Background

Blue Lagoon Iceland is a company encompassing transformative spa experiences, research and development. When I worked with them they were navigating a period of growth alongside significant external disruption. They were expanding their digital capabilities and evolving how technology supported the business, while also operating in an environment that demanded resilience and adaptability.

There was clear intent to improve how teams worked together, but less clarity on how to approach that change.

The brief

Blue Lagoon weren’t just looking to improve delivery; they were already thinking deeply about the kind of organisation they wanted to be. As they continued to grow and evolve their digital capabilities, they wanted to scale in a way that stayed true to their values—particularly around trust, autonomy, and humane ways of working. They wanted to design an organisation that could move effectively without losing the culture that made it work in the first place.

This meant understanding how value flowed, how teams depended on each other, and where those interactions either supported—or undermined—their intent to work in a more empowered, trust-based way.

The engagement

We ran an intensive three-day, on-site workshop with a cross-section of the organisation, followed by a three month period of remote enablement sessions designed to foster lasting transformation.

The sessions were highly participative and grounded in their real context:

• Building openness and psychological safety early in the process enabled honest dialogue across departments and laid the groundwork for lasting collaboration.

• Mapping the needs of both external and internal users to uncover hidden misalignments and gain clarity on where value truly flows through the organisation.

• Redefining team boundaries around value streams and services to reduce cognitive load and empower people and teams and preserve Blue Lagoon’s culture of care.

• Making dependencies and interaction patterns visible

• Using realistic scenarios to test how the current setup responded under pressure

What mattered wasn’t the mechanics of the exercises, it was that the approach gave people a way to reason together about their system, rather than debate opinions in the abstract.

What became visible

As the group worked through the sessions, a number of tensions surfaced. Not as problems to fix, but as trade-offs to navigate.

• Some teams were stretched across multiple areas, diluting focus

• Dependencies were creating coordination overhead that conflicted with a desire for autonomy

• Certain capabilities needed deeper expertise and clearer ownership

• Collaboration was happening frequently, but not always in a way that felt intentional or sustainable

One of the most useful shifts came from exploring different interaction modes—where collaboration was needed, where services could be provided more cleanly, and where enabling support would be more effective.

What changed

Some of the shifts were philosophical, but grounded in practical decisions. Participants began to see that:

• Trust isn’t just cultural—it’s structural

• Autonomy depends on clear boundaries, not just good intentions

• Reducing cognitive load is essential if teams are to operate independently

This led to more deliberate thinking about:

• where to simplify team responsibilities

• where to concentrate expertise

• and how to design interactions that support, rather than undermine, autonomy

Because these insights were developed collectively, they carried weight - they were owned rather than imposed.

Outcomes

Following the engagement, Blue Lagoon had:

• A shared understanding of where their current setup supported—or constrained—their desired way of working

• Greater clarity on team boundaries and interaction patterns

• Identified structural changes to explore further

• A foundation for evolving their organisation in a way that reinforced trust and autonomy

The work didn’t end with the workshop - it created a common language and direction that continued through follow-on support and internal conversations. Over the subsequent twelve weeks, we dived deeper into Team Topologies principles, continuously refining team structures, and addressing emerging challenges. Attendance and engagement remained high - even remotely - a testament to the enthusiasm and commitment sparked by the initial onsite experience.

Feedback

“The Team Topologies work was a real turning point for us. It helped us make sense of challenges we’d been running into for a while—around ownership, boundaries, and how teams collaborate. Thinking in terms of platforms and stream-aligned teams changed how we work together and deliver. It’s made things clearer, reduced friction, and honestly just made the work feel more focused and purposeful.”

— Vilhjálmur Ari Gunnarsson, Frontend Engineering Manager, Digital Solutions & Data at Blue Lagoon

“Rich and Erica expertly guided us through the Team Topologies journey, making each step clear and engaging. Their ability to pair deep expertise with a light, approachable style turned a complex process into an enjoyable experience.”

— Valtýr Jónasson, Backend Engineering Manager, Digital Solutions & Data at Blue Lagoon

Could this help your organisation?

This kind of engagement is most valuable when there’s already intent to improve—but also a desire to do it thoughtfully.

It’s particularly relevant when:

• You care about maintaining a strong, trust-based culture as you scale

• Teams are collaborating heavily, but autonomy is starting to suffer

• You want to explore structural changes without defaulting to a top-down redesign

• There’s appetite to involve people directly in shaping how the organisation evolves

The goal is to help you design an organisation that works effectively and reflects the way you want people to work together. If that’s a conversation you’re starting to have, I’d be happy to explore how a facilitated set of sessions could support it.