What is it like to work with us, really?

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You may want to know what it is like to work with us, so here we give you a flavour of what that might be like, and a taste of what our clients say. We can’t think of a more honest way of sharing the experience of working with us, and are happy to put you in touch existing clients if that is useful.

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REAL WORLD+CHALLENGES

 

We work with you on what matters to you, in your work context, that you want to change. We don’t play with models and theories for the sake of it, to offer you abstract ideas of what ‘good’ and ‘great’ leadership looks like.

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Why? Because what works in one context is highly unlikely to work in another, in exactly the same way. Our approach is grounded in helping you develop your practices such that you have more autonomy and are less dependent on consultants who fly in to fix things for you without actually leaving you any better off in terms of your own capabilities. 

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What we offer is practice based learning, tailoring programmes and interventions to you and your organisation, to what is causing you problems, and focus on helping you define what you want to develop by way of practices that will make a difference.

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HELP+CHANGE HOW YOU WORK

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Organisational transformation is not easy: it's like trying to dry clean your suit whilst still wearing it. That’s because – while still doing what you do -  change requires you to organize differently: and organising differently requires thinking, being and doing differently, often all three once. 

 

It is often messy work and that is where we meet you. Conversations start with inquiry into your experience of that mess and what you want to be different (or the same). We challenge with care to help you find your edge and stretch.

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THE WORK+HOW WE APPROACH IT

 

We see leadership as a practice. 

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We don’t start by offering you easy answers and simple solutions. They don’t exist for the complex challenges most leaders wrestle with.

Leadership is not what you do to people, or pretending to be someone you are not. Nor is it something you learn about in a training room, divorced from reality. It is applied learning, grounded in reality, where the connections are made by you, with our support and challenge, as you make your own way. This is practice based learning.

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LEARNING+OUR FOCUS

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Core to our approach is the belief that unless you are able to improve how you interact, relate and collaborate with others, then any learning is likely to be performative and remedial i.e. it will feel like you have done something, but little will change.

This means we focus on:

 

• Developing dialogue and sense-making skills, including how to ask useful and appropriately challenging questions to support change and learning.

• Self and other awareness, and not just so you ‘know your self better’: the emphasis is on how you apply that new found awareness in practice.

• Increased reflexivity flows from that, the ability to pay attention to how you show up and the impact you have, and to inquire into that on an ongoing basis, not just as a one off.

• Scaffolding conversations that allow you to explore what is hidden and undiscussable, which is often what gets in the way of change and learning.

• Developing your capabilities to work with the tensions that can arise around boundaries, authority/power dynamics, role and task.

• Creating learning learning spaces that engage, challenge, support and offer the opportunity for serious play, because without experimenting there can be no new learning.​

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The aim? To make us redundant. Want to more? Drop us a line.

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