Complex Problem-Solving and Consulting (TTU)
Complex Problem Solving Consulting & Planning (TTU)
Some challenges are too layered for quick fixes—this is why our complex problem-solving consulting services exist. You know this to be true because you’ve tried the quick fixes, and they didn't work. You also know that the problems facing your team require expertise and sustained focus, neither of which you have in surplus, because people problems aren’t your primary or sole responsibility. These challenges often carry deeply entrenched cultural stressors and compliance risks that make it nearly impossible to build—or even focus on building—a coherent people management strategy. And yet, that strategy is central to advancing your organization’s goals and mission.
That’s where our Team Tune-Up (TTU) - complex problem-solving consulting - comes in. This engagement is designed for leaders who need more than brainstorming—they need a structured, diagnostic process that surfaces root causes, aligns stakeholders, and builds a plan that actually works. We help teams move from ambiguity to clarity to action.
Our diagnostic process is rigorous but not burdensome. You’re involved, but you’re not babysitting us. We know that the need for help often collides with the dread of managing consultants, and we’ve built our approach to remove that friction. Our expertise in internal investigations and fact-finding allows us to engage key stakeholders, uncover operational blind spots, and develop solutions that advance your goals while addressing compliance and conflict risks.
We combine this diagnostic depth with an iterative planning process that accounts for your organizational culture, regulatory environment, and operational constraints. The result: solutions that are both principled and practical—designed to work in the real world, not just on paper.
Complex Problem-Solving Consulting Services
- Organizational Culture Assessments
- HR Infrastructure Design
- Policy Alignment and Risk Management Strategy
- Compliance-Conscious Organizational Planning
- Employee Relations Strategy
- Facilitated Focus Groups and Stakeholder Engagement
- Crisis-Informed Culture Stabilization for Distressed Organizations
- Narrative-Driven Change Management Strategy
- Strategic Advising on Identity-Driven Power Politics
- Leadership Coaching for Urgent Transitions and Complex Team Dynamics
What Complex Problem Solving Looks Like
The problems we address through TTU don’t fit into neat categories. They span sectors, team structures, and leadership styles. What they have in common is that they require focused, professional analysis and a deliberate approach to solution design.
HR Pilot and Business Plan for Nonprofit Shared Services
We’ve helped a coalition of eight nonprofit organizations rethink how they acquire and manage human resources expertise. These organizations—serving and employing individuals in the harm reduction space—faced overlapping challenges: regulatory compliance, strained employee relations, and performance management gaps. Many were led by passionate but inexperienced founders navigating the tension between their values, employment law and funder restrictions. We evaluated their operations, coached their leaders, and designed a pilot program to help them share the costs of HR support, training, and compliance—fundamentally shifting how they operate.
Cultural Misalignment and Policy Contradictions
An executive team faced mounting internal conflict and policy contradictions that were quietly eroding productivity. The staff—many navigating multiple marginalized identities and lived experience with substance use—were caught in a swirl of competing narratives. Trans employees reported transphobia from Black and Brown colleagues. Functional drug users felt stigmatized despite the organization’s stated commitment to harm reduction. Meanwhile, leadership ignored grant requirements affirming a drug-free workplace, knowing noncompliance could trigger fund clawbacks they couldn’t afford. The organization needed more than culture repair—it needed a framework that could hold complexity without collapsing under it.
Post-Merger Culture Assessment
A subsidiary of a major corporation was navigating the aftermath of a high-stakes merger layered over a long-standing culture of dysfunction. Leadership turnover, a successful union campaign, and legacy practices rooted in opacity and performative engagement collided. Employees who had been promised transparency were now facing reactive policy shifts and eroded trust. The merger didn’t create the problem—it exposed it. The organization needed a reckoning with its cultural debt and a strategy for rebuilding credibility from the inside out.
These are just a few examples. The common thread isn’t the industry or the issue. It’s the need for complex problem-solving consulting — a focused, diagnostic engagement that gets to the heart of the problem and builds a path forward.