problems.
- Identify what must be stabilized first.
- Sequence practical 30 / 60 / 90-day action.
Benchmark Vendor Readiness Before You Procure
Vendor selection, scoping, and implementation often begin without a shared measure of internal readiness. CapClarity™ defines the capability gap before the work is purchased.
Use the score to:
- Strengthen discovery and procurement.
- Separate internal gaps from vendor deliverables.
- Align scope with measurable needs.
- Reduce rework, delays, and scope changes.
Prove Funding Readiness Before You Apply
Funding decisions assess more than financial condition. CapClarity™ benchmarks whether the organization can govern, deploy, and sustain new capital.
Use the score to:
- Strengthen lender and funder due diligence.
- Demonstrate governance and stewardship.
- Identify readiness conditions before funding.
- Report progress after funds are released.
The score supports funding decisions; it is not a credit rating or financing guarantee.
Benchmark Capital And M&A Readiness Before You Commit
Capital purchases and transactions are routinely evaluated without a standard measure of the organization’s ability to integrate and realize value. CapClarity™ makes that readiness visible.
Use the score to:
- Test readiness for major investments.
- Compare acquirer and target capabilities.
- Expose integration risks early.
- Set measurable investment gates.
CapClarity supports due diligence; it does not replace financial, legal, tax, or valuation advice.
Benchmark The Operating Clarity New Recruits Need
Onboarding often measures completion—not whether employees can navigate the organization and perform effectively. CapClarity™ benchmarks the operating conditions behind faster contribution.
Use the score to clarify:
- Purpose, ownership, and decision rights.
- Workflows, handoffs, data, and systems.
- Policies, controls, and service standards.
- Performance expectations and escalation paths.
The result strengthens role profiles, onboarding, training, succession, and knowledge transfer.
Measure Improvement And Build A Performance Record
Improvement programs often rely on activity reports and success stories without a comparable baseline. CapClarity™ provides repeatable evidence of what changed and where.
Use reassessment to:
- Establish a dated baseline.
- Measure movement by capability and dimension.
- Track decisions, risks, and operating improvements.
- Preserve evidence through leadership transitions.
More Decisions The Score Can Strengthen
Technology, Automation, And AI Readiness
Confirm that workflows, data, ownership, privacy, risk, skills, and adoption conditions are sufficiently clear before automating them.
Strategy Execution
Reveal whether the capabilities behind strategic priorities are reliable enough to deliver the intended outcomes.
Governance And Board Oversight
Give boards and leaders a repeatable view of capability condition, evidence quality, operating risk, and improvement movement.
Growth And Scaling
Identify where increasing volume, geography, services, customers, or funding would overwhelm current operating conditions.
Succession And Business Continuity
Surface capabilities that depend on a few individuals and convert hidden knowledge into owned, teachable, sustainable practice.
Partnership And Ecosystem Readiness
Clarify responsibilities, information exchange, controls, service expectations, risks, and measures across organizational boundaries.
How To Read The Score
Score | Interpretation | What It Suggests |
0–39% | Fragile Or Unclear | Essential conditions are absent, unreliable, or unsupported by sufficient evidence. Stabilization and clarification are likely required. |
40–59% | Under Strain | Important practices exist but are inconsistent, informal, fragmented, or dependent on workarounds. |
60–74% | Developing | The capability meets some needs but remains unevenly applied, weakly measured, or difficult to scale. |
75–89% | Generally Reliable | The capability is mostly clear, owned, documented, supported, and consistently applied. |
90–100% | Strong And Sustainable | The capability is integrated, measurable, resilient, scalable, and supported by current evidence. |
CapClarity™ is an evidence-based organizational capability and readiness assessment. Its scores evaluate the clarity and reliability of operating conditions across the capabilities included in the assessment. It does not constitute a financial analysis, audit, valuation, credit assessment, investment recommendation, or guarantee of financial performance. When Finance is included, the score reflects the effectiveness of the finance capability—not the organization’s financial position or prospects.
Evidence Confidence Matters
- Low Confidence: Primarily one perspective or little supporting evidence.
- Moderate Confidence: Several perspectives with some supporting evidence.
- High Confidence: Multiple current evidence sources that substantially agree.
What Leaders Receive
- A validated organization-wide score out of 100.
- A transparent raw-score calculation based on applicable scope.
- Individual scores for every applicable capability.
- An organization-wide capability ranking from lowest to highest clarity.
- Evidence-confidence labels and clearly identified evidence gaps.
- A view of ownership, workflow, data, systems, skills, risk, and measurement conditions.
- Decision-specific insight for transformation, vendors, funding, capital, M&A, or workforce readiness.
- A practical action sequence and reassessment baseline.
- A leadership-ready summary that can support boards, funders, lenders, investors, procurement, and implementation partners.
Designed For Every Kind Of Organization
Private Companies
Growth, profitability, operating leverage, customer value, investment, integration, and resilience.
Governments And Public Bodies
Stewardship, service reliability, modernization, public accountability, risk, and continuity.
Nonprofits And Charities
Mission delivery, funding readiness, grant stewardship, service capacity, impact, and stakeholder trust.
Institutions And Associations
Governance, member or student value, service quality, operating consistency, and long-term sustainability.
Funders, Lenders, And Investors
Operational due diligence, deployment readiness, conditions for success, and progress monitoring.
Vendors And Advisors
Better discovery, qualification, scope definition, implementation readiness, and measurable outcomes.
Transparent By Design
CapClarity™ is not a generic maturity label or an opinion poll. Its value comes from disciplined application:
- The same eight dimensions are used across previews, full assessments, and reassessments.
- Current condition is scored—not intention, reputation, or ambition.
- Every rating should be supported by evidence.
- Missing evidence lowers confidence; it does not create artificial certainty.
- Non-applicable capabilities are disclosed and excluded from the denominator.
- Capability condition is kept separate from transformation priority.
- Organizations are compared only when scope, method, evidence quality, and sample sizes support a responsible comparison.
CapClarity™ applies a standardized scoring method and documented evidence to reduce subjectivity and support consistent, transparent assessment. Results are reported with the assessment scope, supporting evidence, and evidence-confidence level.
From Complexity To Clear Capability
Use CapClarity to understand what the organization can execute reliably today, what must improve next, and how to prove that progress over time.
