Because of the diverse experience of our team we work across sectors and are at home in organisations of different shapes and sizes. In the public sector we have worked in central and local government, health and education. In the private sector we have worked with large corporates and smaller professional practices and owner-managed businesses. We have also worked with third sector organisations helping to build leadership and business capability. Each organisation has its own needs and our approach is always designed to listen carefully and meet those needs. The examples illustrate some of our experience.

Faced with significant inequalities in the local health economy and complex, multi-agency delivery issues this commissioning organisation wanted to strengthen collaborative working across looser boundaries and help leaders and their teams release the time, energy and talent to give more focus to the more challenging issues which would have the biggest impact on local health. This involved a range of development interventions including

• a leadership development programme to release potential and align the whole team with a challenging agenda
• development work with cross-functional delivery teams to increase focus on key health outcomes through effective collaboration on the intractable issues
• an organisation wide culture survey to identify areas for development action to build performance a Making Space programme with Public Health and Commissioning teams to release time and talent
• one to one coaching work with individual leaders.

The outcome has provided a strong foundation for the evolution of support under current changes to commissioning in the NHS – which we continue to support.

Working with a number of universities in England and overseas faced with increasing global competition and a stronger focus on the student experience we have been supporting a range of organisational development engagements including leadership work with senior academics, managers, governing bodies and schools/faculties. We have in depth expertise in the transforming the HR function to be a much stronger partner in the organisation enabling change. We have led the redesign of HR processes and structures and designed and run development centres and capability building programmes for a number of HR teams. The focus has been on creating trusted advisors who are able to guide their organisations and leaders through change – rather than simply reacting to it.

We have been working with a well-established national architectural practice looking at succession planning and how to build on past success whilst operating in a very challenging economic climate. Using our Growing the Future programme we provided

• individual and team development work with the partners and associates to help them understand individual and team strengths – and also the flip side of these and what may be missing
• a two-day future search workshop to create a clear vision of the future - particularly how to work effectively across different locations and sectors and to make the most of a great client base and a talented, committed team
• a follow-up action planning workshop to focus the leadership team on key areas for change in the short and medium term to ensure smooth succession and to continuously strengthen the service offer and brand for the future.

The outcome was a focussed action plan to ensure long-term sustainability.