The Strategic Workplace Solution**

** aka How CEOs Fix Problems at the Root

Most SMEs don’t struggle because they lack strategy. They struggle because the strategy never reaches the organisation in one coherent piece.

In practice, the real blocker is almost always the same:

Leaders can see the problems clearly, but the organisation can’t see the leaders clearly.

And that gap — between what the CEO knows and what the organisation experiences — becomes the breeding ground for frustration, misalignment, duplicated effort, weak decisions, and chronic firefighting.

For years, we’ve been helping CEOs close that gap, but we never had a neat name for it. But “Strategic Workplace Solutions” is exactly what it is.

This is the work that sits between high-level strategy and day-to-day operations — the work that gets organisations functioning properly again.

Most organisations feel like the Forth Bridge — endlessly being repainted, patched and revisited because the structure, magnificent though it is, cannot change. It is a thing of great beauty, but just maintaining that strength is a never-ending task. Those running it fix one area only for another to peel. The work is constant, reactive and circular.

But when the organisation is designed and aligned properly, it stops behaving like the Forth Bridge and starts behaving

more like one of Zaha Hadid’s creations:

sweeping, intentional, structurally coherent, and built so that energy flows forward rather than back on itself. Her designs did not rely on endless maintenance to stay functional — they worked because the thinking beneath them was elegant, integrated and sound. She also had the best structural engineers in the business. The CEO becomes Ms Hadid — vision uncompromising — and we’re the ones with the metaphorical theodolites and pens in our top pocket, making sure the thing actually stands.

What Strategic Workplace Solutions actually are

We must ignore the jargon. In reality, it means this:

We spend time with the CEO and other leaders → we find out what’s really happening, or not → we identify the points of friction → we translate those into specific leadership or team interventions → and build a system around the CEO that actually works.

It’s the practical layer between leadership clarity and delivery. It’s the work that turns “What the CEO wants” into “What the organisation actually does.”

This is why CEOs find it so valuable:

• It removes the invisible noise around them

• It shows where the true blockages are hiding

• It fixes problems permanently, not temporarily

• And it gives them back the space to think

It is not HR. It's not generic L&D. It is precision alignment work, tailored to the actual organisation.

How issues reveal themselves

Most CEOs don’t call us saying “We need strategic workplace solutions.” They call because they’re seeing symptoms:

• departmental friction

• slow or circular decision-making

• mid-level managers avoiding accountability

• unclear or inconsistent communication

• pockets of burnout

• the same problems recurring in slightly different forms

• “good people” suddenly underperforming or drifting

On the surface, these look unrelated. Underneath, they usually stem from one of three things:

1. Leadership clarity missing or inconsistent

2. Roles and expectations unclear or misaligned

3. Communication not landing the way leaders expect it to

These are solvable — quickly — once you know where to look.

The work we actually do with CEOs and leadership teams

1. Identify the real problem, not the presented problem

We listen, gather context, pull together the strands, and extract the actual issue beneath the noise. Often an assumed skill is missing, but that's only part of it.

2. Align the senior team

Not by bonding or “team building”, but by clarifying responsibility, decision rights, expectations and behaviours.

3. Shape the communication layer

Most CEOs assume people understand more than they do. We create the rhythm, the sequence, and the messaging that keeps the organisation together.

4. Build capability where it’s missing

We train or mentor where needed — feedback, accountability, difficult conversations, prioritisation, leadership presence — the practical pieces that glue the whole system together.

5. Ensure the fixes embed

This is where your deep HR and organisational psychology experience shines:the process, structure and behaviour changes don’t float away — they become part of how the organisation runs.

This is the part SMEs always miss. It’s why outside consultants often fail. It’s why CEOs keep firefighting the same flames.

Why CEOs find this so effective

Because it solves the thing they rarely have time or access to fix:

the invisible organisational mechanics that sit underneath the work.

Most senior leaders never get proper support to:

• process their own thinking

• become clearer communicators

• shape expectations

• use their strengths properly

• delegate meaningfully

• build their mid-level managers

• stop carrying the whole business on their backs

When you fix these layers, everything else begins to move smoothly:

• teams become braver

• decisions speed up

• accountability is shared

• communication lands cleanly

• people understand the direction

• performance stabilises

• the CEO gets their headspace back

And none of this requires a full transformation programme. It requires expertise, precision, and the right conversations in the right order.

This is what OPCoachUK have been doing all along

We have been:

• listening to the CEO

• spotting the real issues

• translating that into targeted interventions

• coaching leaders

• training teams

• aligning culture with behaviour

• strengthening communication

• and building capability that lasts

This is the work most consultancies can’t do because they sit too far from the CEO or too deeply inside HR.

We occupy the space where strategy meets psychology meets delivery meets practicality.

That is the definition of Strategic Workplace Solutions.