why notosh?
We make our clients famous for what they achieve
Most organisations have no shortage of ambition. The hard part is choosing what matters, bringing people with you and making it happen.
We help ambitious leaders make fresh ideas work
NoTosh is an international strategy consultancy. We help schools, governments, universities and education organisations turn complexity into clear choices, shared direction and practical action.
We start by listening to people with lived experience of the challenge. They often hold insights that conventional consultation, external expertise and organisational data miss. We help bring those insights into the open, challenge familiar assumptions and turn fresh thinking into brave, practical change.
Since 2009
Founded in Edinburgh, NoTosh believes better answers emerge by listening to the people closest to the action.
70+ countries
We work with schools, governments, universities and education systems around the world.
Strategy people can actually use
A strategy should help people make better decisions. It should give leaders the confidence to say yes, the discipline to say no and enough clarity for everyone else to know what happens next.
Too many strategies become long lists of worthy intentions. They describe everything an organisation values without making meaningful choices about where it will focus.
We help leaders find the choices that matter most.
Our work brings together lived experience, organisational evidence and strategic choice. We listen closely, challenge carefully and help teams decide what matters most. The result is a strategy people recognise, leaders can explain and teams can use.
What we help leaders do
Strategy, brand, space and developing the leadership and governance of your organisation.
Create sharper strategy
We help Boards, Heads and leadership teams make a small number of integrated choices about where their organisation is going and how it will succeed.
That may mean a complete strategy, new Mission, Vision and Values, a bridging strategy or focused work on one stubborn strategic challenge.
Build stronger brands
A strong brand makes an organisation easier to understand, easier to choose and easier to belong to.
We help schools uncover what makes them distinctive, align their identity with the experience they actually create and give their people language and stories they can use.
Design better learning environments
A learning environment begins with choices about learning, not choices about furniture.
We help schools, universities, governments and architects define the experiences, relationships and practices a new campus or space needs to make possible.
Strengthen leadership
Leadership development has the greatest impact when it is connected to real work.
We help Boards, senior teams and middle leaders develop the conversations, habits, governance and decision-making practices that move important work forward.
Work that carries weight
NoTosh is trusted with complex projects where educational purpose, strategic choice and practical delivery have to come together
Lycée Français de New York, USA
Finding a shared voice, strengthening brand
NoTosh helped LFNY’s bilingual, bicultural community create core values that now guide daily decisions and provide a foundation for the school’s continuing strategy and brand development.
Read how we did it
United World College South East Asia, Singapore
Designing a regenerative learning village
NoTosh helped UWCSEA define a values-led vision and design principles for its new Tengah campus, bringing learning, wellbeing and sustainability into a coherent foundation for future design.
Read how we did it
Department of Education, Western Australia
Designing a statewide approach to flexible school design
NoTosh worked across the State to help define how 900+ new and refurbished schools can evolve to support contemporary pedagogy, teacher confidence and a more consistent experience for students.
Read how we did it
How we make brave change possible
The strongest answers are often already present within an organisation. Our role is to help people uncover them, challenge them and turn them into work that changes what happens next.
Think sideways
We challenge lazy assumptions and help people see what they could not see before.
That means bringing unexpected examples, sharp questions, playful methods and visual thinking into the room. A provocation, metaphor, prototype or creative constraint can make a familiar challenge look different enough for new possibilities to emerge.
Make it real
Ideas only matter when they change what people do.
We prototype early, test thinking in the real world and create things people can use. That might be a decision tool, visual map, strategy on a page, new learning experience, implementation rhythm or first practical experiment.
Work with heart
Change is human before it is strategic.
We design with people, not for them. We listen hard, build trust and make space for quieter voices. We are provocative yet supportive, helping groups stay with difficult questions long enough to learn from them and take the next step with greater confidence.
In everything we do, we are:
Confident but approachable
Provocative yet supportive
Inspiring but pragmatic
Creative and fun
Meet Ewan McIntosh
Founder and Managing Director
Ewan McIntosh is a strategy specialist who helps leaders make clear choices, build shared direction and turn ambitious ideas into practical action.
He founded NoTosh in Edinburgh in 2009 after working as a teacher, Scotland’s National Adviser on Learning and Technology Futures, and as Digital Commissioner at Channel 4.
The thread running through that work was a belief that the strongest answers are often already present in the room, if people are helped to listen closely, challenge assumptions and think clearly together.
Today, Ewan leads NoTosh projects with schools, governments, universities and education organisations around the world. His work spans organisational strategy, public policy, brand strategy, learning environment design and leadership.
He is a regular keynote speaker on strategy, learning, creativity and change. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Education Board of the Royal Company of Merchants of the City of Edinburgh.
A small team with wide experience
NoTosh brings together people with experience in education, strategy, leadership, design, research, facilitation and creative practice.
We remain close to the work. The people you meet at the beginning are the people who listen, challenge, facilitate and help make sense of what emerges.
meet the team
Ewan McIntosh
Founder & Managing Director, Scotland
Read moreEwan is a strategy specialist who helps leaders make clear choices, build shared direction and turn ambitious ideas into practical action. He leads NoTosh projects with schools, governments, universities and education organisations around the world.
His work spans organisational strategy, public policy, brand strategy, learning environment design and leadership.
Dr Jeremy Weinstein
Senior Consultant, Australia
Read moreJeremy helps leaders explore complex challenges, test fresh ideas and turn emerging possibilities into practical action.
A mechanical engineer by training, he has worked across industry, filmmaking, communications and university education. This unusual range gives him a sharp eye for systems, stories and the human experience of change.
Jeremy brings curiosity, creative challenge and practical judgement to NoTosh projects across Australia and internationally.
Kate Wadsworth
Senior Consultant, England
Read moreKate helps school leaders create the clarity, trust and shared direction needed to make meaningful change.
She brings more than 20 years of experience as a teacher and school leader, alongside specialist expertise in coaching within education. Her work is grounded in listening closely to the people who experience school life every day.
Kate combines thoughtful challenge with warmth and practical support, helping teams focus their attention on the work that will make the greatest difference.
Brad Carter
Senior Consultant, Canada
Read moreBrad helps leaders find clarity in complexity and shape strategies that reflect the character, ambitions and context of their organisation.
A current school administrator, he has also held leadership, community-building and marketing roles with Apple. His work has taken him across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Brad brings global perspective without assuming that an answer from one context will fit another. He is an experienced facilitator, speaker and storyteller with a particular strength in making organisational change feel human and possible.
Athole McLauchlan
Senior Consultant, Belgium
Read moreAthole helps educators and leaders develop learning, curriculum and organisational practices that allow young people to flourish.
He is currently teaching, and has worked with educators from Early Years to Grade 12 as a teacher, coach, mentor, curriculum adviser and middle leader in state and independent education. He has also designed and taught postgraduate courses in education and digital literacy.
Athole brings energy, curiosity and deep respect for practitioner experience. He creates the conditions for people to explore difficult questions together and turn their thinking into useful action.
Carolyn Syme
Global Operations Director, Scotland
Read moreCarolyn helps turn ambitious NoTosh ideas and projects into well-designed, carefully delivered experiences for clients around the world.
Her background spans language, communications, digital development and educational media, including extensive work with BBC Scotland. She has particular experience in creating accessible learning resources and designing work around the needs of people whose voices can easily be overlooked.
Carolyn combines creative judgement with exceptional organisation, helping the NoTosh team deliver complex international projects with care, clarity and attention to detail.
Gerry Farrell
Associate Creative Director, Scotland
Read moreGerry helps schools find the words and ideas that express what makes them distinctive. He works with communities to shape Missions, Visions, Values and brand stories that resonate with students, families, educators and leaders.
A long-time advocate for Sir Ken Robinson’s thinking on creativity, Gerry believes education should prepare young people for work, relationships and life’s unexpected turns.
He co-founded The Leith Agency and spent 30 years building its international creative reputation. His work has received numerous awards, including Cannes Lions and D&AD. Today, he runs Gerry Farrell Ink and works as a life coach and D&AD creative coach.
What are you trying to make happen?
You may be creating something new, beginning a new chapter or facing a choice that cannot be solved by adding another initiative.
Bring us the problem while it is still complicated. That is often the most interesting place to begin.
Contact us for a 30-minute chat about your project.