Offsite?Training programme? Strategy day? Two ideas for you

The problem I address

At a time of reinvention and change, complexity builds up. Existing patterns of behaviour continue, people pursue their independent goals while responding to new demands and technologies, maybe new colleagues and reorganisation.

A new purpose or mission is published. New warm words that change very little.

If you really press hard you realise that everyone is telling a different story and not working collaboratively as a team. They’re just responding to events.

That’s what my workshops and keynotes seek to highlight and address. They work with the people in the room to help them focus on the value they create for their best clients, how to explain it and why they need to work as a team to win.

How I work

I work the way I always have: as a challenging journalist doing a live interview. I open by listening properly — because you can't challenge someone well until you've heard what they actually said. Then I challenge, simply, without cushioning: is this really true, in the way you behave and act under pressure?
If I’m delivering a keynote I’ll get the room to sharpen their pens in considering this for themselves – and then pitch to each other what they discover.

In workshops I don't just ask and wait. I'll reframe a problem and let the room think for itself — but when the silence goes on too long, or the moment calls for it, I'll step in with a direct answer or put one on the table to react against. I'm the expert in the room as well as the provocateur in it, and I move between the two depending on what's needed.

Whether that happens on a stage, in an offsite, or across a boardroom table, it's the same discipline: no script to hide behind, no edit button to soften what was actually said, no resort to messaging – this is about what is real and true and matters to customers.

In this short video I set out the two ideas that underpin my sessions. Contact me here is you want to talk further.