Coaching & Consulting with Mangrove

Human-first. AI-augmented.

Terms of Engagement: R&D Partnership Framework – Mangrove

Overview

Mangrove partners with organisations as an exploratory Research & Development (R&D) collaborator. We help teams uncover new ways of working, understand emerging technologies—including AI—and identify opportunities for innovation. Our approach is highly collaborative: we contribute insights, frameworks, and experiments while learning from your organisation’s context. We do not assume operational responsibility; our role is to support thinking, discovery, and experimentation.

What We Offer

Our R&D engagement is designed to be generative, hands-on, and iterative. Key areas include:

• Quick wins and workflow improvements using existing tools and platforms

• Exploration of AI tools and emerging technologies, including prototyping and proof-of-concept experiments

• Mapping organisational patterns, staff experience, engagement, and systemic challenges

• Facilitating strategic conversations around organisational change, innovation, and digital transformation

• Researching and testing technical options for integration, automation, and system redesign

• Supporting implementation planning by briefing technical teams or external contractors

• Co-developing experimental approaches with your team, contributing to Mangrove’s wider R&D knowledge base, and sharing insights across our network

Our engagements are not purely advisory—they are active partnerships: your team contributes to, and benefits from, Mangrove’s ongoing R&D in our lab and wider client ecosystem. We aim to accelerate insight, spark innovation, and explore possibilities you might not encounter in day-to-day operations.

Boundaries of Responsibility

Mangrove is not a data processor, systems administrator, or compliance authority. We do not assume operational or legal responsibility. Specifically:

• We do not handle, store, or process sensitive or personal data

• We do not take responsibility for data security, GDPR compliance, or system integrity

• We do not act as the final decision-maker on any technical or strategic implementation

• We do not guarantee outcomes from advice, prototypes, or exploratory work

All decisions, implementations, and responsibilities remain with the client organisation.

Your Role

Clients engaging with Mangrove agree to:

• Take full responsibility for decisions made based on our input

• Ensure any technical implementation is reviewed and executed by qualified professionals

• Maintain ownership of all data, systems, and compliance obligations

• Engage openly in collaborative experimentation, providing feedback and insights to accelerate mutual learning

Collaboration Ethos

Mangrove operates with curiosity, care, and rigour. We co-create experiments, generate insights, and support your team in exploring new possibilities. Our aim is to help you think clearly, act strategically, and innovate with confidence—without pressure, jargon, or risk transfer.

This isn’t traditional consultancy or prescriptive coaching. It’s a participatory, experimental process. Together, we explore your real-world systems — from workflows and decision-making habits to physical environments and inner narratives — and begin reworking them through a lens of curiosity, experimentation, and intuitive intelligence. In the workplace, this may involve development of you-specific AI processes, development of more complex bespoke automations, psychological reframing, or complete rebuilds from first principles.

We don’t believe in failure or sunk costs. Every challenge, block, or bottleneck becomes useful data. Nothing is wasted. You benefit from and contribute to our federated learning model, where patterns across individuals feed collective insight — while staying fully confidential and human-respecting.