People, culture and accountability for growth.
Ajility's Culture and sentiment install finds out how your people are really going, where the load sits and where friction is, then works with your leaders to fix it. It is priced after a call because it depends on team size. Know who owns each result, what they can decide and how good performance is measured. Ajility puts the right people in the right seats, then makes the values visible in how those seats behave.
- EngagementEmbedded fractional
- Typical horizonreviewed each quarter
- Best suited$3M to $30M founder-led
200+
People led across office, site and subcontract workforces
90%
Of hires performing at or above expectations
3+ years
Average team tenure through a growth period
Where the operating problem shows up
These are the problems you can see in the week, not abstract symptoms on a slide.
- Overlapping roles causing confusion and dropped balls.
- Good people struggling in the wrong positions.
- Lack of clear ownership over key business functions.
- Founders managing direct reports who should be managing themselves.
- Values exist as a poster and are absent from hiring, reviews and decisions.
- Nobody measures how employees or clients actually experience the business, so standards slip when the founder is not in the room.
The operating structure Ajility installs
You get a practical way for the work to run, with clear owners and records your team can use.
- A forward-looking organisational chart designed for scale.
- Clear accountability mapping for every leadership seat.
- Role scorecards with measurable KPIs.
- A disciplined talent review and alignment process.
- Core values defined in observable behaviour, with examples of what meets the standard, built into hiring, onboarding and reviews.
- Employee and client sentiment measured on a set rhythm and reported to leadership, with a recognition and feedback rhythm that reinforces the behaviour you want repeated.
The operating rhythm for implementation
Ajility looks at how the business runs now, builds what is missing and works with your team until the new rhythm is usable.
Assess
Evaluate current talent, roles and structural bottlenecks, and measure employee and client sentiment to establish the baseline.
Design
Map the required structure for the next 12 to 36 months of growth and set core values in observable behaviour, not adjectives.
Define
Create role clarity, accountabilities and performance metrics, and build the values into hiring, onboarding, reviews and decision rights.
Align
Transition the team into the new structure, establish ownership, then run the recognition and feedback rhythm and re-measure sentiment.
Restructuring a small business: what Ajility does and what stays with your lawyer
Owners usually say restructure when they mean three things at once: who owns what, whether functions should be shared across businesses, and whether one or two roles should go. Ajility does the first two: the accountability chart, the role scorecards and the decision rights, built before names go on the chart. Where a role is made redundant, the consultation, notice and entitlements are employment law and stay with your lawyer or HR adviser; Ajility designs the structure, not the exit.
Fractional COO service questions
What does the Ajility People, Culture & Accountability install cost?
- The full install is from $15,000 plus GST. It delivers a forward-looking org chart for the next 12 to 36 months, accountability mapping for every leadership seat, role scorecards, a talent review process, and the values, sentiment measurement and recognition rhythm that sit inside those seats.
Is there a smaller starting module?
- Yes. The Org Design Sprint is from $5,400 plus GST and produces the structure and accountability map.
How is culture measured rather than asserted?
- Employee and client sentiment is measured on a set rhythm and reported to leadership, so change is tracked against a baseline instead of being assumed.
Does Ajility make hiring or exit decisions for the business?
- No. Ajility designs the structure, defines each seat and builds the scorecards. The founder and leadership team make the people decisions with better information in front of them.
How does this connect to the rest of the operating model?
- Structure sits alongside the Operating System & Governance install, from $18,000 plus GST, and the Performance & Commercial Discipline install, from $9,900 plus GST. Ajility sequences them from the Operating Diagnostic, from $3,600 plus GST.
HR consultant or fractional COO to sort out roles and accountability?
- An HR consultant handles employment policy, contracts and Fair Work compliance. A fractional COO designs the structure the people work in: roles, decision rights, accountability and scorecards. Ajility does that design but is not a recruiter or an employment lawyer.
Leadership development program or fixing the structure first?
- A leadership program builds individual capability; it does not give leaders clear seats, decision rights or a scorecard to perform against. If leaders are unclear on what they own, fix the structure first, then develop the people in it.
Can a fractional COO manage my staff?
- Yes, within agreed decision rights. A fractional COO typically chairs the leadership meeting and holds managers to their priorities, while day-to-day supervision stays with your line leaders. Ajility writes down who decides what before the work starts.
Do I need an org chart for a 30-person business?
- Yes, but draw it for where the business is going. A forward-looking chart covering the next 12 to 36 months, with one owner per function, shows the gaps and overlaps before they cause dropped balls or unnecessary hires.
A good employee is struggling in their current role. What should I do?
- Separate capability from clarity. Write down the outcomes and numbers the role owns and agree them. If they still struggle, look at whether their strengths fit another seat. Good people in the wrong position are common in businesses that grew informally.
How do I write company values as observable behaviours?
- Turn each adjective into what someone would see. 'Ownership' becomes 'raises a missed deadline before it is due and brings a fix'. Write two or three examples of meeting the standard and one of falling short, then use them in hiring and reviews.
Operating insights on this work
- Operating Insight
Right people, right seats
In most founder-led businesses, good people go quiet, not because they can't do the work, but because they're unclear on what they own. It reads as a people problem. It's almost always a structure problem.
Read Right people, right seats - Operating Insight
When the founder becomes the bottleneck
Founder-led businesses rarely stall because the vision is wrong. They stall because the structure underneath it can't carry the weight. Here's how the bottleneck forms, and what it takes to clear it.
Read When the founder becomes the bottleneck
Related expertise: Roles, targets and incentives.
Related service lines
Ready to install this in your business?
Book a free 30-minute fit call and we'll map out the right approach for your stage of growth.