How we work:
Every project we work on is different and we tend
to avoid using off-the-shelf methods or approaches. However, we do have
a particular way of working.
Our way of working:
We help people unlock the full potential of their
working relationships, as individuals, across teams and across organisations.
Within this, we have some principles that we try to adhear to:
Partnership working. We like to work in
mutual collaboration with our clients and work colleagues (sometimes facilitating,
sometimes walking alongside, sometimes leading from the front, sometimes
supporting from behind). Although we bring a lot of professional expertise
and will often roll up our sleeves to lead and participate in projects
hands-on, we always try to do this within the spirit of healthy partnership
working. We also try to keep in mind the best interests of the whole organisation
as well as the people we are working with.
Participative working.
We believe that the most powerful and fastest ways to achieve sustainable
change in organisations is to work in participation with the people who
will be impacted by a change - building engagement, trust and energy along
the way.
Balancing support and challenge. We believe
that improvements in the nature and quality of working relationships happen
when people become more aware of the choices available to them. One important
way we believe this can happen is when we offer each other the right level
of support and challenge to both see and then act on these choices.
Building the bridge as we cross it. We believe
it is faster and more effective to 'be the change you want in the world'
and to begin changes from day one - rather than at the end of the 'project
plan'.
Informing theories and assumptions:
I take an integrative approach to relationship
improvement, change and organisational development – and we are familiar
with a wide range of thinking and approaches (a ‘what works’ approach).
However, we do have particular expertise
in the application of Appreciative Inquiry, complexity, action learning,
action inquiry and gestalt approaches.
Overall, we believe that when awareness is raised,
a wider palette of choices and actions become available and people feel
able to risk experiments in working and being different.
Action Learning. This is methodology designed
to help both individuals and organisations change. People work in groups
to challenge and support each other to solve problems and learn.
Appreciative Inquiry. This is a organisational
change methodology that looks at organisations, teams and people when they
are at their best. It is based on the assumption that questions and conversations
about strengths, successes, values, hopes and dreams can be transformational
- and can be much more energising than looking solely at problems and 'what
we are doing wrong'. At the BBC, Mark Gawlinski worked on the senior team
of one of the largest ever Appreciative Inquiry culture change programmes.
Recently, we've also be applying Appreciative Inquiry techniques to product
and experience design and employee engagement, with powerful results.
Action Inquiry. This methodology, for me,
is about learning, changing and achieving results by doing - rather than
writing long documents or doing paper-based research. Action Research is
also based on the idea that it is useful to embrace different ways of looking
at a situation and that, more often than not, much of the knowledge and
experience required for change and learning already lies within an organisation
- and we simply need to find ways of unlocking it.
Product development techniques. We often
apply techniques from product development in our work on learning design
and organisational change. These include creative ways of generating customer
insights, brainstorming and nurturing ideas and developing cost-effective
and impactful pilots and prototypes.
Complexity and Gestalt. These are perspectives
on organisation and psychology that draw attention to habitual patterns
(eg people and teams feeling 'stuck'), how people relate to each other
(eg levels of trust), the flow of communication and the amount of diversity
and difference. They also place a premium on raising awareness of
what is going on, so we can all have more choices about what we do.
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