How it works · the same loop at every size
Write a decision into the brain once, and every Claude works from it.
Every business runs this loop, whether you run it yourselves or we run it with you. It takes 7 steps, and nothing that shapes how your team’s Claude answers changes until someone with authority says yes.
Every business runs this loop, whether you run it yourselves or we run it with you.
- 1Context
- 2Priorities
- 3Observe
- 4Decide
- 5Approve
- 6Write back
- 7Measure
Step 1
First we spend 90 minutes with each person to build the brain
It builds one shared brain from what each person knows, in your own files and under your accounts. A check-in 2 weeks later makes sure it’s updating as it should. The rest of the loop reads from that brain and writes approved changes back into it.
It builds one shared brain from what each person knows, in your own files and under your accounts. A check-in 2 weeks later makes sure it’s updating as it should. The rest of the loop reads from that brain and writes approved changes back into it.
Your size decides who runs the loop
The install is the first thing we build at every size, and after that the size of your team decides who runs it. From 50 people, we usually start with the Decision Discipline Workshop.
Under 15 people
Self-directed between quarterly reviews
Your team runs the loop, and each team’s leader clears its shared suggestions each week.
Every person gets a monthly note, and a 1-hour review with us each quarter. The report card comes out of that review.
Context Install, then the Context Layer
15 to 49 people
We run the loop with the owner
Month 1 opens with a half-day priority session with the owner and up to 5 seniors.
Month 1 opens with a half-day priority session with the owner and up to 5 seniors.
Each month we bring a Deployment Brief to a 60 to 90 minute decision session with the owner, and whatever you approve is written back into the brain. Each quarter we review every initiative with you.
Adds Decision Deployment, per business, 12 months
Adds Decision Deployment, per business, 12 months
50 people plus
We run the loop with the executive team
The same loop runs department by department, with each department’s own owner and metrics.
Signals arrive weekly, and the executive team gets a monthly pack and a quarterly board review.
Adds the Decision Layer, per business, 12 months minimum
Adds the Decision Layer, per business, 12 months minimum
Every business starts with the Context Install. Each size up adds one thing to what the size below it has.
Add-on, any size
Decision Discipline Workshop
Two days in one room with the 5 to 15 people who can fund a decision and kill one. Every AI idea leaves funded, parked or killed, and each funded workflow gets an owner and a date.
It sits beside any of the three sizes. From 50 people it usually comes first, so the executive team agrees where AI goes before anything is built.
Priced per firm, for one room, on its own or beside the install.
Each step leaves a record you can open
| Step | What happens | What it leaves behind | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Context | The install captures how the business actually works. | The shared brain in your files, and a Claude environment for each person. |
| 2 | Priorities | Leadership sets where AI should create value, what gets funded, who owns each initiative and when to stop. | An owner for each initiative, and a baseline written down and dated. |
| 3 | Observe | Signals come from the brain and the systems your work lives in. | A monthly note for every person, and a monthly Deployment Brief when we run the loop with the owner. |
| 4 | Decide | You make the calls on the evidence, on a fixed rhythm. | Every call with an owner and a date. |
| 5 | Approve | Nothing changes without a person saying yes. | The name of the person who said yes, and when. |
| 6 | Write back | Approved decisions land in the brain as updated context, workflows, instructions and skills. | A decision record, and the updated file everyone reads. |
| 7 | Measure | Against a baseline written down at the start. | The quarterly report card. |
Context
The install captures how the business actually works.
What it leaves behind
The shared brain in your files, and a Claude environment for each person.
Priorities
Leadership sets where AI should create value, what gets funded, who owns each initiative and when to stop.
What it leaves behind
An owner for each initiative, and a baseline written down and dated.
Observe
Signals come from the brain and the systems your work lives in.
What it leaves behind
A monthly note for every person, and a monthly Deployment Brief when we run the loop with the owner.
Decide
You make the calls on the evidence, on a fixed rhythm.
What it leaves behind
Every call with an owner and a date.
Approve
Nothing changes without a person saying yes.
What it leaves behind
The name of the person who said yes, and when.
Write back
Approved decisions land in the brain as updated context, workflows, instructions and skills.
What it leaves behind
A decision record, and the updated file everyone reads.
Measure
Against a baseline written down at the start.
What it leaves behind
The quarterly report card.
Then it repeats.
No AI spend without a funded workflow,
a named owner and kill criteria.
No AI spend without
a funded workflow,
a named owner
and kill criteria.
Stalled work shows up without anyone chasing or reporting it
Everyone reads the same brain, and leaders and managers also connect to the systems your work runs on. When we run the loop with you, we read the same brain and the same systems, read-only: mail, calendar, CRM, ledger and project tool. Never a staff member’s own inbox.
What it watches for
- Work that moves forward, and work that stops.
- Two people pulling against each other.
- Workflow automation opportunities, from what your CRM and other connected systems show.
- Good and bad news, and financial changes, as they were communicated.
- Anything left unactioned past the line you set.
Every person gets a monthly note on what moved, what stalled, what is waiting on that person and what has gone unactioned past 30 days. At 15 to 49 people, the owner also gets a monthly Deployment Brief, which adds what changed financially and what competitors actually did.
What changed in September
Prepared for the practice manager of a 12-person advice practice. An example.
Prepared for the practice manager of a 12-person advice practice. An example.
- What moved
- The SOA preparation checklist is in use by every adviser.
- What stalled
- The fee template update has waited on finance since 2 September.
- The fee template update has waited on finance since 2 September.
- Unactioned past 30 days
- An accountant’s referral from 18 August has had no reply.
- An accountant’s referral from 18 August has had no reply.
An example monthly note from the same 12-person advice practice as the homepage, which runs its own monthly decision session. Everything in it is illustrative.
What changed in September
Prepared for the practice manager of a 12-person advice practice. An example.
Prepared for the practice manager of a 12-person advice practice. An example.
- What moved
- The SOA preparation checklist is in use by every adviser.
- What stalled
- The fee template update has waited on finance since 2 September.
- The fee template update has waited on finance since 2 September.
- Unactioned past 30 days
- An accountant’s referral from 18 August has had no reply.
- An accountant’s referral from 18 August has had no reply.
An example monthly note from the same 12-person advice practice as the homepage, which runs its own monthly decision session. Everything in it is illustrative.
We never read your team’s chats
We never read what anyone
types into their own Claude.
Nothing on the list above needs it. Staff get this line in writing at every install.
Each quarter, the report card shows how every person is doing, from the date of their last update to what’s waiting for their yes. Everyone sees what it says about them.
Once a decision is written where the team reads it, it stops coming back
Nothing that shapes how your team’s Claude answers changes until someone with authority approves it. The record names who approved it and when.
Each person approves changes to their own files. Changes to the shared brain go to the leader who manages that team, and anything that crosses teams goes up the chain of command.
A fact picked up from email, documents, meeting transcripts or your systems waits in a suggestion inbox before it can reach a file your team’s Claude reads at the start of every chat. It carries the source, the date, the exact quote and the file it would change. Anything arriving that way can suggest a fact but never set a rule.
Waiting on you
Proposed change
Client reviews move to 2 meetings
- From
- October decision session
- Owner
- Practice manager
- Changes
- client-review.md
review-letter.md - Reaches
- 12 people
Proposed change
Client reviews move to 2 meetings
- From
- October decision session
- Owner
- Practice manager
- Changes
- client-review.md
review-letter.md - Reaches
- 12 people
Approved 9 October by the practice manager
Decision record
Client reviews move to 2 meetings
Approved 9 October by the practice manager
- From
- October decision session
- Owner
- Practice manager
- Written into
- processes/client-review.md,
templates/review-letter.md - Reaches
- 12 people
Decision record
Client reviews move to 2 meetings
Approved 9 October by the practice manager
- From
- October decision session
- Owner
- Practice manager
- Written into
- processes/client-review.md,
templates/review-letter.md - Reaches
- 12 people
The same example practice as the homepage. File names, roles and dates are illustrative.
The target is 5 hours saved a week per person, checked each quarter
The target is 5 hours saved per person, per week. The quarterly report card shows whether you reached it.
The install writes down the recurring tasks the hours are measured against, how long each takes today and how often it comes up, and you sign that list. At each quarterly review you estimate the same tasks the same way. Only confirmed tasks count, and every input sits beside the result.
In month 1 of running the loop with the owner, we write down the 3 to 5 numbers the year is measured against. Each quarter, every initiative is marked fix, fund, scale or stop, in a pack you can hand to your board.
In month 1 of running the loop with the owner, we write down the 3 to 5 numbers the year is measured against. Each quarter, every initiative is marked fix, fund, scale or stop, in a pack you can hand to your board or your licensee.
Northwind Advice, Q3 2026
Quarter to date, 1 Jul to 22 Sep. The business brain and 4 people, measured against the baseline signed on 30 June: 6 named tasks, estimated the same way both times.
- Client
- Northwind Advice
- Period
- Q3 2026, to 22 Sep
- Exported
- 22 Sep 2026
- File
- pulse-NWA-2026-Q3.json
Where each person stands
| Person | Status | Last dated entry | Hours a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| SamPrincipal | Healthy | 1 day ago | 5.5 h |
| LeeAdviser | Healthy | 4 days ago | 5.2 h |
| AnaParaplanner | Watch | Today | 3.4 h |
| RajOffshore admin | Quiet | 26 days ago | 0 h |
What the numbers suggest
Check Raj’s capture before anything else
Last dated entry 27 Aug, 26 days ago, past the 21-day quiet line.
Suggested move: book 15 minutes with Raj. The laptop is personal, so Raj makes the fix with you on the call.
A quarterly report card, shown with sample data. Northwind Advice is fictional. Each quarter adds a card to the series.
Northwind Advice, Q3 2026
Quarter to date, 1 Jul to 22 Sep. The business brain and 4 people, measured against the baseline signed on 30 June: 6 named tasks, estimated the same way both times.
Where each person stands
| Person | StatusLast dated entry | Hours a week |
|---|---|---|
| SamPrincipal | Healthy1 day ago | 5.5 h |
| LeeAdviser | Healthy4 days ago | 5.2 h |
| AnaParaplanner | WatchToday | 3.4 h |
| RajOffshore admin | Quiet26 days ago | 0 h |
What the numbers suggest
Check Raj’s capture before anything else
Last dated entry 27 Aug, 26 days ago, past the 21-day quiet line.
Suggested move: book 15 minutes with Raj. The laptop is personal, so Raj makes the fix with you on the call.
A quarterly report card, shown with sample data. Northwind Advice is fictional. Each quarter adds a card to the series.
Questions about
running the loop
It stays where it is, in your own storage and under your own accounts. The context files, skills, configuration and documentation written for your business are yours once the install is paid in full, to use inside the business, and stopping the ongoing work doesn’t change that. We keep the rights to the method and templates they’re built from.
Book a call with Joel
Joel and the MethodWorks team put AI into the daily work of Australian businesses in financial advice, retail, logistics, education and software. Bring your headcount and the AI tools your team uses today, and you’ll leave the call knowing who your Context Install would cover.