“I love meetings” said my then 14 year old daughter, coming home from her first Youth Council. I was shocked. I go to too many meetings. Meetings where time is wasted, energy is low, the same old stuff gets hashed over. I had forgotten something really important. Groups are powerful. They grant reco
From time to time I encounter people who characterise what I do as ‘touchy-feely’ – often without having any direct experience of what I actually do. This has caused me to reflect on the issues raised by the use of this and similar phrases. The key issue is power. Touchy-feely is a derisive term whi
I was trying to explain Otto Scharmer’s Theory U to a workshop group. It is heady stuff, and I was making it hard going. One table of participants, though polite, were bored and frustrated. I gave them an exercise on ‘listening’ to explore Scharmer’s ideas (open mind, open he
In many workshops I manage, someone will come up and say: “the problem with this organisation is that the executives never listen. They don’t have a clue (or don’t care) what happens on the front line.” This complaint is neither new nor surprising. Front line staff have little experience
We see the consultation process as part of an ongoing dialogue between the government, the community and key stakeholders. From the beginning to the end, we communicate with everyone who has a stake in the outcome to make sure the strategy fits the situation and the audience it is aimed at. Our appr
From the executive to frontline staff the ability to change is the one constant of survival and success. We facilitate effective meetings, workshops, communications and events that make a difference to people’s ability to embrace and explore change. Smart, effective and engaging communication
We develop practical skills through a tailored approach, based on design principles that work. We create an environment for discovery rather than teaching. Besides a broad range of technical skills we are really good at: Stakeholder analysis and management Leadership development programs Business pl
Business management needs in the Nursery and Garden Industry This study revealed that business managers rated themselves as comparatively weak in strategic planning and flexibility. Less than half of the businesses had a written business plan, relatively poor at creating a clear marketing edge and c
Our era favours specialists. Knowledge has never been so deep nor so divided. I sometimes have to defend my habit as a generalist, someone who moves across dozens of organisations, hosting conversations about many different subject areas – law, social justice, business organisation, planning, educat