Today Tonianne asked me to write case studies for some of our larger clients…Turner Construction, the World Bank, The Library Corporation. Big names. Big projects. Impressive scope.

And while I was writing about these massive engagements, I was thinking … This isn’t where we started. And it’s not actually where most of our work happens.

The truth is, over a hundred of our clients have been small, short focused visits. They used to be all in person, but they are increasingly remote. A few hours or a few days where we come in, work intensively with a team to figure out what needs to happen, help them build a way to make it happen, and then we leave. They take it from there.

And I love that work.

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The John Shook Moment

Years ago, I was working on a project with John Shook from the Lean Enterprise Institute. We were walking into a manufacturing plant, just talking, when suddenly his head swiveled.

He looked across the factory floor—materials moving this way and that, people working, the sounds of assembly and construction and shipment—and he just looked at me and said: “You know, I really love a factory. I love everything about what’s happening here. People working together to get stuff done.”

That’s how Tonianne and I feel when we work with a small group. We just love ways of working. Every team is different, personalities…challenges…what they need to see.

It doesn’t matter if you’re doing sales or marketing, building something, inventing something, researching something. What matters is that human beings are getting together, caring about something in real time, and making that thing happen.

This is because work isn’t just work. Work is your life. It’s what you spend so much of your time on. You don’t want to do it in a way that’s upsetting. Your bosses don’t want to give you work that upsets you.

What we all want is to figure out: What’s the right thing we should be doing right now? What’s the right way to get that done? And how do we move forward with that?

Five Quick Case Studies

I want to share five short engagements we had. They were so fun, so memorable, that even though a few of them happened several years ago, the people we worked with still reach out. You make friends quickly when you are dealing with people’s livelihood. I wanted these to just be stories, no a logo parade, so they are blind itemed.

Communicating Learning and Discovery

Where: Research Triangle, North CarolinaHow long: A few daysThe challenge: A group of scientists trying to discover things, but struggling to communicate their real-time, super-fast learning

We came in with some tools…Personal Kanban, value stream mapping, visual management…and asked: How are you going to deploy these in a way that allows you all to communicate this constant discovery?

Scientists are used to the scientific method. They know hypotheses change. Experiments fail. Discovery is nonlinear. They needed a system that matched that reality.

A few days. That’s all it took. They took the tools and the ideas, created their own versions. And they reported back just recently that what we built together continues to impact them and help them be more successful.

Every Request Sounds Like an Accusation

Where: Northeast United StatesHow long: One weekThe challenge: Fast food to fine dining, every restaurant has the same problem, communication that sounds like combat.

Our client’s restaurants were drowning in toxicity and the customers were noticing. In restaurants, things move fast. You’re barking at each other all the time: “I need three fish fired up!” “Why isn’t the bus station set up?” “Why isn’t there salt on the tables?”

The problem wasn’t that people were rude. The problem was the pace made every interaction hostile. Staff couldn’t see their work in the chaos, so nothing got done until someone yelled about it.

What we did: We set up visual management systems that created triggers for action. This is when supplies are running low. This is when the bus station needs attention. This is when that task needs to be done.

No one had to yell “Why isn’t this done yet?” anymore.

Staff could see their work and get their work done.

The barking stopped. The environment became more hospitable for staff, which made them more hospitable to customers.

Three Founders, Conflicting Assumptions

Where: Northeastern AustraliaHow long: One weekThe challenge: Three young entrepreneurs who’d just sold a company wanted to build townhomes…but each had different assumptions about how.

They had money. They had ambition. What they didn’t have was alignment.

They had to do everything: funding, permitting, design, clearing lots, construction, sales. Soup to nuts. An incredibly long value stream they had to create from scratch.

What we did: We took over a huge conference room. Went all the way around the walls with their assumptions…this happens, then this, then this…tons and tons of sticky notes.

Forming. Storming. Norming. Sometimes arguing. But always moving toward consensus about how they were actually going to operate.

One week. By the time we left, they didn’t have a business plan on paper. They had an operations plan for how they were actually going to achieve this thing.

Don’t Fix Defects, Prevent Them

Where: Scotland (global bank, one very large 80 person team)How long: A few daysThe challenge: Software quality issues…costly, recurring, exhausting

They came to us looking for ways to do better bug fixing. But here’s what we said: “You already know how to fix defects. You’re good at that. Let’s find out when they’re about to happen and stop them from happening at all.”

What we did: We used Personal Kanban to create triggers that allowed them to see problems before they became problems. When dependencies were forming. When miscommunications were brewing.

We helped them design a system they’re still using after a decade.

A few days. Over ten years of impact.

Montessori-ing Montessori

Where: Southern EnglandHow long: Ongoing (they buy hours as needed)The challenge: Everything from internal communication to planning to stakeholder management

This school has two locations and a lot of stakeholders: students, parents, the community, other instructors. Lots of people deeply invested in the school’s success.

What we did: They bought a chunk of hours. We get together for an hour at a time. We have conversations about where they’re going. We visualize things. We solve specific problems.

It’s been amazing. No long-term contract. No massive engagement. Just expertise when they need it, on their terms, at their pace.

Small Engagements Work (And We Love Them)

Here’s what all these have in common:

Quick, surgical, expert interventions. We bring the right expertise, the right conversations to your right moment. We get creative together.

We don’t need months to understand your work. We don’t need enterprise budgets to make an impact.

What we need is:

* A real problem you’re trying to solve

* People who care about solving it

* A few focused days (or even hours) to work together

And here’s why this matters right now: Everybody is really worried about AI, about tariffs, about market uncertainty. So we aren’t acting.

That worry, that inaction, is costing us…not just time and energy, but stress. Real, grinding, exhausting stress.

We want to help with that. We want you to get to work during the day and to sleep at night.

Not by selling you AI solutions. Not by promising magic. But by doing what we’ve always done: helping you see your work, understand your work, and control your work.

We want to do this like a pit-stop. We pause, we get you better tires and clean the windshield, and then you are off. You walk away with something that works for you, your team, and your reality.

The Real Point

Work is your life. It’s where you spend your days, your energy, your creativity.

You deserve to do it in a way that doesn’t make you miserable.

Your team deserves systems that actually match how they work, not generic “best practices” that ignore your reality.

And you don’t need to be Turner Construction or the World Bank to get that help.

You just need to reach out.

Let’s Talk

If you’ve been thinking “Modus sounds great, but they probably don’t work with companies like ours,” I’m here to tell you: You’re exactly who we work with.

Small teams. Startups. Nonprofits. Schools. A single department inside a big company. Three people with a vision.

The vertical doesn’t matter. Biotech, restaurants, real estate, banking, education—we’ve done it all.

What matters is you’re people doing work with other people, and you want to do it better.

No obligation. No sales pitch. Just a conversation about what’s not working and whether we might help.

→ Let’s have that conversation

Because the beauty of a small engagement is this: Big impact doesn’t require big budgets or big timelines.

Sometimes it just requires the right help at the right moment.

And that moment might be right now.

P.S. — One of my favorite clients is a small nonprofit in Australia. Another was a small biotech in North Carolina. Another is a school in England that books us an hour at a time.

If you’re waiting until you’re “big enough” for expert help, you’re waiting too long. Start now. Start small. Start with what actually works.

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