Decisional load
Too many decisions converge on one person, without meaningful delegation.
● Within rangeOHA — Organizational Performance
Strengthen your managers' capacity for sustainable organizational performance.
OHA supports organizations and their managers with leadership development, pressure management, and sustainable human performance programs.
Leadership capacity programs trusted by 40+ organizations across North America since 2022
The Category
What is sustainable human performance?
It's the ability to decide well, communicate and adapt under pressure — year after year, without depending on chronic overload.
It isn't a wellbeing program added at the margins. It's a condition of organizational performance.
OHA measures the capacity of your managers and frontline teams, diagnoses the load consuming it, intervenes on it, then re-measures at 90 days.
You measure performance. But do you measure the capacity required to sustain it?
The Cycle, at a glance
Five stages, one measured loop.
Move through the cycle to see what happens at each stage — from the first baseline measurement to the 90-day re-measurement. Every OHA engagement runs this exact sequence.
- Diagnose
Every engagement opens with a measured baseline of the participating managers or frontline employees — capacity, workload, retention risk — so there is a number to compare against 90 days later. No hypothesis, no assumption, no generic survey.
What we actually do
- Capacity baseline assessment for the participating cohort
- Leadership and stakeholder interviews
- Retention and absence risk signals mapped by team
Diagnose
01Baseline Measurement
Every engagement opens with a measured baseline of the participating managers or frontline employees — capacity, workload, retention risk — so there is a number to compare against 90 days later. No hypothesis, no assumption, no generic survey.
What we actually do
- Capacity baseline assessment for the participating cohort
- Leadership and stakeholder interviews
- Retention and absence risk signals mapped by team
Hover or select a stage to explore the cycle.
The Problem, In Business Terms
Your managers decide whether your best people stay or leave.
Managers shape the pace, decisions and retention of an entire team. When they can no longer absorb the pressure, the impact spreads — and weighs on the performance of the whole organization.
↑ +9 pts — recoverable
9 points of engagement to recover
Manager engagement in North America fell from 31% to 22% between 2022 and 2025 — 9 points of recoverable capacity sitting in the layer that most influences retention.
The highest-leverage layer to invest in
Managers report more stress than the people they manage — and receive the least development investment. That gap is also the biggest opportunity: every dollar put into their capacity spreads to the whole team.
Keep one manager, keep the team
When a manager stays, their team stays. Replacing a manager costs on average twice their annual salary (Gallup) — strengthening the one you have protects the team and avoids that cost.
What consumes capacity
The Five Loads.
Capacity does not empty all at once — for managers and frontline employees alike, it is diluted across five distinct types of load. Each behaves differently, and each requires a different response.
Cognitive load
Frequent context switching fragments attention across competing priorities.
▲ Elevated this weekEmotional load
Intensity rises and falls with team tension and unresolved conflict.
● Within rangeRelational load
The network of people to manage, coordinate and support grows dense.
● Within rangeAdministrative load
Repetitive tasks and reporting accumulate outside the work that matters.
● Within rangePrograms
The same measured cycle, at a different depth.
The Capacity Cycle isn't a single session. It's the method behind every program OHA runs, applied depending on where a company is starting.
Where most companies start
The Capacity Diagnostic
A three-to-four week assessment that gives your leadership team a real baseline across the participating managers or frontline employees: where capacity, load and risk actually sit today, not where you assume they sit. You leave with a specific, budget-ready recommendation — not a slide deck of generic findings.
Starting at $3,500.
Book a Capacity DiagnosticBuilt for your managers
The Manager Capacity Program
Over 12 weeks, a cohort of managers moves through the full Capacity Cycle: live sessions, 1:1 or small-group coaching, and ongoing support through RESET+. The program closes with a re-measurement and an executive debrief — not a certificate of participation.
- — A measured baseline and a 90-day re-measurement, not a satisfaction survey
- — A cohort with shared vocabulary for capacity and load they can use in real meetings
- — An executive debrief presenting the results to your leadership team
- — A specific recommendation built from your own cohort's data
Ideal for organizations of 200+ employees where manager turnover or disengagement is already visible. Investment available on request.
Beyond the Manager Capacity Program
Companies that see results typically extend the Cycle to their executive team, or into a standing annual partnership that runs it continuously. Ask once you have your first cohort's numbers.
See all programs →Questions We Get Asked
Straight answers, before the call.
How do I know if my managers are burned out?
Look for decision avoidance, slower response to escalations, and managers absorbing work their team used to handle — those show up before absence or resignation does. Engagement surveys catch this late because they measure how people feel, not the load they are carrying. A capacity measurement separates the two, and repeating it at 90 days shows whether the load actually moved.
Why are my best managers quitting?
Strong managers rarely leave over pay. They leave when the load they carry stops being survivable — usually decisional and emotional load that nobody named. By the time an exit interview surfaces it, the decision was made months earlier.
How do I measure a management team's workload?
Counting hours or meetings misses most of it. We measure five distinct loads — decisional, cognitive, emotional, relational and administrative — because each one requires a different response, and a team can be fine on volume while a single load is at breaking point. The measurement produces a baseline you can re-run.
How do I prove the ROI of a leadership program to my CFO?
Start with a baseline before anything is delivered, then re-measure the same instrument at 90 days so the change is a number, not an impression. Tie it to the costs your CFO already tracks — replacing one manager typically runs six to nine months of salary, and short-term disability leaves are recorded. Attendance and satisfaction scores don't survive that conversation; a measured shift against a baseline does.
What is human capacity at work?
Human capacity is the load a person can carry while still performing well. It isn't fixed — it rises and falls with the load an organization places on people.
How does manager capacity affect organizational performance?
Managers are the transmission point for pace, decisions and retention. When their capacity erodes, the whole team's performance drops with it.
How does OHA measure human performance?
We measure a baseline of manager capacity and load, diagnose the dominant load, intervene, and re-measure the same instrument at 90 days.
How is OHA different from a corporate wellness provider?
Wellness providers report participation. OHA measures capacity, intervenes on load, and reports a change against a baseline at 90 days.
How do I support my managers through a restructuring or period of change?
Name the specific load the change adds — usually decisional and emotional, rarely volume — instead of offering general support. Give managers practices they can use inside the real work of that week, and measure the effect at 90 days rather than assuming it. Managers carry the change for their whole team, so they need the load named first.
What causes manager overload?
Usually a combination of five loads — decisional, cognitive, emotional, relational and administrative — rather than simple volume.
How can companies improve manager retention?
Identify the load driving exit before people leave. Measuring capacity gives a leading indicator exit interviews can't.
Does OHA provide leadership development programs?
Yes — cohort programs for managers and leaders, each preceded by a Capacity Diagnostic and followed by a 90-day re-measurement.
Can OHA work with organizations in Toronto and across Canada?
OHA is based in Toronto and works across the GTA, Ontario, Canada and North America, onsite, virtually or hybrid.
I'm burned out myself as a leader — where do I start?
Start with the load, not the exhaustion. A leader most often carries decisional and emotional load that no one above them sees. The five-load measurement identifies which one dominates, and the 90-day re-measurement says whether an intervention actually moved it — not whether you felt better after a vacation.
How do I know if I'm overloaded myself before it affects my team?
The signs arrive before the effect on the team: decisions that drag, escalations you avoid, work you take back instead of delegating. The capacity measurement separates your load from how you feel — a leader can feel fine and carry an unsustainable load. It's the same instrument we run for managers, re-measured at 90 days.
How do I resolve a persistent conflict between two members of my leadership team?
A conflict that persists is almost always relational load that has hardened, not a personality problem. Measure it the way you measure the other loads, intervene on the specific relational load, and re-measure at 90 days. Generic mediation doesn't hold; a load that's named and measured does.
How do I handle a layoff without destabilizing the rest of the team?
A layoff adds emotional and relational load to the whole team, not just the person leaving. Measure the load before the announcement, give managers practices for the real work of that week, and re-measure at 90 days to know whether the team held — assuming it held isn't enough.
How do I get my leadership team to adopt a strategy change?
Adoption stalls when the change adds decisional load no one measured. Diagnose the specific load the change imposes, intervene on it, and re-measure at 90 days. Communication plans don't move an unmeasured load.
How do I get my team to adopt a new product or new targets without losing performance?
New targets add cognitive and decisional load before they add performance. Measure which load climbs, intervene on that specific load, and re-measure at 90 days so performance stays a number, not an impression. A team can hold the volume and break on a single load.