How I work

Growth creates complexity. Clarity doesn't have to disappear.

When you scale past 20-30 people, the informal ways of working that got you there stop holding.

You start noticing:

  • Decisions slow down or pile up on your desk

  • Ownership blurs, "I thought you were handling that"

  • Pressure concentrates in the wrong places (usually on your best people)

  • New hires take months to figure out "how we do things here"

Founders feel it first. Teams feel it everywhere.

Your people aren’t the issue. The way work gets done is.

Not your tech. Not your product.

The unwritten rules, unclear ownership and habits that quietly shape how decisions get made and how teams move.

When those go unexamined everything else strains.

What I do (and what I don’t)

  • I help scale-ups design practical ways of working that support growth instead of fighting it.

    This is not traditional HR. I'm not building policies or handbooks.

    This is about the unwritten rules decision habits and team rhythms that either slow you down or set you free. Making sure they are working for you not against you.

    • Decision-making frameworks (so everything doesn’t always have to run through you)

    • Clear workflows and handoffs (so things don't fall through the cracks)

    • Role clarity maps (so ownership is obvious, not assumed)

    • Ways of working (so your team moves without waiting on you)

    Clear, flexible, and scalable.

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The systems founders forget

Most founders invest heavily in two things:

  1. Their tools and infrastructure

  2. How decisions get made

But they under-design the third:

How their teams experiences ownership, responsibility and belonging day to day.

When that’s invisible or assumed, the other two start breaking.

Signs this is happening

  1. Your best engineer leaves because "it's not clear what I'm supposed to own"

  2. Cross-functional projects stall because no one knows who decides

  3. The same problems keep happening because there's no learning loop

  4. Teams work in silos because collaboration isn't designed in

My work focuses on adapting the way people work so it’s visible, intentional, and fit for what's next.

I don't believe in one-size-fits-all frameworks. Every scale-up's operational challenges are unique.

But the process of understanding and improving them follows a proven pattern.

This is how every engagement works:

My Approach

  • We start by understanding what's happening, not what's written in decks or process docs.

    What this looks like:

    • Interviews with key people across teams

    • Observing and analysing where work slows down, stalls or bounces back

    • Targeted questions to surface friction, duplication, and invisible labour.

    Outcome: Clarity on where energy is leaking and why.

  • Together, we define the real problem to solve and just as importantly, what not to tackle yet.

    This prevents over-engineering and keeps focus on what will unlock the most momentum.

    We identify:

    • Bottlenecks (where work gets stuck)

    • Decision failures (who should decide what, but doesn't)

    • Ownership gaps (who's responsible, but it's unclear)

    • Invisible labour (who's holding things together through heroics)

    Outcome: A clearly scoped challenge aligned to current business priorities. A visible map of friction, risk, and opportunity.

  • We map how work actually flows (vs. how you think it flows).

    This includes:

    • Cross-team handoffs

    • Decision points

    • Communication patterns

    • Where tribal knowledge lives

    Outcome: A clear picture of how works moves through your organisation (what’s working and what’s quietly breaking).

  • We explore options, not assumptions.

    We design and test practical solutions, then prioritise what will deliver the most impact with the least drag.

    Outcome: A realistic, prioritised Action Backlog, not a wish list, but a roadmap of what to address first, second, third.

  • Meaningful change requires repeatable habits, not just documents.

    I support leaders to embed new ways of working into behaviours, rhythms, and expectations, and adapt them as the organisation continues to grow.

    Here's what makes this different:

    During the engagement, we take one priority focus area through full design, implementation, and behaviour embedding.

    Other challenges uncovered during discovery are captured in your Action Backlog, a clear, prioritised roadmap for what to address next.

    Outcome: Change that holds under pressure, not just on paper.

This method comes to life across THREE engagements. Depending on where you are and how deep you need to go. My 4 week Untangle Sprint Takes you through Steps 1-3, giving you a clear picture and a prioritised Action Plan. The 90 - day Accelerator goes further into Step 4 designing and implementing solutions to one key challenge at a time. Early embedding built in. The Untangle Partnership is where Step 5 happens embedding new ways of working until they hold.

What it does:

  • Reduces people risk

  • Eliminates founder bottlenecks

  • Speeds up onboarding

  • Stops repeated mistakes

  • Makes growth sustainable

What it gives you:

  • Systems that work for diverse thinking styles (not just neurotypical extroverts)

  • Operational clarity without bureaucracy

  • Confidence that growth is supported by design, not held together by individuals

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Why this Matters Now

The friction you're experiencing today, slow decisions, unclear ownership, delivery that still needs you. It only gets more complex as you scale.

You can ignore it and hope it fixes itself.
(It won't. It'll just get more expensive to address later.)

Or you can design the ways of working now that let you scale sustainably.

That's what I help you do.

Book a 30-min Untangle call