Puzzler · Consulting & Advisory Services MMXXVI

PUZZLER

Helping people and organizations find their new normal — before, during, and after transformative events.

Mark D. Williams · Managing Partner & Chief Capacity Builder Book a Fit Call →
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i. A note from Mark Spring 2026

People remember FEMA for the emergencies. I remember it for what came after.

As an emergency manager, I learned that the work that really matters isn't the response — it's helping people find their way back to a new normal. Not their old life. A new one. You can't hand someone a plan and call that help. You have to get down where they are, see what they see, and stay with them until the ground feels steady again. I've spent two decades building, modernizing, and stewarding the systems mission-driven organizations rely on. What ties those chapters together is simple. Organizations don't fail because their strategy is wrong. They fail because no one stays in the hole with them long enough to get them out. Puzzler was built to be the partner that stays.

Every engagement begins the same way: with a conversation. Tell us where you are, where you're trying to get to, and what's in the way. We'll get in the hole with you — and help you find your way to a new normal.

— Mark

ii. What we do

Five practices. One operating discipline.

Most engagements start at a threshold — a new leader, an audit finding, a capital project turning harder than planned, a funding mechanism that just got more complicated.

Nonprofits. State and local agencies. Foundations. Mission-driven for-profits.

What ties them together is simple: we do the work alongside the people responsible for it, not at a distance from them.

  1. Organizational restructuring and transition support.
    Reorganizations, mergers, leadership transitions, and program portfolio rationalizations. The structural work that determines whether an organization can do its job for the next decade — built on enterprise reorganizations led at federal scale.
  2. Funding strategy across every mechanism.
    Grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and gifts — and the compliance regimes that come with each. Most mid-sized mission-driven organizations run all four at once. We're built to work the whole portfolio.
  3. Capacity building that holds.
    Operational governance, financial planning and analysis, shared-services design, and the unglamorous infrastructure that determines whether mission gets executed. The kind of capacity that doesn't unravel when the next transformative event arrives.
  4. Program effectiveness and accountability.
    Compliance monitoring and program review for grants and contracts. Site visits, subrecipient monitoring, and the operational disciplines that produce strong year-over-year outcomes — not just clean audits.
  5. Leadership and workforce development.
    Executive coaching, succession planning, tailored workshops, and workforce training. The customized development of leaders and teams who can actually do the work.
iii. To begin

Tell us what you're working on.

Every engagement begins with a 30-minute Fit Call. No pitch, no commitment. You'll leave with a clear sense of fit and one specific suggestion you can act on — regardless of whether we work together.

Book a Fit Call →
Direct info@puzzlerconsulting
advisory.com
By phone (410) 970-6539
In writing LinkedIn →

Not the right firm for federal contract advocacy on behalf of clients, financial-distress turnarounds, executive search, or organizations under $2M in annual revenue. We can refer you to people who do that work well.

Making the pieces fit for mission-driven organizations.