Sometimes the work is one leader and one conversation. Sometimes it is a group learning to speak honestly with one another. Sometimes it is a whole organisation in the middle of a transition. The setting changes; the question does not — what does this situation actually ask of us?
The work itself is practical. People rarely lack intelligence or intent. What they lack is language precise enough to name what is happening, and the confidence to act on it.
When would a senior leader actually want Maria in the room?
- During significant organisational change, when things are moving faster than people can integrate.
- Through a leadership transition — someone arriving, leaving, or stepping into more responsibility.
- When a difficult conversation or decision has been postponed for too long.
- When there is friction between people or teams that no process seems to resolve.
- In a crisis, or a long stretch of uncertainty, when steadiness matters more than answers.
- When HR processes have drifted away from the human purpose they were built for.
- When an experienced outside perspective helps people see the whole situation, not only their part of it.
