How I work
Growth creates complexity. Clarity doesn't have to disappear.
When companies scale past 20-30 people, the informal ways of working that got you here 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)
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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.
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Decision-making frameworks (so you're not the bottleneck)
Clear workflows and handoffs (so things don't fall through the cracks)
Role clarity maps (so ownership is obvious, not assumed)
Operational rhythms (so your team moves without waiting on you)
Inclusive ways of working (so diverse thinkers can succeed)
Clear, flexible, and scalable.
The systems founders forget
Most founders invest heavily in two things:
Their tools and infrastructure
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
Your best engineer leaves because "it's not clear what I'm supposed to own"
Cross-functional projects stall because no one knows who decides
The same problems keep happening because there's no learning loop
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
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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 Backlog. 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 Leadership 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
Why this Matters Now
The friction you're experiencing today, slow decisions, unclear ownership, delivery that still needs you. It only gets worse 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 systems now that let you scale sustainably.
That's what I help you do.