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Organizational advisory

Stronger organizations.
Clearer direction.

For schools, businesses, and nonprofits ready to clarify responsibilities, work through decisions, and give their people a clearer way forward.

Advisory, leadership learning, and practical systems
with Hannah Richardson.

Take a look at the work
Hannah Richardson
Hannah RichardsonSchool leadership &
organizational consulting
Grounded in school leadership. Open to your organization’s questions.Roles   /   Decisions   /   Capacity   /   Follow-through

Inside the work

From a recurring problem
to a working agreement.

Explore illustrative school situations informed by Hannah’s school leadership and organizational consulting experience. These are fictional work samples, not client case studies or evidence of results in other sectors.

Start with something familiar.

FIELDNOTE / 01ILLUSTRATIVE WORK SAMPLE

Decision brief

A timetable that can move forward.

Question: who approves the revised timetable, and how does the school put it into practice?

Decision owner
Head of school, within the school’s agreed delegated authority.
Input before deciding
Division leads identify teaching constraints. Operations checks room and staffing implications.
Carry it forward
The timetable lead publishes one agreed version and explains what has changed.
Close the loop
Review practical conflicts after the first two weeks. Record any changes in the same place.

A discussion starting point. Adapt roles and authority to the school’s actual governance.

When decisions keep circling

The meeting ends.
The decision doesn’t.

A timetable change returns to the agenda for the third time. Everyone has a view. It is unclear who makes the final call—or who carries it forward.

Roles → Decisions → Accountability

A practical place to start

Name the decision owner, who needs to be consulted, and who will carry out the decision. Set a date to review what happened.

01 / 03  ·  Decision ownership
See the organizational connections behind this example
The organization, connected●  Illustrative map
Five connected parts of school organizationSelected connections: Roles to Decisions; Decisions to Accountability; Accountability to Roles. These are illustrative relationships, not a diagnosis. DAILYWORK 01Roles 02Decisions 03Workload 04Communication 05Accountability
Connections to examine in this example

The thinking underneath

One problem rarely
belongs to one role.

The highlighted connections show which parts of the organization the selected example asks us to examine. They are a conversation aid, not a score or assessment.

Use the three situation buttons above to change the work sample and its connections.

Fictional examples. Proposed agreements, not measured results or client endorsements.

Illustrations of practice. No client information.

The approach

Look beyond
the org chart.
Follow the work.

A title tells you where someone sits. It rarely tells you what happens when a decision stalls, a handoff fails, or a team reaches capacity.

  1. 01Trace one real situation from start to finish.
  2. 02Make ownership, authority, and capacity visible.
  3. 03Agree on a change small enough to put into practice.

Ways to work together

Start where
the work gets stuck.

Support for organizational structure, the people leading the work, and the tools they use every day.

01

Advisory

Work through a specific organizational question: a leadership transition, overlapping responsibilities, or a decision that has no clear owner.

A focused question. A shared map. Practical next steps.

Explore Advisory Read the full Advisory overview ↗

A useful starting question
Where is responsibility unclear, or a decision repeatedly getting stuck?

Possible working materials
A responsibility map, a decision brief, or a written sequence of next steps. The question and scope determine what is useful.

Before work begins
Agree on the question, the people involved, what information is needed, and the boundaries of the engagement.

Discuss an advisory question ↗
02

Leadership Learning

Help leaders work through the conversations, judgments, and responsibilities their roles require, using situations from school life.

Role clarity. Team conversations. Decision practice.

Explore Leadership Learning Read the full Leadership Learning overview ↗

The starting point
Situations from school leadership: clarifying a role, holding a difficult conversation, or exercising judgment within agreed authority.

Possible working materials
A role conversation guide, a decision exercise, or a plan for applying the learning with a team.

For other organizations
Start with a conversation about fit and adaptation. These school-based examples do not establish experience or outcomes in every sector.

Discuss a learning need ↗
03

Tools & Systems

Turn agreements into something people can use: a decision record, a responsibility map, or a meeting rhythm with a clear purpose.

Useful structure for the work between meetings.

Explore Tools & Systems Read the full Tools & Systems overview ↗

A useful starting question
Which agreement keeps getting lost between the meeting and the work?

Possible working materials
A decision record, a meeting agenda with a purpose, or a handoff checklist that names who does what next.

Keep it workable
Begin with an existing workflow and identify what people need to use, maintain, and review. Software is not assumed to be the answer.

Discuss a practical tool ↗

A founder-led practice

Meet Hannah Richardson.

Hannah Richardson developed the Prepared Organization framework through her work in school leadership and organizational consulting. Her practice focuses on the structures, relationships, and decisions that shape daily work.

Hannah welcomes conversations with schools, businesses, and nonprofits about their purpose, the people carrying the work, and the agreements that help them work together.

Start a conversation

Bring the question
you keep coming back to.

Schools, businesses, and nonprofits are welcome. Choose a starting point and use the short note below to prepare a conversation with Hannah.

What would you like to explore?

Conversation starter · Advisory

Hello Hannah, I would like to explore advisory support for our organization. The recurring question is: [describe one situation]. The people involved are: [roles only]. We have already tried: [brief context]. Could we discuss whether this is a good fit?

Review the note, open an email draft, and replace the bracketed prompts before sending.

To: info@montessorimakers.org · Contact through Montessori Makers Group
Opens your email app. If no app opens, copy the note and address into your preferred email service.

Keep identifying student, employee, client, and family details out of an initial inquiry.

Contact us ↗

The email option opens a draft for you to review and send. Our contact page has the current email details.