Point of view · 6 August 2026
Commissioning beyond the cycle
Most commissioning problems are not caused by people forgetting a process. They are produced by the conditions in which the process is being used.
The cycle is not the system
The familiar commissioning cycle can be useful. It can also invite a dangerous mistake: treating commissioning as if it happens inside a clean sequence controlled by one organisation.
Real commissioning crosses political priorities, professional identities, contracts, informal relationships, community life, provider capacity, budgets, data, history and power. A team can follow every formal stage and still reproduce weak outcomes because those conditions have not changed.
Ask what is shaping the result
When commissioning appears stuck, the useful questions are often outside the process map:
- Who can see which part of the situation?
- Which relationships carry useful information, and which suppress it?
- What can providers, communities and frontline staff do that the formal system cannot?
- Where do decision rights sit, and where does practical influence sit?
- Which measures help people learn and which encourage defensive compliance?
- What has to remain stable while something else is tested?
This does not make process irrelevant. It puts process back inside the system that gives it meaning.
A practical next move
Bring together people who occupy different positions. Use the Commissioning Compass to compare what each person sees. Do not rush to average the answers. The differences are the material.
Start with the work
Tell us what is happening, who needs to act, and what cannot wait.
We will help you decide whether a short diagnostic, an in-house cohort, a place-based academy, or an existing programme is the sensible next move.