Organisations are
living things.
Organisation development, facilitation and coaching, for finding new ways of working in a world that keeps changing.
They work best when their vision, their culture and the way people actually behave all pull the same way, and that never stays put for long. As organisations grow and the world around them moves on, what was once the right way of doing things can become the thing holding them back.
My work is helping them see clearly where they are, and grow into what comes next.
How I work
I start with what's actually happening, before reaching for a model or a plan. Most organisations have more working in their favour than they realise, and the first job is to see it and build on it. New ideas, however good, only take root when they fit the organisation as it really is.
I don't arrive with a blueprint. I ask a lot of questions, tell people honestly what I'm seeing, and leave the decisions with the people who'll have to live with them. The practical questions matter as much as the big ones: who does what, how decisions get made, how new people and ideas find their place, and how you'll know it's working.
Underneath it all is thinking. If the way an organisation works is going to change, the thinking behind it usually has to change first: holding more than one perspective at a time, and not locking into certainties too early. Much of my writing is about that.
With organisations
Organisation development
Working with boards, leadership teams and whole organisations over months rather than days, on the structures, culture and leadership that let them do their best work. I'm particularly drawn to cooperatives, social enterprises and values-led businesses, and to organisations exploring more regenerative ways of working.
Facilitation
Designing and holding the days that matter, from strategy sessions to board and team away days. Some of it happens in the field: a day of foraging and cooking for a team, or the two-day Pit Roast for leadership groups, with facilitated reflection built in. Being outside changes how a group talks. People slow down and notice more, about the land and about each other.
Wild Food Forage & Cook ↗ The Pit Roast ↗
Kitchens and hospitality
Culture and operations for kitchens and food businesses, from someone who has run one.
Hospitality consultancy ↗
With people
Coaching
One to one, for people leading something or working out what comes next. Co-discovering rather than prescribing, and outdoors where we can.
Training
Leadership and team development training, from a single session to a full programme.
Background
I taught Leadership, Organisational Behaviour and HRM at Sheffield Hallam University for the best part of a decade, including on MBA programmes, and trained trainers nationally for Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food. My MSc is in organisation development and consultancy, with a dissertation on integrity as a source of personal power in leadership. At Hofgut LEO, a cooperative conference centre in the Black Forest, I worked with the board and executive team on roles, responsibilities and ways of working, alongside my work in the kitchen.
"Super relaxed and highly professional with a lifetime of experience, not only in cooking but also teambuilding and organizational development tutoring." — Cordula Frei, Editor and Writer, Regenerative Consciousness