Our Mission
To make the simple principles behind brilliant working accessible to everyone
Our Team

James
I love it when things work well! When processes effortlessly flow to create value. When people have the environment to unleash their passion. When things get continously improved, not as a project, but as a way of working.
That’s been my career: helping clients achieve better outcomes by making things work well. And that’s why I wrote, with Rob Maguire, Brilliant Working the 3D Way. To codify the simple principles involved into a continuous improvement ecosystem combining multiple methods across three dimensions: teams, processes and culture.
My goal when creating the eCourses was not just to create an fast and scalable learning experience but also to make it fun and accessible. I hope you enjoy them and they make a real difference to you and your work environment.

Rob
Not many people can say they were destined from childhood to be an operations improvement consultant! Even as a young boy I was intent on making things work better, from toys to games to school work.
Fast forward several decades and I have spent my life understanding how different organisations work to help them operate more effectively and bring about lasting change. For me, it’s the people closest to the customer who hold the key to how a business works and can drive the improvements, transforming the work experience for the leadership teams, the clients and most importantly the colleagues themselves.
I’ve always had two words front of mind when creating the eCourses: Accessibility – stripping away the jargon; and Scalability – giving organisations a fast cost-effective way to upskill colleagues globally. I’d love to get your feedback.

Aslam
Ever since I embarked on my first continuous improvement training early in my career, I was captivated by the simplicity and power of its core principles. What began as a job quickly grew into a passion.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to apply and expand this passion — first within large organizations, then as a consultant helping clients streamline their processes, and more recently by enabling talent development through blended learning programs in medium-sized companies.
Today, I’m particularly energized by the possibilities that new technologies offer to make these proven methods more accessible to a broader audience. I firmly believe that every professional should grasp these fundamental principles — and I’m excited about the opportunity to contribute to that mission using the Brilliant Working framework.

Sophie
I’m an artist and musician with a professional background in business and a portfolio of corporate, charity and independent creative projects.
The design agency Scriberia hired me as Head of Creative Collaboration and there I designed many business interventions with Visual Thinking at their core. This inspired me to study a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration and Visual Communications.
It’s been a real pleasure creating the 100 plus illustrations in the Brilliant Working book and eCourses. My aim is always the same: to visually communicate an idea or concept as simply and elegantly as possible. I hope they also bring a certain fun and playfulness to what can too often be a bit of a dry subject!

Matthias
I have a background in learning and video game design and project manage e-learning content at CBTL GmbH Munich. Check us out on cbtl.de.
We specialize in providing infrastructure for digital learning and creating high quality e-learning content for over 230 customers worldwide.
Working with James, Rob, Aslam and Sophie on the Brilliant Working eCourses has been really fun. It was a challenge transforming the essence of the Brilliant Working book into a proper e-learning format but the result stands for itself.
At CBTL we are passionate about our e-learning projects and seeing and feeling that same passion with James and the team made developing the Brilliant Working eCourses a great experience.
And as a nice bonus I was able to adapt some of the books’ principles into my own day-to-day work!
Here are ten examples of organisations using brilliant working to make things hum!

A start-up agriculture services company of fourteen people, fed up with the constant waste and rework, wanting to have a standard, more effective way of working together.

A trading company wanting to move to a place where, in the words of the COO: ‘Not everything has to be a project to get improved.’

A Michelin two-star country hotel renowned for its food and service ensuring that that every issue is known and dealt with immediately – including getting to the root of the problem.

A global bank needing to transform its commercial lending process into a brilliant client experience, twice as fast and at thirty per cent less cost.

A major government department urgently needing to improve ways of working in teams and between teams as it moves to a remote working environment due to COVID-19.

A fast-growing management consultancy needing to transform its recruitment process from average to brilliant in terms of candidate experience, speed and quality of hiring.

A retail energy company of tens of thousands of people wanting to – in the words of the CEO – ‘completely change the way people approach their work’.

A premium beverages company needing to streamline twenty of its core processes such as taking orders through to receiving the cash to realise the benefits of a new global IT system.

A major provider of renewable hydropower energy looking to optimise the daily operation of their network of rivers and dams.

A sports retailer needing to urgently improve how its teams on the shop floor work as a team and with other teams.
Acknowledgements
The Brilliant Working eCourses are the copyright and intellectual property of Brilliant Working Ltd.
The 3D framework and methodology is the copyright and intellectual property of Baringa Partners LLP.
Illustrations in the Brilliant Working eCourses © 2025 Sophie Smiles
Brilliant Working eCourse Development and Production CBTL GmBH