Fix the cause,
not the symptom.
Operational Structure and Management
for growing businesses
Is this you?
- Work gets done, but always the hard way: chasing, re-doing, duplicating.
- Nobody's sure which version of a document is current.
- Information lives in inboxes, heads and personal laptops.
- The same problems keep coming back, however hard everyone works.
"Most of the time, people aren't the problem. It's the systems they work with."
How I work
I start by asking what you think the problem is. Then I observe how work flows day to day and identify where it gets stuck. Often the problem a business names is a symptom of something deeper, and solving the real cause is what stops it from coming back.
Fixing it, without stopping
the business
I work on two tracks at once. First, I handle what's urgent, so the immediate pressure comes off. In the background, I work on the underlying cause: gathering options, bringing in the right specialists and putting simple, lasting improvements in place. You choose the way forward, and I make sure it gets done.
When I step back
You decide when, and what you need in place. That might be a completed project, documented processes, training materials for your team, or simply a clear set of recommendations. Whatever the scope, you'll always get a proper handover, so nothing depends on me once I've gone.
In practice
Restructuring for clarity
The director of a scaling business had 27 people reporting directly to them. A natural people person, they were pulled in every direction, the business was stalling, and the long hours were taking a toll at home. They didn't see how stretched things had become until I mapped it out on a whiteboard.
I redesigned the reporting structure around clearer accountability, reducing their direct reports from 27 to 11. Not everyone welcomed the change, and some of the conversations were difficult at first, but the result spoke for itself.
The result
The director got their time back, stepped away from meetings that didn't need them, and began leading the business strategically again, while still keeping time for their people. The new structure also gave the business room to grow: it developed the 2IC, introduced mentoring, and gave emerging leaders real responsibility.
In practice
Building the consistency the business needed
A premium residential property was losing about one front-of-house staff member every month. For residents, consistency mattered most: familiar faces when they came home, a sense of safety, and confidence that their homes were in the same trusted hands while they were away. But long overnight shifts, often without human contact, little sense of shared purpose and the pressure of being ready for an emergency made it hard for staff to stay. My brief was to stop the turnover without increasing the budget.
I looked beyond the roster to the reasons people were leaving, took the time to understand what motivated each team member, and rebuilt the roster around those motivations. In return, the team covered each other's shifts, giving the roster the flexibility it needed.
The result
Staff turnover dropped to zero and stayed there for three years. Residents returned to familiar faces, recruitment costs fell sharply, and several years after I'd left, I was approached to come back.
"Everyone in the room is passionate about something. I find it and put it to work for the business."
Structural work often goes hand in hand with executive support: structure so the same pressure doesn't keep coming back, and support for you in the meantime. → Executive Operational Support
Questions?
See answers to the frequently asked questions here
Let's find what's really slowing things down
A free 30-minute conversation is usually enough to work out where
structure would make the biggest difference.