Executive Function
at Work
Helping organisations reduce psychological risk, improve work design and create environments in which people can think, function and perform effectively.
Dr Akuh Adaji
Psychiatry beyond the consulting room
I am a consultant psychiatrist, trained at the world renowned Mayo Clinic, with experience spanning clinical psychiatry, occupational and medico-legal psychiatry, organisational psychiatry, executive functioning and digital health.
My postgraduate training in Organisational Psychiatry and Psychology at King's College London provided a foundation for understanding the interaction between mental health and organisations. My doctoral research subsequently examined organisational dynamics within a complex digital-health implementation involving multiple technology companies, health services, general practices and universities, using a systems psychodynamic framework.
My current occupational psychiatry work provides a further perspective: understanding what happens when psychiatric symptoms, cognitive functioning, job demands and workplace systems interact after difficulties have already occurred.
Organisational psychiatry brings these levels together—with the aim of helping organisations intervene further upstream.
Protect. Enable. Perform.
Organisational psychiatry brings together mental health, occupational functioning, work design and organisational systems. The aim is not simply to respond after employees become unwell, but to understand and improve the conditions in which people work.
Protect
Identify psychosocial hazards and organisational conditions that may contribute to psychological distress, burnout, psychiatric injury and work disability.
Enable
Design work environments that support attention, working memory, planning, prioritisation, cognitive flexibility and self-regulation.
Perform
Improve the interaction between people, work demands and organisational systems to support reliable and sustainable performance.
The Executive Function at Work Framework
Executive functioning does not occur in isolation. It sits at the interface between the individual, the demands of the role and the organisation in which the work occurs.
From the individual to the organisation
Clinical psychiatry, occupational psychiatry and organisational psychiatry address different levels of the same human system.
Understand the Person
Mental health conditions affect attention, working memory, motivation, emotional regulation and other aspects of executive functioning.
My clinical work includes ADHD, executive-function difficulties and collaborative/shared-care models.
Clinical care through AOA Clinic ↗Understand the Person at Work
Occupational psychiatry examines how symptoms and functional limitations interact with job demands, inherent requirements, work capacity and occupational risk.
I undertake independent occupational and medico-legal psychiatric assessments through established medico-legal referral organisations.
Independent assessment work is distinct from organisational consulting.Improve the System
Organisational psychiatry asks how work design, leadership, psychosocial hazards and organisational systems influence psychological health and human functioning.
This is the principal consulting focus of this practice.
Explore organisational engagements ↓Areas of Practice
Engagements can range from focused advisory consultations to more detailed reviews of work design, psychological risk and organisational functioning.
Psychosocial Risk & Work Design
Psychiatric and organisational perspectives on psychosocial hazards, psychological injury risk, workload, role clarity, support, job control and other aspects of how work is designed.
Executive Function at Work Reviews
Examine how organisational practices affect attention, cognitive load, planning, prioritisation, decision-making, task-switching and emotional regulation.
Complex Organisational Reviews
Explore recurring burnout, psychological injury, conflict, staff turnover or functional problems where individual-level interventions alone have not resolved the underlying issue.
Psychologically Healthy Organisational Change
Consider the cognitive, psychological and organisational consequences of restructures, new technologies, changed roles, new systems and major workplace transformation.
Cognitive Performance & Work Systems
Review whether meetings, digital interruptions, information flow, competing priorities and decision structures support or unnecessarily impair effective cognitive performance.
Leadership & Executive Advisory
Specialist psychiatric input regarding workplace mental health, executive function, neurodiversity, psychologically healthy work and complex organisational situations.
High cognitive-demand and safety-sensitive workplaces
The framework may be particularly useful where sustained attention, judgement, decision-making, emotional regulation and reliable performance matter—and where failures can have substantial consequences.
Ways to Work Together
Organisational psychiatry brings a specialist psychiatric and systems perspective to the relationship between work design, executive functioning, psychological health and organisational performance. Engagements range from focused executive advice through to complex organisational reviews.
Executive Advisory
Focused specialist consultation for executives, leaders and organisations seeking advice on a defined workplace mental health, executive-function or work-design issue.
- Executive or leadership consultation
- Review of relevant background material
- Psychiatric and organisational perspective
- Focused recommendations
Organisational Review
A structured assessment of how organisational systems, psychosocial hazards, work design and cognitive demands influence employee functioning and psychological health.
- Stakeholder consultation
- Psychosocial hazard analysis
- Work-design review
- Executive-function demand analysis
- Organisational formulation
- Leadership recommendations
Strategic Advisory
Ongoing specialist advice for organisations navigating complex change, psychological risk, leadership challenges or the design of psychologically healthy systems of work.
- Organisational change advisory
- Leadership consultation
- Psychologically healthy work design
- Executive-function strategy
- Periodic organisational review
How engagements are scoped
Organisational engagements are tailored to the nature of the problem, size and complexity of the organisation, number of stakeholders, required analysis and intended deliverables. Following an initial discussion, a defined scope of work and project fee can be provided.
Start with the organisational problem.
If your organisation is dealing with psychological risk, cognitive overload, work-design problems, organisational change or persistent difficulties affecting how people function at work, the first step is to define the problem and determine whether an organisational psychiatry perspective would be useful.
Discuss an Organisational EngagementFrom observation to practical change
The objective is not to diagnose organisations. It is to use psychiatric, organisational and occupational expertise to understand how the system of work influences psychological functioning and to identify practical opportunities for change.
Design work that protects mental health and enables people to perform.
I work with organisations, leaders and professional teams seeking specialist psychiatric input into psychological risk, executive functioning, work design and complex organisational challenges.
Independent occupational and medico-legal psychiatric assessments are undertaken through established medico-legal referral organisations.