Stitch In Time
The five governance domains behind strong institutions: Core Load, Talent Flow, Everyday Work, Signals and Risk, and Power and Mandate.
Buy the bookBuilding institutional strength and people performance in East and Southern Africa.
5M Keystone
A management development programme in three levels, from first-line managers to leaders preparing for executive and board service. Each level works through the five governance domains of Stitch In Time, using real work inside the participant's own organisation.
Cohorts meet in person in Nairobi, Kampala, Dar es Salaam and Kigali, or live online.
Level One
First-line managers
Five monthly half-day sessions, each followed by a real improvement inside the manager's own team.
Level One details
Level Two
Heads of function and business units
Five full days and two peer clinics, built around a diagnosis of the leader's own unit with the 5M Stitch Scan.
Level Two details
Level Three
Senior leaders preparing for the executive seat
Six full days of African case analysis, a written institutional judgment and a sixty-minute panel defence.
Level Three details
Open cohorts start throughout the year. See upcoming dates
5M Board Depth
Structured board development of the kind large boards receive as standard, for the boards and senior teams of non-profits, SMEs and mid-sized entities. Your board works through Stitch In Time and 5M Unbreakable, applied to your own organisation and the pressures you face today.
Four formats, from one hour in a board meeting to a three-day retreat. Led by I.S. Matthew.
The Board Mirror
One hour
A shared language, a first distortion score and one early stitch for each board member.
See the four formats
The Board Depth Day
Eight hours
A Core Map, one board figure traced to its source, a three-category decision list and a scored board agenda.
See the four formats
The Board Depth Retreat
Three days
Early versions of all five Stitch In Time instruments, a redesigned board agenda and a signed commitment page.
About the retreat
See how it works before you book. Try a sample
Part of 5M Ascent
Mentoring for Founders, SME and Non-Profit Leaders
A year of mentoring with I.S. Matthew for founders, owner-managers and non-profit leaders who hold too much of their organisation in their own hands. You build an organisation that keeps working when you step back.
Twelve months, three sessions a month, built on Stitch In Time and 5M Unbreakable.
Core Load
What depends on you alone?
A Core Map with your own role on it, a firm limit on your working hours and a trained backup for each critical area.
What the mentoring covers
Everyday Work
Which parts of your week create value?
Your own Meaning Ledger, with protected time for the work only you can do.
What the mentoring covers
Power and Mandate
Which decisions must stay with you?
Written decision rights with clear limits, so your team can act without waiting for you.
What the mentoring covers
Can your company survive your holiday? Try the simulation
Speaker
I.S. Matthew
Author of Stitch In Time and 5M Unbreakable, board chair, and a finance leader for twenty years, ten of them as chief financial officer of a global organisation. I speak to boards, leadership teams and professionals about how institutions stay strong and how their people do their best work.
Keynotes, workshops, retreats and corporate gatherings, in person or online.
The Three Rooms
For boards and executive teams
How to close the gap between what an organisation presents and what its people know.
About the talks
A Stitch In Time
For leadership teams and sector gatherings
The five areas where institutions weaken early, and how to make the first repair while it is still small.
About the talks
Unbreakable
For staff days and professional associations
How professionals build a career that holds when their work changes.
About the talks
Planning an event? Check availability
5M ORD Scan
A twelve-week governance engagement inside your institution. Ten to fifteen of your senior managers diagnose and repair live structural faults across the five governance domains, facilitated by the 5M Leadership team, and present the results to your leadership in week twelve.
Led by I.S. Matthew and limited to four engagements each year. Leaders can try the scan for themselves and read a sample report first.
5M Ascent Mentoring
A year of mentoring with I.S. Matthew, either one to one through Ascent Private or in a small group through Ascent Cohort.
Three sessions each month, two of them live with the mentor and one completed on your own.
About 5M Ascent
5M Presence
Look Well, Speak Well, Lead Well. For professionals who know their material best but lose the argument in the live discussion.
A Saturday workshop in Nairobi every other month at KSh 18,000, a private day for your team, or six months of one-to-one mentoring.
About 5M PresenceUpcoming events
All eventsSee the events calendar for upcoming cohorts and webinars.
Books by I.S. Matthew
All books
5M Unbreakable
Five frameworks to build a stronger career, leadership and inner life beyond impostor syndrome, burnout and anxiety about the future.
Buy the book