Shift is not a new practice. It is a body of work that began in Auckland, New Zealand and has been refined across a decade of engagements. Here is the timeline.
Shift Consulting Ltd is established in Auckland, New Zealand. The founding brief: help organizations move when best-practice frameworks cannot. First engagements with New Zealand small-and-medium enterprises and public-sector bodies.
The first Shift toolkits emerge — the design cards, the assessment sequences, the diagnostic instruments that would become the practice's signature. Built in workshops, refined in the field, still in use today.
The Shift Design Deck is released. 124 pages. Sixty-plus activities. Six integrated toolkits. Sold internationally as a self-serve resource for organizational design practitioners. Still in circulation.
The framework carries a $1 billion product build for a major U.S. city — a team that had never shipped software delivering an enterprise-grade platform on the Shift operating model. Alongside it, a decade of client engagements across public-sector, enterprise, and mid-market organizations refines what would later be named the Three Gear Method (Explore / Exploit / Sustain) and the Headwinds Group vetting system. The methodology graduates from a set of tools into a coherent operating framework.
Shift Executive Partners is founded in Michigan. Same methodology. Same body of work. New distribution.
The Five Roles certification ladder is announced. The Founders' Peloton is established as the standing peer group operators join once they graduate from Shift Labs. Nick Harding is named Australia Master Franchisee of the Shift methodology, holding country-level rights for Australia. The practice begins to scale beyond a single practitioner.
Thirteen years of applied work. When you're ready to see what it can do in your business, the first step is a conversation.