Structure that supports.
Empathy that empowers.
Expertise that enables.
Engineering, IT and Digital organisations face mounting pressures from every angle. Whether bidding for or delivering complex programmes and portfolios, teams must innovate in the face of disruptive technology alongside the challenge of technical debt and legacy systems. At the same time, they must identify what customers genuinely require for success, clarifying alongside the customer, not just what is needed, but why it matters and how to build shared understanding along the way.
This coupled with demands for faster outcomes, improved cyber posture, zero downtime, and adaptation to constant change, these external strains reveal deeper challenges: frustrated teams with untapped potential, eroded confidence, and difficulty understanding a realistic path to deliver customer needs.
At Forty Two Fold, we don’t offer generic answers. We empower teams from within, creating the conditions for ideas to surface, resilience to grow, and capability to last. Through strategic reviews, focused workshops, and coaching grounded in psychological safety and structured empathy, we help teams align, collaborate openly, and deliver with clarity and momentum.
Our approach
We don’t just work to align strategy, we cultivate the cultural conditions that enable it to deliver. Culture isn’t a backdrop, it’s the power factor. When culture is strong, strategy doesn’t just land, it accelerates.
Through our structured empathy methodology, we nurture psychologically safe environments where people feel heard, difficult opinions can be shared, and honest mistakes are not judged. We build trust within and between teams, while actively enabling the tough conversations that are often avoided but essential for progress.
With our unique blend of deep domain knowledge and experience, alongside a methodology grounded in empathy and compassion, we can positively challenge while defusing conflict over difficult decisions. Our approach is always the same: empathetic, independent, and focused on unlocking the potential already within your teams.
The answers are usually there. We provide the challenge, structure, and safe environment to bring them to the surface, helping your organisation not only deliver successfully, but build lasting capability and confidence.
This philosophy underpins all of our services.
Our services
Structured Reviews
Whether pursuing new business or delivering a transformation programme, organisations face complexity, risk, and uncertainty. Without independent challenge, blind spots can remain hidden with issues, risks, and missed opportunities that undermine success.
Structured independent reviews are recognised as best practice for maximising outcomes. We provide highly experienced reviewers who can chair or participate in sessions, either in the room or online. In both formats, we bring empathy, trust, and independent challenge to uncover risks, improve value, and strengthen delivery.
Reviews enable your teams to surface challenges across strategy and leadership, culture and ways of working, and the technology that underpins them. This clarity helps teams chart a realistic path, avoid pitfalls, and deliver with confidence. To ensure continuous improvement, we can also conduct pre‑mortems and post‑mortems, helping teams anticipate risks before they occur and learn constructively from outcomes afterwards.
We are not a competitor. Our sole aim is to strengthen your team from within – empowering your organisation to win and deliver successfully.
Workshops
Every organisation, programme, or pursuit faces challenges. Success depends not only on programme and technical foundations but on the right culture – an environment where teams feel safe to surface ideas, issues, and risks before they derail delivery or winning.
That’s where our workshops come in. Available across the lifecycle, they provide structured, empathetic spaces for teams to align, strategise, and tackle challenges head‑on. Whether shaping a winning strategy, engaging stakeholders, planning delivery, or resolving risks, workshops create clarity and momentum. They bring people together to align on vision, co‑create strategies, and dive into detail where it matters most – unlocking collaboration, building confidence, and accelerating progress.
We support workshops at any stage: exploring markets and opportunities, developing compelling win strategies, designing solutions, improving processes, or addressing delivery challenges. To ensure continuous improvement, we also conduct pre‑mortems and post‑mortems, helping teams anticipate risks before they occur and learn constructively from outcomes afterwards. Our approach is always empathetic, independent, and focused on unlocking the potential already within your teams.
Coaching and Mentoring
Even the most capable teams can struggle to navigate complex pursuits and programmes. Without trusted guidance, they may find it difficult to develop strategies, build confidence, and foster the culture needed for sustained success.
We partner directly with your people and teams, offering coaching and mentoring that blend technical insight with empathetic support. Our experienced practitioners act as peers, providing a sounding board, guidance, and constructive challenge, while helping teams shape strategies and navigate complexity with clarity.
Through this approach, teams gain confidence, strengthen collaboration, and establish the cultural foundations that enable winning and delivery. Coaching and mentoring create space for growth, resilience, and alignment, ensuring success not only in the immediate pursuit but in building lasting capability.
Unlike many consultancies, we don’t compete with internal teams or take work away. Our sole focus is enabling your people to succeed building trust‑based relationships grounded in empathy and compassion, and leaving your organisation stronger, more capable, and ready for the future.
Who we are
We are Forty Two Fold, an organisation built from the ground up on a foundation of outstanding culture, ensuring psychological safety to drive high performance and winning outcomes. Many organisations claim to put culture first, but the lived experience often tells a different story. For us, culture is not just about when things go right, but about how people respond when things go wrong and, most importantly, how they act when no one is watching.
Forty Two
A metaphor for exponential possibility. In mathematics, if you could fold a sheet of paper 42 times, its thickness would stretch from Earth to the Moon.
Fold
A trusted collective where individuals are held together by shared purpose, constructive challenge, and psychological safety.
The founders, Sharen and Simon, worked together for many years, winning and delivering major IT, engineering, and digital transformation programmes into the UK public and private sectors. A true meeting of minds, Simon and Sharen both built on their foundations of experience in the high security technical domain with a unique understanding of compassionate leadership.
With high expectations of performance, both share an insatiable drive for team and organisational success, but never at the expense of individual health and wellbeing. Forty Two Fold was built on this joint wealth of experience and an unwavering belief that psychological safety is non‑negotiable. For Sharen and Simon, it is the foundation of both success and wellbeing, and the principle that underpins everything we do.
Sharen Madge
Sharen has over 25 years of experience in business winning and strategic growth, leading capture and bid operations across the UK public sector and international markets. She has held senior roles which consistently enable organisations to secure major contracts and transform their growth trajectories.
Sharen is recognised not only for her business winning expertise but for her collaborative, compassionate leadership style. She builds trust, fosters positive team cultures, and enables organisations to succeed without compromising individual wellbeing. Her ethos is clear: psychological safety is non negotiable, and it is the foundation of both winning outcomes and sustainable success.
Outside of work, Sharen is deeply committed to causes that reflect her values. She serves as Group Treasurer for Guide Dogs, is Deputy Chair of the APMP Capture Working Group, and is a trustee for her local RSPCA CIO. She is also a keen runner and active in canine sports, including cani-cross and scent work, and is currently training to become a qualified dog trainer
Simon Daykin
Simon has built a career at the forefront of engineering and technology, with extensive leadership experience across high‑assurance security and safety critical domains. He has led teams delivering first‑of‑type hyperscale cloud components, pioneering innovative uses of AI, transforming mission critical applications to cloud, and creating high assurance environments on public cloud platforms. His work reflects a consistent ability to navigate complexity and deliver clarity across people, process, and technology.
Simon is recognised not only for his technical expertise but for his relentless curiosity and appetite for challenge. He thrives on enabling teams to succeed in demanding environments, ensuring resilience while keeping psychological safety central to performance. For him, success is measured not just in outcomes but in the confidence and wellbeing of the people who achieve them.
Away from work, his passion for technology continues – from experimenting with smart home and eco‑tech innovations to exploring new ways technology can transform everyday life. He is also an active campanologist. You can read his personal ‘User Manual’ on Github.
Connect with us
We would love to talk to you about how we can support you and your teams win business and deliver digital, IT and engineering programmes in a manner which leaves lasting benefits for your teams.
Please email us using info@fortytwofold.com.
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