Applied Human Systems Engineer
Making human complexity understandable.
When a decision keeps stalling, a team uses AI without shared criteria, or a change is not landing: the pattern behind it becomes visible, so you can decide with more clarity.
An engineer reads a system before changing it. I read human systems the same way: how people perceive, interpret, decide and relate, in a life, a team or an organization. I make that visible, so decisions rest on what is actually happening, not on assumptions.
Work with me
Two ways in.
Leaders
For founders, leaders and consultants
For decisions, career transitions and recurring patterns in the work of those who lead and decide.
- An important decision keeps being postponed
- A change of direction in your career or business
- A pattern that keeps repeating in the way you lead
- AI is changing how you work, and it is not yet clear what to delegate and what to keep yours
90 minutes of structured conversation, followed by a written report: what was observed, the pattern that organizes it, and questions to work with in the weeks after.
Eight weekly sessions, with three written syntheses: at the start, midway and at the end.
A structured process of reflection and analysis, to identify patterns, understand the situation and decide with more clarity.
Organizations & AI
For leaders and teams adopting AI
AI is changing roles and decisions faster than most teams can read what it changes. I map how your organization actually decides and works, and where AI already sits in it.
- Roles or functions are being redesigned because of AI
- People need reskilling or new roles, and it is not yet clear where each one can grow, inside the company or as an external partner
- The team uses AI daily, without shared criteria for what to delegate
- A change is not landing, despite the training
- People deliver faster with AI, but it is not clear whether they still understand and own the work
A conversation of up to two hours with the person responsible, a map of how the situation is organized today, including connections no one had named, and a follow-up conversation to go through it. A paid first step, with a fixed fee sent on request.
If you want to go further: a reading of how the seven dimensions relate in the organization and where difficulties arise, then structured conversations with the people involved. A full process usually takes two to four weeks, with a fixed proposal after the map.
How it works
From conversation to clarity.
Not every situation needs every step. Each one is agreed before it starts.
Conversation
90 minutes for individuals; up to two hours for organizations, with the person or team who lives the situation. Recording is optional: only with everyone’s agreement, and with purpose and confidentiality agreed beforehand.
Map or report
Organizations receive a map of how decisions, roles and dependencies connect. Individuals can receive a written recognition report.
Reading
For organizations, a reading across seven dimensions, from perception to integration, to see how they relate and where difficulties arise.
Structured conversations
Sessions with the people involved, translating what each one means by the same words until there is a shared language.
Decisions stay with the people responsible. Often, what looks like right and wrong is different perceptions of the same reality. My work is to make them visible to each other, and to separate what we know from what we assume.
What a map looks like
An illustrative example based on first conversations with organizations, with identifying details changed. On the left, sentences from the conversations. On the right, a structural reading that organizes what they mean and how they relate. It is a reading to check with the people involved, not an established fact.
Before · what was said
- “We want the organization to work beyond one person.”
- “We have a lot of knowledge, but it is hard to package it clearly.”
- “There are many initiatives happening at the same time.”
- “We need to organize what already exists.”
- “We want to turn expertise into clearer offers.”
- “Some things are already working, but they are not yet integrated.”
- “There are events, services and different ideas in motion.”
- “The structure is still growing.”
- “It is difficult to see the whole picture.”
After · a structural reading, to confirm
- IdentityWho is this organization?
- An organization built around knowledge, guidance and practical transformation.
- PurposeWhy does it exist?
- To make valuable knowledge more visible, usable and shareable.
- Core capabilitiesWhat does it know how to do, beyond specific products?
- Recognizing patterns, structuring complexity, translating expertise, supporting clarity and decisions.
- ManifestationsHow does it show up in the world?
- Workshops, advisory work, learning programs, conversations and collaborative projects.
- OrganizationHow is it organized to fulfill its purpose?
- A growing structure with leadership, specialized collaborators and evolving coordination.
The pieces were already there. The reading shows how they connect.
Experience
Where this work has already been done.
Testimonials
What people say about the work
“You have a very fast and very targeted capacity for analysis. That makes me feel very comfortable. […] It really needs to be developed further, because it’s done well.”
“I think your visual organization will help people think, reflect and even push back more clearly on what they don’t want.”
“You took what is broad and general for us and turned it into an incredible level of specification. It’s like reading the fine print on a product label. A real architect: an architect of thought.”
“I sat with that for a while and did not have a clean answer. That was the point. She was not trying to resolve the relationship in an hour, only to make it observable.”
About
From software to human systems.
I trained and worked as a computer engineer. Inside technology projects I kept seeing the same thing: what failed was often not the technology. It was how people understood, decided and worked together around it.
So I studied and practiced that side for years, with adults, groups, schools and organizations. Today I bring all of this together in one practice, which includes the place AI now holds.
Based in Portugal. Working online and in person, in English and Portuguese.
- Technology: how we keep learning and evolving while technology comes with us.
- Organizations: how we organize ourselves as a whole.
- Human development: how each person grows inside those systems.
- Education: how people learn over time, at school, at work, in health.
- Human integration: where the four meet, and patterns become visible.
Degree in Management Information Systems EngineeringInstituto Politécnico de Setúbal
Software engineeringAnalysis, development and testing: Glintt, Banco BPI, Portugal Telecom, Portuguese Parliament (Assembleia da República)
First book publishedI Talk To You: Awakening to Life · written in late 2014, from observing an inner process lived first-hand · second edition 2023 · Amazon
Postgraduate studies in psychology for work contextsISPA, Instituto Universitário
Mindset Upgrade program at GlinttTwo months of learning and development for an IT consulting team
Research report on digital transformationGlintt · from digital change to organizational and human change
Independent practiceLong-term paid adult learning programs, study groups and one-to-one work, and a reflective practice of observing without identifying with what is observed
Second book publishedI Talk To You: From Depression to Enlightenment · English edition 2023 · Amazon
Mind ForumReflective learning program for senior adults, Universidade Sénior do Seixal
Digital learning in schools
Erasmus+ international trainingDigital mentorship for inclusion; active listening and experiential learning
Working With AIWebinar series on what we delegate to AI and what remains ours
Applied Human Systems EngineeringThe name and structure given to the practice that integrates technology, education, organizations and human development
Certified trainer (CCP, Portugal).
All books, in English and Portuguese
What others noticed
“We find opportunities for reflection that draw rarely explored connections between fields as different as psychology, mathematics, philosophy, and neuroscience. A unique and thought-provoking work.”
“It describes, clearly and simply, how we form patterns that cover our natural state and keep us from seeing ourselves, and the beauty of life, as they really are. Reading it is like realizing we have spent much of our life pushing a door to get out, until someone finally tells us: the door is open, it always was; just pull, it opens inward.”
“Thanks to her extraordinary way of communicating, she almost draws ideas, helping us see in a new light what once seemed dark and meaningless.”
AHSE
What is Applied Human Systems Engineering?
It is the name I gave, in 2026, to a practice that grew from integrating four fields I have learned and worked in since 2004: technology, education, organizations and human development. Since 2014 I have consciously observed what I learn and the patterns that repeat across these fields. My first book came out of that observation.
What changes from a technical system is what the system is made of: perception and meaning. So the reading starts with what people see and how they interpret it, and follows it through to decisions, action and learning.
AHSE is a practice built from experience, not an academic method.
Within AHSE, I use a seven-dimension metamodel to observe how human processes show up and relate to each other in a specific situation.
Seven dimensions I read
- PerceptionWhat is observed and what is missed
- MeaningHow experience and information are interpreted
- CommunicationHow understanding is expressed and exchanged
- DecisionHow judgments and choices are formed
- ActionHow decisions turn into behavior
- LearningHow experience changes what we recognize
- IntegrationHow learning stays available over time
Dimensions, not levels
The seven dimensions do not describe where a person sits on a scale of development. They describe aspects of how a person functions, and how these show up and depend on each other varies with the person, the situation and the system they are part of. They do not always follow a linear sequence.
Someone who perceives a great deal may still find it hard to decide. That does not, in itself, mean they lack the ability: what may be missing is clear information, authority or shared criteria. The reading does not classify people or teams. It makes visible what is happening, what is still unclear and where it may make sense to act.
Want to see how this applies to your situation? Book a 30-minute conversation →
Over time
How this way of observing developed.
The same capacity, in three stages: observing myself, helping people observe themselves, and describing in real time how someone works with other people. Each stage adds to the one before; none has ended. Each one, in the words of someone who was on the other side of it.
1 · Observing myself Since 2015 Writing the books
“I was someone who lived very much in my past. […] I realized that changing my thoughts depends only on me […] and I see the good results in my day-to-day life. I also try to pass this on to the people close to me.”
2 · People learning to observe themselves Since 2020 Long-term groups, V.I.D.A. program and Mind Forum
“Thank you for giving me the chance to rebuild the way I think about myself, about others, and about everything around me. All of life’s hardships have become lighter.”
3 · Describing a practice in real time Since 2021 The same reading behind the organizational maps
“You bring me a technique behind what, for me, is natural. You can explain, technically, who I naturally am.”
“You were explaining the way I welcome someone. You explained my whole process — all of it. As I listened, I kept thinking: why can’t I put this into words the way she does? You communicate in a very different way from me. And after our meeting, I was able to make that same move with someone, completely cleanly.”
Human and AI
How do we remain human in an increasingly artificial world?
It is the question behind all of my work, and one I live myself: using AI every day without losing presence, judgment and my own thinking.
In 2026 I started the webinar series Working With AI: What Is Changing in How We Think, Learn and Decide? It looks at what we delegate to AI, what remains ours, and how to use it without giving up our own thinking.
I am part of the proposer network of GASNET, a European COST Action proposal on how AI and digital coordination are changing work and social ties. I am also developing an applied project on how judgment, discernment and autonomy develop when AI is part of everyday work.
Same AI. Different people. Different relationships. Different outcomes.
- AI interventionWhat the system provides
- Human conditionsWho receives it
- The relationshipHow the person engages with the AI
- Human outcomesWhat changes, and what emerges
The outcome depends on the relationship. AI capability alone does not decide what happens to people: human agency, judgment, context and design shape it.
- Trust
- Agency
- Critical judgment
- Learning
- Integration
Also available for talks and workshops on human capabilities in the AI era.
“Cheila brings humanity into systems and systems into humanity. She creates structure without losing the human side, and I really appreciate that. Before attending her webinar, I viewed AI as a tool that could weaken my own thinking, yet I still used it quite frequently. After the webinar, I started using it more selectively, asking myself whether I actually need it and, if so, how it can add value to my work without taking away my own contribution.”
Questions
Short answers.
How are data and confidentiality handled?
What is said in the conversations is confidential. I use AI tools to help organize information, and I am the one who interprets it. The rules on recording, deletion and use for research are in the Privacy Policy.
Who is this for?
Founders, CEOs, consultants and leaders with long experience of working with people, and leadership teams introducing AI or redesigning roles.
Do you deliver solutions or recommendations?
I deliver clarity: a map, a written synthesis and a facilitated conversation. I do not decide for the organization or the person. Where it is agreed, I can stay involved while they act.
How do we start?
With a 30-minute conversation, to see whether it makes sense to move forward. Reading the situation is already part of the paid work: if there is a fit, we agree the scope, format and fee together.
Connect
Start with a 30-minute conversation.
Bring one specific situation: a decision that is stalled, a team that is not aligned, or a change that is not working. Tell me about it in a few lines and I will reply with a few possible times.